Hatchetfield Stories

Leave Me

Got motivated because of comments so here's the thing I started many months ago.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:
-Death
-Kind of suicide
-Injury
-Blood

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"Paul," Emma said, blood dripping from her lips and gushing out of the wounds in her thigh. "You have to blow up the meteor. It's the only way to stop them."

Paul grabbed her hand. "Emma, I'm not leaving you."

"Don't you get it? I'm going to die and if you don't blow up the meteor I won't be the only one!"

"I'm not leaving you to die alone!" Paul shouted, before taking a deep breath and bringing his tone down. "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."

Emma sighed. "Okay." She thought for a few seconds, and sat up, wincing as she moved her leg. "Okay. When you're impaled or something the object stops the blood from flowing out, right? So if I take it out, I'll die quicker. You just have to promise that you'll leave me as soon as I pass out." Before Paul could even process her words, she grabbed the pole and ripped it out of her leg. She couldn't stop the screamed curses from flowing out of her mouth as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Emma! No!" Paul cupped her cheek. "Shhh, it's okay, I know it hurts. You shouldn't have done that, but I'm here, okay?"

Emma leaned into his touch, and their eyes met. Even filled with tears, her eyes were beautiful, Paul noticed. For a few seconds, he forgot about the apocalypse. That was, until he felt a warm liquid hit his face. Emma had coughed up blood. Again. She was dying, wasn't she? He got to know her two days ago, and it was already taken away from him.

"Paul..." she whimpered. "Leave me, okay? Blow up the meteor."

Paul nodded, wiping the blood away with his sleeve. "I will."

Her lips curled into a tired smile. "Thank you, Paul."

And with that, her eyes slipped closed, and she gave his arm one last squeeze, before her hand fell limply onto her chest, her head rolling to the side as the tears stopped falling.

Paul stared at her motionless body, allowing himself to take a few moments to collect his thoughts before he'd blow up the meteor. He grabbed her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles, which were surprisingly cold after only a minute, and whispered an apology, admitting his feelings, and telling her everything else he'd ever want to say to her. The silence that followed made him feel worse than anything that had happened that day.

Despite the tears rolling down his face, he stood up, gripping the belt of grenades tightly. He would do everything to stop the invasion that had taken her life. Even if that meant going into the Starlight Theater.

He was barely aware of his feet taking him downtown, his mind wandering as he walked through the streets of what had once felt like home.

He stopped in front of the theater, the neon signs burning his eyes in the dark of the night.

"Okay," Paul mumbled. "Let's do this."

He stepped into the theater, the wooden floor creaking under the pressure. Paul winced at the sound, turning around and breathing a sigh of relief when he realized he made the sound, and not some alien wearing his friend's skin.

The meteor gave off a blue glow, and under any different circumstance, it would be absolutely beautiful.

He walked down the stairs, occasionally having to step over debris, and nearly tripping when he didn't see a big chunk of the roof of the theater blocking his path. It was hard to navigate in the dark night, but he moved towards the glowing meteor, gripping the grenades tightly.

He stopped near the front row, ducking behind the chairs as he mentally prepared himself to pull the pin.

"Here goes nothing," he mumbled to himself, pulling the pin, throwing the grenade onto the stage, and ducking back behind the chair, shielding his head. You would've thought they have someone guard the meteor, he thought as he heard the grenade land on the wooden stage, and roll a few feet, before the explosion almost blasted his eardrums.

The building shook, and it wasn't long before everything went black.

*** *** ***

Paul groaned as he opened his eyes, only to find more darkness. The roof had collapsed, but the chairs Paul was hiding behind broke its fall, leaving him almost completely uninjured. Bruises and scrapes littered his skin, but he managed to crawl out of his hiding space without any major injuries.

The sun had risen, already high above the horizon. He must've been out for a while, Paul thought as he walked around, unsure of what to do next. He walked through the quiet town, awfully aware of the silence. Apart from the chirping of a few birds in the distance, the usually busy town was awfully quiet.

Paul let his feet take him wherever they wanted, but soon realized he was walking back to the helicopter. He saw the smoke in the distance, and it wasn't long before he saw her mangled body lying in the sand, no more blood flowing from the wound and her chest not rising and falling.

He pulled her onto his lap, wincing as he felt her frighteningly cold skin on his.

He finally allowed the tears to fall.