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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 15:21:13 GMT -5
Vyncent swore under his breath as she sat him up, carelessly spitting blood onto the floor while the healer worked the bandages. He unwillingly leant back against her; if he'd had a choice in the matter then he wouldn't be doing it, but the world was swimming in front of him currently and his body wouldn't let him even sit up on his own. The healer was winding the bandages tightly around the wound now, ignoring Vyncent's half-growl of pain.
"I don't know much about healing demons." the man told her pointedly. "For a normal person, it'll be about a week until the wound closes completely. It'll be sore for a long while after that, maybe a month or two." he shrugged, straightening up. He glanced down at the demon's arm all of a sudden, noting the dark bruise and the slightly awkward angle from where Altair had wrenched it back. "His wrist is broken." he murmured. "But I haven't got the energy to heal that as well. I'll bandage it up, but he'll have to heal from that naturally." he muttered.
Vyncent actually managed a snarl as his wrist was set in place and bandaged, a sickening crack echoing around the room before the healer sorted out the broken bone. "He needs to sleep. And he's freezing. I don't know what that means to you, but I'm under the impression that it's not a good thing." he muttered, looking unnerved suddenly as the High Demon's gaze fixed on him, looking as though he could actually see him for the first time since they'd arrived.
He'd gotten his sight back. Blurred shapes, at first, to go with the noise... then the outline of a room bled into view. Where was he? What was... who the hell was that? Ugh. It was still so cold, apart from the two strange little patches of burning heat from Etoile's hands, which felt really strange in his wretched state.
"Have you got anywhere you can go...?" the healer was fading fast now, "You need... you should..." and then he blacked out. Vyncent watched him with the neutral curiosity of someone who doesn't know - or care - what's going on. He winced and bit back a yell of pain as he accidentally leant on his bad wrist, staring down at the bandages and shivering, starting to sway a little. Everything was going black again. Ugh. Could he not see for more than a minute at a time?
"...Etoile..." he groaned through bloodstained lips. "...What's goin' on?"
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 18, 2009 15:59:56 GMT -5
The healer recieved a scowl as he told her that he didn't know much about demons. Well, that hadn't answered her question at all, had it? Stupid fucking healer. If he wasn't so useful she would have ripped his head off on the spot, but Vyncent needed to be healed, therefore she needed to leave this pathetic mortal alive for long enough to do that. There were no garunties, however, as to what would happen to him after the demon was healed. He would probably become Etoile's newest toy, something for her to take her anger out on. It was either him or this whole town that would suffer her wrath, she hand't quite decided yet.
A broken wrist too? She hadn't noticed that, she had been more worried about the stab wound. She merely nodded to the man as he moved it back into place and bandaged it. She would make sure that Vyncent was careful, either that or take him to a healer in another town, either solution would work. Her main concern right now was him living, she would deal with the pain and everything else when it was clear that he was going to live.
She made a point of ignoring the healer as he collapsed, flames roaring to life around the demon as she moved to sit behind him, letting him lean back against her. She would take him to the bed upstairs to let him rest, but she didn't want to risk moving him just yet. She wanted to give him a moment to come around. "We're at a healers. Just healed you, you got stabbed. S'all better now though, kinda."
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 16:26:15 GMT -5
"Kinda...? That don't sound good..." he mumbled, slumping back against her as she sat behind him, her fire playing over his pale skin, chasing the shivering away. Oh, he was in Hell. It was similar to an out of body experience, he thought; he could almost see himself, and it disgusted him. Slumped there on an examination table at the mercy of whatever creature found him. To make it worse, he couldn't even make himself sit up. The strength just wasn't there for him to summon. This was pitiful. His head lolled back to rest on her shoulder, the demon sighing heavily. "Stabbed...? I can't... who... Altair."
