Into the Light

51

We rolled together on the pavement for a few feet before we stopped. I landed about a foot away from him. I didn't want to give him any time to get the jump on me, so I moved as fast as I could. When I jumped to my feet I saw Anna running over to me. The greasy blonde was right behind her. They wanted to die. That was the only explanation that I could come up with. I started towards her, but the other guy grabbed my foot and I went down hard. I felt my knee split open on the pavement, just as my head racked against it at the same time. "Gotcha!" I heard the blonde cackle just as Anna screamed. I struggled to stand, but shaved head still had my foot. So, I shoved my foot back as hard as I could and heard a sickening pop along with a grunt. The hand went slack on me, so I jumped up and zoned in on Anna. She was only a few feet away, but the blonde had her in his arms. He had a handful of her hair with one hand and the other going under her dress. She struggled against him, and my blood boiled. In the second that it took me to start towards her, I saw her dress flare out, as her knee came up. The next sound that I heard almost had me puking. It was way worse than that sickening pop that I had caused. This sound was one that had every male within hearing distance looking up and grabbing their own junk. The blonde let out some kind of squealing groan and fell to his knees. His face went white as snow, before it went kind of sickly green. He fell sideways onto the pavement and started throwing up. Anna threw another good kick to his face, then tossed her loose hair off of her shoulder. "You don't fucking put your hands on me, EVER! Piece of shit dirt bag!" I reached her and pulled her close. As soon as I did, she collapsed into my chest, breathing hard. I held her close for a moment, and smoothed her hair down with my hand. Then I pulled her back gently. "Are you hurt?" I asked. "Are you okay?" She nodded and swallowed hard. "I'm okay. Just shaken up." I looked her over, just to be sure and what I saw had my stomach clenching in on itself. Her beautiful dress was torn at the collar around her throat. The half of her dress was hanging down, showing her bra underneath. I growled low in my throat, and turned around to the blonde, who was still on the ground. Though there was no reason for it, I aimed a kick straight to his gut, and felt a little satisfaction at the groan and the breath that heaved out of his already defeated body. I turned back around to face Anna, but what I saw had me frantic. There was a bright red stain on her dress right under her breast. "You're hurt," I said, pulling the ripped fabric open even more so that I could see the damage. "No, I'm not. Colby, stop it!" she exclaimed, snatching away from me. "Anna, you're hurt and it looks bad. That's a lot of blood. No one cares about seeing your bra right now," I said, knowing that I sounded like a dick. I was worried. "Colby, stop!" she said, pushing at my hand. "It's not my blood! It's yours," she replied, biting her lip and looking down at my stomach. "What? No, it's not," I exclaimed, shaking my head at her dumb suggestion. How could it be my blood? I didn't feel anything. I looked down to where she was staring and gasped. My shirt was dark, but I could see how wet it was, which made the shirt even darker. I reached down and found a rip in the shirt, and separated it with my fingers. I hissed out a breath as my fingers found the slice in my side. The knife. That bitch had cut me. I had forgotten with everything else that had happened. "Oh yeah," I breathed out, and pulled my shirt up to look at it. It didn't look too bad, maybe an inch wide, but it had some depth to it, and the bleeding didn't look like it wanted to stop. "You have to go to the hospital," Anna said, frantically, and tried to hold her hand against the cut. I grabbed her wrist to stop her. "No, I don't. It's just a cut. I've had worse injuring myself by exploring. I just need a few first aid items and we can get that easily." "Colby, I-" she started, but Sam cut her off. "We can get the Uber to stop by that Walgreens that I saw on the way over. I'll run in and get what you need. No more drinking," he replied. I nodded. Drinking was probably why the cut didn't want to stop bleeding, in the first place. I heard something behind me so I glanced back to see the shady guys getting up and limping away. The blonde one caught my eye and drew his thumb across his neck. I shot him a bird, smiled, and waved as he limped away. We had totally  kicked their asses. I turned my attention back to Anna. She was biting her lip, with her eyes going from my face to my wound. "Hey," I said, tilting her chin up with my fingers. "I'm fine. I promise. We can still have a great time tonight. This is nothing." I could see tears welling up in her eyes and it tore at my heart. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything to them, and just let you handle it. He just made me so mad. I don't know what came over me, but I'm so sorry that I caused you to get hurt," she said, with emotion causing her voice to break. "It would've happened without you saying anything," I said, softly. "There was no way that I was going to let him or the others keep talking shit, without doing something about it. This is not your fault. If anything, you held it off for a few extra moments." She shook her head, then buried her face in my chest. "You're going to get your dress all bloody," I whispered, but I held her against me tightly. "Doesn't matter. It's already bloody and torn. Even if it wasn't, it's just a dress," she murmured. Her voice was muffled against my chest. "The Ubers are here," Sam said, and motioned towards a couple of cars that had just pulled up to the curb. "Come on," I told Anna, and pulling back from her. I took her hand and we all walked towards the cars. Sam, Kat, Anna, and I took one while the rest climbed in the other car.