Haphephobia

Chapter 31

"Folkvar?" Ava exclaimed, quickly standing up. She let out a loud groan when her hand made contact with the ground.

"Guys! Why are you out here? Did you...? Damn it! Why would you do that?" Folkvar spoke, rushing towards Ava and gingerly grabbing her by the hand, looking at it incredulously.

"Jensen knew you would. Here, I.... I came with a first aid kit, but..." Folkvar trailed off. I was still in disbelief. How had he found us? What was he doing there? Was Jensen here too? And was he in on this, or did he even know what the facilities had been hiding from everyone for years?

"But... What?" Ava asked, watching as Folkvar removed a care package from his backpack. He opened it up, pulling out a small white bottle and uncapping it.

"Forgive me." He said, grabbing Ava's hand and looking at her with sadness in his eyes. He poured the liquid in the bottle on her hand, and hastily grabbed mine and did the same.

The pain that followed immediately after was so unendurable that words written here could not accurately depict how terrible the experience truly was. And I had to add it to the fact not once, not even twice, but three times in my life now had I been inflicted a terrifying amount of pain. And I didn't... I couldn't... Deal with it.

I screamed, over and over, a guttural depiction of the agonizing torment resonating from my palm. More tears flowed from my eyes. I'd cried more today than I had in years.

"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..." Folkvar moaned, and pulled, with shaking hands, a sewing kit from the box. I saw Ava's pupils dilating in fear as both of us knew what was coming. Of course we wouldn't stop him; Folkvar was our best and only chance at surviving this wound.

"I swear to God I'm sorry. I know what I'm doing, I just... I need..." Folkvar seemed more like he was mumbling to himself as he worked, until with white fingers-he'd put on surgical gloves- pried open my palm and inserted the needle into the wound. 

More screams. I barely felt Ava's light touch on my back, tracing circles in a moot effort to console me. But I was devastated and as the needle went back and forth in my skin I felt the agony- the searing pain- over, and over, and over again. 

"Done!" Folkvar shouted, a little too excited considering Ava still needed hers tended to. I felt, in a rushing wave of empathy, the fear from Ava's mind as she anxiously waited the moment she knew was coming. I felt terrified for the both of us and for once I was more interested in keeping her from the pain than I was for myself. 

That meant something, I think, as the first tear slid from Ava's eyes. Folkvar had begun.

I am here with you. I said, in the simplest words I could think. Maybe I could distract her. She regarded me with reddened, now tear-stained eyes.

That's all I need. She said, wincing, and releasing several low moans of pain as Folkvar worked. The terror and agony she felt came through even stronger when she opened her mind to mine. More tears. When would I finish crying?

For an intense and dark moment I wondered, with a terrifying sense of peace, when I would die. Would it be fast? Slow? Soon? Would Ava come with me, to leave behind the hurt here, so that we can finally be together in whatever may come after death?

"That's it! Okay... one last thing, I swear..." Folkvar rummaged in the kit, bringing out a bottle of pills. Never- not once in my life- had I felt so damn relieved to see a tylenol. It was like a placebo- effective immediately- just to see the bottle. Ava sighed, a shaky breath rattling from her cold lungs, as she noticed what I was looking at. 

Folkvar shook four pills from the red bottle, handing us two each. I hadn't realized until then how badly my hands were shaking- even the good one- like tremors in my body. I felt no warmth here. The only thing that kept me from dropping it was the support of Folkvar's hand under mine.