Chapter 18: This is Not Goodbye...Not Just Yet
“We need to go help them,” Lavander stood up after her hip had finally been repaired. For a quick minute, she turned wobbly with a slight headache that caused her to fall from the ground. Battle cries and deaths still circulated the area with a distinct foul stench of blood arousing from outside.
Trevor struggled with his foot as the ache was still unbearable. Part of the bandages that was wrapped around it was soaked with red oozing blood. Tears were never his thing but for a moment without anesthesia, he had considered while holding it back. “Get me a wheelchair,” he whimpered out while trying not to move his foot.
Lavander nodded and ran out to the door without hesitation. There were rumbling, doors opening and even glass breaking before Lavander returned four minutes later with a steel wheelchair that looked fairly brand new except for the skid marks.
“Can you stand?” Lavander said.
“No,” he groaned with pain.
“We’ll work something out,” Lavander carefully levitated Trevor without trying to hurt him which was impossible to do, he sniveled and twitched even though the levitating process was slowly on progress. After a lot of cries in pain, Trevor was finally seated comfortably on the wheelchair.
They took the elevator even though the lights flickered inside. An elevator song was still surprisingly on play on their descent which somehow loosened the tension. The elevators opened and the gunshots and violent sounds of chainsaws were louder in the ground floor.
Nolan and Devin were still knocked down although Devin seemed to be slowly moving, meeting his conscious again. Lavander left Trevor for a minute at the same room and ran outside where finally the gods were on their side. The men in tuxedos seemed to be winning when no new Santhrose came in to play but the number of deaths were devastating as well, there were more than twenty that Lavander counted and the injured lay on the ruins of the fallen entrance. Those who were still alive where exhausted and seemed to be slowing down. Weapons were scarce as they became resourceful and took every last piece of instrument they can use to kill their enemies. Bryce was doing great but his eyes were still glowing with blue light which made Lavander think if t was really Bryce who was fighting or was he possessed with some sort of magic entity.
Thunders were still rolling in but no storms appeared even though the skies were heavily tinted. Nolan was on a middle of a blackout and yet another man seemed to have control with the phenomenon. On the middle, far away from Bryce was a scrawny man who looked old enough to retire in a few years with a suit that was torn and dashed with blood. He was gently controlling the lightning to different parts of the area that electrified the Santhrose in an ambush way. His face wasn’t clear just yet for he was far from Lavander but something about him was very familiar to her.
Another person intrigued Lavander, a girl on orange and red flames that shot rays of fire on her enemies was on the other side of the battlefield. It was the same girl Lavander saw on the elevator when she woke up from a two day comatose and the same one when Kiara froze time. Show stopper was what she is; her clothes didn’t even burn nor sizzle even under total inferno heat. The whole thing was hard to process with so many things happening on the same time so Lavander stopped thinking and focused.
The whole cemented floor of the parking lot was filled with cracks and soaked with water and blood. Lavander joined in giving out extreme psychic abilities of invisible barriers that toppled down on her enemies. Belle was nowhere to be found which made Lavander worry for she was another purple and she wasn’t ready to lose one at the same night as Enzo died.
The Santhrose seemed to had cease in number as those who tried to attack just ran off to different directions and that’s when the men in tuxedos declared their victory with shouts and rests on the cold wet floor. The first thing Lavander saw from the crowd was the scrawny retiring man who controlled the lighting staring at Bryce who stopped what he was doing and stood perfectly still while his eyes started to dim.
“Cooper,” she remembered him like the last time she saw him in the restaurant back when she first met Athena who worked there as a local waitress, then it made Lavander wonder where Athena and Faisal at the midst of their crisis. It had been a long day and she forgot that they were missing since the night Athena decided to go out for ramen and never returned.
“Bryce,” Lavander whispered on the top of her breath, she knelt down from exhaustion and tried to catch up with her breath. Standing up wasn’t an option just yet even though Bryce was only meters away.
Bryce eye’s shut off like a flick of a switch and fell to the ground with impact. “Get him out of here,” Cooper shouted and the girl on flames who was then extinguished ran unto him and with another ball of flame erupting from her body, they disappeared with no trace at all.
“No,” Lavander couldn’t even say the word, she stood up with a lot of effort and ran inside of the hospital with her hands on her head, almost toppling down when she made it to the room where Trevor was.
