7: Ok, so 10 is at the hospital right now...Honestly, I havent had an update from her in a while, but I hope she's fine. Anyway, I decided to go ahead and post this chapter...Since we totally forgot about this story.
WARNING!: Gore in advanced description ahead. If you get queasy, do not read this.
"Captain Short?" He ran up to her-she was still on the lawn. She was laying down on the grass, her breath shallow as though it hurt to take a single breath. Artemis could conclude that it probably could. The elf he last saw 13 years ago was now. She was beaten and bruised, blood running down her face and covering her right arm.
Her left was fisted and Artemis could see she had a rock in it, no doubt what the knocking was before. She must have heard the front door of the Manor open, and let herself finally pass out.
That wasnt all, however. Her left leg was twisted and bleeding as well. Artemis could tell from where he knelt that it was definitely broken and her wings were practically disassembled from flying so fast around the yard.
Artemis sighed, thinking for a moment before deciding that he had to move her and risk brain damage from the blow to the head. He picked her up and carried the broken elf into the house, setting some towels on the couch before lying her on them and sitting in the chair opposite from it; waiting for the elf to wake up.
She woke up faster than Artemis suspected, and it wasnt as nice as he would have hoped. All in all, the genius should have expected that the elf would be in excruciating pain.
It started with a light flutter of the eyes, then the slight rasp of breathing in before screaming incredibly loud. Artemis jumped up, going over to the elf. "Captain?"
Holly stopped for a second, nodding but then moaning in pain. She was trying to suppress her urge to scream again, from the way Artemis took it. She was also clutching at her leg.
"Ok, Captain." He tried to get her attention. It seemed to work, as Holly opened her eyes, though teary from the pain. "I am going to put your leg back in place, as it is broken at the moment. Try and keep calm, but I should warn you that this will hurt."
Holly nodded, and Artemis grabbed her leg, quickly putting the two pieces together and into a more comfortable position. The scream that the elf had projected before seemed like nothing compared to the bloodcurdling one she produced now. Artemis cringed at the sound.
When the elf finally stopped again after a moment, she licked her lips as she took in deep breaths. "Thank you." She breathed, leaning her head back into the pillow behind it.
Artemis sighed through his nose, looking around the sitting room they were in before sitting down in front of Holly's legs on the dark towels. The genius made sure that he didnt hit her legs in the process. "Glad to help." He murmured, looking down at his hands. "What happened to you? And most importantly, why are you here?
Holly took a few more breaths, trying to concentrate on focusing on an answer: the correct answer. "It's Haven." She rasped.
"What about it?" Artemis asked, shaking his head slightly in confusion. Holly didnt answer after a moment, closing her eyes instead like she was going to pass out again. At that, Artemis grabbed her shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Come on, Captain. I need these answers if you want me to stop the pain."
Holly nodded, "It was taken over. I barely got out."
"And what of all this blood?"
The elf sighed deeply, as though she was telling him that she was trying to forget everything that happened already. "Torture."
"By who?"
"No one that you know...yet."
"Yet?"
Holly closed her eyes again. "Fowl, please. I'll answer anything you want, but right now...Right now, I can't think straight."
"Artemis sighed. "Alright. Give me a minute." He patted her shoulder before disappearing. Holly couldn't move her head, so she concluded that Artemis left the room from the footsteps fading up the stairwell.
The elf closed her eyes for a moment, thinking that Artemis had left to give her some time to sleep. However, she couldn't sleep, not with the blood still dripping down from her wounds. The pain had lessened when Artemis put her leg back in place, but it hadn't gone away wholly.
Holly was just thinking that she was going to die from blood loss when Artemis showed up again. He had a worried look on his face as he saw the pale elf. She was shivering now, almost vibrating.
He injected something into her arm, and Holly's eyes opened again. The elf's pain was reducing even more, and Holly's breathing soon returned back to normal.
Artemis nodded when he saw that what he injected into her was having an impact. As soon as the color had returned back to Holly's skin, he picked her up, careful not to move her still broken leg.
The instant Holly realized that she was being moved, her breathing was rapid and she tried to get out of his arms, but Artemis just shook his head and stopped walking. "Don't move, you'll only hurt yourself more."
"Where..." She licked her lips, trying to make her voice come out in more than a harsh rasp. "Where are you taking me."
"Somewhere you can be more comfortable." He answered vaguely, glancing down at her before starting to walk again.
Holly didn't say anymore after that, closing her eyes. Using her left arm, she tried to wipe away the blood that was starting to stream into her eye. However, she was still weak even if it was her other arm that was damaged.
It didn't go on long, for Artemis laid her down and suddenly Holly's back felt like it was on fire as well. She whimpered, holding back the scream, but Artemis could still see that she was in pain.
"Your back hurts as well?" She nodded. "Alright, I'm going to sit you up. Try and keep your leg and arm completely still." Another nod. Artemis put his hand on the back of her neck, lifting her up carefully. He was shocked at what he saw.
Her suit was torn-almost shredded to pieces-in the back. Long scratches and deep cuts oozing blood covered her skin. Pieces of it hung off of the attached skin as well. It was gruesome, causing Artemis to gag at the sight.
"Ok, Captain. I'm going to focus on this first. However, it would be best if I remove the clothing off of your back, giving me access to the wounds and releasing the pressure and ache from them."
Holly nodded almost immediately, the pain getting to her. Whatever the young man gave her before wasnt enough to last that long in her system. Artemis nodded silently, moving her once again. This time, Holly could see that she was on a bed in a room. Green paint covered the walls and blood seeped into the matching covers beneath her. Artemis had her lay on her stomach, him being on the left of her from the elf's point of view.
