TRIGGER WARNINGS: Very gaphic gore and disturbing scenes
Chapter 7- Sanguine Blood
(Laurens POV)
Okay, so as much as I hated to admit it, the way Lee woke me up a few nights ago may or may not have inspired me to do the same to Hamilton...
Elizler brought him back later that night with a book or two to shut him up and- it did work well. If I ever looked up from my desk, his unique eyes were always darting and scanning a marathon on the pages. Nearly every minute, he turned the paper with haste to thirst upon new information lying heavy on the next two pages. It was silently amusing.
I never attempted to make conversation that evening. The only sounds heard were rustles of pages, scratches of pen to paper and a indistinct grumble from my stomach.
What surprised me however, was that Hamilton read far into the night (just as long as I worked). Usually, I stopped working in the early hours of the morning (maybe from 1-2:30) so I naturally expected him to head to bed hours before. He didn't though... I had to remind him to sleep! So by then, he was already 3/4 inside his thick book, the name of which I still didn't ask.
My body and brain was used to lack of sleep. Actually, if I got too much sleep, that's when I was grouchy! So the fact that I had to wake up at around 6:30am, didn't faze me whatsoever. Hamilton obviously wasn't as adapted as I was.
As I bluntly shook his sleeping body awake, he seemed to sharply sit up, alert.
"Mornin', Shortbread." I smirked at him, throwing his training clothes bluntly in his face.
He yawned widely, "Mornin', you freckled fuck."
I rolled my eyes and laughed slightly, putting his comment down to simple banter.
"What time is it?" He stretched, standing up from the bed.
I clicked my tongue, "Showtime."
He left no words and headed to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
By the time he had finished, Lee, Lafayette and Mulligan had already gathered inside our room- either discussing subjects or lightly teasing Lee or me about out "alliance".
"Now do you wish you never called Lee for help?!"
Was only one of Mulligan's comments on the situation, not to mention some of the things Laf inputted on.
Hamilton exited the bathroom with a slight look of shock on his face for a second.
"Didn't know I was this appreciated to be welcomed by a crowd whenever I walked through a door? Will this be a regular thing?" He looked on in amusement.
Lee stared at him with humour in his eyes whereas Lafayette and Mulligan, they just couldn't help but gape at Hamilton's mouth of words. I just stayed neutral.
"Hamilton," I began by clearing my throat, "this week, we will start to push you to your limit. Everyday, you will face a new level or stage in training your physical body. I warn you to put everything you've got into these hours of labour because this will start to decipher your roll in the Liberty's."
"Sounds good with me."
"It doesn't have to sound good with you. You'd be doing it anyway."
Hamilton shot a glare towards me, I gladly returned but stronger.
The four other men in the room were slightly taken back by mine and Hamilton's sudden switch in attitude. Maybe my comment was unneeded, or maybe I only just remembered about our fight last night. Either way, this had definitely set me up for the day. And I was going to make him work.
OwO
"Yeah-um- Laurens? I don't think he can take much more of this... I mean, he's been at it for about 20 minutes... Wait... Didn't you have this place booked for an hour? I don't think he's going to survive the next forty minutes..."
"Stop thinking, Lee and just go with it."
"He's almost falling over though! I'm always up for pushing someone over there limit but... but he's almost at his limit..."
Just to prove his point, Hamilton stumbled over his feet only just managing to stay on the treadmill. His brow was streaming with sweat and bright red with exhaustion. Usually at this point of breathlessness, I would have given some sort of advice, but I just wanted to see what skills he already had.
Hamilton made another trip over his feet just before I had to yell for him to stop. Gladly, he did.
Lafayette walked across with a bottle of water and a towel (Mulligan already departed for basic training with the rest of my squadron). Hamilton took the water with pure glee, nodding some sort of thanks toward the Lieutenant.
I watched him stumble away to sit on a bench outside, most likely engrossed with the scene.
