My friend, Demise

Chapter 28

Demise and I laid in the hotel room silently. I had a lot of questions but decided it would be best to stay quiet.

"You can talk if you want."

"I'm good."

"I don't really feel well." He sat up and held a hand over the wound in his stomach. "So just talk to me. Take my mind off of this."

"You don't feel well?"

"I might puke actually-" he held a hand over his mouth, grabbing the trash can beside the bed and holding it beneath his face.

"Are you sick?"

"Don't know." He grabbed my hand and threw up in the trash can, coughing deeply afterwards.

"I'll call your dad to take you to the hospital, come on." I stood up and grabbed my phone. He quickly grabbed it from me and set the trash can down, wiping what looked like blood from his mouth.

"Don't."

"But he's not in his room right now, he told me he was going to the bar."

"I know. Don't call him."

"You're sick."

"I'm-" he stopped abruptly, sitting up and coughing so hard that it made me flinch. I quickly grabbed my phone from him when blood began to drip from between the fingers covering his mouth. "Hey- what're you-"

"911 what's your-"

"My friend is sick." I stood up and began to pace the floor. "He's been coughing and throwing up blood, can you send an ambulance to our hotel?"

"Of course, I've got your location. What's your friend's name?"

"Demise Hitman."

"And yours?"

"Azriel Smith."

"Has Demise taken any drugs recently? Is he injured at all?"

"I don't know he- he got stabbed."

"Was the wound taken care of?"

"Yes! I don't know why he's-"

"May I speak to him?"

"He'll just hang up. He told me not to call for help."

"Would ever try to hurt himself?"

"No. Why are you asking me that?"

"You don't think there's any chance he'd do something like that? If he told you not to call, it could be the result of a suicide attempt."

"Have you taken anything?" I asked him, to which he shook his head. "I took aspirin but-"

"How much?"

"I don't know."

After about twenty minutes, we got Demise to the hospital. The only problem was that he absolutely refused to take off his shirt of even roll up his sleeves so they could give him an IV and proper treatment for his stab wound. I watched him fight off nurses before they finally gave him an anesthetic to calm him down.

"Demise, did you try to hurt yourself?" I asked him hesitantly. He kept trying to pull his arm away from the nurse.

"What the hell?! No!" He turned his attention toward me, earning a needle in his arm. "Ow! You bitch-"

"It's just an anesthetic, it doesn't hurt." Her voice is soft compared to his.

A couple other nurses went to hold him down as she tried to roll his sleeve up a little more to get the IV. "Please, be still."

"Get off!"

The nurse stopped for a moment when she managed to roll his sleeve up to his shoulder, staring at the deep bruises wrapped around his upper arm. "Good god..."

"I said get off!" He kicked her in the stomach and tried to run toward the door, falling to his knees halfway.

"Calm down." I stepped over and helped him stand. He wobbled into place. "They're just trying to help."

"I don't need your help or anyone else's!"

"Look at me."

"Fuck no!"

"Where did you get these bruises?" I tried to lower my voice so he'd relax, which seemed to help. Now that he was standing still, I got him to sit back on the hospital bed and let the nurse to her job. "Is it from the guys that stabbed you?"

"No, they didn't beat me up or anything."

"Where did you get them?"

The nurse unbuttoned his shirt as he woozily looked around the room. She hesitated, looking directly at me. "We're gonna have to call this kid's parents."

"His dad already knows he got hurt."

"Does he know about this?"

I looked back at his bare chest, my heart dropping to my stomach when I saw the purple and blue bruises littering his body. They trailed all the way up to his neck. "I didn't even know about this."

"He might have taken the aspirin to stop pain and swelling, but these look very recent. Less than a few hours ago maybe."

He didn't have these when Caine patched up his stab wound. I remembered that vividly. It had to have happened between when Caine and I left him alone and when he found us at the coffee shop.

"I don't know what you two are talking about." He mumbled, slurring his words a little. "But if I'm shirtless for this long, I'm gonna get horny."

"He's quite the character." She sighed with a laugh and hurriedly took care of changing his bandages. "He'll be asleep soon, so I'm gonna call his guardian. Has he been here before?"

"Yeah, his last name is Hitman."

"Thank you. I'll be back soon."

The nurses left us alone, one of them standing outside the closed door to make sure he'd stay in place. "Oi."

"What?" I sat at the end of the bed and faced him.

"Those bitches fucking drugged me like an underage girl at her first club, didn't they?"

"If you had just settled down, that wouldn't have happened."

"I will not be an object!" He yelled out loud enough for the nurse outside to hear.

"Tell me where you got those bruises."

"You dumb or somethin?"

"Answer me."

"I'd rather take a nice, cozy nap."

"Demise, I'm not playing right now. Be serious."

"Why?" He laughed emptily. "If you're so crazy about me, go check on my sister instead of bugging me."

"Why would I-"

"Dad hit her and I stepped in. That's all. So just forget about it."

"I'm not- do you even see how deep those bruises are? That's abuse!"

"Who cares? He's scary enough to get his way."

"But-"

"Please just stop talking." He turned on his side and closed his eyes. "I'm tired."