To Catch a Falling Star (Steve Harrington)

(1.4) Help

The man ran to my side quickly, he started to touch the bleeding area, but stopped himself.  His face appeared over mine, and he looked at me with a smile. It was a different kind of smile, not happy like Eleven with Ice Cream, or Barb with the bottle, or Benny with the brown circles. It was a sad.

"You're gonna be okay, but this is gonna hurt." He touched me lightly, an arm around my shoulders, and one below my knees. He lifted me from the ground, quickly carrying me to the building that stood behind him. He was right about it hurting, his hand touched my shoulder just barely and I was wriggling in his grasp, trying to pull away from him. Tears were leaking from my eyes, and it was becoming harder to stay awake, "You gotta stop moving, oh my god, I swear I'm not going to hurt you but you have to stop moving."

I tried my best to stop, but it was hard when it hurt so bad. His arm dug my wings into my back, irritating the few feathers that were still attached. He went into the building, turning sideways to carry me through the door. He went up, and through another door, and when I was set down on something soft it became harder to keep my eyes open. I flinched when the man suddenly pressed something to my shoulder.

"I'm gonna have to get help okay? I'm gonna call for some help an-" He stood up as he spoke, moving away from me. I reached out, feeling pain flare through the bite on my shoulder. The teeth dug deeper into the soft skin, and I opened my mouth to scream. Nothing came out. My hand found its way to his wrist locking onto it and stopping him from going any further. He turned around quickly, noticing the pain in my eyes he quickly moved back to help me to lay down. "I can't just not get help, I don't know how to deal with this."

I tapped my chest lightly with my left hand, and he seemed to understand. "Okay, what do I do?" He seemed to calm down just a bit, his words were less shaky, and his voice was calmer.

I pull on the fabric that was underneath me, lifting it up, before letting it go and putting a hand on my shoulder. It took me a few times of repeating the motion for him to understand, but once he did he was quick to act. Running from the room and returning with a large stack of the same cloth.

He pressed it into the bite, muttering the word that Benny used when I winced in pain. "What do we do next?" He was successful in slowing the bleeding, which made me wake up just a bit more. I lifted my left hand, and pinched him. He yelped in surprise, asking me 'what the hell was that for?' I didn't know what hell meant, but I did it again, before touching the cloth on my shoulder.

"What the- there's something stuck in there?" He turned pale suddenly and leaned heavily on the bed next to me. I nodded. "Oh god, okay. One second."

He ran off, and when he came in he had a stick in his hand. "This is gonna help. Tweezers." He held them out to me, and I poked them lightly. He smiled, and this time it was happy, like Barb and the bottle, and Eleven and the fries. "This is gonna hurt okay, I'm sorry but it is."

I still didn't know what sorry meant, but I could tell it meant he was sad about what he was going to do. I just nodded, turning my face away from him as he sat on the bed next to me. I screwed my eyes shut when he peeled the fabric off of my shoulder, "Oh god kid this looks bad. How many are in there? Can you tell?"

I nodded, and I didn't look at him. I tapped on the bed seven times. He winced when I finished, "Okay okay, I'm so fucking sorry. I'm so so so sorry."

He started to pull them out. I had my mouth open in a scream, and did my best to hold myself in one spot on the bed. It hurt more than anything in the world, but I had to hold steady. I shook, my whole body tensed up in pain, and I tried to relax. It felt like centuries, every time the tweezers poked me, time started over again, I couldn't handle it anymore, and that was right when the man stopped.

"Oh god, okay that's all of them, oh god it's bleeding again." I still hadn't look back at him yet, but I could hear him moving quickly to put more cloth on my shoulder. I started to fall asleep, my body relaxing. "Whoa, whoa hey, you can't do that. Come on, wake up."

The man poked me in the ribs, and I smiled at the feeling. It didn't hurt it, made me want to laugh, not cry.

"You gotta stay awake okay? Just until the bleeding stops okay?" I nodded in response. The man's face was pale, and he slowly backed up, sitting by my waist.

"Who are you?" His words were soft, and I could tell he was calming down, his leg brushing against mind. I lifted my left arm to expose the marking, the tattoo as Benny had called it, that sat on my wrist.

"Zero? That's your name?" I nodded. "That's not a name, that-"

I shook my head, and touched my shoulder, before holding my wrist out to him. He looked sad, his eyes locking on the bloody stripes, before nodding. He sighed then said, "Well, Zero, my name is Steve. Steve Harrington."

He looked at me sadly, and we sat quietly for a minute. It was too long to sit quietly, because I felt my eyes drift close. This time Steve did not stop me from falling asleep, instead he helped me lay flat, and told me to sleep well.