Build our story - chapter 6 - End Game

[Boethiah]

Boethiah shut her eyes tight, wanting her dad to say he was alright. He had to be alright. She couldn't lose him now. Her mother put a hand on her shoulder and she just cried a bit harder, having her breaths short and staggered. Boe took her father's other hand and held it while he was still there.

[Vim]

Vim felt a tear roll down his face. It wasn't fair, it wasn't right. Why did Vim get to walk when he was the one who got so many people hurt? Now her father would never walk again and Vim was perfectly healthy.

Suddenly a healer came up to the group. "It's time to move him to the boats. We'll get him to Berk where we can keep him from bleeding out." She said. Two others came up with wooden planks and leather straps. They were going to splint the legs so the shattered bones wouldn't move and tear up his arteries. "Come on, Boe." Vim said, grabbing her hand. "He's going to live..." 'Unless he gets an infection.' He added silently.

[Boethiah]

She had to be practically dragged away from her father, but she was pulled away and she left with Vim, holding her arms and keeping her eyes shut tight. Her mother was going with her father and the healer. Why couldn't she? She was his family too! Boethiah got more control over herself as she walked, but her eyes were red and a little puffy from the crying, her head was pounding and her breaths were shaking.

[Vim]

Vim hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry." He said. "It's all my fault..."

[Boethiah]

She let his arms wrap around her but she didn't hug back. She just stood frozen. "I don't know what to do..." she mumbled.

[Vim]

"It'll be okay." He mumbled. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see a grave looking Viking. "Vim... it's your father."

[Boethiah]

Boethiah looked up from his shoulder. No...why was this happening. "Go see him, Vim..." she said, pulling away from him slightly.

[Vim]

"Er, thats the thing." Said the Viking uncomfortably. "We don't know where he is."

"What?" Vim demanded. "He's nowhere to be seen. We did a head count. He's not with the wounded, the healthy or the dead. He's... missing." The Viking patted his shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sorry for your loss." He walked away.

[Boethiah]

"You're lying," she cried after the man. "He's around you just miscounted or something! Vim's father isn't gone!!" What would the Romans do with...That's when she realized, there weren't any more Romans. They were all dead in the collapse. She felt sick. Even if her father was paralyzed, at least she still had him.

[Vim]

Vim didn't say a word. Deadly silence filled the air. He slowly sat down in the ashes and buried his face in his hands. He was sobbing, but no sounds escaped his mouth. The grief overtook him.

[Boethiah]

Boethiah watched the man walk away and then turned to Vim. She sat next to him and just held him. He didn't deserve this. The possibility of killing one's own father just...it gave her feverish chills, but she tried to brush it off.

[Vim]

He let out a sound that could only be described as pure grief. He suddenly pulled Boethiah down to him and hugged her tightly, burying his face in her hair as he cried. He didn't care if anyone saw him. He didn't care about anything.

[Boethiah]

She couldn't help but let a few tears run down her cheeks. She held him tight and just let him cry. There was nothing she could say to make this better. Nothing that could be thought to make the pain go away. All she could do right now was hold him, and hope everything'd be a little okay.

[Vim]

Vim wasn't sure how long he sat there crying in her arms, but he stopped when he felt a familiar, scaled nose nudge them. He looked up and saw Thorntail and Zirth looking at them concernd. "You're alive." He croaked, and embraced Thorntail tightly.

[Boethiah]

She saw Zirth and tried to give a small smile. She rubbed his muzzle to let him know she was kind of okay and then sighed.