ELBINA 2

Chapter 2

"Lucas." I shake him gently with his shoulder. "Hey." Another shake. "You need to wake up."

He shifts a little, but he doesn't open his eyes.

Fallen pushes me aside after a couple of minutes of me trying to wake him, he roughly grabs at his right arm, exactly where the bullet wound is. Lucas jolts up quickly, shouting in pain.

I smack Fallen hard in the side.

"Don't be an asshole! You're hurting him!" I hate how hoarse my voice sounds, it burns when I speak.

"And I care why?" I shake my head at him, pushing him away and he lets me get past him to Lucas again who is sitting up, leaning over himself holding his arm carefully.

"I'm so sorry." I whisper to him but he doesn't look at me, he's trying to get a hold of the pain sprouting through his arm. His breathing uneven and rapid, until it slowly eases into deep long exhales through gritted teeth.

"Come on, we need to get out of this car." I glance back at Fallen who is pacing, fumbling with the backpack on his shoulders and flitting his head in direction after direction, he looks like he's on something.

"And go where?" He sounds so defeated, just accepting anything at this point and it makes me want to cry.

"I'm not sure right now." Maybe I should have lied, but then again, I wouldn't know what fake answer I could give, that would make him feel any better.

He mumbles an okay, letting me help him out of the car, out into the darkness. We'd slept a little in the car until Fallen couldn't bear staying in it one more minute. He hadn't slept, he was too busy tapping on the steering wheel of the car, thinking hard. Really, the only person who slept was Lucas because I watched Fallen the entire time, leaning against the window and pretending I was asleep.

It wasn't until he unclipped his belt loudly that he had somehow decided on something in his head, something that I wasn't privy to at least. Whatever it was, it meant that he had decided our next course of action. Looking at the way he was moving around now, I'm not sure if he thinks that's still the best idea.

It doesn't help the twist in my gut.

But I have a job, and that's keeping Lucas moving. He leans heavy on me and I'm only thankful he can't see my face much in the night. I know it's bad, it must be, just by the way my skin feels too tight and moving my expression too much stings like hell.

He keeps stumbling over the ground, he feels like a dead weight. The car light made him look so pale and by the way I have to hold him, it's like he's fading in and out of consciousness.

"Where exactly are we going?" I grunt over to Fallen.

He isn't looking at his map, he remembers everything about this place it seems. Adjusting his head torch so it focuses more directly in front of him and not tilted off to his right. He doesn't answer me though.

I can't make out anything in the still night, only the trees and fences that Fallen's torch touches.

"Ella." It's barely a whisper. "I don't feel good."

There's that catch in my throat again and I have to swallow it down. "I know." I don't quite manage to hold my voice steady so I try again. "I know."

It only reminds me when Fallen carried him back to the cottage, asking me if he was going to die. I squeeze him harder, he's still here.

"You're going to be fine." I glance my head up, even if he can't see me, he at least might get that I mean it when I say it.

Even if inside, I'm not really sure he will be alright.