The Amour series (Book 1): The Embers of Amour

by LaRue, Coushatta

  Abby threw her body at him, and he smashed into the railing. He looked very confused as he gazed up at her with a bloody face. Abby backed up and saw Matt shaking. He put his hands over his stomach then back over his nose. She stared at him blankly. She felt so numb. She just wanted everything to stop. She just wanted to sleep and wake up in a nice warm bed with a healthy plump body again. She just wanted to survive.

  “Abby!” Evan shrieked from behind her. She heard the click of a gun being taken off its safety, and Abby let her body drop to the floor like a rag doll. The gun went off as soon as she did. She felt the bullet pass by her left arm and heard it slam into Matt’s gut. She heard it enter his stomach and watched him fall backwards over the railing. He landed with a loud thud.

  Abby looked backwards. The Priest was standing over her, shaking. He had a gun in his hand and a crazed look in his eyes. The world around her slowed again, and everything seemed to be going back to normal. She felt pain in her body and fear in her mind.

  “What are you?” The Priest demanded to know. Abby did not speak; she just looked down at Evan sadly. Evan stared at her in disbelief. The Priest walked towards Abby with his stick scraping on the floor. He mumbled something, and she saw Evan finally stand. The Priest had the gun in Abby’s face as Evan walked up behind him.

  “Go to hell.” Abby cursed.

  The Priest opened his mouth and closed it and then opened it again to snap back, “God forgives me for my sins. He understands what I do is needed.”

  Abby laughed, and the Priest stepped back. She guessed he had never seen anyone not scared of his words. He backed into Evan, and he looked backwards with such fear. Abby hurried and stood up on both feet, panting loudly.

  Abby grabbed the gun quickly and easily. The Priest swung his stick at Abby, but Evan grabbed it then shoved the Priest forward. Abby moved out of the way, so he would slam against the railing. Evan stepped up beside Abby and looked at her in relief. She gave him a forlorn look as she stared at the deep gash in his face. She turned towards the Priest and pointed the gun at him.

  “God will never forgive you,” Evan said clutching his fist shut, “He’ll burn you and all of your friends.” Abby looked at the woman who was still twitching on the floor. The Priest spat at Evan’s feet.

  “I had to do this! Don’t you understand?” The Priest tried to reason with them, “God told me this was what I had to do!”

  Evan moved forward fast, and Abby grabbed him softly. Evan looked backward at her as she shook her head in disapproval. He was a man of God, and she would not let him do something that he would feel horrible about later. She knew this man deserved death, but she did not want Evan doing something that may be against his beliefs and that he may regret later on. He looked down understanding and stepped back. Abby walked forward and pointed the gun at the Priest. The Priest looked like a deer in headlights.

  She did not say anything as the man dropped to his knees. When he looked at Abby with those sick gray eyes, she did not even blink as she pulled the trigger. His body lunged backwards and broke through the railing. He fell down towards the first floor. Abby felt a huge weight lift off of her, and she felt dizzy. The darkness in her veins was disappearing, and she was gasping for air. She started to fall forward as Evan caught her. The gun slid from her hands and onto the floor.

  She started to sob, and her body began to violently shake. He pulled her toward the cooking pot, and she started to throw up what little she had in her stomach. Evan sat down on the floor and held her as she sobbed, threw up again, and coughed violently. She was breathing heavily now and felt as if she were not getting enough air. Evan turned her around, so he could look at her, and he placed a hand onto her cheek. His hand felt so hot, and she felt so cold. She was sure she was going to pass out.

  “It is okay, Abby,” He said softly. He brushed tears from her bloody face. He grabbed something behind her and started to wipe her face gently. It was a rag, and it felt good on her cold cheeks. She was not able to cry any longer. She felt so tired and drained now. Evan wiped her mouth and smiled down at her.

  He had a small knife in his hands and cut her hands free finally. She had forgotten they were even tied. She had deep red marks around her wrist. He rubbed them gently. She looked up at his eyes and realized just how kind they were. She saw the deep cuts on his face, and she tried to reach upwards.

