Her aqua gaze was locked with his, her eyes stretched wide, her mouth wavering. "Baby. I'm scared." she murmured in a tiny voice as she wrapped her frail arms around him. His muscular arms wrapped around her tiny waist and pulled her closer to him.
"Shhh." he shushed her, trying to stop the shakes that rattled her fragile body. "It's okay. He's-" his soothing voice was drowned by a gunshot. He shoved Rose to the ground and then jumped up.
A laugh echoed the empty room where Rose lay on the ground, Chad standing over her small, curled up body. "Where are you?" Chad yelled, his green eyes burning with anger. This man had hunted this girl for years, slowly killing each and every one of her family members. This time, Chad wouldn't let him take her with him. "Come out from wherever you are and face me like a man!" he bellowed again, his eyes scanning the room.
Finally, his eyes rested on the shadow that was carefully stepping towards the couple. "Chad..." the man tsked. "Leave the girl and you won't have to be killed."
"I'll die before I let you touch her." he said, lifting Rose up to cradle her in his arms.
The man finally looked at him, meeting Chad's green gaze with a cold gray of his own. He wore a black jacket over what looked like a dark gray cotton shirt and a pair of worn blue jeans. His brown bots were covered with dark mud and specked with...blood? Chad shook his head and looked back up at the man's face. His nose was slightly crooked, his cheek had a scar down the right side of his face. Chad smirked, "Rose gotcha with the knife when she was 14 didn't she?" he said, motioning to the man's cheek. The man grunted.
Then, he raised the knife that glinted in the silvery moonlight that poured through the skylight. "Chad, say good-bye to your love and to your life." The knife swung down and Chad felt it connect with his right shoulder and he gasped in pain, dropping Rose to clutch his shoulder.
He felt the blood seeping through his thin shirt and the sticky liquid ran down his hand and onto his arm. Carefully, he stepped back then realized what a bad idea it was. His head swam and the world wavered beneath him. The last thing he heard before a wave of darkness swept over him was Rose's scream and the man's laugh. Then he fell into a depthless sleep.