Chapter 61 It's burnt down.

Chapter 61 It's burnt down.
Ariel

The relief I felt was palpable once I opened the door and saw Kael behind it but I still had questions, though. Questions I wasn't able to ask because he pushed right past me and went down the foyer into the living room.

“Where is he?” he asked as I locked the door and followed him in myself. “The guest room.”

“The guest—”

“This one.” I led him past the living room space, down the short hallway to the right and into the last room opposite the room I use as my studio—well, the room I was using as a studio—that was the guest room. He pushed past me again and ran his hand through his hair when he finally laid eyes on Vincent on the bed.

“Oh fuck.” I was actually surprised by the wave of emotion I saw run through his face. First, relief, then concern and then back to a straight face. It was the first time I'd ever seen him show such emotions.

He glanced back at me as he placed the black bag I was only just noticing on the bed’s edge. “Where are the towels?”

“Right… right… I was getting them when you came and—” I stopped talking when he turned to give me an exasperated look. “Go get it and bring a scissor with you. A bowl of water too.”

I ran out of the room and headed straight to my bedroom, where four to five towels were already gathered. 

A bowl of water. I ran into my bathroom and looked around for what I could use to collect water. Nope, let’s grab something from the kitchen. I ran all the way to the kitchen, where I managed to find a medium-sized plastic bowl and some scissors and then I hurried back to the room.

“Here.” I handed him the towels first, thinking that was what was needed first but he moved straight past that to the scissors in my other hand. I stood to the side as he proceeded to cut open the top.

Oh God. There was so much blood, but as expected of Kael—except for that one time—he wasn’t showing any emotions and just proceeded to snip open some parts of the bandage. He dropped the scissors as he peeled back the many layers of bloody bandage.

“What are you… what are you trying to do?’

“Stitch him up. That’s quite obvious, no?” I pursed my lips for a second. Did… did Kael just say something sarcastic? That’s not the point anyway.

“Do you even know what you’re—oh my God!” We both winced when we saw the actual injury beneath all those layers of bandage. It was very bad. Like the skin under his ribs were pried open and blood was oozing out…

I stepped back and turned away to avoid getting squeamish. “Hey!” I glanced back when I suddenly heard Kael yell. He had his hand stretched out and was looking at one of the towels in my hand. "Right," I handed it to him.

“The bowl.” I passed it to him also and watched as he wiped down the areas around the wound after soaking the towel in the water. He handed it back to me once he was done

“Come here," he said after I dropped the bowl right beside the dresser. 

“W-what?”

“Take this." He fished out a long piece of white cloth from the black bag he had brought in, actually pieces, which he then pressed down on the wound. “Hold this down for me.”

“W-what? Why?”

“Do I really… We need to control the bleeding. Now!” he yelled, then waited for me to get into position before stepping away to grab something else from the black bag. He brought a couple of small transparent bottles and a vial of equally small syringes, which made me question this whole situation once again.

“What are you doing?” He barely looked up and just continued doing whatever it is he was doing (pulling the contents of one of the small bottles into a syringe) and then he placed it gently on another white cloth that was spread out on the bedside table.

He moved closer to me and signalled me to move away. “You didn’t answer me.”

“Because this isn’t the time for me to fawn over your curiosity.”

“Curiosity?! More like concern. Do you even know what you’re doing? We should take him to a proper hospital or if you don’t want that… at least St Valerio. Why won’t you take him there?”

No response yet again. Just… “get a plastic bag or something. Quick. And another bowl.”

“Now!” he yelled again when I didn't move, my brain obviously protesting this whole situation. Does he even know what he’s doing?

I mean, he does seem like he does but that doesn’t mean he should be doing it.

I moved to get the trash bag and bowl anyway and found him injecting into the skin around the open wound. “What is that?” and oh my God, he put the bloody clothes on my rug. Okay, not the point right now.

“Give me a glove from that bag.” He pointed to the black bag and dumped the now-empty syringe on the bloody clothes on my rug. I grabbed the gloves anyway, my brain in survival mode and watched with wide eyes as he grabbed a syringe from the bag with a thread-like thing which he proceeded to douse in another liquid. 

He threaded the needle, then proceeded to stitch the wound back together.



By the time he was done, I felt like I was going to pass out any time soon, not just from the sheer insanity of what I'd just witnessed but also from the trauma of this whole night.

'Hey!' I jumped when I heard Kael’s voice yet again. “Huh?”

“The scissors.” He waited for me to hand them to him and then sealed the bandage around Vincent’s abdomen once he had snipped it short.

“W-what do we do now?” I asked as he stood up to pack his things. There were a lot scattered around the bedside table. Syringes, bandages, bloody clothes. He stuffed the clean or unused things back into the bag and the rest into the trash bag.

“Where do I wash my hands? Bathroom or kitchen sink?”

"Bathroom, of course.” I gave him an incredulous look. Ain’t no fucking way he was washing those bloody hands in my kitchen sink. “First door right at the beginning of the hallway.

I followed him out as he walked out. “So…”

“Can you get me a glass of water?” he asked before I could complete my protest, thought, sentence... Whatever. 

I moved past him to the kitchen.

Oh fuck, it was currently fifteen minutes past two. I needed to get some sleep and also, Jonas…

I whipped my head to the couch in the living room when my phone suddenly started ringing on it. I felt my heart skip again for the hundredth time this night.

'Oh no,' I groaned when I saw who was calling. Chloe.

Should I pick up? I should, right? She wouldn’t call me for no reason. But still…

I picked up the call before I could talk myself out of it completely. “Chloe, hi!”

Okay, that sounded too high-pitched. This is 2 am. I should sound like I'm asleep.

“Where are you?” I raised my eyebrows at the seriousness in her tone.

“Home. Why?”

“You need to come here right now.”

“Where?”

“The hospital.” My stomach dropped immediately.

“The hospital? What is wrong? Is mom okay?”

“I don’t—I don’t know. I don’t know where she is or if I'm even at the right place.”

A loud crunch of footsteps blared through the line as she went silent for a moment. “What is it? Chloe? What are you talking about?”

“I’m right," she suddenly spoke up. “This is the place. This is it but…”

“But what?”

“It’s burnt down.”

“It’s burnt down?”

“Yes. The hospital… oh my God. Where is Mom then? There’s no way she’s underneath these ruins, right?”

I heard more footsteps as I tried to process what she had just said, then a loud yelp from Chloe right before the line went dead.

“Chloe? Chloe? Chloe? What is wrong?”

Oh my God. What the fuck was happening?!