Dead Connections

Chapter 15 - That sinking feeling

In the following hours Blake sat beside me as Helen slowly checked all of my injuries. I had to lie about how I’d got some of the cuts. I said that the bullet was when I was escaping, and it had just cut into my stomach, but hadn’t hit any vital organs. My dislocated wrist was when I’d fallen down the stairs on my way out. I didn’t even mention him taking me to that lake where a number of unbelievably things occurred.

I had a big gash in my right shoulder, and in all honesty, I had no clue where it came from. It was probably from my fight with Unseen or something but I couldn’t pin point the exact moment I got it.

“I don’t think it’s infected,” Helen confirmed, wiping up the dried blood around it. I winced, closing my eyes. Blake had my hand in his for comfort, and he squeezed it.

“You alright?” he checked. I nodded, biting my lip. “Stop!”

“What?”

“Stop devouring your lip,” he hissed playfully.

“It’s a force of habit,” I told him. “It’s a way of coping with… you know… Everything.”

“I might have to put a few stitches in this wound. It will help.”

Helen was surprised when I simply nodded. She offered pain killers but I just shook my head. I didn’t want anything but to get it over with. Helen hesitated, but then put a couple of small stitches in my shoulder to help it heal.

I winced, biting my lip to distract myself from the pain. I felt my hand clenching into a fist around Blake’s hand and I tried not to hurt him. I removed my hand from his and gripped the chair arm instead.

Helen finished putting the stitches in and went to dispose of everything. She wrapped a large bandage around my shoulder and also round my throbbing side before leaving me and Blake alone in the living room.

“How do you feel?” he asked sensitively. I groaned, expressing an answer without opening my mouth. Flashing me a sympathetic grin, he patted my good shoulder gently with his hand. “It’ll get better, I promise you. My mum’s an awesome doctor.”

“She’s done pretty well,” I admitted, glancing down at my slowly healing wounds.

“I’m back,” Blake dad called out. I spun my head round, glancing in the direction of the door to the hotel room. It quickly slide open and James stood in the door frame with a rather large black shopping bag in his hand. Like Blake, he was very, very pale. Both of them had black hair, venturing down to their necks but James had about half a gallon of hair gel in his. Blake’s was natural and smooth.

“Hey dad,” Blake chirped, standing up. “What did you get her?”

“I got a fair few things,” James told us both. He turned to face me. “So you can take your pick and choose what you like.”

“Thanks,” I replied as he brought over the large plastic shopping bag. It was surprisingly hard to sit up properly with the bandages restricting my waist, stomach and shoulder. The bag was placed on the large glass table in front of me and I opened it.

The first thing that was inside was a large baggy green hoodie with a white zip. I took it out of the bag and carefully examined it. It was a dark green that reminded me of freshly cut grass or holly leaves. I grinned, turning to Blake and his dad.

“This is awesome,” I told them both. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” they said together, bemusement on their pale, spotless faces.

I pulled the next item out, not so pleased as I had been with the hoodie.

I was confronted by a really tiny sparkly black skirt, with a zip at the side. I smiled again, but not so convincingly.