The Hyenas {Dreamnotfound AU}

22. Crushing Dandelions

TW ~ This chapter contains mentions of blood ~ TW

George's POV

As if the world suddenly becomes slow motion, my knife blindly stabs into something. I don't feel any pain when it happens, I only hear the strange, squishy sound it makes.

The grip around me loosens as a bloodcurdling scream meets my ear, and the sword falls down as the hand previously holding it opens up.

A moment of blind chaos erupts as Clay frees himself from the two men gripping him, who stare in shock at the sight in front of them.

I did not stab myself.

I stabbed the other man in the shoulder.

In an immediate instinctual reflex, I kick behind me, making the man stumble backwards. I grab the sword from the ground and sprint forward, meeting Clay who has already pulled his sword from his back, pointing it at Tommy and the other man, but they don't register it. All they see is their leader falling to the ground, blood spilling from his shoulder rapidly.

"Techno!" Tommy screams as he runs over, the other following with his hands in front of his mouth.

I look at Clay, who doesn't seem fully aware of what just happened. In a state of shock, he looks over to the three Hyenas on the ground, who are desperately trying to put a stop to the bleeding. 

"Wilbur help him! You know this kind of shit, make him better!" Tommy yells at the man holding their leader as they try to sit him up. Then his head snaps back to us, fire spewing from his eyes as he looks at me, and then at my bloody knife. "I'll fucking kill you right now!" he screams as he jumps up, grabbing two knives from his belt, one in each hand. The man named Wilbur grabs onto his wrist though.

"Tommy, listen to me," he says while Tommy's eyes remain on us. "You're going back to base, right now, to get help for Techno. We'll get them later," he says, trying to talk sense into him. Tommy stares us down like an angry bull who we have just waved a big red flag at. He then puts away his knives and starts running for the forest. I put my knife back at my belt, staining my pants with blood in the process, and with my now free hand I grab Clay's, making him look back at me in disbelief. He mouths a 'what the fuck' as he looks at the blood on our hands. Then, without exchanging another word, we start running like hell. 

I almost trip over myself as we make our way through the field, fully visible to anyone who might be watching. We could head for the trees, but we both know that the chance of a Hyena jumping us and killing us is way too high there. So instead, we take our chances and run out in the open, crushing dandelions with our feet as we race. When we get to the edge of the city, Clay drags me in the direction of the high building I know, slamming the door shut after we enter it. When we finally stand still after the exhaustive run, Clay lets go of my hand and runs both of his through his hair, looking around in panic.

"What just happened, what the fuck just happened?" he stammers as his breathing becomes shallow. He is breathing way too fast, on the verge of hyperventilating, even. 

"Sit down," I tell him, basically dragging him to the ground. "Come on, breathe with me," I say, dropping the sword to the ground to lay my hands on his shoulders. I breathe in through my nose deeply, and with his eyes closed, Clay follows my example. He continues to mimic my breathing, shaking slightly when his breath leaves his mouth. When he has finally calmed down a little, he opens his eyes and meets mine with them. 

"He was going to kill you," he says shakily, eyes watery. Sitting on my knees, I pull him tightly against me, hiding my face in the crook of his neck. I can't help the tears escaping my eyes once again. You'd think I'd get better at holding them back by now. His warm breath meets my neck as he stops shaking in my grip. His arms snake around me as well, holding onto me like the world is about to end, grabbing onto my hoodie. Like that, we sit in silence for a few minutes, calming ourselves down from the unbelievable situation we were just in. Eventually, we pull away from each other and I sit down properly next to him, looking at the wall across from us.