Derek summons strength and pushes Jake off him. He hits him with a hook to the ribs in the same spot as before, leaving Jake leaning into the pain on his left side. Derek seizes Jake’s downfall and throws another hook that lands on Jake’s cheek before punching him in the nose. Blood spills from the middle of his face, and I shriek in response.
“Stop!” I scream, pulling at my hair as pure hysteria takes over, but it’s as if my voice is part of the wind. No one pays me any mind.
Derek swings again, but this time, it lands aimlessly.
Jake stands taller, his eyes flickering with a dangerous glint as he resets to go again.
When Derek swings, Jake blocks it and shoves him. Derek falls back against the trunk of a car. Jake lunges forward, his hands never stopping as he sends hit after hit across Derek's bloodied face. They topple to the ground, Jake on top of Derek, fists flying furiously. After a few more blows, Derek’s body goes limp.
“Jake!” I yell, but he doesn’t hear me. “JAKE, STOP!” I scream louder, pulling at his arm from behind with all my might. It’s like I’m moving stone.
His head snaps back, his eyes landing on my fretful gaze, and he freezes, his breaths heavy and labored. The fury in his gaze softens, the furrow in his brow releases, and the tension in his shoulders begins to disperse.
He turns back to Derek, releasing a tense breath over his unconscious body.
He raises a knee as he lifts to stand. He walks over Derek’s body and stops right in front of me, his battered knuckles coming up to my cheek.
“Are you okay?” Tears sting my eyes, and my chest tightens at the sight of his bloodied face. His eyes pour into mine gingerly, before they move down my body and land on my already bruising wrist. “I’m sorry,” he breathes, the sound heavy with guilt. “I should’ve been there. I should’ve noticed you were gone sooner.” He gulps. “I’m so sorry, Allie.” His voice is laden with sorrow, and it rips my heart right out of my chest.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” My palm meets his cheek, and I force his eyes back up to mine. Adrenaline courses through me, no doubt still pulsing through him. His face is covered in blood and is swelling by the second. Sadness dims the light his hazel eyes usually hold, and there’s a heaviness in my chest. Remorse blankets me, penitence and shame colliding together with the realization of what I’ve done to him.
Sirens sound low in the distance, and the panic they cause snap me into a different fear. My eyes widen, and my hands come down on his chest.
“You have to go,” I say, my voice trembling from the reality of the last few minutes.
“No,” he replies, his hands at my elbows.
“Yes, Jake.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
The sirens grow louder in the distance.
“You have to run.Now! You have to go!”
“No.”
“Yes,” I beg. “Please!”
His gaze is glued to mine, completely unmoving. My hands are trembling, fear wrapping around my ribs. The sirens continue to blare in the background.
“Jake!”
“No.”
“Yes!” I yell, my voice cracking. “I’m not having another person I love get locked up because of me!”
His eyes narrow, lips parting at my desperate admission.
“Go!” I scream, knowing he has only seconds before they arrive. He drops his hands to his sides, taking a slow step backward before he turns and jogs into the night.
I stand there in the dark lot above a bloodied Derek, a crowd surrounding us while my heart thunders in my chest. The symphony of sirens grows louder with each ticking second, until everything around me is painted in blue and red.
It’s a scene I know far too well.
A scene I thought I left behind in a life far from here.
I guess you can’t outrun the darkness, after all.
