Reversal (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 31: The Hours

XXXI.

Camila lifted a perfectly trimmed eyebrow, a slender smirk crawling up the right side of her mouth. Her hands moved to rest atop of Lauren's, fingers lacing together like bars of a xylophone. "Oh I got what I wanted alright." She purred. "Exactly what I wanted."

The next few days in Cincinnati were full of visits to the zoo, walks through the frosty arboretum and late nights in the hotel room. I continued to hone my skills using Lauren as the ultimate sparring buddy, usually in the dead of night. On particularly feisty one, we completed our session with my knives pinned as close to her neck as I could. The girl had so much emotion wrapped up in her green eyes, I questioned whether she was afraid of me or impressed with me.

"How did I do?" I breathed, relaxing the muscles in my arms. The moment I had done so, Lauren had lurched forward and pinned me to the ground, one hand pressed impossibly hard against my chest and another with her own silver blade hovering inches from my own neck.

"Never let your guard down when your attacker is that close." Lauren sneered, her eyes flashing. She brought the knife down, and at the last minute I inched just a few centimetres to the left, missing the blow and causing the blade to sink into the soft soil below.

"Dammit." Lauren muttered, yanking it out and pressing harder against my chest. I made a weak wheezing sound, coughing painfully. As she brought the knife down a second time, I reached out and wrapped both hands around her attacking wrist, digging my nails in as hard as I could and holding her back.

"Lauren stop." I coughed again. "C'mon, you got me, I'm done."

"Don't you dare give up." Lauren growled, her strength still overpowering mine as the steel slid closer to my neck.

How far are you really willing to go?

I let out a strangled cry, sinking my nails into her skin as deep as they would go and dragging them down her arm. She winced in pain, but didn't let up. The assault didn't stop until the tip of her blade nicked my skin, drawing a small trickle of blood from the hollow of my neck.

"Lauren!" I wrenched in her grip, starting to panic wildly. For the first time, the girl didn't stop on demand, and I had to endure another few centimetres of steel digging into my skin. When the burning pain registered, my body seized up, a deep rumbling sound echoed off in the distance, and Lauren recoiled back in shock. She cried out, throwing her knife away and clutching her side.

"Lauren?" I sat up, repeating her name as if it was it's own question. My fingers just graced the wound at my neck, feeling a warm liquid begin to cover my hand. Lauren's necklace was quickly becoming coated in blood as well. "Lauren, what happened?"

The girl sat up slowly, her eyes flickering over to me and full of panic. "Camz... what did you do?"

"What did I do?" I went up on my knees, trying to keep my wound from bleeding over my clothes. "You almost killed me!"

"I'm sorry." Lauren crawled over to me, balling up the sleeve of her sweater and pressing it to my throat. "I'm so sorry, I don't know what I was thinking."

"It's okay." I forced my features to soften, noticing that she was still trembling. "It's alright. Relax."

Lauren's eyes were locked on me, studying something on my face. I frowned, questioning multiple times if she was okay without receiving a single answer.

"Um... no, its fine. I'm fine. Lauren shook her head, putting a slightly more intense pressure on my neck. "The bleeding is just about stopped. You should be okay now." Before I could reply, Lauren was on her feet and pulling me into a standing position. "Come on, let's go back to the hotel and get some rest. That's more than enough for tonight."