The Limit of Love <Chapter 3>

Crimson Nightmares

Smoke covered the whole area, coughing and choking on dirt and ash that clung to the air around them. Just a few seconds ago he had been sitting with friends. Joking around with them and his girlfriend like any other school day. Then, what happened? The concrete bench we had been sitting on was crumbling, bushes were burned, and the courtyard of the school was riddled with half moving bodies and the sounds of moaning. But the smoke was still dense enough that I couldn't see far, and something told me I didn't want to, either.

An accident? ... No, couldn't have been. There were men there, black coats... guns... bombs... wait... May...? May? MAY!?

She was in my arms, thank God. She had some dirt and was unconscious, but she was in my arms and she was breathing. Got it, she was still alive. I went to move, but something in my back stopped me in my tracks and I screamed. Shrapnel, dirt, and blood wedged their way deeper into my body as I moved. The pain was almost unbearable, and then I heard the cracking of a rifle being cocked.

CRACK!

I jumped and I heard somebody scream, I knew who it was. She wasn't more than a few feet away, even through the ringing in my ears I still could hear the high pitched screaming of my friends. I let May go for a moment and ran towards the sound. Stumbling as the shrapnel in my back tore at my body, causing my vision to turn red with pain.

Pash sat there, terrified kneeling in the corner against the wall with the dead body of Zack in her arms. No, not dead, he was seriously hurt, but not dead. He was pushing himself against her like a shield, a bleeding shoulder for the moment. A man in black robes stood over them, a dark rifle cradled in his hand as he laughed over her screams. When he raised the weapon, my crimson covered vision of pain became one of anger and hatred.

Throwing myself at the man, I forced us both to crash into the wall in front of us. I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed with the pressure from the crook in my elbow. He fired off a round or two next to my head, and with it came an even more annoyingly painful ringing. I didn't let up, I wouldn't let go.

"Andrew!" Pash piped up, as Zack turned around and threw his arms around her.

"Run! Get May and go!" I screamed at Zack, who thankfully picked himself up, grabbing Pash and May and ran. The man I was fighting with yelled something muffled and fired off another round next to my head. More ringing, more pain, and the more I squeezed. Squeezing until the man finally dropped the gun and shook me off of him. Throwing me against the wall which slammed into the shrapnel in my back. A gasp of pain and I fell to my knees, my hands landing on the barrel of the gun. I slumped over, pulling it lazily into my shoulder I fired a round at a black blur that was in front of me. I didn't aim, but it came natural, I don't know how. Up to that point I have never shot a rifle like that before, and I certainly didn't have a natural gift at it. There I was though, firing at a man's chest like I knew what I was doing, a young sixteen year old kid. I felt older though, a lot older, and that moment didn't help at all. Watching a dead body drop to the ground, knowing I was the cause. It seemed to take forever to fall.

Getting up to my knees I searched the courtyard, the smoke was clearing now. Then the veil of red pulled itself over my eyes again as sharp, unimaginable pain shot through my back. I reached to it out of recoil, and my hand clipped the rough edge of cement embedded into my flesh. I yanked it out, screaming so badly I dropped the rifle in my arms. Thankfully it didn't drop very far, and the instant relief of pulling out the shrapnel was overcome with the trailing of blood that followed out of the hole. I felt light headed, I felt like passing out, but I stayed on my feet and grabbed the rifle from the floor. I found another man in black running toward me, yelling something at me. I knew he could see his buddy lying dead, and I was next.

Quickly and without hesitating I raised the rifle to my shoulder again, dropped to a knee and fired. Two shots to the chest and one to the pelvis. How I aimed that well I still didn't know, but in my head a familiarity of it washed over me. I just didn't remember why. I looked around me, not wanting to watch the body of the second man slow motion fall like the first. I didn't see any other dead bodies around me, which was good. There was blood, dirt, and chunks of cement but no bodies and no cold frozen faces except the two men I had shot.

Gotta find May and the others... !!

CRACK!

A blow to the back of my head sent me spinning to the ground, slamming my face into a block of cement. Now this, was darkness...

I woke up to the lights of heaven shining brightly down on me. For a moment I was sad, because I knew I had died and that I was only sixteen, even though I felt older. Was I sixteen? I couldn't remember, but here I was standing in heaven's light and I was dead. My head was still throbbing and my eyes were still sore from the blood that still seeped into them.

Wait... if I'm dead then why...

CRACK!

A punch sent my mind going in every other direction, and my eyes rolled back into my head to watch it shatter. A deep laughing came from my right where the punch had come from and I tried to turn towards it. My arms wouldn't move, neither would my body. They were pinned behind me and I was sitting on a chair, duck tape wrapped around my chest like some kind of sick horror movie. Blood dripped from my forehead onto my torn, ash covered blue jeans. A black shirt was just barely hanging on to my shoulder.

The lights I had mistaken for heaven were actually my auditoriums light coming from the cat walk above me. I was on stage, and it looked like the whole school had been packed into the building to watch me, sitting tied on this chair, and a few men who were around me. One of them, which was obviously a leader of some kind, yelled and yelled. His knuckle was red and I realized that he was the one that punched me. Two other men with rifles slung across their backs were on either side of me. My eyes stopped wondering on the men and started to fixate on the crowd like I was watching them. When in reality, with my mind now half way back, started working out confusing plans on how to get away. then a meaty hand took my throat in its grasp and forced my eyes upward.

"You still with me, punk?" the man asked surly, his breath smelling like someone had run over a rotten mustard farm with a mint brush. He was gangling and tall, not broad or muscular like someone would think a leader might be, but an average leader. Maybe a bit more so than an average, but an average regardless. His grip was strong though, squeezing harder against my throat. My eyes glared both in anger and fear, and I know there was fear, because I was afraid. Afraid for many things, but mainly just afraid of him standing so close and his hand wrapped around my neck. The man let me go, a sneer to his drawn and withered face, and he turned to the ground. Leaving me gasping for the air I desperately needed at that point, my head teetering on going unconscious again.

