Messy Ch. 23

Then I'd ease up on her neck, and she'd raise her head to kiss me with trembling lips, and then we'd do it again.

My release was long delayed by our previous activities, and the knowledge that I'd endured through several of the powerful climaxes I'd inflicted upon her filled me with an egotistical lust. Eventually though I was forced from the snug grip of her wet heat, and I'd barely reached down before I erupted, spraying her golden brown skin with semen, my cum splashing over sensitive, recently bared skin.

I shuddered as the pulses of pleasure coursed through me, and Tori held my eyes the entire time, smiling softly as she watched me twitch.

We didn't even bother cleaning up. We just collapsed together on the bed, Tori rolling to splay across my left side, her skin still wet with spunk. We didn't speak for a long time, just lay there and sucked in air, cooled down as overheated muscles and overexcited brains tried to calm. Tori eventually raised her head to look at me. "You know this doesn't change anything, right? They're still dead, and we're still hiding out, waiting for the police to find the people that want to kill us." I nodded. "Yeah, I didn't think us having sex was going to solve the world's problems. I mean, we're good at it, but not THAT good..."

Tori giggled and it sounded sweeter than the finest symphony. "So why are we in bed then?"

"Cuz you said you weren't beautiful, and I wanted to show you how beautiful I think you are. And... And I wanted to show you how much I care for you."

The mirth left her face and she looked at me, searched my eyes for a long while. Finally she lowered her head to my shoulder and have me a peck on the cheek. "Goodnight, Gary."

We didn't sleep in shifts that night, and the house didn't blow up, no assassins came to end our lives. And when I awoke with Tori's head on my chest and her glossy black hair splayed all over my skin my heart swelled to bursting with joy. I had no cares about missed watch or violence outside the cabin. Everything was RIGHT.

I shifted out from under my sleeping neighbor and dressed quietly, headed into the kitchen to make breakfast. Outside the patio doors, the sun was hidden under a gray and cloudy sky, rain drizzling down in a way I could only describe as melancholy.

I made eggs and bacon, and I looked back into the dining room in surprise when I heard the clomp of boots. Tori was sitting at the table, already dressed for the day, tying on her boots.

"Morning, sleepyhead," I said with a smile. Then "Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't wake me, that fantastic smell did." Tori sniffed the air, finished tying her boots, and unholstered her gun, checking the chamber and mag before tucking it away again.

"Well then, I'm not sorry after all." I plated the food and set it before her, then served myself and sat down across the table.

"What are our plans for today?"

I thought about it. "We didn't grab much food, so we'll need to drive into town at some point. I'd like to call Deirdre while we're there, see if there's any news."

"It's only been a day."

"I know."

We ate in silence after that, Tori pushing her eggs around her plate. Finally, she looked up. "Last night was nice. Fun. But... Its gonna be a while before things are back to normal. If ever. I...I need to wrap my head around some stuff, and I need to know that you won't push me too hard, ok?"

I reached out and took her hand. "I'll always be here for you. If you need anything, you let me know immediately."

"Right now I just need space. And occasionally, someone to drag me back to the world of the living. And more occasionally than that, for someone... For you... To pin me down and, well, you know..."

"Count on it."

I finished eating while Tori went to watch one of my father's many action movies in the living room, and then I washed and dried the dishes. It was nice doing something so domestic, in such a stressful atmosphere. Though to be honest, after last night, I wasn't too stressed.

Tori had been missing from my life, and now there were glimmers she might be coming back.

I smiled at the thought.

Dammit, that felt good.

I heard gunfire, strangely loud for a movie in another room. "Whatcha watching?" I called to Tori.

The patio glass exploded across the table and floor, and I dropped to the floor, digging the Glock out of my waistband.

The gunfire was louder now, closer, and I heard Tori swearing in the other room as glass tinkled to the carpet and bullets blasted holes in the drywall. A flaming glass bottle rotated lazily end over end through the empty frame of the patio door and exploded on the dining room table, a flood of burning liquid sweeping over the wood, the flames instantly consuming the tablecloth and licking up hungrily from the surface.

And the gunfire continued.

My mind was blank. I'd learned how to run and shoot, to shoot large animals serenely from a distance. Nothing had prepared me for a fucking SIEGE.

I clenched my jaw until my teeth hurt, inhaled deep and hard. This was it. This was the end. Time to move.

DAMMIT.

I leaned against torn guardrail of The Curve, trying to put the last hour behind me. Trying to ignore my pain and worry.

Trying to hang on to consciousness and sanity and emotional control.

It was fucking nearly impossible.

We'd barely escaped the burning house in a running gunfight, stolen one of their cars, and tried - tried - to find help. They'd run us off the road at The Curve...well... It'd partly been my fault when a rifle bullet found my arm. Tori had stopped the bleeding with Deirdre's tourniquet. I couldn't look at the injury, if I did, I'd puke. The pain radiating out from it was enough to make me want to curl up in the asphalt and cry, but I gritted my teeth, clenched my one good fist, and hung on.