Lafayette joined mine and Lee's discussion almost instantly.
"I really don't think he can do this, Laurens. He doesn't look physically strong enough." Lee scanned over where the short man sat.
"But you've got to remember, he's only just come out of hospital. He won't be the best fitness wise." Lafayette copied Lee's gaze.
"Hang on, because nearly every person we've trained has been able to at least get to the half an hour point without a break. Even when they've come out of hospital." Lee mentioned validly.
"Though they haven't been tortured." I pointed before looking up at Lee.
"Sure but do you remember Olpi? She had broken nearly every part of her, got two amputations and was still able to go past the half way mark almost three days after her release!"
Alas, Lee made points I couldn't ignore. Though as much as I wanted to accept the truth, some part of my mind nagged that this man held more than what we could see...
I sighed into my hands but told Lafayette to bring him back in.
"Keep an eye on him." I patted the Lieutenant on the back before disappearing inside the changing rooms. I gave a small jog over to where my locker should have been and pulled out my training gear slipping it on with haste.
Once I returned back to the other three: Lee held his head in his hands, Lafayette crossed his arms and lent up against the wall watching Hamilton who again, was out of breath.
Lafayette looked confused but I still said nothing before hopping on the treadmill next to Hamilton. Instantly, I pressed the speed just above Hamilton's who looked slightly dazzled but after some minutes he started to take the hint and look at my feet and breathing patterns. With this, he almost immediately began to pick up his pace and you could tell he felt a lot more comfortable.
Because of this new-found ability, I knew someone like him would be more than competitive to be the best, it seemed. So I turned up my speed by quite a few points. He followed.
Behind me, I could tell the way Lafayette and Lee would look on in astonishment, muttering little notes and jotting them down on the clipboard.
For me, the minutes seemed to fly by until we had almost under five minutes left. I pushed up my speed to the max (not really affecting anything within me) so after a few seconds, Hamilton followed.
Now, you should never talk when you're running because it uses up too much breath, but I did it anyway because I can just about control it. Also, I wanted to see if Hamilton knew this for himself.
"Keep it up, Shortbread. You haven't got long to go now."
Hamilton glanced over with a glint in his eye, placing a finger to his lips to prove he already knew where I was going with his.
"Good." I muttered underneath my breath until I heard a crash fall to the floor. I pulled out the emergency cord in my treadmill to stop instantly, but then I noticed the one next to me had already stopped and it's user was in a heap on the floor...
"Jesus Christ, what happened?" I managed getting my breathing back to a normal rate.
"...blood..." He murmured holding a forceful hand to his waist, "...stitches...broke..."
I bent down to his side and removed his hand pulling up his t-shirt. I could barely see the colour of his skin...
"Fuck." I muttered, looking around to try and find something to seal back up red, pooling abyss. Each second we waited, even more of his sanguine blood lathered it's self over the skin of my hand as I was now pressing down onto it. Lafayette called over to me from across the room, finally seeking out some sort of high tech First Aid Kit.
"Hold your wound." I spoke down to Hamilton's ear and he obeyed with a grunt. With a sharp pull I slipped my arms around his light figure and carried him over towards a bench closer to the Aid box.
"Okay Hamilton, your doing good just keep holding on, yeah?" I reassured but I didn't expect a reply.
Lafayette yanked the box from the wall hurrying over towards me and Hamilton who seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness in waves.
He shouldn't be bleeding this much...
Against the door to the gym, Lee was shouting for help down the hallways, yells that were almost inaudible due to the panic that was set in. I took in a breath.
"Lafayette! Get bandages, staples and perform the local anaesthesia!"
No delay and the Frenchman rummaged the box for exactly what we need.
I looked back at Hamilton who was biting his lip to suppress a cry and letting his head lunge back and arching his back.
If it were even possible, his face was even more pooled with sweat than when he was running. Droplet after droplet skiing in rapids down the pale of his face.
