Chapter 25: Painful Conversation

"Have you ever gotten stitches before?" Eli asked Sophia after he regained his composure.

"Um, no. I haven't." She said.

"Well, I'll be honest with you, it'll hurt pretty bad, but you need to lay as still as possible again, okay?" Eli 'conveniently' didn't mention that it would be even more painful than necessary because he'd never done it before. Sure, knew how to do it thanks to his background in biology and all the medical dramas he watched, but he didn't have any practical experience.

Sophia nodded, but her bright-green eyes were wide and focused on the suture needle he was threading, and the color drained from her face.

"I'm going back to help mom." Vivi announced, obviously still sulking about being called the younger sibling, then abruptly left the room without waiting for a response from anyone, leaving Eli chuckling to himself.

"Alright. Let's get started, shall we?" Eli said, then leaned over Sophia's waist and brought the needle close to her skin.

"Wait!" She gasped. "It's too dark in here!" She exclaimed like she'd only then realized how dark the room had gotten. The only source of light was the moon's pale shine peaking through the gap between the curtains. "Were you planning to just blindly stab me with a needle? Set up a light or something first." She huffed.

"Hmmm." Eli looked into her eyes, deciding if he should tell her about his trait or play along and waste time setting up a lantern for her. The woman had fought her own sister and three other armed opponents to protect his family, after all, so he figured she'd earned that much trust. "It's fine, I don't need any light. Just like you have special ears, I have special eyes. I can see just as clearly in total darkness as I can in broad daylight."

Sophia squinted at him and pursed her lips, obviously doubtful, and obviously about to launch into more questions.

"Hold still." Eli said before she could hound him with her doubts. He placed his left hand atop the smooth skin of her hip and used the forceps to push the curved needle through one side of the open wound and out the other.

"Mmm! Fuckin' hell!" Sophia shouted and cursed while gripping the bedding with clenched fists, then groaned and gritted her teeth as Eli pulled the needle through.

He quickly looped the needle under the thread a few times to make a surgical knot, then tugged the ends tight to pull the skin together. Sophia was still moaning and grumbling at him while he took a small pair of scissors from the med kit and snipped the ends of the suture thread.

"Well?" Eli said as he began to clean and re-sterilize the needle. "Did that convince you I can see well enough to continue?"

"Fine, I believe it. But you're an asshole, you know that?" She grumbled.

Eli quietly laughed as he re-threaded the needle. "Sorry. You ready for the next one?"

Sophia stared at the needle and squeezed her fists. "Let's just get this over with." She sighed.

"Yes ma'am." Eli grinned as he leaned over and prepared for the second suture. "So..." He thought aloud. "What do you call people like us? People who aren't...you know, normal." He looked at her long, pointed ears.

"Hm, well, when I was a little girl, my grandfather called us his fairy children. It always made my grandmother happy when he called her his fairy wife. Grandad always bragged to anyone who'd listen about how his family was special, about how we were blessed by the forest." Her smile was soft, filled with the warmth of fond memories, but her eyes held a hint of sadness. "I don't think anyone actually believed him, but everyone in town loved my grandad, so they all humored him and called us fairies. The current governor's family calls us Nunnehi, but everyone else still calls us fairies. Ah!" She grunted and sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth when Eli pushed the needle through her skin.

"Nunnehi..." Eli repeated the word while tying the surgical knot. "What's that?"

"The governor, Equoni Adohi, said his tribal ancestors told stories of friendly spirits, the Nunnehi, who lived in the mountains. He said they can only take human form by entering a child's body before birth, and he thinks we have this appearance because we're housing a mountain spirit." She touched her pointed ear.

"Spirits and fairies, huh? I like that." He mused as he snipped the thread and began the next round of sterilization.

"What about you? What do they call you in Lancaster?" She asked.

"Actually, most people in Lancaster don't know we're not like them, since we don't look any different, so they don't call us anything. My grandmother called us post-humans, so that's what people who know about our eyes call us." He said.

"Post-humans?" She raised an eyebrow. "No offense, but I like our terms better."

Eli laughed and smiled at her. "Well, I think they suit you better, too. You ready to continue?" He held up the suturing tools.

"Mhm." She nodded, but her emerald eyes stared quizzically at him. ".....hey."

"Yeah?" He paused before doing the the next suture.

"How old are you?"

"Heh." He snickered and jabbed the needle through her wound. Her reaction was more tame that time; she took an aggressive breath through her nose and tensed up, but that was all. "I'm sixteen. And, as funny as it was, you shouldn't mistake me for Vivi's older brother again. She's real touchy about that."

"You're only sixteen?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I thought you were older."

"Because of my height?" He asked.

"That's part of it, sure, but you're more....I don't know....composed than I'd expect a sixteen-year-old to be."

"Well, thanks." He grinned and finished tying off the thread.

She watched him closely, curiously, while he prepared for the final stitch. He was almost ready when the door opened, letting a cool breeze blow fresh air through the room. Vivi quickly stepped inside to escape the rain and shook the wet hair away from her face as she closed the door.

"How're things in the other room?" Eli asked and leaned over Sophia to do the last suture.

"Messy." Vivi walked to stand behind Eli, her rain-soaked boots making a small squishing sound with each step, and looked over his shoulder to watch him work. "You almost done?"

"Yeah." Eli pushed the needle through one last time, making Sophia groan in pain, and quickly finished tying and cutting the thread. "That was the last one."

"Good, because Mom wants your help. I'll get her bandaged up, but you better hurry before the storm gets any worse." She said.

