Tamar didn't even gasp, she'd seen far too much death in her brief lifetime that one guy committing suicide wasn't going to upset her much. But then a thought struck her, if he was dead, how would she get down. She was over nine hundred feet in the air, already the ever present wind were beginning to cut through her meager clothing and fur.
The bed had covers on it but when she tried to pull them over her, the cascade of dust and bird droppings caused another sneezing fit. The makeshift bandage around her leg was covered in dust from the blankets and a red haze descended over the world with each sneeze until her vision filled with tiny pinpricks of light until she collapsed back, her world spinning.
"Drink this." The words startled her out of the haze in which she was floating.
She cracked an eye open to see a small plastic hose with a strange bend about two inches from the top. She closed her eye and threw herself over onto her other side, her face now pointed away from him.
"Hey you need to drink something, you're on the verge of dehydration."
"Then where's the water?" Tamar growled.
"It's right here. I thought a straw would make it easier for you to drink it."
Tamar slowly levered herself over to face him. Eying the straw her eyebrows drew down, her mouth compressed until her lips were a thin line.
"What? It's a straw, you drink through them. You've never seen a straw before?" Malachi tried to keep the incredulity out of his tone, but enough must have gotten through to set Tamar off.
"No, I haven't. They didn't give us fancy things like straw where I was raised. They threw the water into our cages into bowls welded to the floor so we had to lap it up like animals, or use our hands." Her bright yellow eyes blazed with her inner hatred. Why was she telling this thing this, anyway?
"Look, you need to drink this. If I'm going to ever set that leg you need to be hydrated."
"You are not touching me." Tamar bolted into a sitting position and pushed against him with all her waning strength. She might as well have been pushing a wall, he didn't budge.
"Look little lady, you have a compound fracture of both the fibula and tibia of your left leg. Every second we leave those that are supposed to be inside on the outside, you have a higher chance of the bone infection getting worse. I would rather not have you die, but if you're dead set on killing yourself, then be my guest. But as long as you're with me, I am not going to let you die."
"And how exactly are you going to fix this?" She thrust her hand down to her leg. "If I don't want you to?"
"I could hold you down and do it whether you liked it or not, but I would rather not have to do that." He leaned in close and offered the straw again. "All you do is take it between your lips and suck, that's all."
Tamar looked suspiciously at the straw, rolled her eyes, then took it and drew a huge indrawn breath, and promptly began to cough and hack.
"What are you trying to do, drown me?" She asked when she could breathe again.
"You did the drowning yourself. Might I suggest smaller sips next time." Malachi handed the cup to Tamar, who took it with suspicion..
Why is he so concerned about me? She thought as she sat back and sucked on her straw.
Bright pinpoints of light exploded in her vision when she brought her left leg back onto the bed. But she was a big girl, so she gritted her teeth and settled onto the plush mattress. Then her world suddenly went black. Something heavy and soft covered her from head to foot and she thrashed to get it out of her face.
"Relax it's a blanket. I found a department store that had some in plastic so I got you one, it should keep you warm." His voice cut through her near panic, and she relaxed.
"Aren't you cold, it's freezing up here?" She asked.
"I don't get cold, or warm, or anything else anymore." He shrugged and continued to rummage in the large bag he'd brought back with him.
Tamar studied him while his back was turned. His skin seemed to have a mind of its own. I moved as if tiny waves washed across him. From time to time it would shudder from a single point and tiny waves would radiate out from it, like a stone thrown into a still pool. His voice was a strange monotone. It had neither inflection, or emotion, nothing to tell her what he was thinking or what mood he was in. He turned towards her with a small box and shuffled over to the bed.
Tamar's first instinctive reaction was to back away from him, but once again the world began to grey at the edges when she tried to move her leg so she remained where she was.
"I've got as many medical supplies as I could find. So I need to know, are you going to fight me when I do this, because if you are I'll be honest with you, I'm just going to knock you out and do it while you're unconscious. Are we clear?" He was squatting on the floor so her eyes stared straight into his. Or what she thought were his eyes. The two pools of red sat in a sea of darkness under his always furrowed brows.
"Do I have a choice?"
"Of course you do. On the one hand you can be knocked out and when you come to your leg will be fixed. But you don't strike me as the type who likes to not be in control," he leaned in close. "So you'll deal with how much this is going to hurt because you don't trust me or anyone else."
"Fine, just get it done." Tamar could feel her leg growing numb, the pain lessening more and more as she slowly began to go into shock.
"Now this is going to hurt, a lot. I'm going to have to turn you onto your right side and then disinfect the bone and surrounding area before I can set it. You're going to lose consciousness when I do this, but rest assured, you are safe with me. Are you ready?" Tamar's looked into those red eyes, past them at the man underneath. The way he'd said that shook her and she couldn't explain why, not even to herself.
She rolled away from him, the movement wrenching a groan from between clenched lips.
Lifting the blanket, Malachi was astonished that she was still conscious. He could see both ends of her bone sticking from the side of her leg.
"You're lucky this came out the side of your leg. If it had come straight out the back through your calf muscle, you'd never walk on this again." He reached down and grabbed a bottle of straight whisky from out of his bag. "Now this is going to hurt, it was all I could find, but it should sterilize everything it touches."
The scream that tore from Tamar was gut wrenching and savage. Her entire body spasmed and Malachi was forced to clamp his hand to her knee to keep her from injuring herself worse than she already had. When she stilled once again, he took a hand hold above and below the break.
"Are you ready?" He asked.
"As I'm going to be." Came her shaky reply.
I won't pass out, I won't pass out, I will not pass out! She repeated those words like a mantra. She refused to show that level of weakness before anyone. But for some reason she wanted to, needed to show strength to this man.
"Here we go." She heard the whispered words and tensed.
With the utmost care, Malachi began to move the bones back in place. But for Tamar it was excruciating. It felt like her leg was being torn off below her knee. But she continued to grit her teeth and not make a sound until the bones touched. The explosion of pain tore a low hiss from her. Panting, she tried to think of anything else but everything else was blocked out by the pain. The last thing she heard was a muffled snap, then everything went black.
Comments (0)
See all