finally. FINALLY. he figured out where she was ━ after almost an entire day. any longer, & she’d probably be dead. hell, she might even be dead now, for all abel knows. & he hates ━ oh yeah, he really loathes ━ how much he cares. if only he hadn’t been with her twenty-four-seven. if only she went away. but she didn’t, & now he’s stuck with these mixed feelings about her. mixed feelings, when he’d rather prefer no feelings about her.
he tries to keep his heavy breaths to a minimum. after all the sprinting he did to get here, the task proves itself difficult. silence is key now, & he’s glad he at least has lack of light on his side for once. the sky is pitch black, & so are most of his surroundings. but that fire casting dancing shadows across the lit-up trees is where he’s headed. the closer he gets, the slower he moves, crouching low with a dagger in a white-knuckled grip.
the second he sees her ━ makes direct eye contact ━ it sets him on edge. there’s a brief moment of relief, but his rage consumes it all, burning more intense than that fire in the middle of the small circle of tents. a finger is raised to his lips, telling her to be quiet. there’s only three guys. three fucking guys. & they’re so fucking dead. the first two go down quietly. one’s back is to abel, & the other is sleeping. it’s when he’s pushing his dagger into the peaceful sleeper’s skull that he’s noticed. a gunshot is fired in the struggle, but abel doesn’t think it hit him. then again, his adrenaline is making him feel invincible, maybe he wouldn’t even notice. still, the guy goes down, nice & quick. not as quick as the other two, but he was scrawny & young, didn’t even know how to properly carry that pistol.
then he’s rushing over to her, hands shaking as he comes down from that adrenaline high. sudden aches & pains present themselves, but they’re muted. his focus is on tatum ━ trying to sever the zip ties around her wrists with the now-blood-covered knife he brought, all while trying not to accidentally cut her wrist in the process. he has a lot to say, but the words won’t come out yet ━ maybe he’s afraid to ask what the hell they did to her.
@corpsc