SATe [✔]

[16] sanguine

The illusion of an impassive day had been shattered in an instant; all sense being lost as I slipped my arms around her, checking for any signs of life. There were none to be found; her eyes were wide open, but her irises had lost all glossiness, her body unable to hold any form against my limbs; lifelessly collapsed against them. The only trace of blood was the straight line that ran from her ear to the base of her neck; the rest of it quickly drying onto my skin.

The light was beaming down on me as the day continued to tick onwards. I pulled her into my chest, gripping around her back and thighs. I couldn't help but grip tightly into the fabric of the scrubs, hoping the closer she was to me the more likely she'd come back. I couldn't help but think of those stories, where still-born babies come back to life after lying against their mother's chest. I carried her away from the front of the teashop and into a nearby alleyway, hoping to avoid the glaring eyes of the public on their morning commute.

There was little I could do as I sat there in the darkness of the alley against the cobblestone ground, a choice that was surely going to cause me pain later. The sun was unable to breach the wall height surrounding us, a mere glint of it breaching the street entrance. I had rested her head against my shoulder as I stared towards the tower of garbage cans opposite me, barely registering the sounds of laughter from the apartment just across the alley from the teashop.

She seemed even smaller in here in the dim light and foetal pose. It began to gnaw at my stomach as I banged my head against the wall behind me a few times. Eventually, I found myself grinding my head into it, staring up at the guttering against the roof and listening to the footsteps on the street. If I focused on the peeling paint above me for long enough maybe all of this would go away. A hope too pure for inception, I suppose.

It only took four minutes for the drive of stampeding masked men to invade the alleyway with Cassiel in tow. He muttered a meaningless apology as he knelt to take Georgia's body from me. For a moment I hesitated, gripping onto the fabric a moment too long; the pressure in my fingers releasing at the same time my eyes gave way to a few tears. He placed the body on the stretcher two of the masked men had brought over and averted his eyes back to mine. His scent had attacked my senses as he leant down to wipe the few tears from my cheek; coffee mixed with something sweet, strong enough to make my nose twitch. I didn't hate it. It was comforting to bask in it once again.

Something about it made me not want to move. To pull him beside me and just sit here for a little while longer. Pretend it hadn't happened. Instead, he ruffled my hair and pulled me to my feet.

━━━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━━━

It was a cracking sound.

He'd eased into her skull with precision and care, but it still cracked. A sound that put every hair on my body on edge, a tingle sensation running down every single one of my limbs. I couldn't watch the process after I'd heard that sound. Physically turning my back and staring into the white wall.