Marco could only see darkness. He didn't know how long he sat there, in the enveloping void. It could have been minutes, hours, even days. Marco could only sit there, that was until it started, the voices. The voices started as low hum, but the hum turned into whispering, and the whispering turned into shouting. And then silence. Marco felt as if his mind was on the verge of breaking in half. But then, he noticed it. Red. Two small red dots. When Marco saw it he broke into a sweat knowing full well what those red dots were. The eyes slowly made their way to towards him. Marco was hyperventilating now, it got worse as the dots got closer and the voices returned. As the eyes moved closer, the louder the voices. And louder, and louder, and louder, until…
Marco woke up screaming at the top of his lungs. It took him a second to realize he wasn't in the woods anymore. Rather he was in a small cottage, sitting up in a modest bed. Marco tried to get up, but his movements rekindled the horrid pain of his ruptured liver and broken ribs. "Now just hold one second there sonny" an older voice spoke "you're no where close to bein' fully healed". Marco turned toward the direction of the voice, only to be met with an old man, in what seemed like monk robes, disposing of used bloody bandages. The boy looked at the man then took a second to check on his own well being. His entire abdomen, his leg, and his broken arm was bandaged up with fresh cloth. The young man asked the elder what happened. "You were attacked by a vampire, kid" Marco eyes shot open in disbelief. "What did you say?" Marco asked "I said you were attacked by a vampire" the man replied. Marco groaned before responding "that's what I was afraid you said…". Marco fell back into the bed, he was way too exhausted from his encounter to question what attacked him.
After some time passed the man began to talk again, "Yeah, you're lucky I heard your girly screams" The Old man told Marco teasingly. Marco laughed at his comment "So you're telling me, you saved my life?" Marco quickly caught himself and tilted his head down in shame. He had just insulted what could have well been the man to keep him from croaking that night. The old man however met his comment with a hardy chuckle, "I wouldn't blame you in not believin' me, sonny." The man then came to the side of the bed with a bowl of water and some towels. The took a minute to place the towels in the water and then wrapping around Marco's broken arm, and when doing so Marco could feel the pain in his arm numb a bit. "Sorry for not fixing up your arm or ribs yet" The Man said "I was focusin' my efforts on keepin' your liver from bein' ripped in half." Marco looked at him perplexed. "And how'd you manage to do that?" Marco asked the man. The man smiled before taking a deep breath. He reached for Marco's abdomen, as he did so Marco pulled away and asked "what are you doing?" The man replied "Healin' you what do you think?" "How's is grabbing the wounded area going to help me?" Marco shot back. The old man answered "with Hamon, kid." Marco shot another confused look at the man. "Look kid, every second we wait the more likely your liver's gonna split open again." Marco shut his mouth and laid back letting the man do what he needed to heal him. The man put his hand over Marco's liver before letting out his breath. Marco felt, what he could only describe as, electric volts flow through his body. The pain in his abdomen subsided a bit from the man's actions.
A good ten minutes passed with a pattern of soaking towels and Hamon treatments before the old man man wiped his forehead and spoke. "Well, your liver should be fine now, and your ribs should be alright too." Marco lifted his hoodie and felt his abdomen, his ribs felt good as new! "Gee! Thanks uh..." Marco's voiced trailed off from not knowing the man's name. "Antonio" the old man said. "You can call me Antonio." Marco was caught off with the name sounding so... normal "Well... thank you Antonio, you really saved my skin back there." Marco then realized he must have been unconscious for a while and asked Antonio how long he's been out of commission. "You've been out cold for a good nine hours". Marco's jaw dropped in awe "I've been out for nine hours!" Marco stopped for a moment to do the math, he had been out in the woods for at least another four hours for it to have gotten so dark out... He had to have been gone a little more than half a day. Marco jumped out of the bed as quickly as possible "Look Antonio I really appreciate all you've done for me, but I have to leave right no-" Marco reached into his pockets while he was talking to get out his dimensional scissors when he realized, he didn't have it...