Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf
Innocent Devil's Harem | Chapter 15-2: Stitching the Wound
“And grab the Rubbing Alcohol too,” I called after Gabriella, as she ran upstairs to grab the Hydrogen Peroxide. “Just in case we need to sterilize something,” I added when Serenity gave me an alarmed look. I then lowered my voice. “Of course I’m not going to use that on the wound.”
Serenity nodded, taking a long deep breath. She then looked like she was about to say or ask something, but the front door opened up, both of us looking over at Nick.
“Found it,” he announced, though from what I heard outside, it didn’t sound like he had trouble locating it to begin with. He then proceeded to bring everything over to the counter, asking Serenity to move her arm over the sink so he could take a look at it.
She was already right there, so she just leaned forward a little, sticking her arm out.
One glance at the bloody mess and Nick suddenly looked like he was going to be sick again.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
“What’s wrong?” I asked in alarm.
He shook his head. “Nothing, it’s just…” His voice trailed off.
“Just what?” I asked seriously. “Does she need to go to the hospital? Because I’m about to put her in my car and drive her to the hospital. Whether they fill out a police report or not.”
“Kai,” Serenity said, sounding a little surprised. “I think I’m going to be okay. And Nick’s right. If your bite caused her to change, then…” Her voice trailed off, her gaze unfocusing as it seemed to really sink in that she might change too.
“It’s not that,” Nick finally responded. “It’s just, this is why I was only an EMT for a few months. I can’t handle the gore. Not in real life. It’s different on TV, but just looking at this makes me feel like I’m going to pass out.”
“Oh.” I paused as I considered that. “Well, then just tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it.”
“Kai, are you sure?” Serenity asked seriously.
I shrugged. “I mean, the gore isn’t a problem for me, so as long as you’re fine with me doing it.”
Her deep brown eyes widened slightly, before she nodded, lowering her voice. “I trust you.”
I gave her a small smile of appreciation, glancing over my shoulder again as Gabriella came down the stairs. However, when she entered the kitchen, she stopped at the entrance, as if she was afraid to come too close.
Serenity noticed, speaking up before anyone else could. “It’s okay, Gabriella,” she reassured her. “Just bring it over.”
My fiancé nodded, remorse crossing her expression as she made her way to Nick’s other side.
“Okay,” he began after a second, seeming to collect himself and organize his thoughts as he recalled his training. “First, we need to sterilize the scissors, and then you’re going to have to cut out all the tissue that’s sticking out.”
“Wait, what?” I said in surprise.
He nodded toward the wound, grabbing the Peroxide, while keeping his eyes adverted. “Here, pour a little bit of this on it, and you’ll see what I mean. Oh, and wash your hands first too,” he added, reaching to turn on the sink, only to wash his hands as well.
I did as he asked, washing my hands and then grabbing the brown bottle, pouring a little on my hands and rubbing it on the bottle itself, while my friend ducked her head and pressed her forehead against her upper arm as we began to work. It wasn’t bleeding as profusely, allowing the Peroxide to wash away enough to see what looked like little chunks of yellow fat sticking out in various places.
Nick continued, keeping his eyes adverted. “Any of the stuff hanging out is going to die anyway, so you have to cut it off before you can stitch the wound up properly.” He sighed. “If we were taking her to the hospital, and this was an emergency stitch-up, then we wouldn’t worry about it. But since we aren’t going to the hospital, we need to make sure we do it right the first time.”
“Is it going to hurt?” I asked seriously.
He shook his head. “Most likely no. She probably won’t even feel it. This is tissue that’s usually underneath where the nerves are.”
I nodded, accepting the small pair of scissors when he handed them to me. They were still wet, but he’d used the Peroxide to sterilize them, so I wasn’t worried about the liquid hurting her. I hesitated when Gabriella walked away, pausing for a moment until I realized she was grabbing the paper towels to clean up the floor behind us.
“Are you ready?” I whispered to Serenity, beginning to readjust my grip on her forearm.
“Yes,” she said weakly, her voice muffled due to her position.
I nodded, carefully going for a piece of tissue that I felt confident wouldn’t hurt her much, if at all, since it was barely hanging off.
She didn’t even flinch.
“Did you feel that?” I asked softly.
“No,” she replied almost inaudibly.
I took a deep breath, and then moved to another piece. Followed by another, slowly growing more confident that she really couldn’t feel it. Granted, she did flinch a couple of times, but when I asked her if it hurt, she claimed that she barely felt it and was just surprised when she did.
About ten minutes later, and we were finally moving on to the stitches, with Nick pouring Peroxide over the wound for probably the fifth or sixth time.
“Okay,” he commented, still keeping his eyes off her arm. “Now this part, she’s going to feel.”
“I’ll be okay,” Serenity said right away. “Let’s just get this done.”
Nick nodded, though only I could see it, grabbing the curved needle and sutures. He got everything set up and ready to go, and then carefully handed it to me, verbally beginning to instruct me on how to do it. The process seemed a little redundant, with him asking me to go back and make extra loops that seemed unnecessary, as if I was going to tie it off and cut it. And I felt like I was going way deeper with the needle than I should, but I continued to follow his directions exactly as he said them, doing my best to ignore Serenity’s constant wincing.
Finally done, I cut the last end and we finished up, with my patient having two jagged half circles on her arm now. I had to admit that it didn’t look nearly as bad at this point, with Nick finally able to fully focus on it without looking like he was going to be sick.
“You did a good job,” he praised.
