The Understorey, Book One of The Leaving Series (47 page)

    “Do you want an additional
punishment other than the one that’s already coming your way Julia?
I can make it worse for you, if you wish.”

The tears stained a clear path through the
blood on her face. She raised her gaze into my eyes. She was
afraid, not for herself, but for me. I could see the terror in them
and feel it in her heart. I was hoping she wouldn’t have noticed
the pool of blood growing at my feet. The blood swam down my arm
and gathered at my fingertips. My entire sleeve was soaked red and
my hand was slippery with the wet of it. I was losing so much I was
swaying from the loss. I could barely keep my eyes focused, the
room spun around me. I knew I didn’t have much time.

While she had been removing her boots, I
slowly began to inch toward the bat without him noticing, too
engrossed with his prey. I tried to take advantage of that but he
only signaled with the barrel of the gun for me to move back to my
original spot. I obeyed him. My eyes darted about the cave looking
for anything that might aid me in stopping him but there was
nothing. I had run out of options and time. I rallied the courage
to attack when I felt he was sufficiently distracted. Jules removed
her sweater and began to lift her camisole. Jesse’s eyes became and
I knew that tiny lapse in concentration was going to be my only
chance.

I lunged for him, darting slightly left
anticipating the deafening shot that came from the gun the second I
moved. Jules ducked, covering her ears, eyes wide with fear. The
bullet missed me by mere inches and he re-aimed the gun to shoot
again but it was too late. I was already on him and had pulled him
back toward the waterfall’s edge.

We struggled over control of the gun and I
watched Jules run for the bat. She couldn’t get a good angle on
Jesse so instead knocked the gun from his hands and into the water.
It was a fairer fight, at least, and despite my hurt shoulder the
adrenaline pumping through me was able to give me the strength I
needed to push my palm underneath his chin with tremendous
force.

Part of his tongue had been resting on his
bottom row of teeth and the force of my blow severed the tip, blood
burst from between his lips. Jules attempted to pull his hair back
to get him on the ground but he kicked backwards with enough force
it knocked the wind from her small frame and she toppled onto the
stone gasping for air.

I immediately left Jesse to help her and he
used the opportunity to grab the bat I had brought. I cursed myself
for bringing the ‘knife to the gun fight’ and darted at him to
avoid Jules from being caught underneath the blow. As he brought
the bat down I felt for the sidewall of the cave and used it to
propel myself on top of him.

I felt helpless in the struggle, distracted
by the labored breathing coming from Jules. By the way she
struggled to breathe, I was certain he had broken a rib and that
brought the rage to a new boiling point. I used the nitrous effect
of it to, ironically, crack his jaw. He staggered at the pain of it
and I used the time to reposition myself for an uppercut to the
gut. This floored him and I dragged him toward the water.

I forced his head and shoulders through the
waterfall but he grabbed my coat before I could release my grip and
he took me over the edge with him. I heard Jules yell my name as we
toppled over the steep edge into the chilling pitch black water,
neither of us interested in the fight once we landed in its arctic
temperature.

We were caught underneath the churning,
tumbling water. It was too dark to know which way was up or which
way was down. I only knew to fight against the current dragging and
pulling me around like a rag doll in a washing machine. My lungs
squeezed tightly in my chest, desperate for air. I felt myself
losing consciousness and frantically fought against its determined
attempts to pull me down.

Dark hands circled my ankles, dragging me
down with all their might. I fought with everything in me, kicking
my invisible assailant, picturing Julia at the surface of the
water.

Eventually my head broke the surface and I
screamed out in pain from the bullet wound in my arm before
swallowing my first breath of air. I struggled to keep my head
above water, being twisted and coiled through the numbing cold.

The temperature was paralyzing, my arms felt
detached from my body. I couldn’t control them. I hit a calmer part
of the rapids and began looking for Jesse but he was nowhere to be
found. I tried as hard as I could, throwing my shot shoulder ahead
of me and using all the strength I could to get to the shore before
he fled and I was too late.