"Listen here you little fucking twits," the man started pointing at me with a crude looking knife, "This little punk of yours here killed two of my guys. And you know what that means..." his eyes turned to me, and before I could even cry out the knife sliced through my gut.

Pain.

Terrible pain washed over me. In one second I felt like someone had poked my stomach with something sharp, and tore into it with serrated claws as the man twisted it in my flesh. That pain was all too real. It hurt so badly that even as the blade left me, I could still feel the twisting of snakes as the pain arched and raced through my core. I screamed, a guttural scream as blood rushed to the top of my mouth. I didn't know I could make that scream.

"Tell ya what you little punk," the man sneered again, enjoying too much the pain he was causing me. "If you can survive for five minutes. I'll let this little precious here, go." and a little squeak of a sound whispered through the air. My whole world froze over, his eyes darted left and saw May in the arms of another man. His hand clamped shut over her mouth as she stared with eyes full of horror.

"M- Ma--!!"

CRACK!

Another blow to the face and I felt my teeth come undone. Being hit the the blunt force of a bat to the cheek was bad enough. In my present condition, even worse. I groaned a bit as blood and teeth poured from my mouth. The mans chuckling, if not his sneering grin, was hidden behind the wave of horror that came from the audience. Did I really look that banged up, my eyes flickered to May once more. I saw the tear drops falling from her eyes and it pained me even more than the pain in my stomach. In the moment I looked at her I put everything into what I would have said if I could have spoken.

Don't watch...

"BEGIN!" a bellow, like a referee calling the start of a game, echoed from the man and the pain came in waves.

CRACK! My knee cap is blown to bits as the baseball bat smashes into the side. I can feel the bone ripping through my skin as it explodes outward. My scream is muffled as another man lands a hard right hook against my chin. Blood seeped hard from my mouth, my vision was so blurry I didn't even see the -- CRACK! My shoulder crumbled, and the shards of my bone screeched as they dug themselves into the safety of the muscle. Tears broke free from my eyes as the pain throughout my body increased. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

I was lost, lost in the see of red and black blurs that seem to be endless coming at me. My vision began to become hazy. A pause, while they untied my hands from the back of the chair and pushed me to my knees. Which sent me instead crashing to the blood stained stage floor. I didn't make a sound for a moment, a groan of protest perhaps out of sheer will to show I was still alive. My eyes could only pick up the trembling knees of May in the distance.

Don't tremble... don't be scared... it's alright...

It's alright... damn... I'm losing it... gotta stay awake...

The man ripped my head back with my hair and sneered into my face as he knelt over me. "Oh, still awake are ya? You son of a bitch, you'll be dead soon enough." and he slammed my face back into the floor. Then a pain so bad it nearly sent me spiraling into insanity when it struck. His heel came crashing down on the back of my neck. A screeching came from all directions. Some of it from me, as I tried to scream through a crushed voice box. Another from the man as he cackled maniacally. The third from the audience as they screamed, whimpered, cried, and begged for it to stop. The loudest though, was the whimpers of May a few yards away. Why I heard hers over so many others, I don't know.

A snap of the fingers through the ringing in my ears told me to brace myself.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Losing it...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Don't... stop...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

I... I'm... sorry...May...

For a long moment I didn't feel anything and there was only darkness. Maybe I had finally fallen so far that I didn't feel anything anymore. Maybe I had finally died. All I know is that there wasn't anything anymore. Then I felt soft hands touching and moving my head somewhere.

"Andrew... Andrew..." I heard her soft voice whimpering, something soft and wet touched my cheeks and slid down my face. It didn't feel like blood, but then again, I didn't know what blood felt like on someones face before today ,and not before it was covering my own face. I creaked open eyes to see her. They could barely open, but I could see through the slits that she held me. I saw her crying face as she held me.

Holding me... like that would ever happen...

I stopped, why did I think that. Of course it could happen, we were holding each other before all of this happened, why would I think that. She was here, holding me now, crying over me even.

No care in the world... never going to see her again... you screwed it up...

Screwed it up? Wait, but I didn't die. I was still here looking at her. Why was I thinking like that, maybe the police had shown up and we were safe. That's why she was able to hold me. I didn't screw up I made it. I made it work, I'm still alive. I still love her. She isn't gone yet, she's right here.

She's right here. In my arms. Her arms. She's looking at me. We're here together! We're in lo-- CRACK!

A gunshot to the head and I saw her face, that sweet young beautiful face disappear. "No- !!!"

I woke up, breathing so heavily I was surprised I didn't pass out. I was soaked in sweat and the bed had been destroyed by me thrashing around. I rubbed away the sleep and tears from my eyes and took a shaky breath inward. A nightmare, that's all it was. My throat was dry, I still had strep but that wasn't the real problem. My voice was cracking cause I had been screaming. I could feel the muscles pulling like they had been when we had fought and I had yelled.

I didn't mean to yell, not like that anyways. I just wanted to know what was wrong. Why am I thinking like that, I yelled and screamed and no matter what I do I can't take that back. I threw myself out of bed and went downstairs. Three in the morning, and I was up sweaty, tired, and horrified with the image of her... not going to think about it.

I stayed up the rest of the night. I didn't want to go back to sleep and think about that again. I will forget about it eventually, how I didn't save her. I didn't save her in my dream, what makes me think I can save us in reality. I won't, and that's the point. I think I'm starting to lose it a little, maybe it's just the medication from the strep. I don't know.

You're hopeless Andrew...

Yeah... I get that a lot...

Done screwing up yet...?

God... I hope so...