Part 5: Trapped

Fear flowed freely through Kiara as she frantically tried to decide what to do. She couldn't just leave the kid to die, and she looked too confused to react in time to the now falling monstrosity of a bookshelf. 'Fuck my damn life.' She thought to herself as she snatched the girl up by the waist and started running, surprised at her own speed, which was likely fueled by the adrenaline coursing through her.

Everything seemed to slow down as she raced for the other end with the child in tow. 'Oh fuck, I'm not gonna make it.' Just then a perfect opportunity presented itself in the form of a certain berserker rounding a corner just passed the bookshelves ahead. "Catch!" She yelled at him, and with a final effort she placed all her strength into hurling the girl at the confused man who caught her with ease and stumbled back only a few steps. Well out of danger. Perfect.

Unfortunately saving the girl made it so she had to stop, giving the bookshelf enough time to come crashing down on her. She tried to move out from under it by leaping forward, but she couldn't get far enough as the shelves and books fell onto her lower half was the sound of several terrible cracks. A scream was ripped from her throat at the blinding agony of feeling most everything below her waist being broken and crushed. Luckily the bookshelves were spaced far enough between that they wouldn't topple over like dominoes, but that also meant more weight was stacked onto the lower half of Kiara's body.

She had dealt with mortal injures before, like being cut open, breaking her neck, and even taking a hefty rock to the head at a high enough speed to crack her skull open. But nothing like this. She doubted this was even bad enough to kill her, and mourned the fact that the pain didn't knock her unconscious. Even the slightest of movements like a book settling had everything feeling like it was on fire.

She distantly heard voices and noticed how murky her senses had become with her entire mind focused on her injuries, she couldn't see anything and barely recognized the feeling of carpet underneath her. Kiara could tell her broken body was starting to slowly heal, but there was no telling how long it would take. "F.....fuck... It... Hurts!" A voice sounded again, this time close to her ear and loud enough that she could decipher what they were saying. "Just hold on miss, we'll get this off you just try to stay with me ok? Focus on my voice." The voice sounded feminine and Kiara wanted to tell her to just forget about it, that she'd be just fine in an hour or two, but all that came out was a soft groan of pain.

'Damn. How annoying.' Being stuck under the weight of countless books and one of the thickest and heaviest fucking bookshelves she'd ever seen was about the farthest thing from her idea of a good time, and the occasional shift of the bookshelf as the few people who had gathered around only seemed to make it worse. A couple were shouting to stop, while the others insisted it needed to be lifted so she could get out. It was clear that this issue was only going to be dragged out until someone with more authority arrived.

Kiara knew they only wanted to help, but she still mentally cursed them and their pathetic efforts. Couldn't they see how broken her lower half was? Were they really so dumb as to think just lifting it would work? Someone would have to pull her out, and what if they lost their grip and it dropped onto her again? On the other hand, it was just one bookshelf and their was at least five of them trying to lift the damn thing, why couldn't they lift it even a little?

The sound of people protesting something, or maybe they were yelling at someone again, tore her from her thoughts and before she could react the bookshelf was lifted up and a whoosh of air hit Kiara's back. When she managed a glance upwards Jerriah's bulky form filled her vision.

She wasn't sure what to think. She knew he was strong, but he only had one hand on the bookshelf that originally had to be put in place by machines when the library was first built. On top of that he was helping her, and he was the Last person she would have expected help from next to the gods themselves who had cursed her in the first place.

But before she can sort her thoughts he reaches forward and grabs the back of her shirt and lifts her up, letting the books that were resting on her slip off and fall to the ground with the rest of the books. However, the white hot pain that makes her want to curl up in a corner and stay there forever doesn't let her pay it much heed as she cries out again. She distantly feels herself being slung over someone's shoulder as darkness creeps in at the edges of her vision. The last thing she takes in is bits and pieces of Jerriah's voice as he, presumably, addresses one of the bystanders. "....Back off... I'm here as her guardian....taking her to the hospital right now..."

A welcoming numbness seeps through her and the darkness that was encroaching before comes crashing down on her, drowning her in a wonderful, painless abyss.

When Kiara awoke next she was at home laying on her couch. She blinks a few times and glances down at herself, noticing she was most of the way healed. There was still a decent amount of pain in her hips, and her left leg still felt like it probably had a few smaller breaks in it. It would be at most half an hour longer before it healed, which meant she had already been out for at least an hour.

A quick glance around the living room and into the kitchen reveals nothing out of the ordinary, and best of all no murderous berserkers that went by the name Jerriah. She sighs her relief and looks up at the ceiling while thinking of how her eventful day went.