Chapter 8 – Alice
“Massimo…” Alice felt her body lose strength, as if her blood pressure had dropped at that sight. Not that she hadn’t seen wounds similar to and even worse than this one before, but there was something about it being Massimo Blanchi who was hurt like that, oozing blood and certainly drowning in pain….
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he grunted, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he pulled one of the dirty sheets to try to cover the cut that stretched from the end of his thigh to past his knee “Didn’t I tell you to stay out of my business…?”
“Massimo, you need help!” She couldn’t even listen to him, quickly entering the room and leaning over his bed, grabbing the sheet to try to see the wound better “You’re bleeding! How did this happen? Were you trying to bandage yourself or…?”
“That’s none of your fucking business!” he growled, this time so loudly that she even feared that Millie, several doors away, might wake up “I can take care of myself, so stop your pity theater and get out of here right now!”
“Do you have any idea how high the chances are of you getting an infection with an open wound that size?!” Alice start of getting irritated again struggling to pull the sheet away Quickly, we have to get a doctor to get some stitches on this. What kind of painkillers are you taking?”
“Alice, you better get out of this fucking room right now, before I…!”
“Before you say what?” she challenged him “Are you going to hit me?”
“What?” His dark green eyes widened and the hands that were doing a tug of war with her suddenly became less steady “I never… What do you think I am…?”
“Great. Now stop acting like a child and be quiet. Alice got what she wanted, throwing the sheet away from the bed, until she managed to reveal Massimo’s leg “Oh, God…”
Despite the agony that coursed through her at seeing him like this, Alice realized that the situation was not as serious as she had imagined. The wound had not opened completely. What had happened was that Massimo seemed to have lost a lot of flesh and the stitches in his skin had not managed to close the wound completely.
It would probably take months for his body to regenerate a loss as big as that, and even then it would certainly leave a huge scar behind, like the several that she now realized he had along his legs, coming from bruises that she was sure that had been closed while he was still in the hospital.
“What are you looking at?” Massimo growled, breaking her out of her thoughts “If you came here to see the circus of horrors, then you can leave…!”
“It’s bleeding because a small part of the stitches opened and an artery probably ruptured in the process.” Alice said, trying not to listen to him, as she pulled out one of the pillows that
Chat Ace
wasn’t near her and took out the pillowcase, folding it a few times before pressing it against
the wound.
“Fuck!” Massimo roared, shuddering, before grabbing her wrist. “What do you think you’re doing? Get your hands off me….1”
“I know it hurts, but we need to try to stop the bleeding so the wound can be stitched up again safely. So, hold that cloth as tightly as you can!” She placed her hand on the pillowcase along with hers, before looking around her room “Where is your cell phone? We need to call your doctor…“.
“I don’t want anyone here!” Massimo tried to pull the cloth away, but Alice didn’t allow it, placing the entire weight of her body on his arm, to prevent Massimo’s sudden movements from making things even worse. “You’re one second away from exhausting my patience, Dawsey! Either you get out of here right now or I’m going to call your parents and tell them to take their daughter back!”
“Well, make yourself comfortable. I’m not going to be the one who stays all night suffering, bleeding and wailing like a howling wolf, when I could easily solve this all by just calling a doctor to close those stitches!” She returned his glare, feeling her own anger burn.
“And what the fuck do you have to do with this?!” Massimo said, through his teeth, “What difference does it make to you if I die today? Didn’t you read the fucking prenup? You won’t be left with anything if I really get locked inside a coffin…!
“Well, I’m glad you know that. But, I think you should be more worried than me about this possibility, don’t you? At least I won’t be dead because I was stubborn and wanted to bleed to death.” Alice countered, finally letting the pillowcase slip a little away from the wound. “Well, at least the blood stopped. Do you have any other first aid materials besides those on the floor?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because I didn’t just sit around and watch others suffer while I was still in nursing school, much less during the last few years I spent working as a home nurse for the elderly who, believe it or not, could sometimes be as stubborn as you.” Alice rolled her eyes. “If I can’t force you to stop being stubborn and call a doctor, then at least I can bandage it to stop an infection. Now, are you going to tell me where the first aid kit is or are you going to risk letting it necrote and losing that leg completely?”