For Tori.

Wounded in the leg in the shootout at The Curve, she'd wrapped her belt around her thigh to cut off the bleeding, and now she hobbled around the horrific mess of bodies and vehicles, swearing like a sailor. She limped back to me, and her skin seemed grayish.

"No keys, they musta tossed them. No phones either. Fuck! What now?"

"We walk. Someone had to have heard. There's gotta be a farm around here somewhere." I put my good arm around her, and the feeling of Tori against me felt so GOOD I wanted to cry.

We walked.

The rain stopped completely, and the clouds slowly blew away, opening up brilliant blue through the arch of dripping trees above us. Sunlight turned the green to pale gold, casting shifting shadows on the pavement. On any other day, this would be a beautiful walk. Today... Today it was not. It felt like we were stuck in a snow globe, stumbling painfully forward forever.

My body was wracked with pain, and my mind was so blurred with awful sensation and the horror of the day that the only thing pushing through the haze was the suffering I felt at Tori being wounded. She was struggling, staggering, one foot dragging as she held onto my shirt.

My fear for her was realized soon. "G - g - going d - " she slurred, and I felt her grip loosen on my shirt. I turned against her as she fell and I knelt, holding her up, my dangling arm brushing the pavement and crystal clear pain cut through the haze.

She lay back on the road looking up at me confusedly, tiredly, and the first thing I noticed was the blood in her jeans was moving. She was still bleeding, heavily.

She would die, and soon, if that didn't stop.

Dammit.

Tears came to my eyes as I knelt over my best friend, this woman who'd crazily shared my life with me, who'd saved my life multiple times. The ugly unfairness of her death tore something inside me.

No. Fuck no.

Not fucking happening.

I wasn't going to lose everyone I -

I pulled off my belt, looped it, and looking over, pulled the loop up my wounded arm. The pain didn't matter. Dying didn't matter. Saving Tori did.

With the leather looped tight around my bicep, I pulled it tighter with my teeth and tucked the tail under my armpit, then reached over and undid the windless on the tourniquet. Blood started to leak out as I loosened it.

I pulled the nylon strap off my arm and forced it up Tori's leg past the bullet hole, cranking it down.

The pain brought her out of her stupor, and she looked up at me more clearly, her golden brown skin ashen. "No, don't do that, you need it."

"Done. Shut up, save your strength." I reached down and grabbed her arm, turned and dragged her up and over my back, sheer will standing in for flagging strength as I shouldered her in a fireman carry.

"You're gonna bleed to death, Gary."

"But you won't. Not while I'm alive."

Step. Step. Step. I carried her, concentrating on every footstep on the sun-and-shadow-dappled pavement.

"You don't need to do this. You don't need to carry me."

"Yeah, I do." I coughed. Forced my vocal chords to move with an effort greater than every lift of my feet. "I love you."

I heard a weird sound, felt her shift. It was her chuckling. "Fuck you Sienna. No, you don't."

That hurt worse than my arm. "No?"

"You know we're gonna die and you're not strong enough to live with the choices you made."

"Fuck you too."

Step. Step.

"You could've said that at any point in the last four years, and you choose to say it now, when it literally doesn't matter? I don't believe you."

"I realized it this spring. You don't need to believe me. I'm showing you. I love you."

Step. Step.

I realized eventually that Tori had gone limp on my back. My arm was still bleeding, a trail down the country road behind us. I had no idea how far we'd walked but it seemed like forever. Dozens of miles. Maybe it had only been a few feet.

My mind was fuzzing over, growing numb , and I concentrated on my feet, one in front of the other. Pain was receding, weakness taking its place.

Step. Step.

My legs buckled and I dropped to one knee, let Tori slide off my back, and I couldn't find the strength to stand up again. I let myself sink to the ground, lay back.

So tired. So cold.

I concentrated all my will on my left hand, fluttered my fingers and found Tori's. Squeezed. Impossibly, I felt a gentle squeeze back. I smiled. That was good.

I sighed and stared up at the blue sky behind the shifting sunlit trees. Felt a gentle mist of rain blow down in the soft, warm wind.

This was ok.

I'd done good. What was it Tori had said last night? Good trade?

My friends had been avenged. My death was a firebreak keeping the evil of Nina's family's beliefs from spreading, hurting anyone else. Sienna was safe and would continue to be so, no longer a target because of me. My best friend, the woman I loved, would live a while longer - maybe long enough for a car to happen upon her on these deserted country roads and get her help.

At least she'd live longer than me.

I smiled.

Not a bad way to go. I didn't want to die, but I was so numb, so foggy, I could accept it.

Before my fading strength robbed me of my ability to do so, I shut my eyes. I wanted to look up into that brilliant forest sky above me until I faded away, but it seemed like closing them was right thing to do.

Damm

***

"You can love more than one person at the same time...Humans are messy"

- Darkness Take My Hand, by Dennis Lehane