"Jer! Jeremy! Wake up. Please, Jer!" Cara was screaming, her body jolting around under my hands as I attempted to hold her from reaching for the boy. I couldn't have her moving around, she would only do more damage. Her screams sliced threw my heart, with each verbal sob I could feel my heart aching. I bit back the tears, tucking the hair behind my ears as I looked around for help.

"Hold her down." I demanded, looking to Vincent. "There's no calming her so just make sure she doesn't move." Vincent nodded and quickly did as I asked.

"Jeremy you bastard, open you eyes!" Her words spat out and they almost felt like a slap in the cheek. I was the reason she sounded like a part of her way dying. I knew what that sounded like, trust me. "JEREMY!" She'd given up thrashing under Vincent's arms, falling limp as her tears showed no signs of stomping.

I didn't have time, I had to analyse what was happening with the boy. Reaching over my fingers went straight too his pulse. It was still there faintly beating, so faint that I almost missed it. My hands flew into work, not letting myself think twice about what I needed to do. I tried to clean out his wound while holding out my hand for the medicine that Jesse had gotten out. Opening his mouth I forced the pain medicine into his mouth and went back to his wound. If I could stop the bleeding maybe I would be able to do something. Reaching for a rag to apply pressure on the half that I wasn't working on a voice interrupted me.

"Dru, save him please. You can save him can't you?" She spoke threw her tears, her eyes shining momentarily with optimism that was so wrong placed on me. My own tears were forming as I tried to steady my self. Glancing back over the boy in front of me my hands began to shake.

My hair had fallen over my face, but I couldn't snap my self back into action I was frozen. My heart was beating too fast, my breaths were coming too frequent and I could feel my self slipping out of control. My fingers made their way back to his pulse, trying to guide what I should do next- buy me time to figure it out.

But it was gone. I pressed harder to make sure that it wasn't just getting fainter. When I found nothing again I couldn't help my self from letting the words escape my lips. "NO!" I exclaimed, turning his body over to begin CPR. "No, wake up Jeremy, wake up." I was frantically pressing at his chest, pushing with all the force that I had. I couldn't see, my hair blocking what the tears did not.

"NO!"I could hear the shrieks coming from besides me, filled of desperation and loss. I couldn't bring myself to look at the girl whose boyfriend I just took from her. "Jeremy!"

Her screams became a background noise to the overwhelming sound of my heart beat thudding in my chest. My hands shook with each compression but I wasn't going to stop, my despair grew - my screams filling the air with Cara's.

I pressed and pressed and pressed, waiting to feel a breath leave his lips or for his heart to start again. But it never did.

All at once I snapped back, realising that he was truly gone. Because of me another person had died.

I felt hands pulling my elbow back and I didn't have the energy to refuse. I felt numb, everything around me was moving in slow motion and my hearing had failed me. My heartbeats had lowered but with each beat I could fell a pang of guilt- one that made me ill to the core of my stomach.

The hands pulled me completely away from the two people lying on the ground. They pulled me far enough away that Cara's screams were a mere echo in the wind, one that was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.

"Dru."

Jesse. Of course it was him, the only one stupid enough to be around me when I was like this.

He spun me around, but my vision was so blurred from the tears that all I could see was a blur of colour and shapes. My shaking and hyperventilating had stopped but I couldn't fully remove the pit in my stomach telling me that I should have saved the boy.

"Dru." He repeated, his hands cupping either side of my face and holding it up. He sounded so worried, so panicked to see me in this state. "Dru." He kept repeating me name, his hands moving to tuck my hair out of my face and then to stroke caringly. "I'm right here, it's okay."

My vision began to clear, my heart controlling itself now that I was with him. I forced in some deep breaths, allowing my chest to fall against Jesse's. I'd just submitted all control of my body when I did that.

His rough thumb was softly running up and down the sides of my face. I raised my hand to his wrists, holding on as I let his thumb catch my tears. I hated this feeling of weakness, this feeling of dependence on another person to calm me down. I hated the control Jesse had over me and I hated the ability he had to turn the tears to hope. I felt like things were possible when I was with him, like I could save the people, like I would be able to get them all home in one piece.

"Jesse." I breathed, my voice breaking as my bottom lip began to tremble. "Why do I keep doing this to these people."

His brows furrowed, his eyes shining with confusing and worry as his hands held desperately onto the sides of my face. My fingers tightened their grasp on his wrists, ignoring their obvious shaking as I dropped my forehead to his.

"Doing what? Saving their lives? Cara would be dead if it wasn't for you." He spoke as if it were obvious, as if I was ignorant for even questioning myself.

"Jeremy is dead because of me." I was too exhausted, if it weren't for my body leaning against his my legs would have already given way. "They are all dead because of me. Because I can't do anything to save them."

"Because we can't do anything to save them. You're not in this alone." He was so sure of his words, like he always was. I wanted to take him for his words, to believe him but I just couldn't- I couldn't live with this guilt any longer. "Dru, you need to snap out of this."

