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The Bloodbath
Oct 7, 2014 15:10:48 GMT -5
Post by [nyte] on Oct 7, 2014 15:10:48 GMT -5
B A R N A B A S S T R O U D
He hadn't felt it. Standing over the girl with whose ear he had just severed, whose stomach he had just mutilated. He hadn't felt the tears rolling down his cheeks, the sobs bursting from his chest in silent heaves as he stumbled away from the victim. Nor did he feel his fingers turn as cold as Asa's. A cold sweat collected upon his cheeks, stumbling backwards with a stunned gasp. Strength, confidence and apathy left him in one gentle cry, letting his body relax against the smooth black Cornucopia. Every part of his body ached, his hands shook with the sheer pain. When the girl's raspy breaths no longer remained in his head, Barnabas knew she was dead. Without a doubt blood having left her by the gallon after the wounds they had so mercilessly inflicted. Two souls rested upon their heads and Barnabas could scarcely remember their names.
His tears were not shed only for himself. In fact, they held the weight of worlds now. Barnabas cried for Asa, and Pearl and Patricia and the faces he would see in the sky tonight. For the faces he had put in the sky tonight. The grief was so potent that it burned, escaping him in heavy sobs. The cornucopia's light was already fainted, he could make out hide nor hair of the others. Not even Asa's strong shoulders or Pearl's golden locks. He couldn't see much of anything now, in fact. It was as though all his eyes wanted was to close, ten thousand pounds pulling them down. Even as he fought the creeping lethargy, black stars flashed in front of his eyes, threatening to overwhelm his consciousness at any second.
He hadn't felt it. Not for a long, long time.
His hands were stained with dried blood, his shirt still wet with the girls. Picking at the wet cloth mindlessly, focusing more on the light of the Cornucopia instead of the black webs now taking residence in the corners of his eyes. He felt it now, the deep throbbing within his abdomen. The slight stinging every time his hand crossed his paling skin. The wet blood on his shirt was not the girl's.
And then she appeared. A shadow within the deep black, a sword pointed at his throat and a cold glint within her eyes. In that moment, Barnabas knew he was going to die. The soldier should have died peacefully, releasing the burden that he was from the shoulders of the others. There was a horrified expression upon the boy's face as he looked up from his blood-soaked shirt to his killer. There were no such things as defining pictures in the pure black they were headed for. His eyes were far to heavy to make anyone out in the dying light.
"Asa!" He called out for his friend, a raspy whisper escaping his blood-stained lips. It disgusted him that the blood was not his own. Barnabas couldn't leave his friends, not yet. His stomach throbbed but his fingers dug through his pack, desperate to find some supplies to help himself, to keep going so as to protect his friends. The pain was like nothing he'd ever experienced, his skin separating as he breathed. He hadn't felt it for so long.
He hadn't felt it because he was too busy wounding another worse than even this. How old were they? What were their names? Barnabas had memorized them all but in this place it felt like no one had a face save he and Asa and Pearl. And his face was now that of a monster. His killer's sword was much like his own, a yellowing white sharpened to a deadly point. Please, Asa. The boy closed his eyes, praying his friend got there in time.
Words he could not hear over his own breath rung through the Cornucopia, death's rattle sounding as his killer surely advanced. Yet their touch is gentle, that of love and care. "Asa?" he blinked heavily, the fog slowly dissipating as the strong boy came into focus. His voice reminded him of blue skies and a setting sun, when they'd sat on the balcony and the Career had asked him to ally. What have you done to yourself? Barnabas wished he could give him an answer.
"I think..."Ripred, talking took so much out of him."I think someone managed to.... in the.... thick of things." The bloodbath was over, two bodies dead by their hands and who knew how many more. It stings when Asa pulls the cloth from his wound. To see an angry red gash upon his stomach was no surprise, the blood bothering him little as Asa's hands moved skillfully across his abdomen. Pride swells within him, despite the situation he was now in, to see healing instead of destruction.
Barnabas' heart pounded as it worked to replenish the blood he had lost and after a few long moments of silence, he could breathe easy once again. While the pain still burned something awful, he looked in his bag once again, pulling a few of his own supplies from it. A grimace worked its way onto his features as he dressed his own wound, the sheer pain enough to send him into unconsciousness had he not been careful.
Soon enough, it was over. He had to be strong, they had to find Pearl, and Patricia, wherever they may be.
"Thank you." the words were steady, and with some effort he pushed himself into a sitting position, leaning heavily on the career. His tears and sorrow were behind him, but far from forgotten as he rested a heavy head on Asa's shoulder. "I'm sorry for scaring you, I didn't know what else to do." He tried his hardest to shrug off the injuries, not wanting to make himself any more of a spectacle than he already head. Barnabas hated to be the center of attention, wishing that it were possible to fade into the darkness around him.
"Have we found them yet?" his eyes were closed, feeling completely safe in Asa's company "The others?"
Oh how tired the little soldier was.
[uses f/a on himself for -3]
[M:2982250]
