Can't Save Me

Grant

I felt the fire blooming in the left side of my abdomen as the bullet ripped all the way through me, smashing out one of the glass panels in my living room wall as it exited the front side of my body. I stumbled back a bit, catching myself on the edge of the island as I heard Madeline scream from upstairs.

I clutched at the wound just under my ribs, hesitating to even glance down. Blood was already pooling in my hands and running down my leg as I struggled to stay standing. I growled through the pain as I looked around, trying to find where the shot had come from, but the house was pitch black aside from the faint city lights glinting off the water outside.

As my steps staggered and I slumped against the island, Odin's steps thundered down the stairs; his teeth bared, nails scratching against the hardwood floor.

"No," I winced, sinking to the floor as my dog approached me in attack position. He was going to stand guard, I could tell from his body language, but that wasn't what I needed the most. "Go. Get help, Odin. Go."

Odin bobbed his head as if he was nodding at me and took off out the hole in the wall where the glass had collapsed. That dog and Snyder were the only reason I hadn't bled out during the grenade incident, and luckily for me, Snyder and my sister only lived a couple of blocks away. If they found Odin at their door, Snyder would know something was wrong.

"Maddie, no," I groaned as my hysterical girlfriend rushed down the stairs and crashed to her knees beside me. "You have to run. Get out of here."

"No!" Madeline shouted, tears streaming down her face. "No! I'm not leaving you!"

"Baby..." I pled, struggling to keep my head as the burning in my side amplified. "Baby, you have to go. Please. Go."

Maddie's head waved furiously from side to side. "No. No, I'm not leaving you here to die. I can't."

"I'm not..."

Madeline sprang up, practically leaping onto the counter to grab a hand towel before she crouched again at my side, pressing the wad of fabric against the open wound on my abdomen.

I sucked in a hiss of a breath, the contact hurting more than the wound itself. "Baby. Please. Go. Go get help."

"I called. They're on the way."

"Maddie, you need to run. Its not safe."

Maddie shook her head again, trying to swallow down the emotion that was consuming her. "I'm not leaving you here. I can't. I can't leave you here. I can't lose you."

"I'm okay. The bullet went straight through."

"You're bleeding!" Madeline sobbed, hysterically. "There's so much blood! Oh my god, Grant."

"Baby, I'll be okay. Please. Please get out of here. Snyder's house is..."

"Well, aren't you two just precious?"

I couldn't see the person speaking but I watched as Madeline's eyes widen in terror and her spine went rod straight. "Eva," she said on a gasp.

Madeline gingerly rose back to her feet and positioned herself between me and the woman slowly moving down the back hall. I caught a glimpse of her before Madeline crowded around me, her arms spread wide and angled backward as if she could shield me. If I was a lion, this was my lioness, no matter how much it killed me that she was willing to put herself in danger to protect me. I would gladly die if it meant keeping her safe, but her doing the same? I couldn't take it.

"Maddie..." I coughed.

"What do you want?" Madeline responded to Eva, backing up until her heels hit my shin laying against the floor.