  “No it is okay, Abby. You need to rest,” he told her as held her in his arms. She forced herself to move upwards and to sit next to him. She looked at his cuts, and he closed his eyes.

  “How bad?” He asked calmly.

  She gritted her teeth and told him, “We need to stitch it up.” She told him.

  Her hands were shaking as they gently touched his cheek. She looked down at his chest and saw the cut on his side. It was deep too and needed stitches too. She looked around towards the medical supplies.

  “Wait I saw that man stab you too.” He pulled Abby’s shirt up halfway to look for the cut but then twisted his expression in confusion when he did not see anything. He touched a strange swollen, bumpy scar on her side and looked closely at it. Abby glanced down at it and touched it too. It hurt and felt gooey. It was where the man had stabbed her. However, it was already healing.

  “How is that possible?” Evan asked her gazing.

  She replied dryly, “I stopped trying to make sense of it.”

  He looked at the scar in disbelief and then let go of her shirt and stared around with an empty expression. She was just as confused as he was about it.

  “Can you boil some water?” Abby asked him. Evan looked at the caldron and grimaced. She pointed at all the kitchenware things to his left, and he slowly got up.

  Abby gazed at the medical supplies and stood up, wobbling. It felt strange walking on her left leg after not walking on it for some time. It tingled when she touched the floor with her left foot, and her wound was very sore. She limped a little and knew that it was permitted. She walked closer to the medical supplies when she heard Evan say something.

  She glanced back, raising an eyebrow; and he was gaping at her.

  “You’re walking!” He shouted happily. She looked down at her shaking legs and back at him, softly smiling.

  “I call it waddling, but it is a start.” She replied kindly. He grinned before going back to searching for a pot. Abby turned back towards the medical supplies and almost fell forward when she got to it. She grunted as she tried to kneel down. She fell onto her butt and moaned in pain.

  She felt so lightheaded and out of it. She needed to eat and rest, but Evan needed attention before he lost too much blood. She dug around, finding many different kinds of medical drugs, and medical tools she had never heard of before. She found a bag nearby and filled it with what she thought she needed. She grabbed some gauze, peroxide, alcohol, pain meds, and some antibiotic ointment. She dug around until she found a strange silver box, and she opened it. Inside the box were stitching’s in tiny clear bags. She looked around more until she found another counter with needles. She hoped it was all she needed.

  She started back towards Evan when she stopped by the clothing pile and found some more rags. She grabbed a few and stumbled towards Evan. The world spun for a moment. Evan was sitting by the fire, removing the caldron, and placing it away from them. He hung a new pot over the small fire and took a bottle of water from a case near the fire. He poured the water in the pot. Abby sat next to him.

  “You okay?” Evan asked reaching for her.

  She nodded and lied, “Yes.”

  She took in a deep breath, trying to ignore the spinning in her head and the knots in her stomach. She put the rags close to Evan and then dipped a rag into the boiling water and handed it to him and did the same for herself. She washed the blood from the rest of her face and hands while he dabbed at his face wincing. Tears filled his eyes, and she softly took the rag from him. He gave her a sad look as she started to clean the blood from his face. She stared at the deepness of it and pressed her
lips together.

  She felt upset and just wanted to cry again.

  “You did the right thing.” Evan told her with a hushed voice.

  Abby dabbed at the deepest part of his cut as he closed his eyes, groaning in pain.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” She choked.

  “Sometimes we have to do what we don’t want to in order to do what is right.” He uttered as he moaned in pain. She stopped wiping his wound and stared at him. She repeated the words in her head and reached for the necklace around her neck and chewed her bottom lip. She put the rag down and looked at the stitches.

  “I felt nothing. I just wanted them to stop… I just lost it,” She shook and sniffled. She wanted to sleep. She felt a warm hand on her cold skin and saw Evan’s hand on her arm. He was giving her an empathic look.

  Evan gazed at her with concern. “I don’t judge you.

