Never Again.
rickfulneeds:
He nods, wary, anger plain on his face when he looks at the other. “Make i-it quick,” he demands with a sharp voice, not setting the girl down. She was not going to leave his arms until he got her to Ricardo. @thehighclassbadass
The sharp demanding tone didn’t phase him, he didn’t feel anything right now, just walking over carefully, and quietly, before pressing the back of his hand to her cheek softly. “…..It’ll be alright, you’re stronger than he is…” He held his hand there for a moment, before stepping away, not wanting to keep them any longer…
Summer flinches a little away from Able’s hand but falls still when she almost recognizes the kindness in it. The words are hard to understand. There are too many. Her mind is too broken to process the phrase… right now. She will, much later, understand the kindness in the gentle touch, the gentle words. And she will weep with gratitude for them.
She feels a strange sadness when he draws away, almost wishing she could go with him. But between the voice—and the acts of sheer love on behalf of Able and Leathers—she is snapped out of her stupor enough to feel the pain. Shot through the thigh. Shot in the shoulder, injured further by Reti’s group. The collar cutting into her neck. The rings, fused to her finger. Head broken by the Metatron.
Heart broken by her entire life.
Suddenly she turns her gaze from Able’s retreating form up to Leathers’ face. Her eyes are wild with tears of pure torment. Make it stop, Preacher. Please. Her hands cling tighter to his coat, face burying deeper into his shoulder, as though his scent itself holds the key to relieving the agony.
Ricardo! she wails in her mind, after five months of being separated from her grandfather, from the man who has experienced—firsthand—every single moment of her torture.
@rickfulneeds @vincitveritas
“Feel no pain.”
He murmurs the words softly in her ear, coaxing her mind into some state of rest. It hurts to see her like this, so broken and tormented and now – at least in some way – aware.
He stepped through the portal, heading straight to the Sanctuary where he knew Ricardo would be waiting for Summer with open arms.
It hurt to burn…
Sometimes, he wished that the Metatron would work on him as well.
@vincitveritas
Summer’s body relaxes, the pain relieved instantly, as commanded by Leathers’ voice. Without even the strength to hold it up, her head falls back over her uncle’s arm, exposing just a peek of the purple, spreading infection from the collar.
Her eyes are like glass over a dark, empty room.
They would not see life in them for a very long time.
@vincitveritas
The two don’t even need to make too many steps inside once they pass into the Sanctuary, the holy man already rushing over to them with an entourage of his Cardinals and Virtues.
He presses healing pecks to Leathers’ face, hurried and teary, before threading his arms under the burning man’s, to take his treasured girl into his own, holding her close to himself, letting blood and soot stain his pristine robes.
The man instructs the Angels and Cardinals to take Leathers into the healing facilities, promising his Cardinal of Courage that he will be there with him as soon as possible.
“Don’t you dare leave me again.” Comes his shaky order to the preacher.
Then he himself is gone with a whisper, with Summer in his arms, setting his mind to heal the infected wound around her neck, yet leaving the ribbon be, too aware of it’s weight on her neck.
@summersanchezlives @rickfulneeds
The smell of bonfire gives way to the scent of roses.
This is all she knows.