Living Dolls

13Irene

I was already in a fit of tear streaming panic, and in those quick seconds where I finally reached Ernest, it got harsher. I grabbed onto his soaked shoulders, feeling a dislocation, and he didn't react. He kept his head slumped to the side, eyes closed, and breathing faint.

"Is he okay?" Heide asked, voice somewhat fragile as she released him, letting me pull him closer. "H-Hey, Irene, is he okay?"

His jacket was gone, and he was completely soaked in Julien's saliva. My hand lingering longer on his out of place shoulder as I look him and down. My heart stops when I spot the mixed blood over his hip, part of that area of his shirt and pants ripped up. I move my other hand to push the mangled cloth out of the way, and I flinch at the open, throbbing wound.

"O-Oh my God..." I stammered, shaking wildly. Shuddering, I looked up when I heard Carmen call my name. She was trying to lift Kyle up, as his eyes were shut. My mind was racing even more, and my hands trembled. Heide ran over to the fallen wheelchair on the middle of the table, and she tried lifting it up, but it only slumped to the side.

Biting my lip, I kept looking around, then looked back down at my dirtying hands, "C-Carmen, try to bring Kyle over here! I-I need to see if he h-has any wounds and..." It was getting hard to keep my voice at a clear enough tone, with all my stammering, "H-Heide, go get s-some rags and a bucket of water, I h-have to clean him up before I go o-over..."

Heide went off towards the back unit, and Carmen grabbed Kyle under his arms. Shuddering like crazy, I laid Ernest down on his back. Still breathing, still breathing, still breathing...

His body was bruised black and blue, a couple of slightly bleeding scrapes across his face. The ripped clothes and blood over his hip only frightened me more, but I had to clear all of the thick saliva on him before going further to treat it.

Carmen had finally dragged Kyle over, and I reached over. He was breathing too, more of his usual sleeping states, but there were still some growing bruises over his face. I grabbed ahold of his clothing and lifted them, only to find more darker bruises all around his torso.

My heart was banging so hard in my chest, I was fearful of my fainting spell. Sweat was building off of me, and I was shaking so bad, I doubted my ability to treat anything apart of this fucked situation. Even my vision seemed like it was pounding, and that reverberated over to my ears.

Shocked, I turned around with a fearful gasp at the pounding. I swore he was making his leave by the time I pushed the door open, and was already gone when I made it to Ernest. But that pounding. When I turned, I swore I already saw that boy, looming high above, and my heart got more erratic.

There was a hand that touched my shoulder only briefly, and I blinked, making the image of Julien fade away. Trembling, I quickly looked back in front of me, and Carmen pulled away, nervous. Behind her, Heide had the bucket of water and the rags, lowering them down.

I placed one arm around my stomach. Still protective, but I felt now that I needed more. And then when I placed my hand over at Ernest's still breathing chest, I realized what it was, and I allowed my slip of tears.

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Julien, fortunately, definitely wasn't coming back anytime soon.

I had been in such a panic and rush to clean up Ernest in fear of him coming back for more, but the door out there remained shut.

Kyle seemed to have gone under one of his fainting spells, common, and the fact that he was thrown around, almost crushed, and generally put on the spot didn't help. Still, there was the numerous bruises on his body, specifically all around his torso. Plus, there was his wheelchair. Carmen went back to try fixing it, but the wheel was bent past the point of recovery. We'd have to get Julien to get him another one, but I was sure none of us even wanted to think of that little bastard. So, we propped Kyle up on the couch surrounded by blankets and a damp cloth over his forehead.

Ernest was worrisome. His shoulder was clearly dislocated, endless bruises and scrapes around his body, soaked all up in Julien's thick saliva, and had a wide wound over his hip. Once we got all of the saliva off and I had to replace those disgusting soaked through clothes.

Once I got him mostly cleaned up and set him up on the other couch, I put my full attention on his fleshy wound. Just what the hell happened? I kept inspecting, and from the shape of the outline, it would appear that the little devil actually bit him.

I was back to shaking.

The wound went in deep to his flesh, and it was a shocker that it hadn't reached any bone, but it seemed pretty close. Still, it was much too deep, and I had to make the painful decision to suture it closed.

It was good that we still had a ready amount of medical supplies, especially bandages since Julien just gave us a restock. It was so strange to get to all the suture material. Afterall, we never thought Julien would go far enough to open a wound. Broken bones fractures, sprains, bruises, that's all he ever did, aside from Kyle's accident. Still, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief from that memory of my telling him we'd still need it, just in case.

When I was finished with the suturing and beginning the bandaging, I was absolutely exhausted. There was some sense of protection and relief from the fact that Ernest was still very much breathing, we were all in the house, and Julien hadn't returned in a fit to finish what he started.

"Hey."

I had just finished wrapping the bandages around Ernest's lower torso, and still crouching by him with all the dirtied supplies at the floor beside me. I jumped from Carmen's voice, and looked back at her. She was seated at the chair by the bookcases, and sitting beside her on the floor was Heide. Carmen had a red face, still twitching with ticked nerves, though she looked more irritated now. Heide was just hugging a pillow, knees up and eyes blankly aimed towards her feet.

Though she now had my full attention, it still took her a minute to compose herself. She stiffened, stuttering the first couple of words in hesitation but finally got it out, "So, was it really Ernest who you were... You know..."

I shot the man a glance. God, how I wanted to beat Julien senseless. "Yes."

"And, you really are...?"

I closed my eyes, shuddering, "Yes."

There was a minute of silence, and I heard Carmen's ragged breathing. "Y-You... And him?" She sat up quickly, and when I looked up at her, she was shaking. "You two?" At that, I smiled sadly, and she only seemed to get more upset. "This is fucked, do you know that? It's fucked."

