Trapped

Chapter 21

Banging on the door wakes me from a restless sleep. Before I can make sense of the situation, Jeremy's door bursts open revealing a disheveled Mary. Her hair is a mess, sweaty and sticking to her forehead and her apron is wrinkled and twisted. But as she pulls me to my feet, my eyes catch on the real problem with her sloppy appearance. Blood, splattered across her usually spotless apron.

I fall back on my heels, catching her offguard. "Mary! What's happened?" I exclaim. She just shakes her head and continues to pull me by the arm down the stairs and into the dining room.

"Lilian!" I hear the very distinct voice of the person I love, proclaim. I whip my head toward the dining table, my eyes landing on Jeremy where he sits in one of the many chairs surrounding it.

I gasp at his state and run to him. Without thinking of the consequences, I pull his arm up so that I am cradling it in my hands. He winces and scolds me, but doesn't make a move to stop me from examining the wound. Gunshot wound to his upper arm. It's ugly and he's losing blood. Fast.

"What happened?" I cry out, tears falling down my cheeks. Jeremy quickly wipes them away using his good arm and hushes me.

"I'm alright. Don't worry." He soothes, but I can tell he's trying to convince himself more than he is me.

"You're losing too much blood. Y-you need a doctor." I explain to him, attempting to calm my erratic hearbeat.

"We are NOT getting a doctor!" Lukas screams and I practically jump out of my skin at his sudden outburst.

"You need medical attention, Jeremy--," he abruptly cuts me off by bringing his good arm up to roughly grab my chin.

"Stop being disrespectful. Just because I'm injured, does not mean I won't fix that little problem." He says to me, deathly calm, staring straight into my eyes the entire time.

I nod my head while looking down in submission. Know your place, Lilian. You don't want to force him to put more strain on himself than he has to right now.

"I apologize, sir," then looking back at him, "But that does need to be patched up. You're losing a lot of blood." I explain to him in the nicest way possible to avoid angering him any more.

To my surprise, they all flick their eyes to me. I stare at Jeremy and he looks pleading. What the hell is going on?

"Do it, Lily," He tells me confidently. I wish I had as much confidence as he has.

"But all I know is what I've seen on TV. I wouldn't do any good—," Jeremy firmly plants his palm over my mouth.

"Was it a question?" He demands. I shake my head and he nods, letting go. "You'll do a better job than any of us. We'll provide any supplies you...need," he struggles to get out the last word, his head lolling from side to side.

"Mary, get a sewing kit, gauze and tweezers." I exclaim to her when Jeremy starts to break in and out of consciousness. I grasp his rough cheek in my hand and force him to make eye contact with me. "Stay with me, Jere. You're gonna be okay." I give him a small smile and he manages to give me one back although it ends up looking more like a grimace than a smile.

I've been putting pressure on the wound, but Mary is taking too long. I need to tie a tourniquet above the wound. He's losing too much blood.

I grab the hem of his flannel and begin to tear strips of it off. Afterward, I pull his arm to me and tightly knot the cloth around his upper arm. The amount of blood seeping out of the wound begins to lessen, thankfully.

"Here, sweetheart," Mary exclaims to me, out of breath as she runs back into the kitchen.

I take the supplies I had requested from her hands and set them on the table before grabbing the tweezers in an iron fist.