"Alright." Eli stood up and stretched his back. He let Vivi take his place, grabbed his hunting knife, and attached it to his belt before opening the door. Cold raindrops pelted his face, so he tucked his chin down to protect his eyes, and pulled the door shut against the gusting winds.

He jogged next-door, splashing through muddy puddles that soaked his feet and ankles. Grunting at the uncomfortable feeling of squishy, wet socks, he grasped the slick doorknob and hurried into the room. 

"Mom?" He said as he pushed his wet hair away from his face and looked around the destroyed room.

Aside from the bed, every single piece of furniture was broken. The remaining bits had all been tossed into a ruinous pile in the corner. A wide arc of spattered blood decorated the curtains, and three large pools of the same crimson liquid were soaking into the ancient, dusty carpet. Two bloody drag-marks trailed away from the center of the room toward the doorway, and a third lead to the bathroom. Maria's hands and feet were strapped to one leg of the bed, forcing her to sit in a puddle of what was likely her sister's blood. She was glaring furiously at him, her eyes red and puffy, but the cloth gag in her mouth prevented her from speaking.

"Back here." Julie called from the bathroom, her voice reverberating off the broken ceramic floor tiles.

Maria's hateful death stare followed him as he walked past her to the back of the room.

"Vivi said you wanted my help?" He asked when he entered the bathroom.

Lauren way laying unconscious on the floor, shirtless, her abdomen wrapped in bandages that were quickly being soaked through with blood. Julie stood from where she was sitting on the side of the tub and stepped over Lauren to meet Eli.

"I think we should move these two over to our room for the night. I don't like the idea of us splitting up just to watch the prisoners." She said. "I want you to carry Lauren to our room while I have a talk with Maria."

"Okay..." He knelt down and watched as Lauren took shallow, raspy breaths. "Think she'll live?"

"If Sophia wants her to, she might. That girl really helped us out, so we should return the favor; let her decide what to do with Lauren. If she wants us to save her sister, then you can treat the wound and try keeping her alive. If not, just kill the bitch and toss her out." Julie said coldly.

Eli slung Lauren's arm behind his neck. Then, supporting her from below her knees and upper back, he scooped her up into his arms. His injured ankle throbbed from the extra weight when he stood, but his footing remained solid.

Julie lead him through the room to the exit, with Maria scowling and seething at them along the way. She held the door open for him, and Eli did a quick visual scan of their stormy surroundings before trudging out into the pouring rain. Just before the door closed behind him, Maria began a series of shouts, probably curses directed at Julie, which were incomprehensible because of the gag stuffed in her mouth.

Opening the door to their room was a tricky feat, considering Eli was holding an unconscious woman in the rain, but he managed to get inside and kick the door closed without any problems. No problems for himself, anyway. He accidentally bumped Lauren's ankle against the doorway on entry, but he honestly couldn't care less about her getting a little bruise at that point.

A small, battery-powered lantern had been placed on the bedside table, probably per Sophia's request, and it gave off a warm, candle-like glow. Sophia was sitting up on the edge of the bed, clean bandaging taped over her wounded hip, while Vivi inspected the back of her head where she'd been struck by Rin.

"Hey, Sophia." Eli said. "Mom thinks-"

"I heard." She cut him off. Her emerald green eyes looked into his. She seemed angry, confused, and hurt all at once. "I....I want to save her. I don't want to be my sister's murderer."

"Got it. I'll do what I can." Eli assured her. "I'll need to use the bed, though. Can you make some space?"

"Mhm." Sophia mumbled. She and Vivi quickly moved the medical supplies from the mattress to the small table by the head of the bed, then Vivi helped Sophia limp over to one of the chairs while Eli lowered Lauren onto her back.

He pushed two fingers against her wrist. Her pulse was weak, and slow. As expected after having lost so much blood.

Grabbing the scissors from the bedside table, he meticulously cut the rush-job bandages away from her upper stomach. As he peeled away the layers of bloodied cloth, his concerns multiplied. A pungent, almost garlicky odor from the wound stung his nostrils, and the innermost bandages had a yellowish-green color mixed with the red blood. As soon as the cloth was removed from the wound, blood poured out of the horizontal slash in her upper abdomen, along with viscous yellow bile.

"Shit." Eli cursed under his breath. He put his palm just below her ribs, but above the wound, and carefully pressed down where he knew her liver was.

More blood and bile rushed out of the open wound.

She must have stabbed upward, into the liver. Dammit, I can't do anything about a stabbed liver. She'd die of shock if I tried to open her up to fix it, and I don't know how to fix it anyway, even if we had a fully equipped operating room. But that also means I can't stop the bleeding. And even if I stitch her up, she'll just bleed internally until she dies....which will happen in a few minutes either way at this rate.

"Sophia." Eli's voice was dry, and he took a steadying breath before drawing his hunting knife from his belt.

"Yeah?" She asked.

"Lauren's alive. You can see her chest move when she breathes, right?" He didn't look back at her when he spoke. Instead, he stared down at the steel blade in his hand.

"Um.....yeah, I can. Why?" She asked timidly.

"Good. That means you didn't murder your sister." He flipped the knife around into a reverse grip.

The scrape of metal against bone and a wet thudding noise accompanied the sounds of rain pattering against the window when Eli stabbed Lauren through the heart. Her body twitched and jerked when he yanked the blade out of her chest with a crimson spray. She spat out a single cough, and choked on the blood that filled her lungs. She took four gasping, gurgling breaths before releasing a slow, final exhale.

"I did."