Seem to Stop My Breath

But how we survive, is what makes us who we are.
Gerard’s point of view

I heard the door creak open, Amy appeared and called my name. I scrambled to my feet and met her at the door.

“Come on in.”

She gave me a strange look, I couldn’t exactly place it.

The room was bright and I squinted as the florescent light bulbs burned after I spent the last five hours in the dimly lit hallway. As my eyes adjusted I saw Bert sitting on the edge of the bed with Cassie’s wrist in his lap. There was a small tube coming out of it and I watched him start to pull the IV out of her wrist. I took a step closer to him, horrified that he was pulling out her IV… Because… well… Then I noticed she was hooked up to another IV in the other arm. A fresh bag of blood was hooked to the wall and connected to her wrist. I sat near Cassie’s head and stroked her hair. He breathing was still shaky, but she was not paper white anymore. Bert expertly took the needle out of her arm and watched as blood bubbled out of the wound. Satisfied, Bert cleaned the area until it stopped bleeding. Only then did I notice what her arms looked like. I had been more concerned about her neck when I first saw her, but there were deep wounds in her right arm still. Cassie’s left arm, which had the IV in it, was wrapped from her wrist to slightly above her elbow in gauze.

Somewhere along the line they had taken off her clothes because she was now in a hospital gown. Amy put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. Bert was still cleaning off Cassie’s right arm. I was fighting back tears just looking at her. I had no idea what her neck looked like, Bert and Amy had covered it completely with wrappings. I leaned down and kissed Cassie’s’ forehead Bert watching me the entire time.

“Gee, can you hold onto her hand like this for a minute?”

He held Cassie’s’ right arm out at a 45 degree angle. I gently took her hand, which was almost warm to the touch. Starting at her wrist and working his way up, Bert spread cream on the scrapes and cuts on her arm and then wrapped it in gauze.

“She lost more blood than we thought; I’m going to have to leave in a few hours to go get more.” Bert said breaking the silence again.

“How much?”

“If she was still a human, she’d be dead. I don’t know how she lasted that long without any
to begin with. It had to be weeks since she last fed, she seemed emaciated when I tried to
start the first IV.”

“I knew I should have taken her out” I said gently lying her hand down.

“No, Gerard, listen, this isn’t your fault.” Bert argued back

“No one expected this, don’t blame yourself, she would have been fine if she hadn’t of been
captured which again, wasn’t your fault.” Amy said sitting on the other side of Bert.

“So,” my voice cracked as my eyes filed with tears again. “What exactly did you have to do?”

“First order of business was stitching up her neck wound. I cleaned it out and had to stitch up several layers of skin. Meanwhile Amy started the IV because she was no longer bleeding, and with a wound that big, it just doesn’t stop, it can’t scab over. I pretty much did major plastic surgery, I had to repair the veins in her neck just enough so that I could stitch them back up. If she survives the night, and the next day or so, I’d say she’d heal without a scratch. However, being as malnourished as she is, I’m worried.”

“What are the chances that she does?”

“Cassie hadn’t had blood in about three weeks, and survives an attack by one of the
biggest, most vicious, vampires in the Forus.” Bert said shaking his head looking at
Cassie.

“What does that mean?”

“She shouldn’t be here; she should have died along time ago. She made it this far, I hope she can make it a little further.” Amy sighed crossing the room.

Bert played with Cassie’s’ fingernails, checking for circulation and only looked up when Amy gasped.

“There’s only a pint left.”

“I know, I have to go get more.”

“She really took that much?”

“Yeah, I think we have to start getting it in her system now.”

I looked back and forth between Bert and Amy utterly confused.

“What?” I asked.

“Cassie went through ten pints of blood already.”

“How is that possible?”

“Gerard, she was bleeding pretty bad, and continued to bleed while Bert stitched her up.”

“But isn’t that more than someone has in their body at all times”

“Yes”

“Shit” I sighed and looked back down at Cassie, she looked so pretty lying there, but I knew
she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon.

I grabbed her hand and intertwined her fingers with mine. Bert watched me, biting his lip,
Then looked at the IV on the wall.

“I gotta go, teach him?”

“Sure”

Bert got up and left the room. I watched as Amy bit her lip, then opened a cooler and took out
what I assumed was the last packet of blood. She then walked over to a table where she opened what appeared to be a tool box. Underneath it, several trash bags were full of blood stained sheets, towels and those little blue paper sheets that doctors cover patients with when they’re putting stitches on one part of their body.

“Is all that?” I asked pointing

“From Cassie? “ Amy said looking under the table” Yep. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Right as we thought her neck was okay, after oh, four hours we thought we had gotten every wound, then we found a fresh one on her arm on the other side of where the iv was. We had her arm propped up on several towels and we were so concentrated on her neck, we didn’t see the towels soak through. She has innumerable stitches in her neck, and five closing a nasty gash on her left forearm.”

“Is that when Bert yelled “fuck“?”

“Yeah, surgery is hard work and that just made everything worse. That stitching was easy though, it was a clean cut. Then we bandaged her entire arm because there’s scrapes all up it. She put up quite a fight before she was bitten.”

“Wow”
“Yeah, I got her into a gown that we brought along because I didn’t know how shed be, I had to cut her clothes off. Blood from her neck was all over her chest and pants.”

“Do you think she’ll make it?”

“Mikey did the right thing by calling us as soon as they noticed you were gone. If anyone could save her it’s Bert’s surgeon skills. But this was worst case scenario. Now that he’s gone to get more blood though, I get to teach you how to feed her.”

“feed her?”

“Cassie is still quite unconscious, and will probably remain so for at least another few days.
Meanwhile, she needs to have something in her system, and the doctor’s order is fresh
human blood.”

“And by doctor you mean you?”

“Yep, me. Doctor and surgeon, perfect pair don’t you think?”

“Well I…”

“Stand up”

“Okay” Amy laid the blood packet and a pair of what looked like scissors on the end of Cassie’s bed. She then swung the bed around so that the headboard was now against the wall instead of the side of the bed being there.

“sit” she pointed to Cassie’s side as she rearranged the iv line. “Because she is unconscious, you’re going to have to carefully feed her.” she clipped the stopper at the end of the tubing attached to the packet off. She then bent it so blood wouldn’t squirt everywhere. “you’ll take the end of the tubing, get a little blood on your fingers, then rub it on her lips.”

I did as instructed and gently rubbed blood all over Cassie’s lips.

“Come on Cassie, come on” Amy whispered quietly enough that she thought I couldn’t hear
it.

I gulped. Cassie licked her lips.

“She did it” I exclaimed.

“yeah, now keep doing it, until the entire packet is gone.”