Missing Martha

88

After stumbling into the back seats of the van with the first aid kit and a towel close at hand, he stripped off his shirt completely to see that half of the stitches had been completely ripped off, he assumed it was to do with last night; his doctor had warned him not to make so much movement with his torso, but he tried to dismiss it.
Opening up the first aid kit he squirted his hands with disinfectant before seeing the 'stitching kit' which consisted of a needle and thread. Martin felt almost sick with the idea of re-stitching himself, but there was no sign of the bleeding coming to a halt. He reached over for his reading glasses and, panicking, he shakily threaded the needle and stabbed himself, puncturing the skin and closing up the wound, almost vomiting in the pain. His eyes were streaming with tears to the point which he could barely see. After he had finished he cut the thread and lay back on the seat, shrieking in the pain, trying to catch his breath before he heard his phone ringing, he didn't want to move, he just wanted to lie there and settle, but he knew it would be Zoë calling, and he knew that she'd come looking for him.
He stretched over and reached for his phone, moaning in the pain as he answered.
"Hey.." he said, with as much strain as he could muster.
"Martin- are you alright?" She asked,
"Yeah. I'm fine- I-I'll be with you in about ten minutes." He said, lying back down on the seats again which seemed to be the least painful position.
"Are you sure? Has the bleeding stopped?" She asked him.
"N-not quite." He responded, "w-wait Zoe- Do you have any paracetamol? Or ibuprofen? Or j-just anything."
"Christ, Martin what have you done?" She asked,
"Please, Zoe." He begged,
"Yes- Yes there should be a packet in the glove compartment. Martin are you okay?" She pressured.
"Where are you?" He asked, stumbling into the passenger seat and opening up the glove compartment, finding a packet of small white tablets and puncturing four holes in the package and taking out four tablets, swallowing them whole with a gulp of water which he subsequently poured over his wound because of its cooling and soothing properties.
"We're just at the main square, there's a good-looking guy who keeps eyeing me up, I need you here." She told him, making him laugh a little, but it hurt.
"You should go say hi." He suggested, his eyes drenched with tears, she didn't know the amount of pain he was in.
"Fuck this I'm coming back to you." She decided,
"No- Zoë.. please.." he groaned,
"Martin- I care about you. You're obviously in a lot of pain."
"Then for god's sake don't bring the kids!" He almost yelled, portraying his obliterating pain.
Zoe heard him take two more heavy breaths before hanging up.
She immediately stood up and walked towards where the band was sitting and chatting.
"Hey- I'm gonna go check up on Mr McCafferson- you guys okay to wonder about for a while?" She asked them.
"Yeah- Why, is it serious?" Asked Ollie,
"He sounds like he's in a lot of pain, I don't know what he's done to himself." She told them,
"Where he was bleeding; wasn't that where he was stabbed?" Asked Lucy.
Zoe nodded, looking down, "I-I'll give you a call or something."

Martin had passed out from the pain, one arm lay over his face while the other swung over the edge of the seat above where his phone was dropped on the ground.
Zoe found him there and immediately opened the door, climbing in and feeling terrified by the amount of blood all over him and the van.
She put her hands on his face, which was emotionless and unconscious.
"Martin? Martin, please wake up for me, Martin!" She begged, feeling his wrist and squeezing slightly until she felt a pulse. In his slumber, she wiped the blood off his abdomen, seeing the new stitches he had made and finding a bandage out of the first aid kit, wrapping it around his stomach several times before wetting another fresh towel slightly and dabbing it on his forehead after she had finished tidying up the van.
After about an hour there was a knock on the door, and it slowly slid open.
"What's going on?" Asked Ollie,
"He's just coming round." Zoë replied, "sorry- I forgot to ring."
"Was he unconscious?!" Cloda questioned.
Zoe concentrated on Martin's slowly opening red eyes, his cheeks were stained with tears and his complexion was ghostly white.
"Hey Martin, you okay?" She asked, slowly and carefully as she kneeled beside him and held his hands which she had cleaned from the blood.
The first thing Martin saw was her beautiful pale face, and her blonde hair, which was now tied up, fall back upon her neck.
"I'm sorry.." he whispered, "god I'm so sorry." He removed his hands from hers and wiped his face.
"Martin it's fine- how are you?" She asked him,
"I'm fine." He told her, slowly trying to sit up, Zoe brought him a black t-shirt and helped him put it on.
Martin looked briefly out the window to see Ryan and Lucy, and a few of the others.
"Zoe, I told you not to bring the kids." He muttered,
"Martin I've been here for almost an hour, they came to see if everything was okay." She justified, helping him sit up on the seat as she sat beside him.
"W-What did you do?" He asked her,
"I just wrapped a couple bandages around you, and cleaned up the mess." She told him,
Martin raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"What?" She asked, laughing.
"Well, with all the stuff you could have done to me when I was asleep I didn't expect you'd do that." He chuckled, she responded with a friendly slap on his shoulder.
"Seriously, Martin. How are you?" She said, looking sincerely into his bloodshot eyes.
"I'm okay." He said, "Yeah. I'm okay."