Page 107 of Point Proven
Shoes slapping against the ground, they echoed loudly in my ears, keeping in tempo with the blaring of my heartbeat.
No. No, no, no, no, no…
It was Lev’s office… his office that’d taken the brunt of the attack. It… It had to have been a bomb, the destruction too familiar to me to be anything else.
Oh, God, was he… was he…
My eyes watered from the ash as I rushed toward the rubble, not even caring if I burned. I needed to find him.
Coughing, I jumped over a fallen beam, heading in the direction I knew his office used to be. “Lev!” I screamed, inhaling lungfuls of tainted smoke. “Little… Little Fox!”
There was no answer as lights flickered from the half that wasn’t ruined, power sparking with various surges. It didn’t help that the fire was growing, flames catching onto any surface it could devour.
“Fuck,” I wheezed, resting my mouth and nose in the crook of my arm.
Blinking away the soot, I continued forward, ignoring the increasing heat with each footfall. Where were the fucking firefighters? Where were the fucking officers?
The destruction would’ve easily been heard, and God, I just needed him.
“Levander!Sweetheart, please!” I cried, scanning for anything that indicated his position.
I was right where his office used to be, and I could barely make out that cherrywine desk, now splintered across the ground like fucked-up foliage. Stepping over the threshold,a gut-wrenching scream greeted me, undoubtedly belonging to the man I was searching for.
Buried under a mixture of drywall and wood, his horrid shouts spurred me into action. Collapsing to my knees, I tore at the debris, not even caring if the pieces cut into my palms.
“I-I’m here, Lev!” Another cough agitated my voice. “I’m here!”
Biting back my emotions, his continued cries of anguish tore what little semblance of sanity I had left. A guttural wail left me as I tossed pieces away, some blazing with residual heat.
Screaming as it burned my palms, I flung them behind me, grabbing one after another despite the heat.
“M-Matt…” The usual strength was absent from his articulation, and a deep-seated fear replaced it, mixed with insurmountable anguish.
“Lev, hold on!” Voice breaking, the wreckage finally cleared, and what I witnessed made me want to vomit.
Lev… my precious… my preciouseverythingwas covered in splotches of red on his right side. His skin was melted along the upper portion of his arm, trailing upward to his neck. Clothes frayed, it exposed his right hip bone, and the blisters there were brutal.
The smell of burnt flesh reached me next, and I couldn’t help the tears that spilled onto my cheeks. “Oh… Oh, god… Lev… We… I need to get… get you to a hospital.”
And that was only the start of his injuries, various cuts seeping crimson, and I couldn’t even tell if anything was broken. Every inhale was shallow, worsening with each breath as I gazed at those dimming olive green irises.
What if his spine snapped? What if the burns are too severe? What if he is bleeding internally? What if… What if he bleeds to death? What if he dies?
“M-Matt…” he whimpered, his chest shuddering with the sign of slowed breathing. Lids fluttering, he struggled to keep his attention focused on me. “I-I wasn’t … strong enough for…”
Eyes slowly closing, his words faded.
“Lev?” Bringing my palm to his cheek, I brushed some of the soot away. “Hey, sweetheart, I’m right here. I made it.”
At his lack of response, everything stopped. The burn in my lungs, the pounding of my heart, the crackle of the fire—everything.
“No,” I breathed, glancing down at his unmoving figure. “No, no, no, no…No!”
Patting the side of his face, his head lolled to the side. The motion was so unnatural that my hand darted away, fingers trembling as the color… that vibrancy he carried began to vanish.
He wasn’t… He wasn’tbreathing.
An inhumane sound escaped my lips as my wails heightened, stealing oxygen with every shuddered inhale.
