Take One

Chapter 20

"We need to find their bodies."

I was sure it was loud enough, so it made no sense that they looked at us with blank stares. Everyone held their positions as if any action would expose them. All eyes were on us, but the urgency I needed from Archer's family was lacking.

"No, you need a doctor!" Io all but shouted; shocking me with her sudden movement. I realized a second too late that Archer and I chose, as in neither was sensible enough to object, to burst into the living room covered in blood; with a bleeding nose and a bludgeoned hand sparkling from all the crap in it.

"Holy crap, what happened? You guys look like shit." Kai finally picked his jaw off the floor.

In the same moment, Lachie stifled a laugh, "I knew school was a bad idea."

"We're taking time off," Archer said through gritted teeth; waving Jericho, who came forward to fuss over his hand, off. "We've got a problem."

Io offered me a towel which I used to brashly mop up my nose. She watched me disapprovingly for under a minute before finally getting too pissed; snatching the towel from me and doing it properly. Io's hand was gentle on the nape of my neck as she very slightly tilted my head back. She held the towel under my nose.

"Really, I'm fine. It'll stop eventually. Archer's the one with parts of a foreign object stuck in his hand."

"You get that bleeding under control right now before you run out." Archer glared as if daring me to wave Io off.

"What do you want me to do? It's bleeding. It's not like I can command it to stop." It wasn't grumbling; if you shut one eye and squint the other, it wasn't. The blood down my shirt was getting sticky and really contributing.

Archer closed his eyes and heaved a deep sigh as if he was meditating really hard on not killing me. "Can I have a word?"

"Just one." I knew what he meant; but the urge to be obnoxious was just too great. The corner of his mouth twitched and there was no doubt in my mind he was going to let me have it. "Sorry, the blood loss is making me dumb." The back pedaling was so fast, it was gross.

There was definitely a sense of being in trouble as Archer led the way upstairs as if it was his house. I followed him to my room; still holding the towel up my nose. Silently, I estimated how much blood I had left in my body and calculated the volume against the number of days it would take to make more.

"I'm going to say this once and then never again." Archer stopped at the end of my bed; facing me with a reproachful look. "You look horrible, truly."

"Hey, watch it." I glared; unable to go for the low hanging comeback of calling him horrible looking, since he wasn't. "I thought you actually had something important to say."

"I actually wanted you to change. I didn't think you would, if I started filling the others in already."

"Oh." I couldn't help the pure admiration in my voice. It was hard to understand how he could be so considerate of such little things. "Well, I could have done that myself."

Archer averted his gaze. I can't do it myself. I was Hollow meat. We both knew it. I was very aware Archer was taking extra care not to make me feel small; it was exactly what made me feel pathetic. The situation was hard enough, with everything being designed to make me feel less human, and Archer was working so hard to preserve me.

A pitchy, uncomfortable laugh escaped me as I turned for my closet, "Sorry about all this." I flipped quickly from hanger to hanger with half a mind to toss myself in the pile. "I know this isn't what you picture when you think of loving a human."