This wasn't normal.
Unless Hamilton had some sort of phobia towards blood (which I was pretty certain he didn't), he didn't have a reason to react this way...
Something else was going on here...
"Lafayette! Where is the equipment?!" I rushed at him, snatching some medical gloves and shoving them over my hands.
"I can't find the drug!" He called back.
"Then go check in the back!"
Lafayette scrambled to his feet, sprinting down the hall into another room to find another box.
"Lee!" I yelled, "Need some help here!"
"I can't Laurens! By the state he looks, I need to get Elizler!"
I grunted in frustration, "Okay then go!"
He nodded running into the corridor, pushing past crowds and doorways.
I looked back at Hamilton, his suffering as prominent as the blood on my hands.
"Okay you're doing really good Hamilton. Really, really good. We're going to get you help soon just hang on in there."
"Laurens...?" His voice clenched in agony.
"Yes?"
"Please... hold... the wound..."
I looked down and his arms were violently shaking, the blood over flowing under his weak vice.
"Okay let go." I placed my hand over his and he swiftly jerked it away so I held down to apply the pressure.
This wasn't normal... There shouldn't be this much blood...
"Hey Hamilton?" I tried to keep my voice as steady as I could, "What was that book you were reading?" I only asked questions to try and make this less stressful for us both (mainly him).
"The... history... of the... American Revolution..."
I nodded trying to balance out the job in hand and keeping up talking.
"Do you like History then?" I asked.
He didn't reply for what seemed like a long time. The blood was gushing too heavy this time I had to act.
My fingers fiddled with my own belt strapped around my waist and instantly I attempted to wrap it just above where my hand pressed.
"Look Hamilton, I'm sorry but you're going to have to hold it again."
He placed his hand on top of my own as I slid away, immediately tightening the belt and clipping it in place with the buckle.
"F-fuck..." He yelped and began to squirm and grunt between his teeth.
"Hamilton?" I asked in a rush while I lunged to his wound as he abruptly let go. "Hamilton?! What's going on?!"
This wasn't normal!
"Hamilton! You going to have to speak with me now!"
"They're here!" He screamed jolting me back a little bit and sending too many thoughts racing berserk in my head. "They're eating at me! I can feel it- ARGH!" He screeched digging his nails into my forearm. "It burns! Fuck! Laurens it's- it's- it's-" He screamed again.
"H-Hamilton?! What's eating you?! What's happening?!"
"L-Look!" He batted my hand away from his side and there it was. Thousands of tiny red bugs crawling in buried inside the tissue and flesh that enwrapped this poor man. The wound began to spread wider as these tiny monsters razored across his skin stabbing in deeper towards his insides. Thousand and thousands of these creatures plastered against everything I could see on the inside of him. Hamilton's body spasmed as they scratched deeper begging me to make it stop.
But for once in my life, I didn't know what to do.
I didn't know what these things were. Never before had I ever seen anything like it.
Do I hold the wound? Wash it? Try and get them out?
Something told me Hamilton knew exactly what they were but I thought he was in far to much agony to form proper words...
He was being eaten from the inside out...
"Let... me... bleed..." He choked with blood now dripping from his mouth.
I looked at him confused and through his squinted eyes, he attempted to unbuckle the belt I wrapped around him earlier.
"You... You want me to get rid of the belt?" I asked, tasting the bile swim up the back of my throat. He nodded.
"But you'll bleed out!" I almost shouted in internal panic I refused to show.
"They- hate- blood-"
"But-"
"JUST DO IT PLEASE!"
And I followed.
The blood gushed back out over us both. Squirt after squirt it sprayed across my face, turning my mouth into some sort of metallic lagoon. I twisted my head to the side to spit it away and tried to latch my hand back into the spray but Hamilton smacked my hand away, his face completely drained of colour.
"Don't... do... that... They'll... hurt... you..."
I stared down at him darting my eyes between his helpless face, and the mess over his stomach. I was completely baffled.
