Tears of Glass

Bloody Healing

"Eli," A sharp voice commanded, dragging me out of the calming darkness of sleep. "Eli, let's go. It's time to stop for the night and we need to get your legs under control." I groaned and opened my eyes, to glare at Malachi, hopefully hiding the terror I was feeling. "Can you walk?" I shook my head, my legs burned. Held his hands out to pick me up, I flinched away from him.

"You're going to have to let me carry you." He un-cuffed my hand from the door. I shook my head. I was scared, and exhausted. He slid his hands under me and carefully lifted me out of the car.

He walked into the same cabin that I stayed in with August. He took me to the bathroom and set me down on the toilet before turning to leave.

"Don't lock the door yet, I'm going to bring you some clothes in a second."

I nodded again, not in the mood to talk.

"Here," he said tossing me some clothes. "You're going to have to take a bath. If you want you can keep your bra and underwear on but I need to clean you legs up."

Terror blazed through my mind. "No, no way. I can do it, please let me do it." My thoughts raced at the knowledge of being so exposed around him.

Malachi sighed and sat on the edge of the tub, "There's too much blood for me to wash off with a rag and honestly it'll be easier. You can't see the bottom of your feet very well and it's going to hurt a lot to dig everything out." Malachi started the bath, "I'll leave for a bit so you can go to the bathroom then try to settle in the bath. I'll be back in about five minutes. I have a key to the bathroom so locking it isn't going to help." He left and shut the door behind him.

I went to the bathroom. I let the tears fall, trying my best to be silent. I was frustrated at the work ahead of me. I groaned before beginning the trial of peeling my ripped sweatpants off. They were dried to my legs because of the blood. I winced at every pull. It took the full 5 minutes to get them off and I ripped open a bunch of the cuts again. I heard a knock on the door.

"I'm coming in." Malachi said, I was sitting on the closed toilet seat, pulling my shirt off.

"Woah," he said starting at my legs. Pools of blood had started growing underneath my feet.

I sighed and went towards the bath tub. Malachi's arms wrapped around me, holding me up. "Let go," I pushed him away for a moment before relaxing and letting him lower me in the water. I flinched instantly as the cuts touched the water, pulling my legs against my body.

"Hey, hey." He said calmly, petting my head. "I know it hurts."

I tried to punch him but he caught my hand in his.

"You can hate me, that's fine but you need to let me help. It's my turn to be the good guy tonight." He looked at me softly, his gaze calmed me down. I focused on his soft hand cradling mine. He pulled one of my legs down and into the water. It felt as though he had lit it on fire. I bit back a sob. I clutched onto his hand, he let me squeeze it as he slowly washed the dried blood off of my leg.

He then moved to the next leg, he kept his gaze focused on the task at hand but never asked for his hand back. He held mine gently and moved his thumb softly over the back of my hand. When my legs were clean he looked at me and put his free hand under my chin so I would meet his eyes.

"I'm going to need to look at them, I need to see if there is anything I have to dig out before we bandage you up."

"Is it going to hurt?"

His eyes softened, "your legs are pretty numb at this point, but yes anything we do is going to hurt. Can I trust you or should I have Cade come help?"