Sanctuary

Andy's P.O.V.

Jayelle stood beside me, shaking as if she was cold. She was just scared. I held her shivering hand as we walked into Valencia Middle School, a long step from safe elementary school, stock full of crayons and nice helpful teachers. This place as we already saw, had kids who looked at us strangely, kids all sizes and ages, but most of all, everyone was intimidating. Jayelle looked as if she was about to vomit when I heard her tiny, shaking voice. "What if some girls are mean to me here? I'm not like them," she said, starting to cry.
"I'll never let anyone hurt you. I love you more than anything."

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I'll never let anyone hurt you.

The promise I made to Jayelle when I was 11 years old rang through my mind as I saw this pathetic, drugged up man look to her with a gun pointed at her. I reached for my bow and arrows and they both sprang into their full deadly size in a tenth of a second, and even quicker than that, I had my arrow drawn back, aimed at his heart, ready to fire.
Jayelle pushed the small scared girl behind her, and with her right hand as quickly as I had myself ready to shoot, reached under her sleeve and came out with a beast of a dagger, and with expert precision and skill pitched the knife at him. Before either could react the blade dug all the way to the middle of the handle into his eye socket, killing him instantly. The smaller man beside him, frightened, turned back to me. Before he could even get a full picture of me, I'd done the same. Released my arrow which dug into his eye, killing him on impact as well. Both dropped out of their chairs and hit with a thud onto the concrete ground. Dark red blood pooling around their heads. Violent sobbing filled the room, and as I stood, grabbing my bloody arrow and Jayelle's dagger from the skulls of the two drug dealers, quickly I ran to Jayelle and the brunette girl. The frightened kid was on the floor shaking, with her hands covering her head, crying hysterically, clinging to Jayelle's tattooed hands.
"Take her. I'll go search the room."
I managed to get the girl off her, even though she was kicking and screaming. Jayelle always had a way with kids. Most kids found her scary at first, what child wouldn't? She has a pure white eye and the scar that just sends bad news and of course the tattoos and piercings and everything their parents warn them to stay away from, but once they got over the initial shock (which only took a couple of minutes considering her soft, euphoric voice), they always found immense comfort in her. This girl didn't even know her name, anything about her, but immediately knew she was her saviour. It amazed me.

Jayelle started searching the room and I stood cradling this mess of a child in my arms when something caught my attention, a very, very quiet ticking noise.

I knew that noise far too well.
One we've had years in training for.
One we've encountered far too many times.
And one that made a sense of panic and fear wash over me.

"Jayelle.."
"What?"
"Bomb."

Notes

Thank you SO MUCH to @BlackVeiledEvanescence for her help and support, and thank you very much for staying with me through it!

It's by far not over, and I hope I've at least caught a few reader's attention!