Halfway |ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀsᴛᴀʀᴅ sᴏɴ & ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴠɪʟ ʜɪᴍsᴇʟғ/ʜᴀʟғ ʙᴀᴅ ᴏɴᴇ sʜᴏᴛ| ✓

halfway

In the end, they needed to move. The sun was already high, fog almost completely vanished and in the distance police sirens were blasting loudly. Shooting, explosions and weird lightnings must have got through the barrier and worried fains. Or was the barrier taken down? Maybe Soul or Marcus, or Bloods or... It didn't matter. They needed to get up and go... Somewhere. Somewhere far away, away from people - fains, witches - everyone.

Annalise stopped sobbing and stilled for a moment. A shiver ran through her. The lighter one. She wiped her red, puffy eyes. She sniffed.

"We should go". Her voice was raspy.

Nathan shuddered and wiped his chin. Smuggles of blood were starting to fall off his face in flakes like an old crust. Remains of the heart were laying among bowels and shreds of skin, clothes. What was left of Soul O'brien had become a big puddle of gore a good few hours earlier. The blood was rusty, brownish, and mixed with dirt. Ants walked between intestines.

"Yeah... Yeah, let's go..."

He still shivered a little. After claiming a dozen gifts from one heart, just after almost dying... It was a shock. Nathan didn't remember, but Gabriel and Annalise told him he had a seizure. They had to hold him still, so he wouldn't hurt himself. They thought he was dying again, that Marcus had tricked him somehow and had given him the wrong blood and after Odette...

They were all trembling, even Gabriel, although he tried to hide it. He must have felt responsible. The oldest, the only one who didn't just kill or was trying to kill his father...

Gifts were pulsing through Nathan's veins. He felt how they rise, how they were trying to get free, how they wanted to be used. But not yet. Firstly, they needed to get to safety, the further from Wolfhagen the better. Far from this cursed place, from its empty windows and massacred bodies decorating floors and walls.

Gabriel raised and helped Annalise to do the same. She leaned on the nearby tree, straightening up. Somehow, all three of them got up and didn't fall to the ground again.

"Where now?" asked Gabriel.

They didn't have a plan anymore. They didn't need Mercury's help anymore. They weren't chased by everyone around, at least for a moment.

"Just... there." Nathan pointed to the direction opposite of Wolfhagen. "Away from this place."

Annalise wiped her nose.

...

Only after dark, they stopped to rest in an empty cabin in the middle of nowhere. The cabin was an old, a bit neglected building. No one had been there for a long time, but they managed to find some cans and edible biscuits, even a few sweets and only a tad expired protein bars. There was a bathroom. The water was icy cold and the pressure was shit, but they cleaned either way. The worst blood stains washed quite well considering everything.

They borrowed some way too big shirts and trousers from an old, creaking wardrobe. They smelled like moth balls and campfire, were worn out, but clean and, what's important, amazingly warm. It was cold and dark outside, yet they couldn't risk starting a fire, so warmer clothes were a blessing from above.

They opened the sofa.

Near the wall laid a foldable bed, but it was narrow and definitely single-person only and somehow... somehow no one suggested using it.

Annalise found blankets, Nathan pillows and Gabriel managed to find a bottle of wine in one of the cabinets. It was cheap and bad, but they shared anyway.

They'd never talked about it, but when they lied down, Nathan ended up in the middle, just like the last time. Not that he was complaining. He could feel Annalise's warmth, her small fingers drawing patterns between his shoulder blades. Her hair were tickling his arms. Nathan laid on Gabriel's arm, hiding his face in the crook of blond's neck. Hot breath was teasing his head. Annalise and Gabriel were holding hands above Nathan, caging him between them, but maybe for the first time ever, it was a cage he didn't want to get out from.

The cabin and the forest around were silent and dark. Not much light got through the closed windows, even though the full moon was close.

For what felt like a first time in ages, they could let their guards down. Tension from his muscles was slow, oh so slow to ease, but it finally started to give. Nathan could hear how his own heartbeat started to slow down from rapid to just above relaxed. Annalise's rhythm slowed down as well. Gabriel's was beating slower and steadier. There was no one living soul around, only they in their small, dark corner of reality. If there were anyone, he would sense them. He wouldn't even need to hear.

"We should..." Gabriel cleared his throat, "We should set up guard in case..."

"We're alone." reassured Nathan.

"Despite this..."

" I can take the first one. I wouldn't sleep either way. Not yet... Just not yet."

Gabriel squeezed Annalise's hand.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I need to think. Go to sleep. I'll wake you when I get tired."

Nathan muttered something in confirmation. He didn't have any energy left to do more than that. Events of the last few days started to caught up to him. Every single almost fatal encounter, every single person who wanted him dead or ended up dead because they helped... Adrenalin started to wear off. Gifts were still pulsing under his skin. Tiredness was the only thing left in his battered and bruised body, which was already starting to heal. He didn't know who was next, him or Gabriel, and at the moment it didn't matter.

He fell asleep.

i don't usually write in english so it was a bit of a challenge, but i'm glad i did it and can share my new hiperfixation with you.

how did you like my story? who's your favourite character?