Found her

Chapter 16 | Blood

S A D I E

I wake up to a throbbing pain in my arm.

I squint at sunlight, trying to adjust to the bright light.

'Goddamn it!' I grab my arm to see it seeping through the sleeves of my hoodie.

Oh. yeah.

Well, I ruined my almost-a-year clean streak.

'Good morning. Or more like good afternoon.' A husky familiar voice laughs.

'I must be freaking dreaming. What are you doing here, Ezra?' I look at him, as alive as ever.

He just smiles.

This has been something I've gotten used to over these past few months. Ezra. Appearing out of nowhere. As alive as ever.

'Get out of my head.' I say, grabbing my arm tightly.

'Sadie, you and me both know that you want me here.'

I laugh. I actually laugh out loud. 'Ezra, let me remind you. You're dead. Dead. And I'm seeing dead people. Do you think that's normal human behaviour? Seeing your dead brother?'

He opens his mouth to speak but I beat him to it.

'I searched it up, you know. I've been doing research. I went to multiple libraries, trying to see if this is normal. I spent hours on the internet, trying to find an explanation, an answer. I did. You wanna know what it is? You wanna know what I found out, Ezra?'

He doesn't say anything.

'I'm going mad. I'm going mad. I'm going mad. I'm going mad.' I didn't realise I was raising my voice. ''Seeing dead corpses or dead relatives are signs of human madness' That's what I got.'

'Sadie, you're not going mad.'

'Are you hearing yourself? I'm talking to a dead person.!' I'm yelling by now. 'I'm going mad! I'm going mad!'

Tears are running down my cheeks. The pain in my arm is becoming unbearable. My mind is foggy and I'm so dizzy. My yellow room is spinning and I can't breathe.

Suddenly, I'm hauled up into a pair of warm arms. I can feel a heartbeat near my ear and a comforting hand on my back, rubbing soothing circles.

'Shh.'

'M-my h-hand-'

'Shh, it's okay.'

'My hand.' I say firmly this time.

I smell a familiar smell, leather and peppermint.

'Lucas?'

'Yes, princess. It's me, show me your hand.'

I bring my shaking hand to meet his warm one, the grey hoodie I'm wearing is now dark red. I hear him suck in a breath and whisper in a shaky voice.

'Sadie, focus, okay, focus on my voice. Do you have a first aid kit?'

My mind is foggy, I can't see clearly, I can only hear his voice.

'Sadie, first aid kit. Where?'

'Uh... Un-under my sink. In my bathroom.'

He nods and stand up with me in his arms and walks towards my bathrooom. I can feel him shaking. My heart breaks knowing I'm doing this to him. I'm hurting him.

He sets me on the counter and grabs the first aid kit. My vision is starting to clear up slightly, I can see Lucas moving around, grabbing my towel from the rack and putting it under the tap, soaking it in water.

He takes a deep breath, as if to ready himself. He looks into my eyes. 'Ready?'

The pain in my hand is driving me insane. 'Yes. Please, quick.'

He nods and lifts the sleeves of my hoodie. His breath hitches when he sees the wound I did. The knife didn't go deep enough, so I don't need stitches, but there is so much blood.

Lucas gives me one glance before dabbing my arm with the wet towel, cleaning around the wound. He's so gentle, lightly pressing the wet towel to my skin.

After my skin is clean from the blood he treats my wound and wraps a bandage around it, securing it with a yellow flower sticker.

'All done.' He finally says.

'Thanks. I- I'm sorry-'

'Don't.'

'I didn't mean to startle you-'

'No.'

'You were shaking-'

'Yes. I was. Because I was petrified.'

'I'm so sorry-'

'Stop. Princess, please stop.'

'Lucas, I-'

'Say!'

Turn around at the sound of his voice. I leap of the bathroom counter and run towards Jax, throwing my good arm around him. He pulls away and grabs my face in his hands.

'Are you okay?' Just like Lucas, he looks shaken, terrified.

I cannot believe I did that.

It's all my fault.

'How does a milkshake sound?' Jax asks, breaking the silence.

'A milkshake sounds great.' I say, relieved we weren't bringing up what just happened.

Jax and I look over at Lucas. He just nods.

And as we were walking out, I look at the seat Ezra was sitting in a while before. He's not there anymore but I still say seven words that I hope he hears.

'Please don't come back. Not like this.'