I only grunted in response, not feeling super excited about my handiwork, instead glancing back at Gabriella who had long since finished cleaning up the floor and was now sitting in a chair. I gave her a small reassuring smile.
She gave me a weak smile in return, still looking like she felt as guilty as hell. And still looking abnormally vibrant.
Serenity finally lifted her head to take a look at it too, opening and closing her hand a few times as she examined my work. She then took a deep breath and sat up straighter in her chair, prompting me to stand up more as well and step back to give her space.
Without hesitation, my housemate looked over at Gabriella, her brown eyes widening as she took in her appearance, only to focus more on her dejected posture. She then cleared her throat. “Hey, come here please,” she said simply.
Gabriella looked up in surprise, hesitating for a second, before slowly standing and moving closer. Her shoulders were slumped in shame. She was already a couple of inches shorter than Serenity, but her posture made her look even smaller.
Once she was close enough, Serenity grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“Hey, it’s alright,” Serenity said softly. “I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
Gabriella’s vibrant emerald eyes began filling with tears again. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated in a choked voice. “I really didn’t mean to.”
“I know,” Serenity agreed. “I believe you, I really do.”
I sighed heavily, starting to feel like this was really all my fault. “I shouldn’t have bitten her in the first place,” I commented. “I should have just toughed it out. Now she’s probably going to have the same problem I have for the rest of her life. Risking exposure whenever she feels a strong emotion.”
Serenity immediately shook her head. “Kai, I’d rather have this nasty bite right now than have risked you dying last night. I’m glad Gabriella did what she did. I would have done the same if given the chance.”
My eyes widened slightly at that, seeing her obvious sincerity.
“Plus,” Nick chimed in. “She doesn’t really look strange at this point. Maybe in comparison to how she usually looks, but she could pass as normal right now…” He paused, lowering his voice. “Assuming her skin doesn’t start turning gray.” He then cleared his throat. “And while it does seem as if the bite is what caused it to happen, we don’t know that for sure. Might be sexually transmitted, for example.”
All of us immediately looked in different directions, every single one of us embarrassed by the realization of that possibility. And the reminder that Gabriella and I fucked despite my older friend’s wishes.
“Oh,” Nick continued after a second, seeming to realize only after the rest of us just how awkward that was. “Umm, well anyway, we’ll at least have a better idea if the same thing happens to Serenity.”
I tried to clear my throat, wanting to move the subject to something else.
Anything else.
“So, in the meantime, I really need to figure out what the limitations are for this, err…” I hesitated. “I guess desire, we seem to have. For blood.” I took a deep breath. “I was already able to confirm last night that animal blood seems to be fine, but we need to test and see how long the craving can be resisted.” I focused on Gabriella’s guilty expression for a second, and then met Serenity’s wide eyes. “It’s too dangerous not knowing what will happen if we go too long without, whenever the craving rears its ugly head. For all we know, what happened just now with Gabriella might not have been a fluke. It could be something that could happen to either of us, under the right circumstances.”
Nick nodded in agreement. “First, you should probably make sure Gabriella gets some animal blood, since it sounds like she’s still needing it. But at least animals can work. Stealing human blood would be a lot more difficult, especially since most places that store blood bags have security cameras.”
Fuck, that brought up another concern.
Copyright © 2020 Kaizer Wolf
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I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure you wouldn't cut off part of the flesh unless it has necrotized or become heavily infected, which it couldn't have. Cutting it off is gonna make your body have to try and replace it and probably leave a nasty scar.
Also, why is her being a succubus not being brought up?
probly just hadn't been yet and forgotten in all the rush of this happening if i had to guess
This feels plot point feels forced. If the mc knows the pressure points to release a bite attack, he would have known bites are the worst type of wound and used a knife to make the cut the previous day.
Not everyone knows everything. Perfect example is me, being that I wrote this. I've known about that pressure point in the jaw for a very long time, both as a way to force someone to stop biting, as well as a way to injure an assailant if you can't reach other areas. Yet, in that kind of situation, I never would have thought 'oh, let's use a knife, it's better.'
So the the idea that 'if he/she knew this, then he/she would also know that' honestly isn't reality. Plenty of people know one thing, but don't know another related thing.
And for this situation in particular, plenty of self-defense classes teach this pressure point without any explanation on what types of injuries are worse compared to others.
In general, education is not evenly dispersed among the population, or even among individual people, and what people do and don't know varies widely. We can't assume that if someone knows X, they must also know Y.
Also, opposite to this situation, you will find plenty of healthcare workers who might know that bites are a worse kind of wound, based on their book education, while having zero idea about the pressure points used to force someone to release a bite (simply because people don't come into the hospital with a person actively biting them, and the type of knowledge someone is taught varies widely depending on situation). For a healthcare worker, the 'pressure point' thing is irrelevant, considering they only have to deal with the 'stitching' part, whereas the pressure point aspect would be much more likely to be taught in a self-defense class, etc.
Another example, ask a random police officer how to release a bite from a person, and they could probably tell you. However, ask them what kinds of wounds are worse, between bites or knife cuts, and they'd probably say a knife cut simply because 1) they weren't taught much about infections, and 2) they've probably seen much worse knife cuts than bites.
Plus, when people are in an escalated situation, they don't always think logically, even if they do technically know the information, a lot of that logic thought goes out the window when their thoughts are escalated like the situation where the bite happened in this story.
“And while it does seem as if the bite is what caused it to happen, we don’t know that for sure. Might be sexually transmitted, for example.”
Or her succubus side as Kai and her were thinking she had originally though Nick and Serenity don't know about that yet.