  Abby was not sure of which size of stitch to pick, so she picked the medium sized one. Then she took a needle from the other box and placed the two next to each other. She grabbed the alcohol and poured it on a rag.

  She went to put it on his face; but Evan grabbed her arm, glaring at her. She narrowed her eyes and said, “This will clean it.”

  “It will burn like hell,” He snapped back.

  “This will be nothing compared to the stitching.” She jibed at him

  She handed him a clean rag, and he knew why without her saying. He put it into his mouth, turned his head sideways, and closed his eyes. She readied herself to push herself backwards in case he hit her in reaction. She dabbed it on his face, and he screamed. She moved backward, but he just dug his hands into his legs. She poured more alcohol onto the rag and just hurried and poured it onto his face. The rag dropped from his mouth as he hollered in pain.

  He fell forward, gasping for air. She put her hands onto his shoulder and lifted him back upwards. He was heavy, and her arms trembled. He sat back up, and his eyes were dilated. He was very pale and panting.

  “You should lie down,” She suggested. She looked around and saw a pile of random house items and got up. Every step hurt, and she was starting to lose her vision. She found a blanket and pillow. She hurried back and sat them down. She held back some vomit as she dropped to the floor. Evan was panting and sweating badly. His skin felt very hot under her hands.

  She gave him the rag again, and he gave her a pitiful look. He put it in his mouth. He was breathing heavily. His eyes were red and the skin under them black. She took the stitches out and the needle. She put the stitch through the needle. She had no idea what she was doing. But she pretended she was just sewing together a nice dress. She turned to him and stared at his deep cut. Her vision blurred. She took in a deep breath and put her hands towards his face. Her hands were shaking so badly. She gave Evan one last long look as he gazed at her in a daze.

  “It’s okay. Just close your eyes,” She whispered. Tears rolled from his hazel eyes as he stared at her. Abby rocked back and forth. She was scared to do anything, but she knew she had to soon. She placed the needle on his face at the top of the cut and breathed in slowly. She felt his body tense as his face twitched. She put the needle through his skin, and he tossed his arm up almost hitting her. He fell backwards, crying as she collected herself from the floor.

  He passed out. She had no idea if it were a good thing or not. Fright danced around her mind, and she started to cry. She started to stitch his cut up as fast as she could. She was carefully pulling the thread through his skin when he twitched. She stopped, but he did not wake. She tugged when the thread would not go through the skin and rubbed tears from her face. It felt like she had been at it for hours when she finally finished. She stared at his face and the horror it was. He would have a bad scar in the future. She took a clean rag and wiped his face clean of the blood.

  She put ointment on his wounds and quickly bandaged it. Then she cleaned his side wound and bandaged it. When she was done, she looked down at him sadly. He looked bad. She leaned over him and touched his face then lowered her head. He was breathing, and she could hear his heart beating. He was so pale, and it made her sob. She placed her head onto his chest as she cried. She was so afraid that this stranger, this person she was just coming to know, would leave her. And that she could not do anything about it.

  She looked up and around the church. She could hear a low humming sound coming from somewhere. She glanced past the table and saw a door. There was a light on next to the door. It had to be a generator. She forced her weak body upwards and stood still for a moment as her head spun. She waddled towards the food pile, every so often limping, and stopped to stabilize herself. She looked down and gazed at all of the food. She reached down for a can of green beans and pulled the led open.

  She almost inhaled in it. She tossed the can down and grabbed a box of chips. She tore the top open and started to eat them. She ignored the fact that her stomach wanted to throw it back up. She wandered back towards the caldron and took the pot from the fire and stared back at the two bodies by the railing.

  She needed to make sure that they were secure. She looked around where she had dropped the gun she had taken from the Priest and stumbled towards the railing again. Her walking felt very awkward. It would take her time to get used to it. She saw the gun had fallen towards the random items she had been lying by, and she picked it up.

