When Snow Falls

-Chapter 7-

Terror ran through my veins. The person against the wall was my brother.

My brother who was injured, maybe even dying.

The intense gaze of Raoul's eyes was enough to make me squirm. "How badly are you hurt?" I asked.

He removed his hand from his side gingerly and stared down at the cut. "Not horribly. It's not deep. Just a scratch."

"Let me see." I climbed up onto my brother's leg, trying to get around to his other side. My feet slipped down his pants momentarily before I caught herself.

"Need help?" Raoul chuckled. He held out his hand and leaned toward me, wincing at the movement.

I scowled. "Good to know that even in your injured state you can be as aggravating as you always are." I stepped into his hand, ignoring the blood that stained his skin. "What happened here?" I asked, softer.

Raoul moistened his lips. "The, ah, big things."

"Well, that clears it all up, thanks. Move me over to your side, will ya?"

Raoul did as I asked. "It figures, you know."

I ignored him, transfixed by his side. He was lying when he said "just a scratch." It was anything but. I couldn't tell how deep it was, but the wound was definitely bad enough to cause problems.

I swallowed my fear. I needed to calm down--to not panic. If Raoul had lied, then he either didn't know the extent of the cut or didn't want me to know.

"W--what figures?" I asked shakily.

Raoul grinned. "The one time you're small enough for me to throw you across the room, it's in the middle of a fight."

Obviously, it's not that bad.

Blam!

We jumped, shaken by the explosion that seemed to deafen me. I ducked down and covered the back my head with my hands to protect my neck. Dust and rubble fell from the torn open ceiling, leaving darkness to spread over everything like a sickness.

Blam!

Blam!

Something jerked me to the side. The screech of fear that tried to escape my lips was muffled by me slamming into something hard. The world around me went pitch-black, but I hadn't shut my eyes.

Fuzzy buzzing was the first thing I could hear. Out of the ringing came muffled noises that got louder every time they started.

It was screams. Screams of the broken.

Screams of the dying.

Silence of the dead.

Raoul.

Is he alive?

The black was overwhelming. I felt trapped--blind--hopeless. I had to find my brother. Everything around me pressed in, trapping me in a prison with no bars, just walls.

Then the walls moved.

My heart jumped. I had never been particularly claustrophobic, but it brought in a whole new perspective of the fear once something started closing up on me. Something like a steady drumbeat pounded against one of the walls that trapped me, hitting a steady bum-bum, bum-bum.

Is that... a heartbeat?

"Raoul?"

He was holding me. It made sense--the jerk I felt as the world crumbled around us, the walls around me that kept moving--he was shielding me.