We'll Get There {AntiAverage} (ABANDONED)

3: H V S

1394 words

I did my best to treat Anti's wounds, but they were quickly eating up my supplies. Of course, the house just produced more, so it wasn't too big of an issue, but it was... disturbing how much needed to be used. He wouldn't leave Chase's side, so the father was there as well, trying to keep the glitchy ego calm with gentle words and soft caresses. I had almost forgotten how touchy they were before all of this.

I did my best not to cringe at the deep gashes all over his arms, taking to humming to keep my mind off of it. When every breath through my mask started to fog my glasses, it was almost a relief.

I had already cleaned and bandaged as many of the exposed cuts as I could find, wrapped his blistered wrists, and cleaned out his neck wound, but we were still unable to remove the shock collar. Upon closer inspection, cigarette burns lined his arms and disappeared into his sleeves, which lined up perfectly with Die picking up the habit.

Two of his fingernails were missing, and a large D was carved into the palm of his nine-fingered hand, which had only just begun to scar over. He had a relatively fresh hole in his elf-like ear that looked like it was from a thumbtack, and his plugs were gone. His earlobes were fine, undamaged and unscarred, which made me think it was proof of control on Die's part.

I sighed, looking at the torn and bloody shirt he was wearing- and I used that term loosely, because it was barely still on his body. "We have to take ze shirt off. It looks like most of his injuries are on his back and chest.", I said, mostly to Chase.

Anti hugged the fabric closer to himself, jostling some of the strips near the back, "Nø..."

Chase carefully took the ego's other hand, barely leaning towards him, "Hey, it'll be okay. Henrik just wants to make sure none of your scratches are infected, and then patch them up. We can get you into a fresh shirt, too." Anti lightly bit his lip, eyebrows furrowed in a telltale expression of 'please don't make me'.

"Don't vorry, I vill be quick.", I assured, resisting the urge to pat his shoulder.

"I'm going to have to let go of your hand for a second, okay?", Chase warned, following the statement up with said action. He gently grabbed the bottom of his friend's shirt and pulled it over his head, careful not to let it hit any of his injures.

I couldn't hold back a gasp when I saw the state he was in. The cigarette burns ended close to his collar bone, and welts and gashes littered his back. It was like he'd been whipped, repeatedly. That was excluding the bruises, most of which were abstractly formed, aside from the few larger, shoe-shaped ones. Ignoring the injuries, his skin looked like it was stretched directly over his ribs.

I noticed Chase cover his mouth, and Anti's anxious eyes filled with tears. "I-I'm sorry...", he loosely wrapped his arms over his chest, curling in on himself as much as his position would allow.

"No, no, dude, hey, you have nothing to apologize for. It's not your fault. It just... surprised me, is all." I set to work on the wounds, letting Chase deal with the emotions. I began to hum to keep from gagging.

It took about a half hour to properly dress his injuries, but I got it done. If it was at the expense of my sanity, then so be it. "He should stay in here, at least until he can valk. I need to keep an eye on him.", I stated, pulling my mask off of my face and setting it on a table.

"What are we going to do about the collar..?", Chase whispered to me, leaning away from Anti as he spoke. The way the glitchy ego flinched made me think he could hear us fine, but I couldn't be sure.

"Maybe Marvin unlock it? Ve didn't find any sort of key or anyzing."

"Okay. Hey, do you think you could grab him some clothes from his room?", Chase asked, an apologetic look in his eyes. I nodded, starting off towards said place, thankful for the excuse to excuse myself. I barely repressed tears as I did so, the images of the injuries seemingly tattooed into the back of my eyelids. It took a truly disturbed person to do something like this once, let alone almost a year. How had we missed all the signs...

In my funk, I quite literally ran into Jackieboy Man in the hall, accidentally shoulder-checking him.

"Hey doc, what's up? Shouldn't you be with the patient?", he asked, adjusting his mask. He seemed almost... sarcastic as he said it, but I wasn't in the proper state to ask him about it.

"H-he needs fresh clothes, and it's better if Chase doesn't leave his side.", I responded, ignoring the waver in my voice and flattening my lab coat. I wanted to be alone, but that wasn't happening right now, so I needed to compose myself.

Jackie snorted, "That's a little over dramatic, don't you think? I mean, the guy should be fine for two seconds."

I faltered, blinking rapidly in an attempt to comprehend the words just spoken to me, "He's... not in a good mental state right now. I'm... I'm honestzy questioning if he'd still be alive vere he human."

Jackieboy seemed mildly taken aback, before lightly shaking his head, "Well, we knew that. He slit his own throat, humans don't survive that."

I narrowed my eyes, hoping to hide the disturbed look in them. "You know vhat I mean.", I hissed, shouldering past him on purpose this time. I couldn't deal with this right now.

I opened the door to Anti's room, quickly realizing that I had never been inside before. I was greeted with dark green walls and a bed tucked in the corner. A bookshelf sat next to a dresser, and a thick layer of dust coated the whole thing. It seemed so... plain. Anti had only gotten to live in here a few months before he'd been taken.

I opened a few of the dresser drawers, picking out sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt for the man, and folded them neatly under my arm. I grabbed a book from his shelf as well, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, and headed back to my makeshift hospital room.

I stepped over, gently handing the stack of clean clothes to Anti, and the book to Chase. "I zought you might like some entertainment. I'm going to my room, press ze button by ze bed if you need me.", I informed them, politely nodding in each of their directions.

Chase smiled, if a bit wearily, "Thanks, bro." He turned towards Anti, extending a hand, "You need help getting changed?" The glitchy ego nodded softly, face turning a light shade of pink. "Alright, come on.", Chase helped him over to the bathroom, and shut the door after them. I ran a hand over my face as I walked out. Holy shit this was bad.

Every step felt like a mile as I desperately tried to keep my face from crumpling. I passed someone, but I didn't bother attempting to recognize them. I was probably walking a little faster than I needed to, but I hoped whoever had just seen me didn't try to follow me.

As soon as I made it to the safety of my room I broke down. I fell against the door with a thump, firmly pressing my hand to my mouth to muffle the sudden sobs that clawed their way out of my throat. I barely registered sliding down the door, uncaring of the door handle catching my shoulder.

Whenever I had thought about finding him, I had always expected him to be the same as before. Strong willed, fiery, dangerous at times. The man we'd found was... a shell of his former self, at the very least. I didn't know exactly what had happened to him, or what Die had done, but it had broken the glitch to what might be beyond repair. The thought made me indescribably uneasy.