The Risen: Courage by Marie F Crow

moment.” I stare into a killer’s blue eyes and lose all value to my soul. “I just wanted that moment, Rhett.”
    Lawless’ fist melts like an ice sculpture on Chapel’s chest, flattening itself in slow motion before is slips away. He comes to me and wraps those arms around me and even Rhett has to look away from my imagined weakness.
    “Why didn’t you just say so?” Rhett asks me and I have to almost laugh with his question. Only half-hidden by Lawless can I look at Rhett and keep my composure.
    “Doesn’t matter,” Marxx says, once again trying to cover my recklessness. “It’s done and everything is fine. Can we get inside now?”
    “Shouldn’t we go over there?” Chapel asks, motioning with his head to the space across from us. The gap seems to have grown even further as we talked. “See if they need help or something?”
    “All out of patience and marshmallows,” Rhett says with his first steps away from us. “I’m going in.”
    “How about bullets? You out of those?” Chapel’s low voice crawls up my spine like fingernails. I shiver with it making Lawless pull me tighter to him.
    “Running a little low,” Rhett says. “Why?”
    It’s Marxx that answers him, not the preacher’s son. “We missed some.”
    I don’t know what is happening behind me. Whatever it is, it sets the men on edge. Lawless holds me like man drowning, pulling my head to his neck. He whispers into my hair, “I want you to go inside. Get to Aimes until someone comes for you. You don’t come back. No hero shit.”
    I stiffen to argue with him, but he pulls me tighter, letting me know he isn’t starting a debate. “Walk calmly in. Don’t run until you have to.” He pulls me from him with a sideways pushing motion. He doesn’t want me to see whatever is behind me that have them rattled. “Marxx, get her in.” Lawless is no longer whispering. His tone is harsh, sharp with his command.
    “I should be out here with you.” Marxx steps forward, his voice raw with the insult he feels has been given. I guess he feels over qualified for babysitting. Maybe he has forgotten the amount of trouble this baby can find for him.
    Lawless turns to the taller man, giving him the full weight of his brown eyes. For a moment, they remind me of another set. A set that was steel-grey and just as angry under the surface. “You should do what you’re told.” Lawless doesn’t yell. He doesn’t let his voice climb even one pitch with his command. The steadiness of it gives it all the volume it needs.
    For a moment, I think the two are going to argue, but Marxx nods with his jaw set. Taking me by the arm, he starts to pull me towards the door with his fingers taking out his anger on my skin.
    “You really think they are on just that side?” I ask him as he leads us away. I don’t have to look to see what has started this. Like a kid who never lets on to understand the word their parent’s are spelling instead of saying, I know from what Lawless is sending me running from.
    “I wasn’t asked to think,” Marxx tells me, still wounded from being sent away and his pride is making my arm pay for it.
    “If you were to think, if you were to stop pouting like a child and think, would you think they are on just one side?”
    His jaw slides side-to-side with his thoughts before he turns to me, “No. I don’t.”
    “Looks like we get to have some fun, too.” I smile at him. I smile letting it reach my eyes like a mischievous thought.
    He stares at me, half dragging me still with a face that is searching mine. “My job is to get you to Aimes; to keep you girls safe. Your job is not to be a pain in my ass.”
    “Now Marxx,” I smile again as he shoves me through a door into the school, “when have I ever been a pain in your ass?”
    He doesn’t have a chance to answer me. There is no charming come back to make me behave. He doesn’t because as he opens his mouth, the screaming starts. It’s a ripple effect of fears with one