7. Maddox

Maddox

7

My arms are frozen, locked tight around Violet.

She won't stop screaming, it feels like my ears are bleeding from how loud they're ringing.

I can't move though.

I can't do anything.

Violet calls out for Max as she fights against me.

No, don't let her go. Don't let her leave us. We have to keep her.

"Maddox! We have to help him!" I hear her shout, but it's like I'm underwater, her voice drifting further away from me as the current drags me under.

Max…where is he?

He's always right here in my chest, in every cell of my body. Now there's only the weight of Violet against me. It's what I've wanted for so long, but it's not right, not without him.

I manage to make myself unlock my elbows and as soon as there's some give in my arms, Violet's running again.

"No!" I roar at the top of my lungs as I spring to my feet to chase after her. She stops just a few feet ahead and I wrap my arms around her waist.

Her back molds to my chest exactly where she's meant to be.

She's fucking freezing.

How long have we been out here?

The heat of before has long died down and now there's just an eerie chill in the air.

We need to get her home.

"Oh my God, Max." She's sobbing.

Why the fuck is she sobbing?

"I didn't see him! You ran out and I didn't see either of you until it was too late!" An unfamiliar male voice says. There's another car in the road, stopped diagonally, its engine still running and the driver's door left open.

"Call an ambulance!" Violet wails as she slumps in my arms, the fight leaving her body. She slips between my arms and falls to her knees as I see myself on the ground.

No, not myself, my mirror image.

Max is splayed out in the dirt, his right arm twisted in all the wrong places.

He looks different now, no longer like me.

"Max?" I ask quietly as I step past Violet and move towards him.

There's no way it's him.

But of course I know it is.

I just saw my other half get mowed down by a fucking car as he tried to save Violet.

His eyelids twitch when I place my hand on his back. As he tries to move, a weak groan escapes him and I hold him down so he can't hurt himself anymore.

"Vi…Vi…" he moans weakly.

"She's okay." He can't move his head so he tries to search for her with his eyes, but he can barely keep them open. "I swear she's okay, Max."

A small smile appears on his face, before his eyes shut. "Don't you dare try and leave me as well!" I growl, but it's pointless, he can't hear me.

All my anger concentrates in my fists and I reach for the nearest threat. Violet steps out of the way as I grab for the man talking to her, trying to calm her down.

"You're going to fucking pay for hurting him!" I snarl in the man's face and his pasty complexion pales further.

"Maddox, let him go." Violet places her hand on my arm. That touch usually diffuses the ticking time bomb that is my rage, but right now I don't think anything will stop me. "The ambulance and cops are on the way. He said he'll stay and help. Maddox, our brother needs our help."

The way she says brother doesn't make me hate the word like it usually does.

This time I can feel the way it connects all of us.

I had hoped she saw us as more than just that, but the fact that she still thinks of Max as a brother, someone who loves her and protects her knocks me back to my senses.

Dropping the man, I go back to Max.

Violet's right, he needs me right now.

He needs us.

"What do we do?" I ask quietly as she crouches down next to me.

She puts her fingers on his neck and I see her shoulders relax. "His pulse feels strong and he looks like he's breathing okay. I think all we can do is keep him warm, comfortable and just be here for him."

I pull my leather jacket off, then my hoodie and lay them both over Max's back.

"Here, I always keep blankets in the car." The man comes up behind us with blankets in one hand whilst he nervously cards his fingers through his dark hair with the other. Violet takes the blankets, giving him a small thanks that he doesn't deserve.

Moving my clothes from Max, she bundles my jacket up and places it under his head then drapes the blankets over him. Ever so gently, she tucks them around his body like she used to when we had sleepovers and he fell asleep first, exhausted from practice.

Fuck, I miss those days right now. Back when things were simple, we were just two boys who adored her. Before hormones got in the way and our whole view of her shifted.

"You're shaking," I say as I feel her body trembling against mine.

"I'll be fine."

"No, put this on." I give her my hoodie and help her pull it over her head. "Get under the blankets with Max. You might be able to help keep him warm. Plus, I'm sure he'll love it when I tell him about it later." I manage to force a fake smile onto my face, for her sake or maybe it's for mine?

She smiles back at me and rests her forehead against mine. For one peaceful moment, the world disappears from around us. But it rushes back all too quickly as she moves away.

Lifting up one of the blankets, she gently curls her body around Max's.

I lay another blanket over them and sit there, keeping watch over them like I can somehow will them both to stay with me, if I don't take my eyes off them ever again.

The cops arrive at the same time as the ambulance. They head straight towards the man that hit Max and I expect them to cuff him and drag him away, but they simply talk to him. "What the hell are you doing? Take him away!"

"Maddox, calm down." Violet puts her hand on my back, but I pull away from her.

"We need to get an idea of what actually happened before we arrest anyone."

I clench my fists and take a step forward, ready to get my ass thrown in jail by punching a cop, but out of the corner of my eye, I spot the EMTs with Max and I'm suddenly wracked with guilt that I left him alone, even if it was just for a moment. I could have lost him in that time.

Going straight back to my brother, I watch from the sidelines as they work on him before loading him onto a stretcher.

The world moves in slow motion as people rush around me, saying things that are just a monotonous drone of indistinguishable sounds.

"Maddox? Maddox?" Violet's voice is the only one my ears attune to. "We have to go."

I blink and see that the ambulance is driving away. The place where Max just was is an empty pile of blankets. I pick up my jacket, unsure what to do next.

Violet guide me towards a cops car. "They're going to drive us to the hospital. Your dad's on his way there already."

I nod. Words don't come to me, I'm not sure I know how to form them anymore. It's like everything I knew before has been taken away from me. Without Max here, I'm just an empty shell of a person.