Riley squeezed my hand as I inspected the now clean wounds, I lessened my touch on her side, certain there wasn't anything in it. It appeared as though a projectile had entered the front and exited at an angle, away from any organs, but leaving a tearing gash.
I reached under Riley's chair and pulled it closer to mine, turning it so that I could inspect the shoulder wound. With a clean cloth I blotted away some bleeding that trickled down her shoulder blade and arm. Inspecting this wound there was something dark and shiny deep in the tissue.
"When were you shot?" I asked reaching over to the table and picking up some long forceps.
Riley tensed out of the corner of my eye. "I don't know" she spelled out, seemed rather truthful and bewildered.
I let the silence lul in the air for a breath.
"What do you remember" I asked instead, focusing on the shoulder, pushing on one area, and noticing that it pushed the foreign object upwards, Riley squeezed my hand tight and made a sound like a strained whine.
"I need to remove it, it'll get infected" I said inspecting the area for a better angle. Riley turned her head away in pain.
"I remember running through the woods" Riley said, "I was being chased."
Riley winced and gritted her teeth as I pinched the wound together to attempt to squish out the object. Riley flinched again as I reached with the tweezers to remove the bullet. "Please, stay still" I whispered holding her shoulder blade steady and reaching again. With nearly trembling hands I extracted what appeared to be a shiny black bullet.
I dropped it on a piece of gauze on the table with the tweezers and looked to Riley for input. She looked unphased and her eyes had glossed over slightly. Shock maybe.
