Don't Let Me Be Gone

Ten

Logan POV :
I breathed a sigh of relief the second I picked up the little heartbeats. 

They were barely anything, but he was alive.  He wasn't completely dead yet. 

"He's not dead!"  I announced loudly, getting everyone's attention quickly.  "Patton go get a glass of water quickly.  Thomas go get bandages, painkillers, antibiotics, first aid stuff!  Anything!" 

Both Thomas and Patton ran off to get the thing I instructed them to.  I was about to instruct Roman on how to help me, when I spotted something that stopped me in my tracks. 

Well first was the box of bloody razors, half hidden underneath his dresser.  But it was the bottle next to it that grabbed my attention.

I walked over and picked it up.  I sniffed it, which only confirmed my fears.  I looked at the liquid that was still in the vial.  I sighed. 

"What's wrong."  Said Thomas.  I turned to see him and Patton in the door way with the things.  Roman quickly looked over to me. 

"I said that we can't die until Thomas dies."  I started.  "But I'm afraid that its a falsehood.  There is one thing that will kill us off without harming Thomas, and this is it."  I held up the mostly empty vial.

"I'm confused."  Said Patton quietly as he reentered the room.  "What is it?  Where'd he get something that could do that?  Why would he have it in the first place?!"  Patton started to hyperventilate, obviously getting very stressed and feeling way to many emotions right now to function properly. 

"It's from the Pit of Forgotten Memories.  At the bottom of the Pit is a lake filled with this liquid that contains a parasite.  A parasite that dissolves and destroys old memories that Thomas doesn't need anymore."  I explained.  "How he got ahold of something like this, I have no clue.  Why he has it...well I guess he knew what it does and, well, needed it for something like this."

Patton started crying again.  I sighed and set the vial on the dresser.  I returned my mind back to helping Virgil. 

"Hand me the bandages, and please someone get me a wet washcloth."  I said to no one in particular. 

Thomas handed me the bandages and returned shortly from Virgil's bathroom with a washcloth. 

"Roman please put Virgil on top of his bed."  I instructed. 

Roman nodded and picked Virgil up easily.  He gently laid Virgil down on the bed.  Once Roman was out of the way I went right to work doing everything in my power to revive Virgil.

I sat down on the bed next to Virgil. I grabbed one of Virgil's arms and stared to wipe off all the blood with the washcloth.

Once the blood washed off, I went to work bandaging his wrists. I cleaned out the newer still bleeding cuts with antibiotics. I grabbed the bandages and started wrapping them around his wrist.

Once I was satisfied with my job, I stood back up. I pondered for a moment, unsure of how to get the parasite from the Pit of Forgotten Memories out of his system.

"When will he wake up?" Asked Roman.

"I'm not exactly sure." I answered. "But we need to remove the parasite from his body. He's alive for now, but the parasite is what's going to kill him."

"Well how do we get it out of him?" Asked Patton.

"I'm afraid how to do remove the parasite isn't the easiest or most painless experience." I told them.

"Well what is it?" Asked Roman.

"The liquid destroys its victim by entering the blood stream almost immediately after ingestion. Once inside the body however, the liquid will release a small parasite. From there, the parasite will spread and reaches the heart and begins to slowly infect the victim's body from the inside out, eating away at them. Eventually only leaving dust and bones." I explained.

"How do we stop that from happening." Asked Patton, whimpering slightly.

"Well we are going to have to have a look at his heart to determine whether or not we have to take such drastic measures." I said. "Roman please remove Virgil's shirt."

Roman nodded before gently pulling Virgil's shirt off his body. I nodded solemnly as my thoughts were confirmed.

Right around Virgil's heart was a black lump with many different black withering veins extending outwards throughout Virgil's body.

"I'm afraid that is has already reached his heart, obviously." I said slowly.

"So what do we need to do?" Asked Roman.

"It's a surgery of sorts, where we will have to remove the infection from Virgil by moving it into a new host, one of us three. And than the parasite will have to be removed from the blood stream quickly before further infection." I explained. "It will be very painful for both Virgil and whoever wants to be the receiving host."

"I'll do it." Said Roman.

"Are you sure Roman, I can do it myself." I offered.

"No, I should've helped him while he was still...better.  Now he's lying in his bed dying and I blame myself." He said, trying to sound brave but I could detect hints of hesitation in his voice. "I must be brave and help him."

I nodded slowly before conjuring a syringe along with gloves and a box . I pulled the gloves on and set the box down.

"It's be best for Patton and Thomas to leave." I said. "As to not risk further infection, and to prevent Thomas from becoming infected because in that case...I would not know what to do." I admitted.

Thomas nodded and pulled Patton out of the room with him. I looked over at Roman.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked him. He nodded.

I moved aside and started to instruct Roman in how to transfer the infection from Virgil into his own body.

I moved over Virgil and conjured and small knife. Slowly and steadily, I made a small surgical incision right above Virgil's heart.

"Place your hand over the cut, the smell of your uninfected blood with draw the parasite to you. It thrives on blood to destroy and it will be able to sense yours."

Roman nodded slowly placing his hand overtop Virgil's heart. After a few moments, a small black tendril came out from under the underside of Roman's hand.

More small tendrils followed the first one, feeling around Romans hand.

"Holy shit." Whispered Roman. Suddenly he hissed out in pain as the tendrils attaches themselves to Romans hand and started digging into him.

"Grab the parasite and start pulling." I instructed him. "It's going to be painful Virgil, but no matter what he does don't stop pulling the parasite out."

Roman grabbed onto the parasite tendrils and started to pull. I heard him let out little grunts of pain as the parasite tried to get into his veins. We needed to hurry up before the parasite spread into Roman.

That's when Virgil's body started jerking. His arms and legs twitched and jumped around, his head swung from side to side. But Roman never stopped what he was doing.

A hissing sound came from the cut as the central nerve of the parasite came out. It withered around a bit before succumbing to being exposed to oxygen.

Once Roman completely pulled the parasite out of Virgil's body, I started working on quickly getting the parasite off roman.

I quickly used the scalpel and cut the parasite off Romans hand and put it into the box. Using the syringe, I quickly tested Romans blood stream to make sure he didn't carry any of the parasite.

Once satisfied with the results I threw the syringe into box and shut it quickly. Roman let our a sigh of relief, clutching his hand to his chest. Despite him being quite, I could tell his hand hurt a great deal at the moment.

"This will need to be returned to the Pit of Forgotten Memories." I said.

Roman was about to say something when a small grunt came from Virgil and he started to shift around in his bed.