Partials

10: First aid

"Last time we did this it was you bleeding everywhere." I said attempting to make the situation lighter. We were standing in the bathroom. Sin had wrapped a bandage around my hand tightly stopping the blood. I flexed my hand admiring his handy work.

"Yeah but you're not shirtless." He teased.

"I don't plan on it either." I switched my gaze to him. His eyes locked onto mine right away.

"We are going to be down here for a long time." He said slowly

"I know." I whispered sadly.

"I think we should open up. Tell each other everything. No more secrets. No matter how hard it is." A lump formed in my throat. Shanelle.

"I'll start." I said, my voice gravel "I have to tell you this. I was young. The Partial outbreak had happened about a year ago. It was after mum was taken. Me and my best, and only friend Shanelle were walking down the street to my house, it was getting dark. We were being young, stupid, arrogant, unaware. It must have been darker than we realised because we didn't even see the Partial sneak up on us. It grabbed Shanelle and disappeared into the shadows dragging her body down the street. I heard her screaming for about five minutes until the sound faded. What hurts the most, isn't how young she was, not how we were so stupid. Not even after I should have been more aware because the same thing happened to mum!" I yelled the last three words. I paused again calming myself down "it was that I didn't go after her. I just stood there letting that thing take her." I said 'thing' so viciously I almost spat it "I even had a knife in my hand." I pulled the skull knife out of my hoodie pocket "this knife right here. The memory still stings now. I can't even sleep properly. I have to have a gun under my pillow." I felt slightly pathetic as I said that realising Sin had another entire house under his with walls covered in guns. He began talking

"When my parents were taken I was mad. Mad at them for leaving me. Mad at the world for taking them away from me. Mad at the Partials. I wanted to kill them all. Get my revenge. So I stayed outside that night, until it got dark. I had a large kitchen knife. That was my only weapon. Dumb really. I heard the screeches. They came at me one at a time. I must have killed about ten before I got four attack me at once. They pushed me down. One scratched down my chest and the other scratched my eye." He lifted up his shirt. I saw the same long red scar I had seen in the nurses room. The imperfection stood out boldly on his otherwise perfectly torso. He put his hand to his forehead. It was shaking gently, he brushed his hair out of his face and he looked straight into my eyes. The iris was completely red and he had a thin red line going from one side of his eye, going through the iris just avoiding his pupil, and reaching the other side. Bloodshot streaks spiderwebbed off the scratch and eventually faded as they reached further away from the cut. "I managed to fight them off but they left me like this. Fucking disgusting."

"It's not disgusting." I stepped closer to him "our scars make up who we are. As people. They describe more about us then anything else possibly can. I have scars. I have learned to live around them. They have become apart of me."

"We could die today Raven." His words struck me like lightning.

"Yeah- we could, but we won't."

"How do you know."

"The walls are covered with guns Sin. I think we are remotely safe."

"Not from ourselves."

"No. We will never be safe from ourselves."

••••••••••

Authors note- Raven finally told somebody about Shanelle. So Sin is ashamed of his eyes and that's why he hides them. Fair enough.

Vote if your house has walls covered with guns.