One Boy. A Thousand Feelings | Duncan

~ Chapter 29 ~

Armana sprinted into the open air, not wanting to feel cooped up inside where she'd share the same as her sick peers.

"Armana!" She heard Duncan suddenly call out to her but she could only proceed to where there was shrubbery.

She breathed with loud laborious breaths through her mouth once she stopped, placing her hands on her knees and leaning forward above a bush. Duncan promptly arrived next to her, rubbing circles clockwise on her back to try to somewhat comfort her from her pain.

"Slow down your breathing. It's okay just try to breathe." He softly said, exchanging sweet nothings to calm her.
"It hurts, so bad." She hissed as a spike of pain intermittently shot through her abdomen. "It feels like something is trying to tear me open!"
"I know, precious, I know. Just take deep breaths for me and let it out."

She exercised a bit more diaphragmatic breathing; moving her stomach with each breath upon expanding while inhaling and contracting while exhaling. Subsequently, her abdominal muscles and her diaphragm simultaneously contracted in precedence of her emesis. The vigorous contractions came in short pulses, heaving without bringing up any substance though shortly as her stomach squeezed, intragastric pressure elevated to open the esophagus and close her glottis to seal the airway. The pyloric sphincter at the bottom of her stomach was held closed, leaving the only way out for the vomit to go being upwards.

"Blarghhh!"

The contents forcefully erupted from her, propelling several feet away rather than coming in shorter, violent bursts. Her body purged an orange liquid with great exertion, feeling as though she was being suffocated by how she momentarily couldn't breathe for as long as it took to expel her stomach content. With each hurl she shot, she hungered for air as the sensation of the strong urge to breathe developed. Her short breaths increased in number per pause as she tried to take in larger amounts of air before her stomach squeezed again. Duncan listened as the substance proceeded to strike against the densely branched plants and smelled the fermented odor of butyric acid. But even as she convulsed and agonizingly vocalized with every round, he continued to rub her back in different patterns from clockwise circles to going in up and down zig zags. He maintained a gentle tone with words he still spoke in her ear along the lines of; "you're okay", "that's it, beautiful", "let it out".

It came to a standstill when she was brought to dry retches; only undergoing a few more of coordinated contractions in her abdomen. Finally after the expulsion, she was almost immediately met with relief after she felt a decreased pressure from her stomach. Although as she found peace to stand up, she moaned with a facial grimace at the consequent soreness in her abdomen. Duncan lightly embosomed her, kissing her in the same place of her forehead that made her want to melt into a puddle.

"You okay, prinny?" He softly asked with his lips pressed onto her temple.

Though as he asked her, he felt like he was making a minimization of her current health. She appeared debilitated by her closed, downcast eyes, dewed forehead, shallow breathing and paled skin. Taking in the sight made him tighten his arms and hold her closer. So close he hoped that she wouldn't even feel her own body weight on her feet and he could carry it all for her.

Before she could respond, he spoke, "I shouldn't have asked such a silly question. Of course you're not okay. Just by looking at you I'm afraid if I let go you'll fall. That you won't even be able to handle the simple leisure of walking. Let me take you to lay down."

Without waiting for her to opine, he immediately lifted Armana up from the crook of her knees and behind her back. He knew she would've felt like she was an imposition of some sort, wanting to foreclose any fulfillment for her needs from being sick. But Duncan was disposed to help her more than anything, simply inborn with good nature.