Chapter 33: When panic becomes prey

Hazel’s POV

Through my blurred vision, I saw movement. The man who kicked me was already kneeling beside Kael, his hands rough and urgent, shouting his name like it was a lifeline.

“Kael wake up－ shit－”

The boy swore viciously, voice cracking as he slid an arm under Kael’s back and another beneath his knees. Kael’s body sagged bonelessly, blood smearing across the black leather sleeve as he was lifted. Just like that.

Picked up.

The same way he’d picked me up minutes ago.

I sucked in a shaky breath, my chest tight, not from pain this time, but something colder. “Wait－” I tried to say.

It came out weak. Embarrassing. The boy didn’t look at me. Didn’t acknowledge me at all. He turned sharply, Kael clutched against his chest, boots already moving, urgent and purposeful. Someone in the crowd scrambled out of his way. Another swore under their breath.

That’s when it hit me. This wasn’t some random psycho. This was someone who knew him. Someone who cared. And I had just been kicked half to death for trying to keep him alive. I pressed my trembling hand to the ground, biting down on my lip to stop another sob as the crowd closed in tighter. And all I could think was－

I didn’t deserve this. I was helping. I was trying to save him.

The crowd slowly dispersed after that, disappointment settling in now that the show was over. Phones lowered. Whispers faded. Interest died. I was left exactly where I’d fallen. Alone.

Ilyas POV

I don’t remember deciding to run. One second I was kneeling in blood, the next my legs were burning and the hallway was blurring past me, Kael’s weight dead and wrong against my chest. He was too light. Way too light.

His head lolled against my shoulder, warm blood soaking through my sleeve, dripping down my wrist. “Don’t you dare,” I muttered, breath tearing out of me. “Don’t you fcking dare.”

I pressed my fingers harder against his side, like I could shove the blood back in through sheer will. I could barely feel his heartbeat－ just a faint, slippery flutter under my palm. When I reached the principal’s office, my eyes snagged on the stupid laminated sign taped to the door.

DON’T COME TO ME UNLESS A STUDENT HAS BEEN STABBED, SHOT, OR OFFEDTHEMSELVES.

Kael was stabbed. Kael was dying. So I kicked the door open. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot. Principal Dane jerked up from his chair. Evie standing beside his desk with a clipboard, spun around.

“Please－” My voice broke before I could stop it. “Kael’s－ Kael’s dying.”

I crossed the room in three strides and gently laid Kael across the desk. Blood smeared over polished wood. Papers slid to the floor. Evie swore instantly. “You absolute idiot,” she muttered, already pulling Kael’s shirt aside. “He’s lost so much blood, Principal Dane, look at this－”

The Principal grabbed his phone and made a phone call to a nearby hospital.

No ambulance.

This town couldn’t even afford hope.

“We need to take him to a hospital. Now,” the Principal said, already dialing, his voice tight.

I barely heard them. All I could see was the red. On my hands. On my shirt. On Kael. Kael was dying. After everything, after all the nights we survived on nothing but spite and cigarettes and crimes, he was really fcking dying. He was leaving me. Just like they did.

My scars started burning. Not itching. Freakin’ burning. The room felt too hot. The air turned thick, like smoke clogging my lungs. My ears rang, high and sharp, drowning out Evie’s voice, the Principal’s phone call.

I wasn’t in the office anymore. I was five again. The heat roared around me. Flames crawled up the walls. My skin blistered and screamed, but I didn’t move. I just stood there, watching through the glass as my mother pounded on the door, her mouth open in a scream I couldn’t hear. My father was behind her, fists bloody from trying to break it down. “Ilyas!” she cried. “Help us!”

My dad, my brothers screamed my name. I didn’t move. I didn’t help. I watched. The fire licked higher, and something sick and awful curled in my chest, because for one horrifying second, it felt good. The heat. The power. The silence after. I laughed. A sharp hand grabbed my shoulder.

“Ilyas!”

Reality slammed back into me. I stumbled as Principal Dane and Evie lifted Kael off the desk, moving fast toward the door. His arm hung loose, fingers brushing my sleeve as they passed. “No－” I lunged forward. “Where are you taking him? Stop!! he’s not dead yet－!”

“Hospital,” Evie snapped. “Move.”

I reached for Kael, but Evie kicked me. Hard. Her foot connected with my face, snapping my head sideways. I flew back, crashed into the wall, stars exploding behind my eyes. I barely felt the impact before I was scrambling up again.

“No!” I screamed. “Kael!”

Evie was on me instantly. She slammed me back down, forearm across my chest, pinning my shoulders to the floor. I thrashed beneath her, clawing at the tiles, breath tearing in and out of me like I was drowning.

“He’s alive!” I yelled. “He’s still fckin’ breathing－ you can’t－!”

“Ilyas!” she shouted, shaking me. “Look at me!”

I couldn’t. All I could see was Kael’s blank face. Blood soaking into my clothes. I was choking. My chest locked up. Air wouldn’t go in. My vision tunneled, edges blackening.

Then－

Smack.

My head snapped to the side. Before I could react, another Smack.

The room went quiet. Not silent, just still. Evie grabbed my collar, yanking my face inches from hers. Her eyes were wild－ furious, scared, burning with something close to desperation.

“KAEL IS NOT GOING TO DIE,” she snarled. “DO YOU HEAR ME? CALM THE FCK DOWN!”

My breath hitched. Air finally clawed its way back into my lungs. It was the first time I heard evie swear. “Listen to me. There’s no ambulance. That means we drive. That means he lives if we’re fast.” she said, slower now, “But you need to stay here”.

Evie released me and stood, already turning away. “Don’t move,” she threw over her shoulder before sprinting after them. I didn’t get up right away. I stayed on the floor, back against the wall, knees drawn in, hands shaking so badly I had to press them flat against the tiles just to steady them.

The floor was cold. Sticky. When I looked down, my palms were smeared red. Kael’s blood. My throat tightened. My vision blurred. I dragged my sleeve across my eyes, hard, like I could wipe the images away if I pressed enough.

Kael’s body. Limp. Too still. A sound tore out of me－ half laugh, half choke. It echoed ugly in the empty office.

“This is all on me,” I whispered. The words tasted right. Familiar. Like an old wound reopening. If I hadn’t listened to him. If I hadn’t left him alone. If I’d stayed－ just stayed－

I slammed the back of my head against the wall with a dull thud. “Idiot,” I muttered. “Brain-dead idiot.” My fingers threaded through my hair, tugging hard enough to sting. I deserved the pain. I deserved worse. He was dying. And I was still breathing.

Another laugh broke loose, louder this time. I pressed my fist against my mouth, but it kept spilling out anyway, the sound of something inside me cracking open.

Punishment.

That was the word my mind latched onto. Yes. That made sense. I deserved it.

Then a face surfaced through the haze. A girl. Ginger hair. Blood on her hands. Hovering over Kael’s body. My chest tightened. Her. The thought slid into place too easily, like it had been waiting.

She was there. She touched him. He collapsed. My breathing quickened.

“Yes,” I murmured, nodding to myself. “Yes. That’s it.”

The guilt shifted, peeled off me and latched onto something else.

She did something. She hurt him. She finished what those bastards started.

“She killed him."