Chapter Seventeen
Lost Boy
A loud gasp called Briar's attention, causing her to look up from holding Dais's hand. The woman who was helping them was now squatting on her knees, hand over her mouth. A look Briar could not place was now set on her face, eyes wide. Briar assumed it was the state of the wound that had this woman so perplexed, having forgotten his appearance in the heat of the moment.
"I kept the knife in, so that maybe he could be saved. I know these things are usually fatal, but I needed to get him help." She rambled on trying to stifle the nervous tears that were forming. When the woman did not answer, Briar assumed the worst.
Clasping her hand to her mouth to stifle a sob, she cried out to the woman. "He's not going to die right? I mean, he is still breathing so that means something, right?" Briar could not keep the sound of her anguish seep through into her cry, fearing that she was going to lose her friend.
The woman looked up, her eyes shielded. She did not utter a word to Briar, but her lips moved silently. Suddenly she looked up at Briar, her eyes shut as she smiled. "Of course sweet heart. Everything is fine now. I will be right back." she stood to leave, brushing her skirt pants off as she did so.
"Wait!" Briar called, using her free hand to grasp at the woman's wrist. "What is your name?"
With a smile, she cooed; "Silvia Bluue. I will be your doctor for the evening." At this, she stood up and strode back into the building. Briar was left outside in the rain with the now comatose Dais.
"It's okay." she smoothed the hair back from his pale forehead. "Everything is going to be okay now."
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The stretcher rolled through the double doors at the front of Recom Tech. Two interns hauled it into the lobby, Dais strapped tight to the bed. His head was supported by a pillow, and his clawed feet stretched over the bottom of the bed, his stature being to large for the gurney to accommodate. Beside him strode Bluue and Briar, the latter holding one clawed hand as he was wheeled toward a far door. Almost running to keep up with the interns speed, Briar kept telling Dais that everything was going to be ok. Even with her side killing her and the headache that kept coming and going Briar did not want to let go of Dais's hand. Both doors swung open, being held by two more interns ready to admit Dais and the stretcher. She readied herself to follow him but Briar was pulled to the side at the last second as they swung the doors shut.
The older woman, who had identified herself as Silvia Bluue moments before, grabbed a hold of Briar's arm. Running one hand through the younger woman's hair, she cooed. "Don't worry dear. Your friend is now in the best care one can buy. Everything is alright now." Pulling back a hand covered in blood, she spun Briar around and marched her to another far door. "Now let's get that head of yours stitched up."
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Warmth. For the second time in a few months, Briar found herself somewhere strange and warm. Sitting up, she felt groggy, and there was a bad taste in her mouth. Eye's still shut, she called out.
"Dais? What's for eats?" he did not answer her, and waited a few moments before calling out to him once more. Again he did not answer. This jerked her from that dreamlike state between worlds of sleep and waking. Both eyes snapped open, taking in the hospital room in which she now found herself. A TV sat on a plain wooden dresser, the screen blank and reflective. White walls matched the white tiled floor, added to only by the stench of antiseptic chemicals. It was then she remembered.
Dais had been stabbed, and she had gotten help. Once there, he was taken for surgery or something of the like, and Bluue had taken her upstairs to this room and stitched up both wounds on her body. Briar could feel the bandage rubbing against the stitches on her side.
"My my. This wound seems like it was once very deep. Yet it seems to have healed mostly all the way up." Bluue had remarked while sewing the stab wound on her side. "How in the world did you heal this wound without any prior medical attention?"
Briar had tried to explain, but the coffee they had given her made her feel very tired. "Dais used some of his medicines on it. He would rub it into the wound everyday." Eyelids drooping, she heard Bluue chuckle.
"Such nonsense."
Now she was awake, and wanted nothing more than to see how Dais was doing. Well, her stomach argued, that and get something to eat. Cracking the door opened she stepped into the hallway outside her room. It was white as well, and the smell of antiseptics was twice as bad out there. For a few minutes she walked around, opening every door like hers to find Dais. He was not there.
Deciding to try another floor, Briar found the elevators. Pushing the button she only had to wait a few moments before the light signaled that it had reached her floor. The elevator's door opened without a sound. Briar stepped in, her hip and waist bandaged tightly, as well as part of her head. From the small glimpse she had gotten of herself in the TV in her room, she looked terrible.
In the elevator there were already three orderlies talking about work related stuff. One had a clipboard with names on it.
Deciding that she should ask before barging into Bluue's office on the sixth floor, Briar turned to the young Asian man holding the clipboard.
"Excuse me sir? Do you know where I can find someone that was brought in here last night?" When the man just looked at her, saying nothing, she tried to explain. "He had the knife in his left side. Ms. Bluue brought him in."
"No one like that has been brought in. Can I have your name please?" Briar gave him her name, and the man looked at his clipboard momentarily, then looked at her. "Sorry. You were brought in by yourself it seems."