The Rock's of Beauty by Meghan Escott (books for new readers TXT) 📕

The headline said: PRICELESS TOWN FEATURE FALLEN. The report wasn’t any better.
In the middle of the night, police were called to a sight of destruction of beauty. An unknown cause forced what some people called ‘the castle’, ‘the abandoned space’ or ‘the ‘special’ school’ down to the ground, taking the students of the ‘special’ school down with it. Ceilings collapsed on the young people and equipment was thrown on top of them. Many died in the downfall including an innocent baby; broken ceiling beams protruding through his chest.
Tears had stained the paper and made the ink run but I knew what it said off by heart.
Ambulance, fire engine and police were at the scene in minutes to try and remove the survivors of the terrible deed. One of the worst injuries had a young women with wooden ceiling stuck into her flesh on her back, stomach, hips and both arms. In the very same room was the dead baby, another screaming at the top of his lungs and a man crawling through the rubble.
That would be me, Joshua, Kahn and Sam they were describing.
All the survivors were taken to hospital immediately and all the people that weren’t killed in the crash survived the hospitals and have all gone home. This is a terrible disaster and everyone will miss the school and the non living occupants.
Another tear rolled down my cheek and I quickly whipped it away before it stained the paper like the rest had. I could feel nothing but sadness and I could do barely anything but cry. I hadn’t slept properly since the collapse; two week ago, neither eaten nor talked. I hadn’t even ventured out of my bedroom from the house my mum and dad had left me when they died.
Thinking of my dead parents sent more fresh tears falling down my cheeks. Just as I was about to lift my hand to whip them away, two thumbs whipped them away and tried to take the newspaper clipping out of my hand. I looked up at Sam; my fiancé and shook my head, making the tight pony tail my hair was in swing at the back of my head.
“You have to let go of it sometime Lucy.” Sam said, trying to make me release the document in my hand again.
“I...I...c-can’t.” As I croaked out my first words of that day, I looked at the moon that was shining brightly and reflecting light off of the pond in the back garden. I was sitting on my window seat looking out into the back yard, where I always was when someone came to see me. Sam pulled me into a hug and I leaned back into him though not embracing him back. He sighed and kissed the back of my head like he always did and tried one last time to take the newspaper clipping from me.
When he had failed again, I stood up and closed my curtains. I looked around my room like I always did and looked at the drawings that Sam had rescued from the wreckage. I was so happy in most of them and didn’t know how I was ever going to return to that state of happiness again. I started crying again and Sam whipped away the tears and took my hand, making me flinch. He led me to the door and turned around and stepped out so he was facing me with his hand still holding mine; my hand hanging loosely.
“I...I can’t.” I told Sam and started to turn away but he got a firmer grip on my hand and pulled me right up to the door. I shook my head but he pulled at my arm and managed to get me through the door way. I looked down at the newspaper clipping still in my hand and then up at Sam who was obviously reading my mind. I ignored him and remembered the night my school collapsed.

I woke up with Joshua on top of me and covered in rubble. I slowly realised Joshua was dead with a thick piece of wood going through his whole body and sticking into my stomach. I didn’t cry I just felt numb. Kahn was screaming in the background and I saw Sam crawling towards me through all the plaster and wood. I quickly regained the feeling of pain and saw that there were long, sharp and thick wooden splinters coming out of both of my arms, my right hip and my back.
I heard sirens and then two people came to us, wearing florescent yellow jackets and hard helmets and torches. They stopped when they saw the state of the room and how many people were injured. One spoke into a radio while the other went to Kahn and picked him up. I saw that Kahn was fine. He would have a few bruises but he would heal and would be fine.
Another two men entered and one went over to Sam and the other came to me. He introduced himself quickly, though I don’t recall a name and I told him mine. He started taking all the rubble off of me and when he got to a piece of wood that wouldn’t come out, his face got more worried. When he tried to take Joshua off of my stomach, I had screamed and the man had tried to sooth me and got out his radio.
“I’ve got a woman here who has wood stuck in her hips, arms, back and her stomach. She’s got a baby that’s on the wood in her stomach. The only side that isn’t covered with the damn wood is her left.” I listened to him say that and thought I was glad that Sam had been taken away with Kahn. Three more men came in then with a stretcher.
Two cleared a space on the floor quickly and put the stretcher down while the other two rolled me onto my left. They then covered my eyes and ears and I felt a pulling on my stomach.
When I could hear and see again, Joshua was gone as was a man. I couldn’t feel anything but numb and pain. Two men lifted me and put me on the stretcher on my left and lifted me up and out of the room and out of the ruins of the school.
Later they took me to hospital were Destinie took out all the wood and put bandages on all the cuts and gauges. I screamed through most of it and I could hear that Sam had had to be restrained.

