Shifters (Feline english version)

Chapter 20

I opened his shirt to see the extent of the damage and was not disappointed. He had almost been eviscerated! Four reddish scarring, the obvious result of a vicious paw, crossed his abdomen from one side to the other. However, given the short time that had passed since he got it, it had already healed well. Not being able to do much more about it, I continued my examination.

He had numerous scratches and bites, mainly on his arms, but all in a healing state. But what was the problem then? Because he didn't seem to be getting any better. No matter how hard he tried, it was getting harder and harder for him to hide his suffering.

- 'I don't understand. You look like you're healing normally, a little slow for you maybe, but.... Where exactly does it hurt?' I asked him, frustrated and confused.

- 'I don't really know how to define it... It's diffuse. I've been feeling that since my second change in the woods. I feel like it's draining me of all my energy.'

As a matter of fact, his voice seemed more and more apathetic.

I stood there for a moment, my arms dangling, watching him lying on the couch, when what he had said to the inspector earlier came back to me: "Especially since it is the most beautiful of the three. »

- 'You have to turn around,' I commanded him in an urgent voice and helped him sit down so that the exercise would be easier.

I took the opportunity to take off his shirt completely, and the little I could see from his back confirmed my suspicions.

- 'Take off your pants too.'

He did it slowly and what I saw then almost made me curse. So I hadn't dreamed earlier, I had seen him limping.

- 'Why the hell didn't you say anything? I thought you weren't sensitive to infection?'

- 'What are you talking about?' he said in an uncertain voice, almost as if he was drunk.

He nevertheless followed my gaze with his own and his eyes widened when he saw the state of the gunshot wound to his thigh. Well, what he could see, but it was already enough. On my part, it was downright worrying! His thigh had an unhealthy color and a kind of undetermined liquid was flowing from his inflamed wound that had doubled in size. The absence of a nauseating smell reassured me somewhat. We may still have time to act, but we had to do it fast.

- 'I don't understand, it didn't look like that earlier in the shower. It's true that they don't heal as they should, but that's simply inconceivable!'

- 'Inconceivable or not, you have to do something, because even though I have little medical knowledge, it looks a little too much like the beginning of gangrene to my taste.'

I helped him get to the bedroom and lay down on his stomach on the bed. I then went to the bathroom to get the first aid kit and emptied it on the blanket next to me. As I contemplated the various supplies scattered with a distant glance, I thought about what might well cause this reaction to this injury rather than to the others. Because the other two, although barely better healed than two days ago, were not infected. I remembered then that for the last one, I had to go much faster and make a compression point. Maybe that's what it was? Maybe there was something left in the wound.

I was desperately looking for something to reopen the wound, but the sharpest thing was a old pair of scissors. So I rushed into the kitchen looking for a knife, but they were all round-tipped. Were they afraid we'd get hurt with it or what? Ugh... Frustrated, I then violently took it out on the drawer and slammed it with all my might. Which, of course, did not help me at all. With a resigned and determined step, I went back to the room and set about reopening the damn wound with the damn scissors.