Minstrel

Chapter #19 ~ Riptide

The beast tore through city. People ran in terror as the wispy, dead woman screamed around them. The scream was terribly deafening and Riptide felt his ears explode.

'Where am I?' He wondered to himself. All he could remember was getting knocked out by that woman who had Creak.

'Creak!' He thought in growing horror. 'They were going to sell her at an auction in StoneCold.'

Riptide had never been to the city, but as he looked through at the events playing around he saw a ripped banner.

StoneCold Annual Winter Festival

'I guess this is StoneCold.' Rip looked around. Where was she? Creak had to be in the city somewhere.

Trying not to focus on the many dying people, Rip scanned the area for a mess of brown waves.

There! Standing up on a stage in the center of the plaza was Creak. The siren dove down and hovered in front of her.

'She doesn't even look scare!' Riptide marveled. Creak looked more curious than anything else. He watched in horror as the beast grew closer.

Creak looked ready to run, but something held her in place. Rip watched as her eyes widened in fear before his vision blurred in front of him.

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Pain! So much pain, showed on Creak's face. Her stomach was ripped open, the sight of it made Rip queasy. He hoped Creak couldn't see the damage; damage that was too much to come back from.

Pressing his hands against her stomach in a hopeless attempt to stop the blood flow, he desperately cried. "It's okay, Creak."

She was as far from okay as a person could get, but Rip didn't want her to worry. He didn't want her to realize the worse. She couldn't know she was about to die.

If she even recognized him, Creak probably had no idea why he was so upset. 'She probably thinks I need to turn her in alive.' The thought hurt, but it would have been right if Rip wasn't a traitor now.

"Creak! Look at me!" She was fading and the realization made tears slip down his face. He pressed against her wound hard and her face pinched in pain. Blood bubbled over her lips and she coughed, choking.

"You have to look at me!" Rip screamed. He was so scared. Scareder than he had even been in his entire life. Even more scared than the time when his mother died and his father gave him away.

"I'm tired." She mumbled around the blood on her lips."I just want to go to sleep."

Rip looked down at her with pleading eyes. 'Please don't leave me.' He thought as he looked into her crazy eyes, dull and almost lifeless now. They were brown; such a warm beautiful shade of brown.

"You have to stay awake!" Rip tried to swallow back his panic, but it wouldn't go away.

"Why? Why won't you just let me sleep?" Creak gasped in pain. So much pain shone in her eyes; so much it hurt Rip to look at her.

The sight of her suffering sent a wave of pain through Rip, so great he struggled to hold back the choking sobs that threatened to give his feelings away. Creak was going to die. She had to understand what would happen if she let herself fall asleep. He needed her to understand why he couldn't just let her leave him peacefully.

He looked at her and tried to make her understand why he couldn't let her sleep.

"If you sleep now, Creak, I'm afraid you won't wake up." Rip said with a sob, before the world spun out around him.