In The Sight of These Hills (Dolan Twins)

Blood in the Water

Chapter 5: Blood in the Water

"Hold out your arms
Soak it in
Just some teenage kids
Before you and I
Knew that life could never end"

"To the Hills"-Laurel

They were in the bathroom, under the glare of the hot light above.

"It's okay, okay, okay," Ethan breathed out, panting heavily. What if the thing was right outside of their house, what if it had followed them?

Oh, God.

He staggered against the wide sink, shutting the door and clicking the lock, and his brother moved out of his grasp. Gray sat himself on the edge of the bathtub between the unused bar of soap and a light green bath scrunchy, pale, trembling, consumed by an inner fire. He was dizzy.

Ethan gently tore the sweatshirt off, but parts of it clung to his brother's skin, stuck with wet, bright red blood. Grayson's head rolled, teeth clenched. Sweat glistened on his skin like a holy vow.

"We have to go to the hospital," Ethan said, shaking. He let go of it and it plopped on the floor. He pulled his own off and tossed it. The warmth of the heated house was different than the freezing air outside. He was sweating. His hands looked like he was wearing red winter gloves. They were sticky, and he thought about throwing up, wanted to, not because having his brother's blood on him made him queasy but because it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

Seven deep slashes were cut sideways into Gray's chest from right under his collarbone to his v-line. Some were hollower than others. The one in the center of his belly looked especially deep and there was still a stream of red leaking out slowly. The bite mark was a starling thing, large, unnatural punctured marks there on his skin.

Ethan wished he could turn back time so that they wouldn't have ever gone out, had never searched for revenge, had never found that dead Shepard in the first place.

"No," his brother breathed out, exhaling sharply.

Grayson's senses were pulsing, and the darkness he had been drifting into seemed to had dissipated. He felt like he was hyper-aware and hyper-sensitive to everything. His brother's pants seemed so loud, his movements too pronounced.

He couldn't stop trembling. Shivers raced up his back, his arms, and even on his wounded chest and belly. He was impossibly warm.

"What do you mean no?"

"We don't," he paused, gasping for breath. Ethan placed his hand on his twin's bare shoulder, leaning down putting the plug in the drain, and he turned the tap on. A blast of cold water squirted out. The panic and shock were lifting, leaving realization in its wake.

"-know what it was," he finished. It didn't matter what it was or wasn't.

"I'm calling 911. There's too much-."

"No, we can clean it up. I'll be fine. It's already clotting, see? It doesn't hurt, E."

He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he didn't want them asking why they were out there in the first place, he didn't want Sean to know.

Ethan was pulling hand towels out of the cabinet above the closed toilet seat. He grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and bandages in a panic.

"No, no, no, there's too much blood, there's- "

"I said no," Gray snapped suddenly, practically yelling and Ethan flinched, turning around and looking at his brother.

"I'm sorry," his twin said. "You need to calm down, Ethan."