A crash sounded down the hallway. It was followed by a shriek, and then a thump.
Raising her eyes from her book, Maddie frowned in the direction of the door. She hadn't seen Phantom since the disastrous dinner, and everything had been quiet up until now.
After regaining her composure, the woman had forced herself to eat several slices of pizza. Despite having no appetite, Maddie wanted to heal as quickly as possible, and if what Phantom said about ectoplasm was true, than it absorbed a lot of energy at a rapid rate. She needed to keep herself well-fed and well-rested.
She had collected the remaining pizzas and placed them in a fridge in the adjoining kitchen, reasoning that the teenager would need to eat soon. On her way back to her bedroom, Maddie snagged a book from one of the hallway bookshelves. She had been expecting some ancient text detailing the secrets of spectral entities or the mysteries of halfas, but upon observation back in her room the cover told a different story. It was just a copy of Lord of the Flies, complete with notes scribbled in the margins and passages highlighted for schoolwork, but thus far the story had provided sufficient distraction from the freezing spike that drove itself deeper into her body with every hour.
The book also provided something to focus on that wasn't Phantom.
Shutting the novel, Maddie sighed, wincing at the pain that shot through her ribs. That shriek had definitely been his, and after her treatment of the teen, the least that the woman could do was make sure that he was alright.
The huntress slowly levered herself out of bed and staggered towards the continued gasps and occasional muffled cry. These noises sounded from the room next to hers, and Maddie gently turned the doorknob and eased it open a crack in order to take a peek at what was going on without alerting the room's occupant.
Phantom was sitting on the bathroom floor, a hand clamped tightly over his mouth in an attempt to silence his latest sob. Tears were sliding down his cheeks as the halfa rummaged through a pile of items that had obviously fallen out of a first aid kit when it had been knocked over or dropped.
Near the middle of his chest, there was a wound rather similar to Maddie's. However, it was as though this job had been rushed – the wound was larger, its shape irregular as opposed to her almost perfect circle. The edges were jagged, as if the implement used to cut had been held by a person that was shaking badly. In addition, where Maddie's wound was covered for the most part by a membrane that wasn't quite as thick or durable as skin, Phantom's wound was not – it wept ectoplasm freely, the viscous substance dripping down Phantom's chest.
It looked fresh at first glance, as though whatever procedure that caused such a mark had been carried out there on the bathroom floor. However, closer inspection revealed inflammation, the skin flushed dark green around the site of injury.
This wound was most likely as old as Maddie's.
Phantom produced a tube from the scattered supplies, uncapping it and gingerly spreading its glowing white contents across his mangled chest. This was accompanied by more cries of pain, and Maddie noted a pile of linen bandages hanging over the side of the bath – they were stained with splotches of green.
He seemed to know what he was doing.
Once again, Maddie's thoughts flashed back to countless fights. Most of the time, Phantom had been attacked from all sides – sure, the ghosts he fought caused quite a bit of damage, but the hunters would be just as bad. Her stomach twisted at the thought, and Maddie clenched her hand tightly around the doorknob as her mind unhelpfully supplied the damage rating for all of their different blasters. Even being nicked by one of those shots would hurt like hell.
The ointment administered, Phantom grabbed a roll of bandages from his supplies. Anchoring one end against his side with a piece of medical tape, the teenager began to wind the fresh bandage around his torso, sobbing as he twisted to pass the roll across his back.
Maddie had seen enough.
She shoved the door open, standing with hands on hips and a stern expression as Phantom jumped in surprise.
"Mu-Maddie, what-?"
"Let me help," the woman sighed, kneeling beside the hero with a wince at the tug in her own chest. "What on earth caused such a horrible injury?"
A part of her screamed that she didn't want to know, but Maddie pushed this thought away as she tugged the roll from Phantom's fingers. "Arms up," she ordered, and continued to wrap his chest when the boy obeyed. "Now, why do you need bandages when I don't?"
Phantom hissed as she pulled the fabric snugly over his weeping wound. "I put all my energy into you, keeping only enough the keep me alive."
The woman flinched. Phantom must have been shot when trying to rescue her, and had to heal himself as well…
Oh, hell.
"You were already at the bank," Maddie said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to get there in time to save me."
"Why would I have been-?"
"In your human form," she clarified. "You were in your human form to do normal, human things when the robbery occurred. Now hand me the needle and thread I see over there, and I'll stitch this bandage closed.
Phantom hung his head and did as she asked. "Yeah," he whispered, "I was there."
He had saved her despite being shot in the chest himself.
"Thank you for rescuing me," Maddie murmured. "It must have been really hard to make a fully-functional heart out of ectoplasm, especially when you're trying to keep yourself alive as well. In fact, wouldn't the stuff in my chest still be using your strength to function right now?"
Phantom shook his head. "I don't know how to make an entire heart," he confessed in a voice even quieter than hers.
"But mine was destroyed, you said so yourself!" the huntress blurted, her fingers tightening around his shoulder. "Explain, then, what…"
Was his wound really caused by a bullet?
Phantom sent the woman a shaky smile as her eyes flicked to his bandaged chest. "I can't make a body part on its own, but if it has enough to latch on to, I can make the rest as sort of a blueprint for the cells to grow around. It'll function well enough as ectoplasm, and degrade as your body replaces it with cells. The great thing is that the cells it attaches to provide enough energy for it to remain functional, so your body's energy is enough now and I don't have to help support it anymore."
No… There was no way he would have, or even could have…
He held up his ungloved hand. "See, you'll notice that about half of this isn't tanned. That's because a friend of mine lost her hand recently in a ghost fight, so I gave her half of mine and then built each of us another half hand out of ectoplasm. The thing is, she's already a halfa, so that's why I don't know how the ectoplasm will affect you. However, there's no rejection of the new human tissue because the ectoplasm sort of cancels that out, which is useful."
"Phantom," Maddie breathed, "what the hell are you saying?"
His small smile faltered as she gripped both shoulders and turned the boy to face her. "Maddie-"
"What the hell did you do?!"
Phantom flinched at her outburst, trying to pull away despite the fingers wrapped around his shoulders like a vice.
One look at her face seemed to convince him.
"I guess I owe it to you to be honest," the teen sighed. He reached up to clasp the huntress' wrists, meeting her eyes fully for the first time since their altercation in the dining room.
"I cut out half of my own human heart and gave it to you."