Suddenly, only in the moment, I started to realise Lafayette and Lee we're still gone.
Where the hell are they?!
I could barely think straight. The only thing that snapped me back to Hamilton was cry and another twitched vice from his hands on my arm. I couldn't give a shit if they hurt me. I grabbed for a jacket swinging off the wall and put it directly on the wound.
I muttered reassuring comments and fumbled everywhere for the surgical staple gun, grasping it once I had it.
"Okay Hamilton, there is no way you will survive without stopping the bleeding. I'm going to have to seal it."
He forced his drooping eyes open to squint at the gun held. He nodded.
"Look, we have nothing to numb it so I'm going to just have to do it, okay?"
"F-fuck- J-Just do it Laurens!"
I made no hesitation.
Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap. Snap.
I could tell he tensed as firm as an oak board, biting at his lower lip to restrain a cry. Only a small line remind open but didn't bleed as violently as the it the other hole just had- so I spare him the extra pain.
The room ended up completely caved in our heavy breaths and Hamilton's grunts. A clash to the floor with the gun and sighed. His skin physically crawled with the creatures moving beneath it but they lightly began to cease until his skin appeared as just small ripples.
"W-what just happened?" I questioned slowly just bringing myself to look at him. But he never replied and just squeezed my arm (which he was still holding onto) rhythmically, maybe one movement every ten seconds.
I never bothered to ask any more questions, just letting the events of the past... what? Five? Six? Seven minutes? Pass by.
It didn't feel real.
The blood lathered all over us both, some starting to crisp over into a sticky sort of solid... Our both shaking figures... Our deep breaths... The bugs... The staples...
What just happened? I asked myself the same question and I didn't have an answer. Nothing could describe this... Nothing at all...
What was this stillness after the storm? How can something like that, suddenly reassemble as an aura of calm?
I didn't have an answer to anything.
It wasn't just us lathered in the rose fields of blood, nearly everything within a meters length away was painted all the same.
The only thing that stayed constant was the squeeze of hand on my left forearm. Except all of a sudden a wave of nausea rolled over me and the room began to spin making my knees collapse to the floor. I swallowed the vomit down gagging on its acidic taste.
Hamilton squeezed me tighter out of his own discomfort and I gazed up at him as he winced. Again with a deep breath, I attempted to sit up against the bench he lay on, and removed the bloodied gloves stuck to my hands. I let my hand slide along his bare arm, giving small strokes of comfort with my thumb.
He squeezed me again.
I squeezed him back.
"I'm here." I whispered, stroking again with my thumb, "You're okay now... I promise, Shortbread."
Only for a second, a twitch of a smile ghosted his lips, but it dropped again to the exhausted expression he bared.
Soon, a clash of wheels began to echo down the hall. Heavy runs of footsteps and frantic chatter raced with the noise as well, Elizler's, Lee's and Lafayette's voice the most audible.
All bones throbbed with my eyes for rest, resisting any movement I attempted to make other than the squeezes we gave each other informing we were still somewhat conscious.
The last movement I made before shutting down to sleep, was my other hand placed lightly over the top of his wound. With all the blood, I wanted to let the nurses know who was injured.
People chatted what sounded like far away from me, however I knew they stood close.
I know I had only one last thought before I completely gave into the grasp of exhaustion:
I haven't seen that much blood since I last saw, him...
And now he's gone.
Authors Note: This has taken a lot of planning this chapter and the idea honestly only came to me once I wrote the treadmill scene!
I am so sorry for all the gore and disturbing imagery. I like that stuff! But I understand some of you hold a weak stomach! Again, sorry. I think that's the worst I will make the gore but we'll see ;)
But I can only hope I never messed it up! Please tell me what you thought of this? Was it too exaggerated? Too descriptive? Too slow?
Please let me know! Reviews are always the light of my life (not joking!)
-L.E-Rae _x_