Lavander was sweating and panting while leaning on the wall. Belle was surprisingly inside of the room mending Devin who was already awake but a little daze.
“Everything fine back there?” Belle asked casually and sat on the floor like nothing happened outside.
“Yeah, we won. I think.” Lavander thought of and finally was able to stand up straight.
“I’m going to go now, you’re free to join me or stay here with those men in black,” Belle flexed her fingers and her thighs.
Nolan was talking during his blackout, something about his mother scaring of the bad guys, it made Belle chuckled.
“What’s the deal with those men in suits?” Lavander asked after Nolan fell silent once again.
Belle shrugged her shoulders and exhaled deeply and waited for a few seconds before she let it out. “It’s a complicated thing that I really don’t want to talk about so you can either go with me or stay here. I don’t care or whatsoever.”
“I don’t know? Devin?” Lavander asked Devin who was still staring at the same wall since he woke up.
“I’m fine with whatever,” he said and changed his stare to Lavander who was still thinking of the idea.
“Trevor?”
“I’ll just go wherever the group wants to go,”
Lavander made up a decision. “To tell you the truth, I don’t want to be here with those guys, especially with the guy whose last name is Cooper.” She brought out.
“Tell me about it,” Belle grunted and lay flat on the floor. “So we cool with the idea?”
“Yeah, we have a car,” Lavander said and looked at Devin, “we do have a car right?”
Devin stood up and peeked outside of the window. “Still there,”
A group of people started to pass by the hallway. The patients and the medical professionals were shaken and terrified that shown in the emotions of their faces. All of them were huddled in big groups as they walked slowly towards the destroyed main entrance.
“I think that’s our cue,” Belle suggested and all of those able to, stood up. Lavander took Trevor’s wheelchair and wheeled him around while Devin carried Nolan with one hand. They blended in nicely with the crowd walking toward the entrance, their goal was the fire exit just by the right side of the hospital. From afar, Cooper’s voice echoed in the distance telling everyone that everything was going to be okay. The men in tuxedos stopped them from seeing the horrors of the parking lot and made them stay inside while barricading the entrance.
“Wait here,” they stopped by Enzo’s room where Devin took a bag pack on one of the drawers and handed it to Trevor, it was light and green which made it easy for Trevor to carry on his lap without feeling any pain. Lavander walked to the room and touched Enzo’s palm that turned stiff and cold after it was left there.
Lavander knelt down and whispered closely to Enzo’s ear. “This is not goodbye,” she said and closed her eyes, “not just yet.” A tear ran across her cheeks right before exiting the room and taking one final glimpse of Enzo. Belle patted Lavander’s shoulder which didn’t make things any better.
They easily escaped the crowd and walked towards the empty hallway leading up to the fire exit. The side parking lot was abandoned, a few dead bodies but wasn’t as much in the front parking area. The SUV they went to had scratch marks and bumps on the sides but worked perfectly when Devin tried to pump up the engine.
Trevor didn’t yelp nor scream when they tried to move him from his wheelchair and into the back seat of the car, he went on biting his lip throughout the whole process.
Lavander sat nicely at the in between Trevor, and Nolan who was still on a blackout while Belle sat in the front seat of the car.
Devin drove slowly with the headlights off to remove attention away from them. Dead bodies were everywhere which was a devastating view to watch. Men in tuxedos gave their salutations to their fallen companions, some stood perfectly still as they send their prayers while others completely broke down and into their knees. Lavander never knew how much damage them being a purple cost but Trevor said that it was something bigger so it wasn’t just them to blame.
After making it away in a safe distance, Devin drove in a faster speed as helicopters roamed the night skies, none paid attention to their SUV and it was a huge relief to them.
Ten miles away from the hospital building and they could finally say that their off the hook. Lavander looked away and stared outside where the lights and busy streets took most of her problems away. She hummed a little song into her mind and fell asleep from exhaustion.
Enzo was there on her dreams, happy as he could be. He stood in a field full of violet tulips where he wore a buttoned-down shirt that looked very formal. “This is not goodbye,” he whispered in the winds where it echoed with the feeling of honey and milk flowing in Lavander’s ears.
“Not just yet,” Lavander’s voice echoed and everything else turned black.