Artemis went back to the tray he put on the table next to the bed. Picking up a syringe, he looked down at her and took her arm. "I suppose this will help."
"What is it?"
"Morphine. Much stronger than the painkillers I gave you before. It's usually illegal to have this much in my possession..." He put the needle into her arm and emptied the contents, "But when you win the Nobel Prize for Science, people tend to give you all kinds of illegal drugs to test with."
"Nobel prize?" Holly asked, relaxing her neck more as she tried to remember Mud Man history. "Isnt that-"
"For people who aren't criminals?" He finished, putting the syringe on the tray. He took a few seconds to let the morphine get through her system. "Alright, Captain." He started, "I know you aren't as in as much pain as before, therefore giving your mind to make more accurate thoughts for you, so I will repeat myself." He took a deep breath, "I need to take off your shirt to get better access to your wounds."
Holly nodded, resting her head even more on the pillow as the drug caused her nerves to short out. "I understand." She said, although her mind was really screaming at her to tell him no and see what he would do.
"Good." He replied. Looking over her uniform, he thanked Frond that it wasn't a full body uniform like the last time he saw her. They must have changed the attire a while ago; the suit was in two piece, the shirt zipped up in the back. Artemis sighed, taking the zipper in his forefinger and thumb and zipping it down slowly-as to not disturb Holly's wounds.
Holly herself was trying to focus on trying to not scream every time the edge of her jacket came off and the material scraped over her skin. The morphine had taken the edge off some of the pain, more than the painkillers before, but the wounds in her back were too deep.
At the end, Artemis accidentally hit a rather gruesome side of a deep cut. Holly screamed again, the pain surging through her like a freight train. She gritted her teeth, her head lifting for a second of pain before falling back onto the pillow below her in exhaustion.
Artemis bit his lip as he listened to the elf scream again. He hadn't seen her in so long, and he was causing just as much pain to her as he did the last time he met her, just a different type of pain. "I'm so sorry, Captain."
Holly didn't respond. She just looked to the wall on her right, away from Artemis. Artemis looked down at her back, his hands pulling her uniform to the sides of her and off her back. Holly lay still until she felt the small snap of her bra being undone.
"Whoa! What are you doing, Fowl?" Holly demanded, using her good arm to lift her uniform jacket to her front half-even if it wasn't falling off of her.
"It is in the way, Short." The young genius replied, pushing her left shoulder down. "I promise I wont do anything."
Holly glared up at him, "I don't trust you." She said through still gritted teeth.
"I understand that, Captain, but you have to cooperate with me right now. You could die of blood loss or infection if I dont clean and dress these wounds soon."
Holly took a deep breath, sighing it out. "Fine." She laid her head back down, this time facing Artemis, and closed her eyes again. however, as Artemis was prepping bandages and alcohol to clean her back, he noticed that she opened her eyes every now and then to make sure he wasnt doing anything she didn't approve of.
Finally, Artemis decided he had enough supplies to clean most of the wounds. He turned to the elf, looking over the cuts, bruises, and broken bones. "Jesus..." He whispered to himself.
Her leg was definitely broken, dried blood staining her leg. It wasn't bleeding now as Artemis thought it was when he brought her in. Holly's shoulder had what looked like a neutrino blast, dried brown blood staining almost all of the skin on her arm. Her head was bleeding a bit, but it wasn't as serious as her back.
The elf's back...Artemis could now get a better look at it now, and he could honestly say he liked it better before. They zigzagged across the Captain's back, but they were fresh-unlike her other wounds. Some oozing blood like a fountain. "What happened to your back?" He asked.
Holly sighed, her voice shuddering as she remembered and anticipated Artemis starting the clean. "The wings broke down right before I landed. Fell from almost 100 feet in the air. The impact wasn't as hard on me as the wings did. They were old...and dismantled on me. The mechanics in the wings-the cogs and such-ripped my back apart."
Artemis shook his head. "This is..." He trailed off, not sure what to say, but then he grabbed something from the table in front of him and put it in her good hand. "Use this."
Holly raised her arm weakly, looking at what was in her hand: a rag. "What's this for?" She asked, laying her arm back down and looking up at the man.
"To bare your teeth down if you want to. I'll try to be quick, Captain, but this will be extremely painful."
"Can't you give me more morphine or painkillers?" Holly asked, her body aching already.
Artemis shook his head, sighing. "I wish I could, but unfortunately, with high doses, muscle rigidity and abnormal movement of the limbs and muscles called myoclonus may manifest. In other words, you could start twitching and could rip open stitches or wounds, causing more damage and pain to yourself."
The elf sighed, "Fine." She responded, putting the thick cloth in her mouth and rest her body, closing her eyes shut tightly.
Artemis started, first cleaning off her leg-her suit already ripped there before-and then splinting and bandaging it even more. Next was her arm, the scorch marks from a high setting on the gun making her skin almost black under the dark crimson blood. The genius couldn't do anything about the burnt skin except put cold water on it and try to remove it. After a few minutes of trying to peel the dead skin off and Holly crying out into her rag, Artemis sighed. "I'll wait until it disconnects with your nerves, then take it off." He bandaged that wound as well.
Now, he focused his attention to her back. The pain was already spread into her face, her eyes closed as much as they could as if she was bracing herself. The genius looked at the elf, sorrow filling him. The pain of these wounds would be immense, even more worse than the burns. He couldn't go on, knowing that she would be in pain. So, in one quick movement, Artemis grabbed a syringe of sedatives off the table he was keeping handy just in case and stabbed the elf's neck with it gently, but effectively. She was out almost immediately.
7: Review please! Comments will make us update faster!