Crossblood - Completed

Chapter 29

"Moon!" I'm woken by a sweaty and panicked Julius, my own body drenched with sweat as I glance tiredly around the room.

Red.

The panicked fluster in Julius's paling cheeks.

Orange.

The heated blood pulsing beneath my drooping lids.

Gray.

The haze that clouds my mind from his warnings.

Fire.

The gown that hangs in the doorway, the scent lingering in the hard-to-breathe air, the ocean surrounding the too small island of mattress where we stand.

"Kaiien!" I scream as a first reaction, kicking at Julius as he attempts to scoop me up and away from danger. "Kaiien!" My tears evaporate as soon as they fall, smoke kissing my lungs while I choke from it's brutal love. "Kaiien!"

"Kaiien is safe!" Julius assures me, throwing the covers from my sticky body and pulling me to the other side of the round bed towards him. "Everyone is out of the house and safe! We have to go before the house collapses!" His eyes quick but alert, resembling that of a deer in their demeanor, scan the bedroom hastily while his fingers twitch nervously.

My mind runs a mental checklist of everything I want to save but knowing that I can't carry it all out with me I mutter a spell, the house turning into an empty carcass, all belongings whisked away to our other house in the woods where the others are surely waiting.

With nothing but Julius and survival on my mind I can finally take in the surroundings, noting just how bad the fire is. The ceiling of my bedroom collapses in, the spot where my bed had been burns where I lay mere moments ago. I let out a small scream of fright, Julius running through the house with me on his shoulder, smoke suffocating us both and burning support beams blocking our every turn.

My vision is completely red, clothes sticking to my skin from the intense heat. I can already hear the cracking of another beam, Julius throwing me into darkness as it falls, my face colliding painfully with compacted dirt and stone.

Fuck. "Julius!" I scream, something child-like buried deep within swimming to the surface in my moment of fear. "I'm scared!" Tears flood my cheeks, a flashback threatening to arise any second now. A hard thud hits next to me and I scramble away, whimpering in fright of being in the dark with another thing.

"It's me, Julius." He coos, scooping my trembling body up in his arms bridal style. "Close your eyes." Julius sings, pressing my head into his citrus chest as he walks.

"I'm scared of the dark." I cry, gripping his shirt for the life of me. Even in a darkness of my own creation, painful memories still linger in the corners, making themselves at home.

Even with my face buried in his chest I'm still able to see his smile as he speaks."I know, I'm getting us out of here."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

We walk on in silence, only his humming keeping me from slipping into an even darker abyss. Liquid drips down my face, blood or tears I can't tell but Julius wraps me up even tighter, my legs too weak from fear to walk. "I'm not Alice," I sniffle as pain shoots through my face. "I don't appreciate being shoved down rabbit holes."

He laughs at my sarcastic tone, a light shining up above us and Julius lifting me over his head. We land in our old house, the underground tunnel we had built long ago in case of an emergency like this. The house is filled with our furniture from the burning house, Julius rising into the light with a small burn on his shoulder and sweat beading his hair-plastered forehead.