Rise of a Queen

Chapter 15

    What I saw was enough to solidify my conclusions.

    A quick inspection of our new abode gave disheartening results. We had no supplies of any kind. The cot was bare without a blanket or pillow, there was no bathroom or any mechanism for running water. Our only commodities were three concrete walls and a glass window.

    Having no other resources, I rolled her shirt up to hold it away from her hip then set to work on ripping off the sleeves from my own shirt.

    Corinth tried stopping me, "Sadie, you don't need to-"

    "We have to clean the cut." I informed.

    But guess what, hollywood has been lying to us. It isn't as easy to rip fabric as macho movie stars have led us to believe.

    Another few minutes passed while I tugged and yanked at the sleeve, working the seams to loosen their stitch. Eventually, after an embarrassingly tiresome fight to which I almost lost, I managed to rip off one sleeve from where it met the remaining fabric at the shoulder. With one prize in hand, I started on the other, this one taking almost twice as long as the first one.

    Once both sleeves were ripped free and crumpled in my hands, Corinth sniffled her nose to clear her airways, and said through a puffy-faced smile, "You look ridiculous, Rambo."

    I beamed, "Thank you."

    I wrapped one sleeve around my fingers and held the fabric to my mouth, receiving a humph of uncertainty from Corinth when I spit onto the cloth, "Isn't that unsanitary?"

    "Saliva is actually fairly clean when it's fresh, and I read a medical journal from some scientist in Europe about how the properties in saliva can help promote healing." I explained while carefully dabbing the cloth against her cut, using only enough pressure to scrub the still damp blood from her skin. Most of it was dry by now and would have to be cleaned later once the skin wasn't so tender.

    Corinth gripped the edge of the cot and visibly bit her tongue to keep down her cries, speaking through labored breaths to distract herself from her pain, "I didn't know you were such a healthcare-" She yelped when I pushed too hard, "-enthusiast."

    I grimaced with her from reflex, "I'm not really, but since my father worked every hour of every day, I usually took Toby to his doctor appointments. I wasn't allowed in the room during most of the treatments so I spent a lot of time in waiting rooms and the only things to read were pamphlets about how low my brother's chances of surviving cancer were, or scientific journals. Guess which one I chose more often than not." I smiled through my concentration in the hopes that my recollection of mundane affairs might bring her a small fraction of serenity, "Between the two of us, Toby has always been more interested in his condition. Most kids his age were terrified of their illness but Toby was like a sponge, he absorbed everything the doctors said and applied it towards his treatment."

    She listened intently to distract herself from how I continued to irritate the already sensitive skin at her side, "Maybe he'll be a doctor someday." She breathed deeply, eyes closed and teeth clenched, "Doc isn't as young as he once was, he'll need a replacement soon."

    "I'm not so sure I would recommend the position for my little brother." I rotated the sleeve to a clean side and spit on it again, moving in even strokes from the top of the cut to the bottom, "Toby would be a great doctor but I wouldn't want him to take Docs place-"

    My voice dropped and I didn't realize how offensive I sounded until the words had already been spoken. Corinth instantly detected my connotations and her body tensed.