NERTHUS
As I turn around, I see Giulio already opening the car door for me as Danny groans.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” He cuts the air with his hand, making me turn back towards him. “You are dead to me!”
“Oh, Danny…” I sigh, crossing my arms on my chest.
“How can you treat me like this in front of my friends?!”
I lower my tone further, wanting to de-escalate the fight as everyone is already staring at us. “These people aren’t your friends, Danny!”
“You don’t know anything about me or them! Don’t act this bougie. You are not better than any of us,” he shouts, making me roll my eyes.
“Stop using these words! Nobody understands what it means!”
Our fight even gets Aleksei to step out of the car, lighting a cigarette while Giulio is leaning against it, observing us with a grin.
Danny points his finger at me. “Just you don’t know because you are old!”
“Ooooh, you didn’t!” I squint my eyes, taking a step towards him. “I will just act like I didn’t hear it. And you will get in the car, so we can go home.”
He shakes his head, lifting his hands. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”
I see Marcus stepping further down the steps to stand in the middle of the crowd, nearly tripping over his own feet as he watches us with a dull grin.
“Danny, please!” I say lowly, taking another step forward. “Let’s go home. I bought you the mini marshmallows that you like so much.”
“Just stay away from me, Amber! I don’t want to see you ever again!” He puts his hands over his head, letting them slump. “I hate you! Why are you like this?”
My heart sinks into my stomach, and I lower my head sadly as I take a few steps back instinctively.
A screeching wheelspin gets my attention, but I’m too slow to turn around as a stinging pain pierces my upper arm.
Covering my head with my hands instinctively, I can only hear the high-pitched whines of bullets hitting the car and the building with clattering and shattering sounds.
It all happens so fast that my mind doesn’t get to process the situation to understand what is happening. Screams fill the air as I see people going down because they are cowering or because they have been hit.
Hissing, I try to reach Danny who is already screaming my name. Looking up while clenching my arm, I spot him looking back at me wide-eyed.
“Get down!” he screams, just as the first bullet hits his shoulder, catapulting him backwards.
My blood-curdling scream fills the air as I see Danny being hit by several shots without even having the chance to cower.
His body slumps to the ground while being hit by several shots, and everything plays in front of my eyes in slow motion before he hits the ground with a sickening thud.
My mind blanks out completely, my survival instinct shutting down as I stumble forward, wanting to reach him.
But I don’t even get to take a full step as I’m grabbed from behind and thrown against the SUV. My air gets knocked out of my lungs at the impact, impeding me from screaming at another excruciating pain that passes through my shoulder.
My body reawakens slowly as my brain refocuses after the impact, making me feel the pain streaming from my arm. The slow motion lifts off my surroundings, getting time to move around me at a dizzying speed.
“No! No!” I scream, fighting against Aleksei’s hold as he shields me against the shots being fired by a car driving by.
His body weighs heavily on mine, holding me down against the blood-flooded pavement.
“Danny!” I try to call him, seeing his head turn from one side to the other as he continues to spit blood.
With another screech, the car is gone, leaving behind fear, desperation and death.
People cry and cough, as I manage to wiggle out from beneath Aleksei’s inanimate body and I stumble to Danny.
My hands tremble as I kneel down next to him, calling for him repeatedly. “Danny?! Danny!”
I touch his chest gently before searching my pockets frantically for my phone.
The men who were standing on the other side of the street reach the place of the massacre running, and I hear one of them cussing into the phone, reporting to someone in Italian.
My heart squeezes as I think it might be Arawn.
And I would need to hear his voice desperately right now.
I hear him talk about Danny and the others being shot, and how a redhead is leaning over him injured as well.
But that is not what we need!
We need a fucking ambulance!
Finally finding the damn thing in the pocket of my jacket, I dial with shaky hands.
“911, what is your emergency?”
“We have been shot at! It was a drive-by!” I yell, looking around to find Marcus on the step. I freeze for a moment as I stare at his dead body. He is lying on his back, his head nearly at the end of the stairs as his lifeless eyes stare into mine.
“Ma’am? Ma’am!” The dispatcher tears me out of my thoughts. “What is your location?”
I look around, panic strangling me. “I don’t know,” I sob. “We are in Hunts Point but I don’t know… Oh, my God. Please! He needs help! There is so much blood!”
“Ma’am, take a deep breath. I’m going to locate you. Everything is going to be alright. I’m sending units to your location. Please stay on the phone with me.”
Pushing out a shaky breath, I put on the speaker, leaning over Danny’s body. “They are going to be here in a minute, Danny. Everything is going to be alright. Just stay with me, okay?”
He chuckles, his voice painfully tremulous. “Serves me right.”
“No! No! No! Don’t say that! Just stay with me, baby!” I pull off my jacket and wrap my hand around the back of his neck to lift his head, putting my jacket beneath his head.
With another look, I see Giulio lying in a pool of blood. I feel someone reaching for me, but I slap around me, not wanting them to get me away from my Danny.
As they finally give up, I concentrate back on Danny as I suddenly hear sirens nearing. “You hear that, sweetie?! They are already here. Just keep breathing with me, okay?”
“Amber,” he pushes out, distorting his face.
“No, psst! It’s okay. You can tell me afterwards, okay?” I look around panicky, the ambulance and police seemingly taking forever to get to us.
“Amber,” he speaks again, grabbing my hand powerlessly. “I don’t hate you! Please forgive me!”
“I know that, baby! I know that! Don’t worry! Just stay with me!” I turn my hand in his, squeezing his with all my strength. “Stay with me!”
I feel his strength slip from him as his hand slackens in mine, just as the ambulance halts behind me, its siren stopping with one last loud wail.