Project Sorna

Twenty-six

                                  My breaths came out ragged-my stomach in a knot-I was doused in sweat. I've seen too much, knew too much. At some point I was get ill, and here I was in the thick of it all.

                                   Fredrick came steadily over. "Now that was unexpected." he stood over me.

                                  Even after I took the swift route and emptied my stomach out all outside of the observatory, my body trembled. My own face felt raw to the point of redness, hands holding the glass and streaking it with blood. I was not okay.

                                 "Robin. Deep breaths." Fredrick told me. His voice was lost in my mind of terror, a pang of terrible imagines I hadn't even recognized but feared the worst.

                                 "No....no-no-no-no-no-no................."

                                 If looks could kill, I must have been crazy-eyed enough to Fred. There was something desperate on my mind to tell me.

                                 "You don't understand!" my hands were on his shoulders, meanwhile I spoke in a harsh whisper.

                                 "Damn PTSD." I scowled myself, standing straight and overlooking the pure vomit, making me cringe in what seemed like forever. One hand went to my stomach, I felt a hollow sensation. A sensation that felt like I had to get food in my body. But no. If I was consume anything sooner, then the same accident would occur again.

                                 Fred covered his hand over my shoulder and grimaced, but supposedly it wasn't me he was grimacing at. "That explains a lot."

                                 I dropped to the floor. Shock numbed into pain as I couldn't move my hands with the pieces of glass in my hands, unfortunately. My anxiety poured out in tears and I shrieked at the look of crimson on my palms. First, my PTSD, then this? There were no words except my whimpering.

                                 Before I'm able to realize my surroundings, I'm scooped into Fredrick cradling arms. My nausea only got worse while being throttled on his shoulder and soon, we're approaching the medical unit with the usual window and dulled environment.

                                He lowered me on the seat, examining the excruciating injuries to my hands. He shook his head timely, looking at the deep wounds that were serrated by glass. A flood of pain engulfed me. The pain wasn't just the glass pieces still digging into my palms and gruesome fingers, there was another, more rendering cycle in my head that spiraled of the cruelest images.

                               He looked up, a sorry look across  his face. "We don't have a choice-looks like this is a job for the tweezers. I'll see if anything's around here for your mouth...."

                              A mere minute later, Fredrick demanded for me to take an ice pack into my blubbering mouth. Ice cubes only managed the panic set in, and I wasn't the most stable having to bite down on them while tweezers went to work.

                             I blinked eyeing those tweezers as Fred approached hastily. I almost wanted to shake me head and refuse for the pain to worsen. Unfortunately, nothing would back me out of this emergency. This had to happen.

                           The pain stabbed further into my hands. Each pinch of the tweezers gave a burning discomfort. Pieces that were extracted from my hands were crimson-my teeth grating the ice with all my might. Because of the ice pack, no screams could escape from my throat that I wanted to so desperately get rid of. I simply squeeze my eyes with hot tears falling.

                          Bandaging my hands was an effort for Fred himself. Even with all the experience behind his eyes, this was one of the most gruesome operations for the two of us.

                         "Okay-that's that..." shuttered the man.