Work Text:
These wounds won't seem to heal, This pain is just too real, There's just too much that time cannot erase
by Keyla Sheppard
These wounds won't seem to heal, This pain is just too real, There's just too much that time cannot erase
We fought down to the last second, down to the last breath. I see her blood. It's pooling at her head. I'm crying for her. She was the sister I never had, the sibling I never thought I'd like. The one that got on my nerves, the one that bugged the hell out of me. She's lying there now... at my feet she's there. Her eyes are still open for the entire world to see, but there is nothing behind them anymore.
****
That bastard. He didn't get close. I can feel him on my face, laughing in it. Making a joke out of killing one of my people. I've killed so many of his own people but he doesn't even care. The gun I pointed up at him out of practice, out of need to protect the person I cannot protect anymore. She died because I didn't do something I should have done long ago when we first met. Now she's not coming back.
****
She's gone now; all that remains to remind us is the pool of blood that is slowly seeping into the small cracks of the concrete. This wasn't how it was suppose to happen. I was supposed to die first, die before my little sister. Show her all I knew before anything ended. I was supposed to be there to protect her, save her from the evils that were out there.
****
Maybe driving us home wasn't a good idea but I don't care. Tony needed to be with someone but not someone who didn't understand. Didn't see what he saw. I was there with him. I saw the hole in her head just as plain as the blood on his face. I turned to try to get him, try to kill him even though I knew he was too far away. Now I sit in a car, driving, god knows where... just away from there.
****
Why did I have to joke with her, push her down and insult her? I could have been nicer, could have been a better friend. She cried in my arms when she lost another guy. She came to me when I was in the hospital, kept me up to date like no one else I know would have.
*"No yoga tomorrow?"*
I can't believe I said that. She had just gotten shot and I joked. She laughed, she was laughing up to the point that that bullet dug into her brain.
****
He's crying. I'm sure he doesn't realize it, doesn't realize that it's wiping her blood off his face. Streaking it down his cheeks and down his chin. He doesn't see me watching him, doesn't see me wiping away my own tears that I won't let fall, not yet. She was under my command; I should have been protecting her. One push, one to the right and I would be the one on the slab now... not her. She didn't deserve to die; she had so much life left to live.
****
He's watching me again, I can feel his eyes as they boar into my back. I don't think he knows I can feel him. I don't care right now. I can smell her all around me. Her perfume and her sweat are blending together to create a smell that is only hers. I can hear her laughter at my jokes, her comebacks and her hand on my arm as I had lain in the hospital bed that held no comfort. She's around me and there is nothing I can do to shake her. But I'm not sure I want her to leave. At least like this I can still believe she's near.
****
She was in this car last, her last car ride alive. I had forgotten. But now the smell of her is seeping up to the front of the car. I can't let her go, her spirit is still here. I don't turn on the vents or roll down the windows. I can't let her out of the car. I won't loose her.
****
The car stopped, I don't know where we are and I don't really care. The little food I had is coming up. I can feel it building in my throat. I grab the door and handle and jump out of the car, slamming the door shut behind me making sure her smell won't disappear. I run to the trees, hand on one trunk and the food comes out. I can't stand up, not any longer. It's too much to bear. I can't deal. My knees buckle, but I don't fall down.
****
He bolted; I thought he was going to walk away from me, away from my body, or maybe away from her smell. But no, he's leaning on a tree. I run to him and hold him up, pulling him away from the pile of food that he had just planted under a tree. I need this. I need to make sure he'll be ok. I need to protect the one that's left.
****
He's holding me now; my nose is stuffed in his neck. He smells so much like sawdust. I let his smell engulf me. I don't want to loose the smell of her but I have to get her out of my head, forget the last time I saw her.
*"I thought I'd die before I heard that."*
She joked with me until her last breath was taken. Laughed with me, and I laughed with her. We loved each other. She was my sister, the one I never wanted to loose.
****
His arms are wrapping tightly around me, I can't really breathe but that doesn't matter, not after what I saw. I need to protect him and with him here with me, clinging I know that he's here, I know he won't run off and I know I won't loose him.
****
"I'll keep you safe."
I heard him, he's here for me, and I can't take it any more. I sob and realize I've been crying for a while now, my throat is tight and sobs can't be trapped any more. I don't know what I can do now... she's gone.
****
"Kate's gone."
He's crying again and now I am too. He's right, she's gone, left this world sooner than she should have. Killed by someone I had had a chance to kill but didn't. But I can protect this one; I can protect the one I care about. I can protect the one that loved her just as much as I did. I'll protect him from the same fate as Kate had if it is the last thing I do. He'll be safe here with me. He's not going home alone again.
The End