  She glanced back at the woman she had killed and at her disturbed face. She could swear she was still breathing. She blinked and walked away. She walked around the table. She passed a large desk with books and then got to a clearing. The door looked metal and had a small wooden cross on it. It made her think of the Priest, and she felt sick. She could not understand how a person could do such evil things and still think he is in good with God. Maybe she did not understand faith, or maybe those people were just insane.

  Chapter eighteen

  Abby reached for the silver doorknob and shivered. She felt cold and stiff and was still very hungry. She gripped the handgun tightly, not even sure if it was still loaded. She opened the door. In front of her was a short hallway with a few doors that led towards an open doorway that had metal bars. She stepped in slowly and stared. The hallway looked very narrow to her and seemed to be moving when she was not.

  She closed her eyes for a moment then opened them. There were two doors on her right and three on her left. Her step echoed throughout the hall. She stopped, swallowed, and took in a deep breath. She was sweating now, and her hair felt gross on her neck. She rubbed her eyes with her right hand and bushed her auburn hair behind her ears. It made her remember her wound on her ear, and she touched it. The bandage was gone now. She felt the piece of her ear that was gone and how it was scarred now.

  She gazed backwards towards the door behind her then walked to the first door on her right. It was a men’s bathroom. She opened it. The light was already on inside, and there were no stalls just a small open bathroom. She walked towards the toilet feeling the sudden urgency to pee. For a moment, she almost left to go to the women’s when she realized it did not matter. She pulled her sweatpants down and sat onto the toilet. She gasped when she saw that her legs weren’t as bruised as they had been before. She touched her left leg with the tips of her fingers. It was still sore but not as bad as it had been. She placed the gun onto the sink.

  She started to pee when a stinging pain appeared. Her stomach tightened in knots; and she leaned forward, moaning. It did not hurt as badly as it did before, so she was very grateful for that. When she finished, she found toilet paper and baby wipes next to the toilet. She used the baby wipes. There was blood, but it was not as dark as before, and the smell was not as bad. She glanced between her legs into the toilet, and it was more of a scarlet color. She frowned and felt scared. She had no idea if this was a good thing or not, but all of it frightened her.

  Abby stood up and flushed the toilet then walked towards the sink. Her left knee gave out for a moment, and she grabbed the sink before she fell. She took in a deep breath an
d looked into the mirror. There was still some blood on the side of her face and in her hair. She looked very sickly. She looked at her arms that were scary white. She shook her head and turned the water on mindlessly. To her surprise, the water came on.

  Her mouth dropped, and she smiled. She put her hands under the warm water. She looked at the bandage on her finger and ignored it. She laughed and splashed the water all over her hands and arms then her face. She gasped for air and let out a laugh and then looked into the mirror. She stared at the bags under her eyes, the wrinkles around her mouth, and the scars on her lips. She grimaced then smiled softly. She was still alive, and that was something she needed to feel good about.

  Abby used a white towel next to the sink to dry off then grabbed the gun and went back into the hallway. She crept out slowly. The gun felt heavy in her hand. It was very quiet except for the humming from somewhere in the church. She looked at the few lights in the hall and at the dim shine coming from them. For a moment, she thought of Evan and her staying there. There was power here and plenty of supplies. However, something felt very wrong about staying here.

  She checked the women’s bathroom, finding it empty. She walked to the other side of the hall and reached for a doorknob. It was cold under her hand. The door creaked open and echoed through the hall. She looked down the hall at the other three doors and paused. She stared at the staircase and the bars. She could see it was locked. She entered the room. It was a small office packed with books and maps. There was a large oak desk at the back of the room. It had journals and bibles and other random things on it.

  The office was cleaner and more organized than the outside room. On the left side of the room, there was a large map hanging. There was a table under it that had papers scattered across it. She wobbled towards it. Her leg was aching and head pounding. Her stomach felt heavy, but it burned for more food. The map was of the city, and it had writings all over it. Many of the buildings had large red X’s over them, and in small ink was written Locked/clean. There were other buildings with black circles that had Unknown.