The Greene Effect - REWRITE!!

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE - ON THE TIP OF MY TONGUE

Amelia Greene -

It's over.

He doesn't even care that he's left his weapon on the ground. He only moves with such ferocity that he hardly stumbles. The world continues to explode around him, but he runs as if it's the last change he'll ever get to use his legs.

Tears stream down his cheeks, mixing with my blood. I look up to the sky, my head going light and my eyes growing heavy. The pain begins to subside. I'm filled with a sense of peace. The sun peeks from the clouds, and then, there's nothing.

"Aiello!" The sudden exclamation jerks me awake. I immediately realize that I'm not where I was before, and he is no longer running. But something else lures me back to sleep; a type of exhaustion I physically can't fight.

"She's lost so much blood," he says in a pained voice. Words are exchanged I can't figure out. Then, I'm lowered to the floor. My eyes refuse to open. Everything feels like a dream, slow and almost muted.

"I got this. Go and see who's left."

I don't recognize the voice at the time. Because since when does Pierson sound so defeated?

"Goddamnit, Greene," he grows frustrated quickly. His hands work where I bleed but I don't feel any of it, only sensing his touch. It only relaxes me more. "Wake up. You can't do this."

I try. But I'm trapped inside of myself.

He's silent for some time, wrapping me tightly with a gauze. "Wake up," he repeats, "Greene. Greene, you have to come back. You can't . . you can't be one of them."

Pierson. Pierson, I'm here.

He beckons me with such desperation that I forget all about the peace. Forcing myself back into the present would only bring me pain, but he's there and he's calling for me. It's all I focus on.

It's him.

"I'm so sorry." A gentle hand moves hair out of my face, tucking it behind my ear. "I tried."

I'm here! I'm right here! Why can't you hear me?

It's not over. I can feel him so it can't be. So long as I can feel him . . .

My eyes finally slide open. The sudden push into reality emits a groan from my lips. But when my vision focuses a tiny bit, blurred from the bloodless, I don't see him.

Only a medic watching over me, pumping some sort of liquid into me. Fighting to keep me alive.

I must've imagined him.

"Hey, hey, Greene!" The voice pulls me out of my sleep. I sit upwards with a gasp, my chest heaving and my forehead sweating.

"Zussman?" I ask immediately, the situation far too familiar. Aiello flinches, and then gently brushes hair plastered to my forehead.

"No, it's me." I let out a deep sigh, pressing my palm to my aching forehead. "Is everything okay? What . . what happened?"

It was him.

I freeze so suddenly Aiello bursts into another round of worry. But his questions are instantly drowned out by the single thought in my head.

It's him.

Pierson's the one who kept me alive. Aiello only got me out of there. He begged me to come back and to open my eyes, begged me to stay.

And in my half dead state, I had said the words that took me another year to realize once more. I forget them the next time I awoke, but they always rested on a deserted part of my mind, waiting for the next time I remembered them.