Rotting from the Inside ; Five Hargreeves

Chapter 11: Seraphina

~-~

"Five!"

Seraphina places the boy's head on her lap, almost frantic, "Five, what's wrong?!"

"Five. Wh-- Blood."

Seraphina's panicked eyes shoot towards the blood seeping through Five's knitted vest, her shaking hands immediately pulling the article of clothing back. The girl's eyes get impossibly wider and she gasps in horror upon seeing the gushing shrapnel wound on his lower stomach.

She chokes out, "Oh my god, Five, why didn't you tell me I- I knew you were hurt!"
"Jesus, Five," Diego speaks, "Why didn't you say anything?"

He grunts in pain, his voice weak,
"You have to keep going.... So... close..."
As the boy loses consciousness, Seraphina gets more frantic, and Allison begins shaking him.

"Five. Five!"

The two adults look at the girl, who's nearing hysteria,
"Sera!" Allison shouts, "Heal him!"

Seraphina's hands ghost over the wound, shaking like a leaf.
"I-- I can't! There- there's something in there! If I heal it- then it'll be stuck inside!"

She begins hyperventilating, and Diego turns to Allison, "We have to get him back to the Academy. Now."

-

Seraphina is sitting in the back of the car as it speeds down the road, Five's head back in her lap as tears roll down her face. The girl's hands cup his face and she shakily runs her thumb across his cheek.

"Please," she whispers, "Please be okay."

~-~

The group bursts through the door, Allison and Diego carrying the unconscious boy through the mansion with Seraphina trailing closely behind. She unfurls her wings from her back as she walks, curling them around her shoulders in an attempt to comfort herself.

"We should have taken him to the hospital."

Five, seeming to become lucid for a few moments, mutters, "A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some.. questions..."
"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic."

The two adults set the boy down on the couch, and Seraphina drops to her knees in front of him, cradling his head in her still-shaky hands.

Allison swiftly pulls her jacket off, using it to apply pressure to the wound.
"Don't put too much pressure..," the girl whispers almost absently, barely audible as her mind starts shutting down, "It'll push the shrapnel in further.."

"He's still losing a lot of blood, what do we do?"
"We gotta get the shrapnel out," Diego glances down at the girl on the floor, "Phina can't heal him otherwise."

Five groans in pain, the anxiety rising in Seraphina's stomach. Something seems to grab Diego's attention, and he begins quickly walking out of the room.
"Diego, where are you going?"
"Mom?"

The girl can hear two people, Diego and their mother, she thinks, talking in the foyer, but all background noise seems to fade away from her. Her blurry vision unable to tear away from the injured boy in front of her. Tears streak down her face in a waterfall, seeming to pour out of her eyes, despite her seldom blinking.