MY IMMORTAL

Lost

"Dad..." I was going to reason with him but Harry cut me off.  He wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me from the ground. I found myself over his shoulder before I realised what was going on.

"What are you doing. Harry put me down.  You can't just leave him there." My screams and punches were met with silence.  He cut his way through the bush heading northwest at speed. I could only just see the road and my Dad laying on it.  "Stop. No. You can't." He was gone.  Dad was gone. I couldn't see him anymore.  I knew I wouldn't see him again.  My only family was gone, now I was truly alone and the solidarity of it left me cold. I sobbed to myself. The pain from my broken collarbone began to rage at me and I simply didn't care.  The pain constricting around my chest was much worse. 

He was gone.  My rock, the only family I had left in the world had just died.  I could feel his passing.  I could hear his heartbeat falter and then it stopped. Here I was thrown over the shoulder of God knows who or even what scampering through the bush like some Neanderthal and his prize, while my Dad died, alone on the side of the road in the dark early morning. 

Harry picked up his pace and I could feel my shoulder grinding with every step he took. I didn't care.  I just wanted to curl up in a ball somewhere. This was as good a place as any.  For what seemed like a long time I just let him lug me around while I listened to my disembodied sobs. It was surreal almost like an out of body experience.  What was the point in fighting him?  What would he care?  He just left my father to die in the gutter why would he listen to my protests or requests to go back and at least retrieve my Dad's body. That realisation hit me hard and evoked an overwhelming wave of grief. I wasn't even going to be able to bury him.  I wasn't allowed to go to Mum's funeral and I wouldn't get to say goodbye to my Dad now either.  This was just too much. "Put me down." The tone of my voice surprised me.  It was cold, strong and sounded determined it reverberated the message, 'don't mess with me'.

He seemed not to hear the tone, however. "Soon.  We will be there soon. Just a little longer."

That's it. I remembered a move that Bear had taught me that would put this farce to a rapid and rather painful end. It would no doubt mean compounding my broken collarbone but what the hell.  I really didn't care at this point. I began moving into position when he suddenly stopped.  He put me down.  Then he somehow managed to pin me between a tree, the ground and himself. He placed that blasted magic palm over my shoulder and forced me to endure one of his 'Treatments'.  All I could think was, 'I hope this hurts you more than it does me'.  I didn't even try to zone out. His face was close to mine I could see that he knew what I was thinking.  Then the pain started.  I was in no temperament to tolerate this silently.  He looked at me pleading with his eyes for me not to scream out.  I shut my eyes in outright defiance.

"Damn it, Cassie. It's not safe yet. Please." He spoke softly but I still heard him over my shouts.

"I don't care.  I hate you.  Let me go. Or I'll keep screaming till someone, anyone finds us."

"Trust me.  The only people that will find us out here you do not want to meet."

"Why Harry?  Are they monsters?  Will, they hurt me? How is that different from what you just did to me?" I snapped.

His jaw clenched and a muscle there twitched. He put his hand back into position and continued with the treatment. So I didn't stifle the painful scream my lungs produced as a result.

He gave me a look that was clearly a warning.  I answered by taking a deep breath and screaming louder.  He clamped his mouth over mine, effectively muffling the scream. I was so stunned at first I didn't move then I struggled to move my face away but he had me so pinned I only managed to move enough so that it now felt more like a kiss than mouth to mouth resuscitation. I turned back and looked him straight in the eyes.  They were so bright. More than they had ever been before. A tender warmth emanated from them so that even through the pain of the treatment I felt ... I felt...  I really didn't know what I was feeling.  My mind was so blurred.  My stomach flipped. The pain dissipated a little more or was it that the kiss was distracting me.  I clamped my mouth shut in a silent protest.