He reached out as far as he could, bracing against the tiles. Straining with his other leg, he pulled hard.
He moved. Pushing hard, he half-rose into the air on his good leg. The ground dragged at his dead, heavy limb, igniting new fires in the wound. One foot. Another. And then he flopped back to the ground, his arms shaking.
“Keep going.”
“Damn it,” he whispered, scrunching up his face.
Again, he reached out. Again, he dragged himself forward, biting back a hiss at the resulting pain.
Over and over again. He tried not to look up, tried not to see how far he had yet to go or the streak of blood he had to be leaving across the floor. His arms shook. He’d never felt so weak in his life, as though the winds that screamed through Alexandria would tip him right over.
But he had to get there. Somehow. He didn’t know what would happen if he passed out here, inside the Library. Or if...if worse things happened.
He’d never found out what happened if someone died inside her walls, and he really, really didn’t want to.
Another drag. Another smear of red across the stone.
Something around him seemed to sigh, like a heaviness settled over the air. He grinned, eyes glued to the stonework in front of him. Stop being dramatic.
It became a sick sort of rhythm. Drag, pull. Pause to shudder. Wait for the pain to fade. Raise his arm again, and go for another drag. He poured himself into that, taking solace in the routine.
Until something broke the quiet. Footsteps. He didn’t hear them until he did, until whoever it was was right on top of him, barreling down like an avalanche. His spine stiffened. He wasn’t wearing his hood, or his mask. He was exposed. Again. He had to-
“Daniel!” he heard Leon cry, echoing from somewhere nearby. “Hey! Where- Where are you?”
Follow the blood, he willed, a twisted smile tugging at his lips. It wasn’t like he was hard to find. “H-Hey,” he croaked instead, sinking to the tile and rolling to his side. “I’m-”
Leon burst around the corner of the study, skidding to a stop as soon as his eyes landed on Daniel. “Fuck,” Daniel heard him whisper, his eyes going round. And then, more loudly, “A-Are you- Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Daniel mumbled. “It’s not- I’m fine. I just need to get to-”
Leon closed the distance between them, surging forward like a wall of terrified, indignant manflesh. Before Daniel could so much as twitch, his hands slid under Daniel’s armpits, hauling him upright.
Daniel bit down hard, shuddering as his leg protested. There was no way he’d let Leon see how much that maneuver had hurt. Not when his friend already looked about half a step shy of a total meltdown.
Leon sat back, then, but his hand lingered on Daniel’s shoulder. “Is it-”
“Same thing,” Daniel whispered. “Fucker shot me.” He jerked his leg to the side, reaching for the hem of his pants, but Leon pushed him back against the wall.
“Just sit.” Scooching away at last, Leon took the ankle of Daniel’s pant leg, slowly easing it back.
Again, Daniel cringed, gritting his teeth as the cuff pushed against the raw, sore flesh beneath. As Leon rolled his pant leg up, the pale skin beneath turned to red.
“Fucking hell,” he heard Leon mumble.
Daniel chuckled hollowly. “Got me good. D-Didn’t plan on still being hurt when I got here. Don’t know why.”
“Y-Yeah.” Leon’s eyes darted around the study. “Um. Well. I can wrap it in my shirt, maybe, and-”
“Alexandria has a first aid kit,” Daniel said, trying not to look at the sloppy mess of his leg. “In...In the sitting room. Probably. I-I was going to go get it.”
She’d left it in the sitting room before—but there was no reasons she had to. The thought sank straight through the murky depths of his mind like an anchor.
Alex could’ve woken him up right beside the kit. She could’ve opened a floor tile right beside him and put it within arm’s reach.
She didn’t. She’d left him stranded. She’d put him in the middle of a study, and left him to suffer.
And with that truth whispering in the back of his head, the worries he’d thought he’d put behind him reared their ugly heads once again.
Leon’s eyes lit up. “Got it. I can do that.” He rocked back onto his heels, starting to rise.
Lost in his thoughts, Daniel didn’t realize what he’d said, what he’d done, until it was too late. Leon would leave. He was going to head off, deeper into the Library—and leave him here, alone in the dark. In Alexandria. Bleeding.
Leon turned on his heel, springing upright. “I’ll be right-”
“W-Wait.” Daniel squirmed, hurling himself forward. He didn’t know what he was trying to do, not really. His injured leg only twitched, the ache sinking deeper. “Wait, I’ll- I’ll come with you. I’ll-”
Leon glanced back, his brow furrowing. For a moment, their eyes met.
Daniel could see all of it, then, straight through the endless blue. The confusion, right at the surface, laid over the fear. And then the confusion faded in an instant, leaving behind something Daniel couldn’t place at all.
Just as quickly as he’d started away, Leon whirled. And he started back toward Daniel.
All Daniel could do was stiffen, his back straightening. Leon’s arms wrapped around his shoulders in the next moment, squeezing with a strength that had never been so reassuring.
His temple pressed against Daniel’s. “I’ll come back,” Daniel heard him whisper. “I’m not leaving.”
Daniel shivered, feeling Leon’s hand settle around the back of his neck and draw him in closer. “But-”
“I won’t leave you alone here anymore.” With those final words, Leon drew back. His lips pressed against Daniel’s forehead, soft but firm.
And then Leon stumbled away, his face beet red, and spun to face the hallway. Unsteady at first, but picking up speed, he broke into a run.
Daniel watched him go, his mind totally blank.
