ｄｅｍｏｎｓ¹ ✓

chapter twenty-three

chapter twenty-three
unedited
1370 words

Kneeling down beside Craig, you gently grasped his shoulder and turned him on his back. His muscles were nearly completely relaxed, which isn't a good sign at all. Without any thought, too scared to think of any that is, you placed your head against his chest for a heartbeat. After a second of doubt and utter terror, you heard the faintest beat, then another second passed, and another beat.

"He's alive!" You exclaimed, hopefully, loud enough for Delirious, Brock, and Tyler to hear.

"Great, but this isn't the place. We need to move him or else he may get injured more." Bryce informed. You looked at your surroundings, noticing the four different battles getting closer and farther, not caring about the wounded around them but to only save their own skins, other than Evan, Chilled, Luke, and Marcel who fought their best to keep distance in their battles.

"Fucking run!" Marcel screeched with all the might that he could while dodging his opponent's attack. Bryce grabbed Craig's torso, leaving you with his legs. Bryce struggled to pick up Craig's torso, but since you picked up his legs with ease, Bryce's job became slightly easier. Carrying the brunette off, you found a small tent, assumingly their sleeping tents, and laid him on one of their many beds. This was either where they slept, or their hospital.

"Wait, this IS the hospital! Not the sleeping area!" Bryce exclaimed in relief as if he read your concerns and figured the answer out for you. You cocked an eyebrow, wondering who he could tell. You shrugged it off, knowing he knew much more about medical stuff than you did.

 You watched as he scrambled over to a small spacious area. In that area was a table that sectioned it from the beds, and in that area were cabinets and countertops galore. He rummaged through the cupboards until finding what he was looking for with a gleeful victory cheer.

"Yes!" Running back over with a bottle of peroxide and a cotton ball, he unscrewed the cap and poured some of the toxic liquid onto the cotton ball. The strong aroma fills your senses. Looking Craig over with Bryce, you managed to find a bullet wound on his collarbone. Bryce noticed this and rolled up his sleeves. 

He ripped Craig's shirt around the wound, which got rid of the neck part of the shirt around the wound entirely, leaving a giant rip from his neck to his chest. Bryce dubbed the cotton ball against the wound enough for the bleeding to cease. Bryce then tensed up and stared inside the wound.

"What do you want me to do? Just name it and I'm on it." You told him, wanting to take more initiative. He continued staring at the wound in deep thought before turning his dark sea eyes to you.

"I'm going to need pliers."

"Pliers?" You asked, then realization hit you like a truck of why he needed them.

"The bullet is still inside. This is not going to be easy." Bryce trailed. He took off his purple jacket entirely and pressed it hard around the wound, hoping to stop whatever small amounts of blood still escaped. 

He set off back towards the spacious area and rummaged through cabinets to cupboards to the appliances laying around the countertop. Bryce grabbed the first aid and pulled out a couple pairs of pliers. Two, to be exact.

While you two were gathering things, you hadn't noticed Delirious and Brock comes in with Tyler in their arms. A smell of blood and sweat came in with them. They laid Tyler down in the bed beside Craig. They had to lay him on his stomach due to the knife inside his back.

Tyler was still conscious. You knew this because you gawked over and saw Tyler look beside him at Craig, before trailing his hand over and grasping Craig's. It was adorable, sad, horrible, and absolutely anger filling to watch. You've made it clear in your mind what you're going to do after you patch these two up; And they will live.

"(Y/N), this may be traumatizing for you, but I'm going to need your help during this." Bryce called, he had grabbed more supplies now, seeing Tyler now in the room. You sighed silently to yourself, furrowing your eyebrows in frustration. Not because you didn't want to do this, but because this shouldn't even be happening, and the fact that Bryce thinks you wouldn't be fit to do the job.

"Try me," You retorted. "I can handle it."

Bryce blinked, he was clearly surprised by your sudden emotion of anger and eagerness. Giving a slight, almost inaudible sigh, Bryce walked back over to Craig after handing you a pair of pliers and the bandages that he couldn't carry. Bryce gave some bandages to Brock and peroxide to Delirious without saying a word. 

Coming back over to you, he untied the jacket around Craig's wound to reveal a neck that had blood smeared off, you could actually see the bullet hole clearly now. Bryce gave you two pliers, guiding you what to do, and you did what he said without hesitation.

Carefully following Bryce's instructions, you clipped the pliers onto the flesh around the wound and ever so slightly pulled away, doing this on both sides. This gave Bryce enough room to work with. He inserted his pliers ever so carefully, his hand shaking every now and then, but he managed to keep still enough. 

Seeing clearly inside the wound disgusted you, but you knew this was just the beginning of this bullshit and told yourself to be strong. You never looked away or winced at the sight. Bryce grasped the bullet with one side of the pliers, but he had to get the other side to pull it out, which would be hard considering it was hard enough to get the first in.

"I'm going to need you to open it wider," Bryce told you. You did so, earning a jump from Craig. He either woke up or is just semi-unconscious. His eyes were closed tightly, and he clenched his teeth in agony. Chilled then comes into the tent, blood streaked on his cheek and almost all of his body. He saw the operations happening in here and winced at the sight, but then let his eyes settle on it.

"Need help?" He asked. Bryce nodded, neither Brock nor Delirious said anything. Delirious could probably handle Tyler if he tries to retaliate, that and they don't need two people to remove a knife. It wasn't like a tiny bullet inside the body.

"Hold him down, please. This'll hurt." Bryce said. Chilled came over behind Craig and held down his arms. You then spread the wound wider, which made some blood flow out. Moving the other part of the plier to grasp the bullet, Craig's arms flailed and his legs a tiny bit, not enough to throw you or Bryce off though. As soon as Bryce had ahold of it, he carefully slid it out fastest he could, which wasn't that fast but all that he could afford.

You then let go of his now bleeding flesh and grabbed the bandages while Bryce put the bullet in a handkerchief. Chilled noticed what you were doing, and held him up by his arms for you to work around. Finishing up the bandaging, Craig was alive and better now.

You set him back down and he instantly fell back asleep. It was peaceful because he started snoring. Bryce took a clean handkerchief, that he had gotten from a cabinet, and wiped the sweat off his forehead before wiping Craig's too. He had taken a whole box, and so you and Chilled took one. Chilled wiped the blood off him, which really only smeared it, while you wiped Craig's blood off your hands.

The slightly peaceful moment only lasted a second, hearing Tyler's scream as Delirious pulled the knife out of Tyler's back. It came out clean, allowing Tyler to quickly feel relieved. His breathing was heavy, and he swallowed hard. After that, Brock sighed heavily.

"I'll need help," He breathed. "he needs stitches."