Those words froze me, my head snapping up and my eyes opening wide. A small breath of surprise escaped from my lips as his eyes flared at mine.

"We all need you to snap out of this, you're our best hope here and if you keep losing it like this you're no help to everyone. I need you to be the tough princess that I met that first day, I need you to get that fight back in you and fight for the lives of everyone left." He wasn't yelling but he wasn't quiet either, he spoke with authority, anger and even a glimmer of concern. "I need you to get angry ay the people causing this. Not yourself. Got it?"

His words resinated within me, leaving me speechless. He was right, how had I let myself lose so much control? With an exasperated sigh my fingers dropped from his wrist, falling to my side as I slowly pushed my self off from the boy. His arms folded over his chest once my body was absent. He had a small smirk playing over his lips and he looked pleased with him self.

"You're right, this won't happen again." I could feel my heart hardening over, my tears disappearing deep within me and I could feel my determination peak. No more weakness, no more loss of control. I had to keep these people alive.

I had to keep fighting.

"Do I get a thank you for that one, princess?" His arrogant self was back, gone was the care in his eyes. I was grateful for that, this side of him brought out the fighting side of myself.

"In your dreams, Blake."

~~~~~~

"Dru, please, there's nothing to apologise for." Cara's hands held my single one as I perched over her. The girl refused to accept any of my apologies and it was driving me crazy, I needed her to understand the guilt it had brought me. "It was me or him. He wouldn't have been able to live with himself if he knew you'd chosen him over me- and me, I don't want to live with it but I could never ever blame you." She gently squeezed onto my hand, her hands were covered with blood that hadn't dried down yet but I didn't pull away – it was my hands that were really covered in the blood.

"What happened, Car? Who attacked you?" I cut straight to the point before she could continue to talk about Jeremy.

"Was it Wyatt, and you all fought back?" Vincent spoke up with his ideas of what had happened but Cara's face went pale before he'd even spoken.

Struggling to produce her words Cara spoke slowly, "I- I didn't see what happened, one minute I was fight with Wyatt next minute there were arrows flying threw the air. Jeremy knocked me to the ground and one flew straight over his back." She paused as tears welled up in her eyes, I gave her hands a squeeze of encouragement, telling her to continue with my eyes. "And then a man came running in, he had so many knives. He- he just started attacking. Jeremy and I didn't move, we just waited for him to leave and hoped that he thought we were dead already. We could hear the screams but Jeremy refused to let me open my eyes." She was balling know, the tears running down her neck and onto her shirt. She held her hand up to her mouth to hide her loud sobs. "And then he left. We waited, for too long obviously, before Jeremy went to check if everyone was alive. They weren't. He fell unconscious and that's when I screamed out. I didn't care if the guy heard us- I didn't care if I died, I just needed to get out of there but I couldn't move. I was just stuck there watching Jeremy slowly die, watching all my friends lie dead around me. Why didn't he kill me, the bastard should have killed me too!" Cara was screaming out now, her words piercing threw the air as I wrapped my arms around her. Despite her violent shaking and screams I held her to my chest, not letting my arms falter.

"Why didn't he kill me, Dru, it was my idea to leave and now they are all dead." She sobbed into my chest, her words no louder than a whisper. " I should have died."

"You're alive so that you can make something of your life that they would all be proud of, Cara. I know that you wont waste that opportunity. You're too strong for that." I spoke into her hair, my lips pressed right up against her braids. My arms were rubbing up and down the sides of her arms, trying my best to comfort the broken girl. I knew exactly what she was feeling but I had no idea on how to take all that pain away. All I could do was give her hope. "You're alive because you're strong, so show me how strong you are."

"I don't want to be strong, Dru, I just want to give up."

"We all feel like that sometimes. And you know what? The strongest ones are the ones that almost give up but find it within themselves to pick themselves up."

"Will you pick me up, Dru? I don't think I can do this on my own." He head raised off my chest, her eyes meeting mine with hope for the first time that day.

"You wont ever have to do this on your own. I'm here." Nodding she lowered her head back to my chest. Slowly her tears disappeared, her body grew still and I could hear the sound of her faint snores. She was safe from her thoughts whilst she was asleep, finally at peace- even if it was only temporary.

Laying her down gently I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead before pushing myself away from her. She was too young to be holding this kind of burden upon her shoulders – I wish that I could relieve some of the weight for her.

"How did she do that?" Emmett muttered to the group of people waiting in my peripheral vision. I'd forgotten about everyone else in the minutes I'd held Cara in my arms. "How did she take her from fine, to losing it, and then get her to fall asleep?" Emmet looked amazed his eyes showing his bewilderment.

"Dru has that effect on people." Jesse mumbled to the group, no smile playing on his lips but a tease was shining within his eyes. Rolling my own eyes I left the group behind as I walked away.

I had dead bodies to deal with.