So Far (Matty Healy)

Chapter Seven

<<Blade>>

My eyes widened as I realized what she had done. My arms tingled with desire. Not the kind they had tingled with earlier, but a different kind. This was a lust, of sorts.

The blood dripping from the open cut on Cadence's arm reminded me of a few years ago, before I'd rescued Muriel. I guess Muriel rescued me. I was about 15 then. My mom was a drunk, my dad was a druggie. She popped bottles while he shot up in the bathroom at the bar. She guzzled vodka and whiskey as he snorted lines off of a card table.

My conception had been a mistake, and every decision I had made in my life, coincidentally, had been a mistake as well. I'd gotten In to bad things, gotten depressed, and began self harming, hence the nickname Blade.

I'd stopped cutting ever since I got Muriel and moved to America. She has helped me in so many ways that no shrink ever had.

But seeing Cadence like that had awoken a yearning in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to reach out and grab the glass and feel that familiar sensation.

Reality shook through my feelings as I saw the beautiful, crying girl there, on the floor, holding her scarred arm. I grabbed the hand towel that was near the sink and shook the glass shards from it. I knelt down to Cadence and took her in my arms.

"Shh, it's okay, Candence. You're okay. Shhh," whispered into her ear. I reached out for her arm and pressed the towel against her wound. I squeezed it gently and held it up, so it was above her head. I continued to whisper soothing words to her.

Moments later, her crying had subsided. She let out a long sigh as she turned her face toward mine. Her eyes were icy blue mixed with fiery red. The contrast between her blue irises and the bloodshot whites was breath taking. The tears that brimmed in her eyes intensified the beauty.

"I'm so sorry," she murmured. Her eyes closed.

I looked at her. Her lip was trembling, and more tears flowed from her closed eyes. They were an endless stream. I held her closer to me as I unwrapped the towel.

The bleeding had slowed tremendously. I wrapped the towel back around her arm for good measure. I whispered to her the things that I had wished to hear from someone when I was in her situation. I comforted her like no one had ever comforted me.

I didn't know what was wrong with this girl, but something had broken her. Something had made her this way.

I can fix her, I thought.

I will fix her.