Falling to Pieces

“Stay here,” Joel said.
I nodded and watched Joel disappear into the house.
I felt my head spin, but it was out of fear. My hands shook violently.
A growl ripped in my ear, but when I turned there was nothing there. I ran to the house. Another growl in my ear.
Joel screaming, fainting in a white dress, a grave stone with my name on it, Ryan covered in blood, Heaven with her eyes forever shut…
I screamed and fell to my knees.
“STOP!”
I could hear my breathing, could hear my heart pounding in my ears, echoing through my head.
My mother’s grave with red stained white roses, Lindsey in a white hospital bed, I.V. needles jammed into my wrist…
I could feel the needles in my wrist as if they were truly there.
I screamed again.
I was suffocating, their papery hands were all around my throat, no air was coming through, all of them, trying to kill me, suffocate me
My hands were thrashing at my throat, trying to pull off the invisible hands off my throat.
“BREATH!” I shrieked.
Then I heard Joel yell and a crash. I tried to stand up to go help, to do something, but I could breathe.
Lindsey flew through a window and grew red in her own blood.
“LINDSEY HELP ME!” I screamed.
She looked up at me.
My eyes slammed as I felt the air leave me and the hands again.
“Rose,” Lindsey said.
I couldn’t breathe…
“Rose, let go of your neck,” she said, “They're just messing with your mind, you're okay .”
She pulled off my hands.
I cried and held onto her.
“Lindsey…”
I heard Heaven scream now. I pulled away from Lindsey and ran to the house.
“No Rose!”
I stumbled into the house and fell to my knees. The white living room was stained in red.
Then I saw them, the Velions. They were pale, much like vampires. Their eyes glowed red, like the crimson liquid that stained their thirst. And I was there, a warm blooded human and the reason for this fight. The Velion smiled wickedly at me as it drew near.
I felt like I was being choked again…
* * * * *
Joel smelled her…
He looked over and saw her on her knees with her hands around her neck and the Velion coming closer to her.
“STOP!” She screamed.
Joel ran and slammed himself into the Velion and pinned him against the wall. All the anger that he had let bottle in him released out of his fists and into the Velions face. The monster put his arms around his neck and hissed in Joel’s ear.
“You wont save her, she’s mine,” He growled.
Joel spun around and took the Velion’s head into his hands and twisted it until there was a sickening snap. He watched with much satisfaction as the lifeless head rolled on the scarlet carpet.
Joel ran to Rose and pulled her close even through his veins were aching and his throat was burning to feel her blood.
“I told you to wait,” he said.
“I—I know,” she choked out, she was so afraid.
He closed his eyes and listened to her heartbeats, drowning out everything and everyone else out. It was roared, but it was out of fear and not excitement.
“RYAN!” Lindsey screamed.
Joel released her and turned to look at Lindsey. She was on her knees, watching as Ryan had a dagger in his stomach. There wasn’t a part of him that wasn’t covered in blood and it seemed to make Rose being near him harder.
“Ryan,” he heard her whisper.
Before he could comprehend what she was thinking, she was running.
“ROSE!” He yelled.
But she ignored him.
He knew that she wasn’t going to make it to Ryan.
He knew that she was too slow.
He knew that a Velion would catch her.
He was right.
He ran at her with full speed, but even he wasn’t quick enough, for a Velion slammed into her and she slid across the floor.
Joel crouched down low, and let a low growl escape his lips as he faced the monster.

“God,” Joel sobbed.
Ryan was in Lindsey’s arms trembling.
“Linds,” Ryan whimpered, “It hurts.”
“Shh…” She whispered through her streaming tears. There wasn’t anything she could do to stop the pain, or save him.
“Rose wont die, will she?” He whispered, “I don't want her to die.”
“She’s okay,” Joel said, even though that wasn’t the truth.
Rose was in the other room, she still hadn’t woken up and she was bandaged up practically everywhere.
Ryan’s eyes closed.
“Ryan?” Lindsey whispered.
No answer.
“RYAN!”
Joel looked at her and pulled him into his arms.
“Lindsey,” he whispered, “Let go.”
She shook her head. “No please, not him…he didn’t hurt anybody.”
Joel pulled her away from Ryan.
“Shh,” Joel whispered, rocking back and forth.
“Joel,” she sobbed.
“I’m here,” he said, “I'm here for you, Lindsey.”
She buried her face in the curve of his neck and it brought back the time she told him that her clan was killed.
“I don't know what to do,” she had said.
Joel hugged her close. “You move on, that’s what they’d want you to do.”
“Why them!?” She yelled, “Why not me!?”
“It isn’t your fault,” he said, “There isn’t anything you can do now anyway.”
She sniffled.
“I miss them.”
“I know, and its okay to cry now, but there’s no point in mourning about it, it wont bring them back,” he said.
Joel smiled now, bitterly.
He had just gotten his own advice in how to deal with losing Rose.
Nell walked into the room, the vampire doctor that was a good friend of Nethiel. Obviously they couldn’t go to a real hospital with vampire wounds.
“She’s awake,” Nell said.
“How is she?” Joel asked, relieved he still had time.
Nell sighed. “She’s hurt, but like I said she’s awake.”
Joel sighed and wiped the tears that head fallen down his cheeks.
Lindsey escaped his arms, he extended his arm to pull her back.
“No, you need to see her, and I need to be alone,” she said.
“That may not be the best…” he trialed off.
Lindsey smiled. “Not all of us are suicidal like Rose is.”
“Was,” he corrected.
She nodded. “Was.”
He kissed his sister’s forehead then followed Nell to the room that Rose was in.
She was laying on her back in a bed staring at the ceiling. IV tubes flowed from her wrists and next to her was a monitor that kept track of her heartbeat, but he already heard how irregular it was.
He walked over to her and took her slender hand in his.
She didn’t turn her head.
“When I was standing in front of the house,” she said, her voice hoarse and brittle, “They put these pictures in my head.”
His hand tightened around her hand.
She smiled slightly.
“That feels good,” she said, “ You're hand.”
“What did you see?” He asked, “Unless you don't want to talk about it.”
She looked at him.
“IV needles,” she said, “All jabbed in my wrists.”
He winced at the harshness of her words.
“And then they were choking me,” she whispered.
He could see the marks on her neck.
“Lindsey said I was doing it to myself though,” she continued.
“It was only in your mind,” he told her gently.
“But it felt real,” her voice broke.
He squeezed her hand. “I know.”
She closed her eyes.
“Rose?”
“Hmm?”
“I talked to Nethiel, and we came up with a plan,” he said.
“What?” She whispered.
“I’m taking you home, to get you out of here and safe,” he said, “Everyone else will go to London and stay with Lindsey’s sister, that will lure the Velions away from you. Once things cool off, they’ll come back.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“You mean once I'm dead right?”
He rested his chin on the bed.
“No that’s not what I meant,” he said.
She smiled. “I suppose it doesn’t matter anyhow.”
“Hurry up and get better, so we can go,” he said, grinning.
She laughed. “I’ll get right on that.”
Then she was quiet. “Ryan didn’t make it, did he?”
Joel shook his head.
He watched her eyes water, slower than Lindsey’s had.
“Rose,” he said, gently, “Can you feel it?”
She looked at him. “Feel what?”
“Feel the pain of loss,” he whispered.
“Joel…”
“Because I don't know about you, but it’s gonna suck to feel this again,” he said softly, “Lucky you, you don't have to feel it again.”
She closed her eyes. “ Yeah I’m dying and so I wont have to feel pain. I’m real lucky.”