Sam was crying now since he had been reading my mind when I had recounted in my head what had happened. I hadn’t told Sam what had happened after he had left and he was never in the room when I thought about it but now we were alone together and he was touching me.
I tried to pull my hand away from his but he kept a tight grip on it and led me towards the stairs. I tried to resist but it was no use because Sam was stronger than me. He walked me carefully down the stairs where I heard talking and pacing. The voices were of my friends Sophie, Jasmina, Allisa, Eliza, Katie, Hannah and Jane. They had all survived the collapse with only bruises and they had healed over night. The voices got louder the lower we got and when we got to the bottom I could hear exactly what they were saying though I ignored it.
Sam squeezed my hand and I twitched. He pulled me into the living room where all my friends were and they all stopped talking the second I walked in. Sam took me to a sofa and sat me down. He sat down next to me and took my hand again while I was looking at the clipping again. I knew all my friends were taking in the state I was in; my face blotchy and red, my hair tied back tightly, the baggy clothes and the bandages and the blood. My injuries still hadn’t healed even after two weeks because I hadn’t been drinking blood unless Sam forced me which he managed every other day and I had been giving my blood to Kahn because I was determined to keep him alive even if it meant killing myself.
“Are you talking yet?” Katie asked nervously coming up to me and putting a hand on my knee. I shook my head and looked at the hand on my knee.
“Having blood yet?” Hannah asked. I shook my head again and the hand moved from my knee.
“She barley even opens her mouth any more She’s spoken four words today and she hasn’t had blood since yesterday even though she feeds Kahn every day. She would do anything for him even if it involves sacrificing herself in the process.” Sam said to the other.
“I...want him to...live....Joshua.” I said and burst into tears again. Sam whipped the tears away like normal and put my head on his shoulder. He stroked my hair and put his wrist to my mouth. I pushed it away instinctively but he persisted. He even cut himself and put the blood on my lips. It was hard not to let the blood dribble into my mouth then. I licked my lips letting the taste of the blood fill me. Sam’s wrist was at my mouth with a cut in its which was oozing blood. I licked the line of blood and felt a bit better as it slid down my throat.
Sam nodded with a slight smile playing at his lips and he put his wrist right up to my mouth. I put my mouth to it and let my tongue run over the line of blood again. Sam shuddered although he was smiling. I sucked one mouthful and then I pulled away and healed Sam’s wrist. I looked away from him and stood up and walked out of the room. Sam caught up with me and stopped me from going out of the room.
“Lucy, talk now. Do you think that I don’t want to just give up and die like you do? Do you think that I wanted Joshua to die? I crawled through the rubble of our school to try and get to you, to Joshua, and if those stupid medics hadn’t taken me away I would have done anything to make him live again. Just like what you’re doing with Kahn; you’re doing anything to make sure he lives including hurting yourself even more. You not having blood more than three times a week but you’re giving Kahn blood every day. Your slowly killing yourself, is that what you want Lucy? To die.”
“I don’t want to die Sam. I want Kahn to live more than anything in the world and if that means I die, I’m willing to take the risk.” I said back to him quietly.
“Then why aren’t you having blood if you don’t want to die? Your injuries still haven’t healed after two weeks and the only thing that will heal them is blood. Magic can’t heal them so this is your only other option.” He said reasonably. I sighed and looked at Sam’s outstretched wrist. I knocked it away and Sam frowned again. I quickly lent into Sam’s neck and, before I could change my mind, bit.
Sam gasped and then moaned. My friends stayed silent and averted their eyes away from us. I could feel my cuts and bruises healing themselves and with the healing, came the pain. My tattoos were also brightening and looking more eye catching and more noticeable.