Mesmerized | ✓

23

When Carl woke up he felt dizzy and weak. He looked to his right to find both Yuli and Robin asleep at his side. Carl tried to focus to see if his sister was breathing and when he realized that she was he let out a sigh of relief. The relief, though, didn't last long as Yuli noticed the wound on Robin's wrist which was barely but still bleeding.

He looked at his own arm and surely his wound was also bleeding but he couldn't feel any kind of pain, just wetness. Carl needed to take care of that. Standing up he noted that the sheets were stained with blood here and there but his mind was too fogged for him to be thinking about that too. Once he was standing straight, Carl almost fell right back onto the bed but he leaned heavily against the wall before that could happen.

He had lost probably much more blood than it was safe for a human being but if Carl didn't do anything then it could end much worse. He stumbled out of the room while his head throbbed with pain. Carl tried to remember where he could find any medical supplies in the house but his mind was completely blank. He could check out the bathroom, Carl concluded. That seemed like a likely place for storing such things.

Still supporting himself against the wall he navigated his way through the dark house, unable to find the light switch. Not knowing how, Carl ended up in the kitchen, instead the bathroom like he had planned. He cursed under his breath when he saw that his mother was there, sitting on the kitchen table and sipping from a glass of wine while looking blindly ahead of her.

Hoping in his half-conscious state that his mother was too drunk to notice him, Carl tried to carefully back out of the kitchen but either the woman wasn't that drunk or he wasn't being as careful as he thought he was, because Karen noticed him. "Yeah, I'm not surprised you don't want to even knowledge my presence after today." Karen said bitterly taking a sip from her glasses.

Carl felt like he needed to say something but he couldn't come up with anything. He looked down at his hand. The wound wasn't bleeding anymore but it didn't look good and it was very noticeable. Trying to hide it he pulled down the sleeve hoping that the blood wouldn't soak through the fabric. "It was bad." He said having the feeling that she wouldn't just leave him alone, but unable to say anything more eloquent.

"I know." The woman finally looked at him before gesturing at a bottle of wine that was standing on the cupboard. "You want some?" She asked.

Carl knew that in his state that would be a very bad idea and besides, he was supposed to be going somewhere for something but he couldn't, for the love of God, remember what that was. "Yes." He found himself saying anyway before sitting down with Karen.

"Good." The woman said grabbing another glass and filling it with wine before moving it towards her son.

Carl took a sip and immediately regretted it. His head started spinning even more but he did his best to keep himself together and not give anything away in front of his mother. Karen, in turn, seemed to be focused on her glass and on her glass alone as she traced her finger along the edge. "You shouldn't be mixing your pills with wine." Carl pointed out, at least still aware of that.

Karen shrugged. "Doesn't matter." She said. "I'm a bad mother one way or another." She took another sip of the red liquid which made Carl think of the blood rolling down his arm and finding its refuge inside Yuli's mouth. Now his blood was cursing through Yuli's body, through his every cell. They were one. "I'm sorry for today." Carl's mother said, completely unaware of what was happening inside his head. "I don't know what came over me."

"You love competing." Carl reminded her.

"I know."

"Even if it's you forcing your son to compete instead of you." Carl's voice was bitter and he was making things worse than they needed to be but he didn't have the strength to restrain himself. He wasn't looking at his mother but in the corner of his eyes he noted that she was wiping tears off her face with the sleeve of her shirt. "Even if it's driving him to such desperation that he will do anything just to get away like breaking his own leg on purpose."