"We... We do have a lot of disagreements, but-"

"Not that! Well, not entirely." She jumped to her feet, and I flinched. She ran a hand through her messily pulled back hair, face growing red as she turned back and forth, restless. "I can't believe you guys would do that, holy fuck..." I looked at Heide, but she still kept her blank eyes down. "How long were you two here? Four years? I - I thought you guys would never, because, the risk, like right out there, and...! FUCK! Why couldn't you guys just wait!?"

She was real heated up. When she stopped pacing and turned right to face me, her teeth were clenched, eyes raw with confused anger. I just stared up at her, and my heart rate quickened yet again.

"I mean, the least you could have done was tell us! You both already knew, didn't you? How far along even are you?"

"Five months." I answered softly. I had been in denial for the first few months, but now it was something I had to accept as the truth. I was showing the symptoms and beginning to show, so my only hope was to try hiding it, but that was no good anymore.

"Five months, and you didn't tell anyone? Did you even tell Kyle so he could prepare himself for what the hell just happened out there?" At that, I cringed, looking over at the sleeping young man, and everything hurt again. That seemed to answer her question. "Oh my God. You're all liars..." She started pacing again, "You're all liars."

I found myself snapping back at her, "We're not all liars."

"You and Ernest hid it from us! From Kyle, from Heide! You guys went behind their backs and...!" She stopped herself, stepping back and taking a breath, "Why... Why didn't you tell anyone? Were you guys that confident with the plan?"

"No, we just..." God, that sounded bad, but it was the truth. "We, we wanted to, especially to tell Kyle but we just kept delaying it a-and... We just didn't an-anticipate Julien finding out this soon, and reacting like this..."

"How did you think he was gonna react?" She spat, "All sunshine and sparkles that he'll have another one of us?"

I snapped down to bite at my lip, and I felt my eyes sting. Instantly, Carmen jerks back, and she looks around wildly. I was reminded of Sunday, but it felt more strange for it to only be shot at me, but at least she was taking the moment to calm down.

She closed her eyes, stiffening as she clenched her fist near her chest. She took a deep breath, and when she opened her eyes again, she was more sad than angry, but still confused. "I'm sorry." She said quickly. "I - I just... I don't understand, and I... I'm worried." She looks down, mouthing something, before looking back down at me, lowering her hands, "Irene... What now?"

I don't know.

Shivering, I looked back to the windows. "I... I don't know how J-Julien's gonna be when he c-comes back..." And honestly, I didn't want to know. Him shrinking and harming and keeping us trapped here was one thing. Now, him almost eating my best friend and the father of my child alive, that was another, and I had never been this scared.

"He's fucking crazy." She spat, shaking her head, "I don't want to hear anymore of this Julien wouldn't kill anyone crap. He fucking tried to, he was going to, he..." I kept shaking more, and she paused. "Ernest is right. We have to get out of here fast, before, before..."

I closed my eyes, wrapping an arm over my stomach. "We'd have to wait for the guys to wake up, we have to agree on what we're gonna do. Before... Before..."

"So now you want to discuss it with everyone." She frowns, "I still don't understand why you couldn't tell all of us what was going on."

"I was scared."

"Scared of what?" She spat, "I mean, Julien, yeah, but us? Hell, at least Kyle and Heide? By telling everyone, we could have come up with some plans, but instead we're in this... this goddamned mess!" She steps back until she hits the wall, and then she grabs her chin, breathing heavy. "We... We just gotta..."

"Get out."

She nods, "Yeah, yeah. It's more important now. I didn't think it'd get more important, but, fucking shit..." At her curses, I found myself turning over to look at Heide. Carmen noticed too, and followed my gaze.

"Heide?" I found myself whispering. She hadn't spoken much since I got back outside. "Are you okay, sweetie?"

She remained the same, blank eyes down at her feet, though her grip on the pillow tightened. Carmen shifted her weight, blinking down at her and shaking her head. Heide's silence was concerning me, and just as I was beginning to say something, the girl finally spoke.

"I was scared."

I flinched, sitting back, and even Carmen's eyes narrowed slightly. Heide remained there, eyes now roaming, and her knees were shaking.

"I was scared." She repeated blankly, "Julien was talking to me and looking right at me, but... But..." She lowered her head into the pillow, muffling her voice, "I was scared."

Scared.

"Oh, Heide." I crawled over, and Carmen sat back down beside her. Sitting beside her, I wound an arm over Heide's shoulder and pulled her close to me. She remained still, but I took comfort in the young girl's breathing right against me, and her hair bristled at my cheek. "It's okay, I was scared too." And I was. I rubbed my hand along her shoulder, and she sighed, sinking deeper closer to me, letting me calm my breath. "You're safe, and that's what matters."

The feeling of having this girl in my arms made me swimmy. Ernest and I always viewed her as someone that deserved better, and she did, as a reason to try. Even when it always failed, we would still try and come up with something else. Over and over. And, now, well, there was another Heide for us to worry about...

Carmen sat above us, watching, and she finally spoke, "Dare I say it, but... You and Ernest do have some experience. I guess." At that, I snickered. "I always wondered what kind of Mom you would be, when you got out of here, and... Well, I guess we're already here."

I heard her shifting, and I looked back. Hands on the pillows, she sat up and leaned over above us, frowning, but eyes worried.

"So, I think that baby of yours would deserve better than this damn rule of Julien's. Don't you think so, too?" She asked, and I set my jaw, nodding. "Exactly. So, I promise I'll do absolutely anything to help, but you'll have to let me. We can't help if we don't know what's going on. So..."

I closed my eyes, leaning back over Heide's head.

"What are we going to do now?"