Piccoletto

Too much

Luca's mind couldn't process all of his thoughts. It was a whirlwind of panic, pain, and constant fear. Not only did his wound hurt, but everything else did. Every cell on his body ached from Ercole's abuse. He had tried to ignore the signs of his weakness. The bits of dizziness he had suffered ever since taking the pills, or the waves of aching pain whenever he touched his bruises. But now everything felt doubled, tripled even.

Luca was also drenched in the blood of his wound. Pathes of blood snaked down his leg, and splotches of blood had reached his chest and even his face. But he just couldn't care enough. What he was afraid of was Ercole.

Ercole looked determined to fix Luca's wound, which was strange. Whenever Luca had gotten hurt, Ercole would only laugh. Maybe the blood scared him just as much too.

"Stop moving," Ercole warned, wrapping his two hands around Luca's leg and pushing it down to be straight. "You're making this more difficult on yourself, Piccoletto."

Luca fumed. He hated that Ercole called him that. He defiantly brought his leg back up to his chest and wrapped his arms around it, sending Ercole to growl.

"Please don't touch me," Luca said, trying to scoot away from Ercole. "Please just don't."

Ercole looked into Luca's face. His pale, blood stained, bruised face.

"It'll get infected," Ercole warned. "Then you could die."

Luca turned his head away from Ercole and sniffed. "Good."

Ercole shook his head in confusion. Luca had been defiant ever since Ercole first got hold of him. No matter how weak or beaten he was, Luca would always fight back. Why was he giving up now?

"You're being dramatic," Ercole said. "And you don't have a choice. So are you going to let me heal you?"

Luca looked back toward Ercole and glared at himstraight in the eyes.

"No."

That's it, Ercole had had enough of Luca's back talk. Without responding, he grabbed Luca by the neck and pulled him backward to pin him against Ercole's chest. Luca immediately went to fight back, sending his fists flying to hit Ercole's face, but Ercole was prepared. He dropped Luca to the ground in the center of the cellar with a thud. Luca screamed, but was still able to push himself up. Ercole put a foot on Luca's chest and slammed him back down to pin him.

"I said you didn't have a choice," Ercole whispered, pressing his weight down on Luca's chest. "So quit moving before I give you something to cry about."

Luca didn't answer, he only cried. Ercole took his foot off of Luca and was pleased that Luca remained flat on the ground. Ercole sat down on his knees over Luca to better inspect the injury without Luca's hands in the way. He set both his hands on either side of the wound of Luca's thigh and pushed. Luca screamed out at the pain, but Ercole was only trying to see where the cut was.

"There's too much blood," Ercole said under his breath, lightly swiping his palm over the wound to get rid of the red. For a split second, Ercole could see the wound clearly before it filled with blood again. Ercole looked back at the bigger picture and realized something slightly sickening. Luca's thigh was twice it's usual size, and compared to Luca's pale body looked discolored and darker.

Ercole pulled the pant leg of Luca's shorts up higher to better have room to see, but it didn't make much of a difference, except make Luca squirm.

"Aye, Piccoletto," Ercole said, realizing that Luca's wound was much worse than he could handle. "This is going to hurt."

Luca pulled his knees up to sit, looking Ercole fearfully in the eyes.

"W-what?"

Ercole sighed. "Let's get you a bath to get the blood off, then I'll-"