CHAPTER
Nine
Only a moment of silence passes before Valde’s painful screams echo out through the cove. I quickly scramble to my feet. I fight and stumble through the sand over to Valde. I drop to my knees and try to see the extent of the damage done.
“Alex?” Cynthia is in shock. She stands motionless in the sand with a horrified look in her face. I want desperately to be able to comfort her in this moment. Let her know that this is not her fault, but Valde grabs ahold of my loosely draped jacket and pulls me into his screams. I can feel his pain at this point as he yells into my ear. His body thrashes, spraying waves of sand in my face.
“Oh my God, what happened?” Tristis is shouting in confusion and frustration. His panic stricken face is pale white as he paces back and forth repeatedly saying, “Oh my God. Oh my God…”
“Alex?” Cynthia says again, just moments away from bursting into tears. I can’t help her right now.
I look back down at Valde’s body and notice his violent thrashing is limited to all his body except his left leg. His hands periodically fall downward to touch it. Then he brings them right back up with a howling growl of intense pain. His cries grow louder and more distressed every second.
“What are we going to do? Oh my God…” Tristis continues to pace as if his constant moving is keeping the reality from setting in.
I reach down to his leg and begin to slowly draw up the pant leg. Something I did must have hurt Valde because he immediately sits up and his body tenses as if he is being electrocuted. His eyes are clenched tightly shut and his cries are broken up by his gasping for air. The intensity of this moment makes me want to puke. I again try to move the bottom of his pant leg up to expose his leg. I do it in a quick, fluid motion, but that doesn’t stop it from hurting. Gurgling half cries and what seems like almost a laugh comes belting out of Valde’s lungs. His body bends and folds like a gymnast as the pain continues to torment him.
A rush of the chills shudders through my body and my eyes burn with intensity. A jagged-edged bone sticks protruding out of Valdes leg, allowing his leg to bend in unimaginable ways. Thick blood pours out of the wound glistening in the light of the full moon, quickly creating a pool of blood where I’m sitting. A sense of helplessness and despair begins to set in.
This is all my fault. There’s nothing I can do.
I can hear Cynthia’s gasping pleas for this all to just go away. For it to just be a horrible nightmare. “Alex, please…”
“We need to get someone to help us.” Tristis says finally rejoining us mentally. “He’s going to die if we don’t do something quick.”
My mind races with the consequences. The repercussions. We can’t just pick him up and rush him back into the building. We need to do something right now.
But there’s nothing I can do…
“Alex…”
“Oh my God…”
“Tristis! Come over here now!” I yell cutting through all the chaos and noise.
Tristis moves through the sand and plops down next to me and the severely wounded Valde.
“Cynthia, go get Dr. Finley. But do it quietly. Don’t wake any of the others. Especially not Richard or Hilt or even Percy.” Cynthia takes a deep breath looking one last time at the mangled mess on the ground that is now Valde. “Cynthia!” She turns her gaze to me and our eyes meet. Through the tears blurring her eyes I begin to see the calm and composed Cynthia return.
“Now!” I yell to her. She turns towards the building trudging through the sand, and slinks away through the building door.
I turn towards Tristis who sits mesmerized by Valde’s injured leg and his growling moans of pain. I can tell he is just moments away from passing out so I grab him and whip him around towards me forcing him the look away from Valde.
“You need to set it.” I say hoping he understands what I mean.
His eyes lower to the ground as he shakes his head, “I can’t, I…I… can’t.” His head raises again as he looks me in the eye. His eyes haze up as they fill with fresh tears.
“Yes you can Tris. You can do this I know you can. If anyone could do this it’s you. You can do this. Valde needs you now more than ever.” My attempt at reassurance begins to sink in as he wipes away the tears. He looks down at Valde, who’s beginning to lose consciousness (either from the excruciating pain or the loss of blood, I’m not really sure).
“Ok, I can do this.” Tristis says to himself through a shuddering sigh. He lifts his hands and begins to move them around Valde’s wound.
“Carefully.” I remind him. “Just set the bone back in place and close up the wound.”
As fatigued as Valde is I’m surprised he is able to scream anymore. He lets out a wailing cry as Tristis begins to shift the bone back into place. I can then hear the sound of bones grinding together. Valde arches his back slamming his fists into the sand. My stomach twists in agony for Valde.
“Sorry bud.” Tristis apologizes as the bone grinding ceases and he finishes setting the bone back in its place. Though the bone is now in place, blood still gushes from the wound draining Valde’s face of any color. I watch as Valde’s tries to say something when his eyes roll upward and his head falls back into the sand.
“Can you close it?” I ask Tristis.
“I don’t know. Maybe…”
“Yes or no? Can you do this?”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
He again moves his hand over the wound and begins to wave them around in a circular motion. Nothing happens at first, and I am tempted to cover up the wound with my shirt or something to slow the bleeding down. “It’s not working!”
“Hold on.” Tristis says concentrating on nothing but the wound.
I watch as the blood seems to instantly stop flowing and the skin seems to begin sewing itself up. Repairing itself with fresh, new skin. In moments the wound has disappeared and the only sign of there ever being a wound is the large amount of blood puddled up around the leg.
“How did you…That’s amazing. Tristis…”
His face is flushed with amazement and shock. I don’t think he even knew he could do that.
The doors of the building swing open as Cynthia and Dr. Finley come through it. I stand to greet them feeling wobbly in the legs. Trying my best not to fall into the sand I walk towards them.
“How is he? Are you ok?” Dr. Finley asks showing his genuine concern for our, especially my, well being. For a moment I let myself forget about the ‘Sumus Exitium’ secret and I except his embracing hug.
“I’m fine, its Valde. He was hurt pretty bad.”
“Was?” His confusion leads him to look past me and down to Tristis kneeling next to Valde. Tristis is still holding out his hands as he examines them, visibly shocked at what he had just done.
“What happened?” Cynthia’s face rings with excitement and wonder as she observes Valde’s leg where just minutes ago was a geyser of blood and bone.
“I think we found something Tristis is good at finally.” I say hoping it can relieve some of the stressed tension we are all feeling.
Dr. Finley walks to the other side of Valde and begins to observe his leg. Check his pulse. (You know, all the things we should have been doing after the dust had settled).
“He’s lost a lot of blood, but I think he’ll be fine.” Dr. Finley says while motioning for me to come and help him pick Valde up.
Cynthia drops down next to Tristis as she wraps her arms around him, rocking him back and forth.
Tristis’ face lights up with a blushed red color. The slight smile he was wearing grows into a full one. He stops examining his hands behind Cynthia’s back and begins returning the hug.
“Yeah, finally.” Tristis Chuckles. His arms close tightly around Cynthia's body and I feel the queasiness in my stomach return.