“Oh no oh no what do I do what do I do!?” I was now full-on panicking while Ria was groaning in pain in my arms. The sound of a car driving by in the distance startled me even more but right at that moment an idea shot in my mind. -Viktor…- I put my right arm under Ria’s knees and lifted her up, making her cry out even more. “We can’t stay here… Please hold on Ria...”

With her in my arms I started running, as fast as I could. Jumping over the park fence with my vampiric powers and sprinting the last stretch to my home. Luckily due to the heavy downpour I couldn’t see anyone in the vicinity. I’d run so fast I arrived at the front door in less than a minute.

“Shit, my keys.” They were in my bag but with Ria in my arms getting them would be a major hassle. “Fuck it.” I put my foot against the door and pushed, hearing a splintering sound as the door flew open and banged against its doorstop, the lock mechanism still hanging out of the frame. The ruckus had startled Shima as I saw her sprint towards the kitchen to hide under one of the cabinets. I didn’t bother to close the door behind me as I ran over to the sofa and laid Ria in it after which I sprinted to the kitchen to get some paper towels to stop the bleeding.

“Roraaa…” Ria groaned, and I was by her side in an instant. She grabbed my hand and squeezed hard. “It h-hurts.”

“I know, Ria.” I gently squeezed back. “I’m going to call for help now.” I reached for my phone and used the speed dial I’d set for Viktor for emergency situations.

The phone didn’t even ring once before he answered. “I know Aurora. I will be there in a moment. Try to stop her bleeding with whatever pieces of cloth you can find.”

Baffled by his response and the general situation at hand I didn’t bother to ask how he knew what happened. “I’ve already done so…”

“Gut, I’ll be there in five minutes.” He hung up.

I threw my phone on the other sofa and turned my attention back to Ria. It was clear her situation was getting worse by the second. The white towels I’d used had already turned crimson red and she was getting awfully pale.

“R-Ria…” my voice cracked. “I’m… I’m so sorry.”

“It’s... not your fault. T-they wanted to take me… you-” She coughed up a bit of blood, which she gingerly wiped off with her sleeve. “You tried to protect me… my knight...” Even though she was clearly in a lot of pain, the smile on her face was so sincere it made my heart hurt even more. “I... I feel cold…”

I’d seen enough movies to know what that meant. -C’mon Viktor, where the fuck are you.- I looked back at the open door behind me.

“Rora…” Ria’s voice grew weak. “Can... I ask you for one thing?” A single teardrop rolled down her cheek while she squeezed my hand again.

“Anything.” I did my best not to burst out crying and put on a brave smile for her.

“Can you kiss me?”

Her request came as a shock, but I answered without hesitation. “Of course, my princess.” And with that I gently lowered my face towards her as she, with the little strength she had left, met my lips halfway. The bittersweet moment lasted only a couple of seconds though, after which she collapsed onto the sofa again. Her breaths were laboured and heavy.

“I alwa-” She coughed again. “I always wanted to do that…” She didn’t have the strength left in her arms anymore to wipe the blood away from her mouth, so I gently did it for her with my thumb. “...but it’s so stupid that…” She paused to catch her breath. “-that it took me so long to figure out that … I love you… Rora…” Her words shot through my heart, breaching the dam that had been holding back my emotions.

“I love you too.” Tears started to roll over my cheeks like unstoppable rivers.

Ria smiled sadly, squeezing my hand one last time before I felt hers go limp. Her eyes closed and her head fell to the side.

“R-Ria?” I stroke her cheek with my hand. “Ria, please wake up…”

She didn’t reply. An eerie silence filled the room.

“No… p-please…” My voice quit on me as I started crying uncontrollably. “T-this can’t be happening!” I cried into her blood stained uniform, desperately holding on to her.

“Aurora.” A hand on my shoulder gently pulled me back. It was Viktor. “Can you sit back to let me see?”

I looked at him through my watery eyes and nodded, and leaned back against my coffee table, completely dazed. Only then did I notice that Viktor was carrying a big leather bag with him.

He looked at Ria for a second and nodded. “She’s still alive, but I’ll need some room to work, can you go and close the door?”

“S-she’s still alive?”

Viktor nodded.

“I need to check if there’s cloth in her wound or not, so I can start closing it. But first, can you close the door, it would be bad if someone saw what’s happening inside.”

Though stricken with grief, my mind was still capable of doing simple tasks, so I followed his order, closing the door as well as I could, although with a destroyed lock that was easier said than done. When I came back Viktor was taking large scissors from his bag.

“Don’t worry, this is for her clothes, so I can see what I’m doing.” He explained, probably to keep me from overreacting, which was probably a good move. “Can you get me a wet towel?”

I immediately did as he asked, running over to the faucet to wet yet another towel. “H-here.”

He’d already snipped open her uniform. “Danke.” Viktor took the towel and started dipping it on Ria’s stomach. “Most curious.”

“W-what?”

Viktor didn’t reply and instead gently rolled Ria on her side so he could look at her back.

“Watch out, you’re going to hurt her!”

“Shhh, shhh, Aurora.” Viktor tried to calm me down. “It looks like you are the luckiest person I know.”

“What the fuck do you mean, lucky!?”

“Kommen Sie, look.” He put Ria back on her back and waved me over. “Where did she get shot?”

“I-in the back but the bullet went through and hit me.”

Viktor smiled and wiped a bit more blood off her stomach. As my eyes traced the soft gentle curves of her stomach I realized something was conspicuously absent: the bullet wound...

“W-what? Did I see it wrong?”

“No, I’m sure it was there, all this blood definitely isn’t yours. And it’s the same on her back.”

“H-how?”

“As I said, you must be the luckiest person I know.” He put his scissors on the wet towel and closed the rest of his bag. “I will not be needing this anymore.”

“B-but what about…”

“She needs rest.” Viktor stated. “There’s nothing more I can do. So I’d say you should put her on your bed.”

“M-my bed?”

“It’s more comfortable than a sofa is it not? And I’m not going to move her since well…” He motioned at her upper body, covered by nothing more than her bra. “I don’t want you to knock me out with your Baseballschläger.”

“T-that’s true.” I hesitantly put my arms under Ria and started to carry her to my bedroom. She was already feeling warmer to the touch which did a lot to calm me down.

After having put Ria in my bed, I removed the rest of her wet and bloody clothes and tucked her in, then walked back towards the living room. Viktor was petting Shima who had also calmed down. She appeared to even like him.

“You should take a shower and get into some fresh clothes. I will feed this little Kätzchen in the meantime.”

I looked into one of the mirrors, with my tattered uniform that was damp and bloody. I looked like I came straight out of a zombie movie, and not as one of the survivors.

“That might not be a bad idea…”