    When I reached the
embankment, there was no way in knowing where he had fled the
water, if he had. My eyes scanned both sides of the riverbank but
it was too dark. The water was so cold and I knew that the break in
the rapids was the only feasible point to come out of.
No one in
their right mind would have been able to float further on their own
accord
, I thought before eerily reminding myself just how not
right in the head he truly was.

I studied the shore further down the river
and waited patiently in the debilitating cold. The snow was falling
so thickly it would have immediately covered his tracks so I looked
for movement only. I waited and waited but there was not a single
sound, not a single movement other than the falling snowflakes
floating to the earth.

My adrenaline began to dissipate, naturally
reacting to the feeling that there was no immediate danger, from
him at least. I fell to my knees in exhaustion.

The loss of blood, the cold, the water, it
was all adding up to be more than I thought I could fight through.
I needed to get to Jules. I needed to know she was okay. I could
barely lift myself from the ground at that point, my body heavy
with exhaustion. The deep snow wasn’t helping any. I felt like I
was trying to catch my already unsteady footing on top of a cloud,
my feet sinking further than I imagined possible. I stumbled
repeatedly, my blood staining the pristine white snow and recording
my pathetic progress.

About halfway to the waterfall, I spotted
Jules looking for me. I called out to her and she hobbled to my
side. She urged me up and helped me back to the fire inside the
cave.

We both tumbled to the ground in fatigue of
body and mind but mostly from relief. Relief that he was gone,
probably drowned, relief from the heat of the fire, relief that we
were both alive, somewhat alright and together. I removed my wet
glove but instead of taking the shaking hand I offered her, Jules
sat up and began to remove all my wet clothes.

    “We have to get you out of
these or you’ll get hypothermia,” she said through chattering
teeth. “How’s your shoulder?”
    “Fine,” I lied.
I pointed to her rib.
    “I’m perfectly fine,” she lied. “I know your arm
hurts but I think the cold is helping the bleeding.”

She removed all my wet clothes except for my
boxers and laid them flat on the stone next to the fire so they
could dry enough to get us out of there. She removed her jacket and
laid it across my torso, yanked up her sweater and tore massive
strips of her camisole off before lowering it back down.

    “This is going to be
painful my love,” she whispered. “Put your hand on my exposed skin
and hopefully our current will dull the pain.”

I smiled crookedly at her and did as she
asked. She began to wrap my bleeding wound. She was right, touching
her helped tremendously or maybe it was that I was just so glad we
were alive and together.

    “I. Will. Never. Let. You.
Out. Of. My. Sight. Again.” I managed to fight out through wires
and a throbbing, shivering jaw.
    “Don’t worry,” she said while working, “I won’t
ever let you out of my sight again either. You’re not allowed more
than a few feet from me at all times, you understand?” She asked,
teary eyed.
She worked quietly.

After half an hour, when she felt my clothes
were dry enough to walk through the snow, she carefully helped me
dress. She had been uncomfortably quiet through that time,
periodically checking on my wound. I gave her some space to let her
grieve over the awful things that must have happened to her while I
laid in that ridiculous hospital bed.

    “I love you so much
Elliott and when you were shot.......I..........,” she couldn’t
finish.

I squeezed her arm with my good hand and gave
her a reassuring smile. I reached for her face and delicately
brushed my hand underneath her jaw. I started to bring her mouth to
mine but she refused.
    “Just a second,” she said. “I have to wash Jesse
out of my mouth.”

I began to protest but she didn’t care. I
knew if she could handle what she must have gone through with
Jesse, the temperature of the water would be no challenge at all,
so I let her do it.

She cupped her hands underneath a trickling
stream of water leaking from a crack in the rock above, washed out
her mouth and cleaned off her face. She leaned back over my body
and I began where I left off.

    I had never kissed Jules
this way before. It was a kiss with a multitude of layers. Through
that simple kiss I told her everything I wasn’t able to voice. I
told her how much I loved her, how thankful I was for her, how
thankful I was to her, and what she truly meant to me. I let her
know the need I had for her, that my life was meaningless without
her, the future that we were destined to have together and the
overwhelming requisite to make her my wife.....as soon as
possible.

