Poisons Of Fear

Chapter 14

A few days had passed before Haley had settled into more of a routine within the lair.  She still wasn't able to go back to school because of the healing and risk of infection, but she was able to change her classes to the online versions of them for the rest of the semester, which was good for her.  She didn't have to worry about the stares and the questions, but she did miss her teachers. 

During the day, Haley would wake up around eight in the morning.  The guys would be up by this point because of training, and Mikey would be almost done with cooking breakfast.  The mornings didn't consist of much.  Splinter did make the boys read for at least thirty minutes during the morning.  Even though the boys had a small education they had completed at various times, Splinter did think reading was a good exercise for their minds.   Haley would usually join in at this time, just because it kept her mind off of things.  

After that, everyone split up to do their own things which meant that Leonardo and Haley were together.  Usually, they were watching Space Heroes or Criminal Minds.  Both had decided to try and make it through each other's favorite shows.  The difference was that Leo's consisted of an old 80s cartoon that always had a happy ending that came within twenty minutes while Haley's was live-action renditions of the worst people of humanity who sometimes got away with the awful things they had done.  Haley was still convincing Leo that Spencer Reid was the best character in the entire show.  

After lunch, the guys would have meditation and then train for a few hours.  This is when Haley would retreat to her room to work on homework.  She would usually stay there until dinner time.  After dinner, if the guys didn't go patrol the city for a few hours, everyone would watch a movie together.  When the guys would go out on patrol, Haley would retreat back to her room for the rest of the night.  

Those nights were the worst.  

No matter what Haley did to distract herself, her mind would always go back to the fire and the fact that her family was gone, buried somewhere she didn't even know.  

It would start with Haley's chest feeling heavy, making it harder for her to breathe.  Then she would start crying, spontaneously.  This would then lead to her doing random things frantically as if they would change the outcome she was living in.  Her first night in the lair, Haley had unscrewed and re-screwed all the twinkling lights on the wall.  A few nights ago she had re-organized her bookshelf by title alphabetically, realized she didn't like it, and then organized it back to be alphabetized by author's last name.  Tonight, it was the fact her bandages weren't wrapped evenly.  

Her hands shook as she scrambled to find the end of the wrapping.  When she found it, she immediately pulled on it, causing the tension on her left arm to immediately loosen.  She let out another sob as she did the same thing to her right arm.  When she got all the bandages off, lying on the floor, she stared at herself in the mirror.  

In the harsh lighting, her burns looked like nothing more than deformed candle wax.  She let out a sob as she brushed her fingers over the wounds.  She winced at the pain, but that didn't stop her from continuing the motion.  

However, after a few minutes, she realized there was blood dripping down her arms.  She had irritated the skin so much it was starting to split open all over again.  Her eyes widened, pulling her out of her panicked state and back into the moment.  "Shit..." Haley said as she picked up her bandages off of the floor. 

She scrambled to the bathroom, being as silent as possible so Splinter didn't come to check on her.  When she got into better light, she saw from the spot the blood was pooling from.  Haley grabbed the toilet paper and immediately started wiping the blood off of her arms and the burns.  The rough texture felt like sandpaper on Haley's open wounds.  She let out a slight moan before pulling off the soaked toilet paper.  

Haley then stood up and turned on the sink.  Before she thought about what she was doing, she stuck her arms under the water.  She let out a slight scream because of the pain.  The cool water that she thought would have been soothing to the burns, in fact, stung like needles.  She had to bite the neck of her sweatshirt to stifle her screams.  

After what felt like forever, Haley pulled her arms out from the water.  Her arms were twitching and shaking from the pain she was feeling.  She just stood there, taking deep breaths as she held her hands out awkwardly away from her body.  

Haley quickly tried to rewrap her arms in the old bandages as best as she could.  She knew the guys would be getting back soon, and she didn't want them to worry about her after what she had just done.  

She quickly turned off the lights and then ran back to her room before quietly closing the door behind her.  She turned off her own lights before going to bed.  No matter how she laid her arms they sent shooting pains through her upper body.  After a couple of minutes of trial and error, she managed to just lay on her back, staring at the ceiling, with her arms resting over the covers by her side.  

She hoped she wouldn't roll over in her sleep.  She knew the bandages weren't on properly, and if they kept moving around and bleeding, she wouldn't be able to hide them in the morning.  She just hoped that wouldn't happen.  She knew the guys would worry about her if it did, especially Leo.  They had done so much for her, the last thing she wanted was to cause them more trouble.  

Her eyes were starting to get heavy, and she let out a yawn as she faded into sleep, hoping everything would be okay.