She sat up in surprise.“Of course Elliott,”
she smiled through watery eyes.

I smiled and waited for her to explain.
    “Of course we’ll marry after graduation.”
My eyes began to match hers and I kissed her softly once
more.
    “But before we do that, we need to get out of
here,” she winked.

She helped me put my coat back on and tied my
boots for me and we edged our way up the embankment and followed
the same line of trees up to Jesse’s parents’ cabin.

When it came into view Jules was too
terrified to continue. I assured her they would find Jesse’s body
soon. I guided her toward my truck and kissed her cheek in
reassurance. She sighed in relief when she saw it. We brushed at
least two feet of snow from the windshield and scraped the little
amount of ice there was.

She wouldn’t let me drive, afraid I’d pass
out from the loss of blood. She buckled me in and then herself and
started the engine. I was glad she insisted on driving as I was
already blacking in and out of consciousness. When it purred to
life she sighed in relief and threw it in reverse, desperate to get
as far away as possible as quickly as possible from anything
remotely related to Jesse Thomas.

As we sped down the highway, Jules looked for
the nearest hospital. She said she saw a sign on the way up here
not too far away for a Davis Memorial Hospital. She said she took
note of it, wanting to prepare herself for all possibilities.

We pulled into the snow blanketed parking lot
and parked at the covered ambulance entrance to the emergency room
before the truck’s heater even had a chance to kick in. The sun was
just starting to rise behind us in the brightest red and orange
colors.

“I refuse to leave your side,” she said.

I nodded and smirked as if to say I wasn’t
going to let her even if she tried.

When the officer, sitting at the small
security desk next to a sign that read ‘ER Admittance’, eyes bulged
from his head I knew we must have looked something frightful. I
couldn’t imagine what we looked like to him, both of us smothered
in a sheet of dried blood.

“What happened to you two!” He screamed. His
eyes went to my arm. “Hyacinth! Hyacinth! Get a gurney in here!
We’ve got a gunshot wound! Smithy get me a wheelchair too!”

A nurse ran to us and asked if there was
anything else wrong that we weren’t able to see and I shook my
head.

    “Yesterday he had his jaw
broken by the guy who did this to us and can barely speak,” she
said through tears.
    “Oh my God,” the nurse said, crossing
himself.

Hyacinth helped me onto a gurney and the
nurse I assume was named Smithy helped Jules into the
wheelchair.

    “I can’t leave his side,”
she said looking up at Smithy.
    “I’m sorry sweetheart but he needs to be
examined quickly and will probably be heading to surgery soon. You
can’t go with him.”

She stood and firmly, but calmly repeated
what she had said, “I told you, I can’t leave his side. You don’t
know what we’ve been through,” her voice cracked.

He looked down at us and didn’t argue with
her. Jules grabbed my hand and I felt our current’s relief. It made
me feel sleepy it was so soothing and thrummed through my muscles
and bones. The loss of blood just exacerbated the sensation.

As they examined my wound, I saw two doctors
look at Jules’ head. They suspected a mild concussion but nothing
major. They asked her to stand but she said she didn’t think she’d
be able to. When they asked her why, she said that he had sliced
the bottom of her feet so she couldn’t run and I almost lost my
cool wishing I had gone ahead and hit him with the bat and cracked
open his skull.

I felt awful. I noticed her limping in the
snow on the way to my truck but I thought it was in attempt to help
me. It made me feel like I was the worst person in the world. I had
nothing but a small bullet wound in some muscle. I didn’t have to
walk on my wounds. I almost got sick imagining the pain she must
have felt with every step she took and my heavy body leaning
against hers.

The doctor pulled Jules’ shirt back slightly
to look at the ‘E’ carved into her chest and murmured to the nurse
beside him that he’d need to put several stitches there as well.
When the nurse named Hyacinth, saw the ‘E’ she forced a gasp back
into her throat. I saw the doctor’s eyes widen at the extent of
cruelty once he left the room, probably to regain the composure
that was leaking from his expression while examining her.