The last word was nothing more than a growl, his blood red eyes gleaming murderously in the dim light. He couldn't see anything and his anger was impotent. It wasn't as though he was in any state to even think about unleashing any kind of revenge. But he remembered Altair. That would stick with him, that fury, he'd store it away until he could remember the rest of what had happened. The last hour or so was a complete blur to him, and it even hurt his head to think about it.
He winced suddenly and put one of his hands against the bandages. Yeah. He felt that now. So that's why everything was hurting so much. "Don't... I can't stay awake..." he mumbled eventually, shifting and half slipping from the table. He already knew that he couldn't walk. He couldn't even stand up. He was such an idiot.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 18, 2009 16:46:53 GMT -5
Etoile absnetly put her arms around him as he leant back against her, to make sure that he didn't end up falling sideways from the table. the half demon sighing heavily as she leat her head rest on his shoulder. She was tired, and he sounded terrible. They were in an awful situation, weren't they? She wasn't quite sure what she would have done if she had lost him, not that he would have died. No, she would never have let him die. "You'll be okay, I'll make sure of it." She promised, her voice only quiet, telling him that she would look after him, for now ignoring how sentimental that sounded. Bah, she was going soft, she was going to have to go out and disembowl something to make up for this.
"Altair." She confirmed, a similar growl to her voice, though her eyes had fallen closed. "We'll get him back, but, for now, you concentrate on getting better." She mumbled, holding back on giving him the details of what had happened. Right now, he didn't need to know that Amor was gone, let him heal a little before he realised that his precious sword had been stolen.
Him speaking again surprised her, her eyes fluttering open as she looked up at him, shifting as he moved. "There's a bed upstairs. I'll take you there." She nodded to him, putting an arm around him to help him to his feet before heaving to the stairs. Getting him up to the bed was a trial, Etoile sighing with relief as she finally laid him down on the back, wrapping him up in the blankets as well as leaving the fire burning around him. She disappeared for a moment to retrive the healer, carelessly dragging him up the stairs, throwing him into the corner of the room before locking the door. There, now they could sleep.
She brushed the soot from the bed before moving to sit by Vyncent, leaning back against the headboard. "You sleep, I'll keep a watch out. You just sleep, okay?"
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 17:07:21 GMT -5
He let his arm rest around her shoulders as she helped him stand, his jaw locked as they walked, for lack of better word (he would have crawled if he'd been given the choice), towards the stairs. His mind went pleasantly, blissfully blank at the point between when they got to the stairs and when they were at the top. He guessed he might have even passed out briefly, coming around as he saw the bed. It was a relief when he was finally allowed to collapse down on the bed and close himself into the darkness, where he wouldn't have to think or feel any more.
It was like being in a dream, at this point. Vyncent was only vaguely aware of her pulling the blankets around him, or leaving the room and bringing the healer in, and he was almost completely out of it by the time she sat down on the bed, his blank eyes absently noticing that there was fire, and light somewhere beyond his blindness. Had she had her arms around him? He couldn't think, he couldn't... Oh, God, she had. If he thought he could have done it without injuring himself, he'd have cringed. He was never going to live this down. Ever. The words from before also floated through to his consciousness now, of her promise.
You'll be okay, I'll make sure of it.
Dying, he thought, was sounding very tempting right now.
Luckily, he was dragged from his thoughts and the growing ache in his abdomen and his wrist by her voice. Sleep? That sounded... good, actually. He'd been waiting to fall unconscious for a long while now. And at least it wasn't cold any more. He shifted absently and managed to get comfortable before releasing the effort that was staying conscious, his eyes falling closed only about half a minute after she had spoken. He would have said something else, anything, maybe even a curse, but he had drifted off before he got the chance.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 18, 2009 18:42:54 GMT -5
Flames ignited around the bed as Etoile got comfortable, the girl rubbing at her eyes as she got comfortable. It was going to be a long night. She didn't want to sleep incase someone came looking for them. Their entrance into the town hadn't been very discreet, nor had had entry into the healers. Plus, there was always the chance that Altair would come back and finish what he had started. She doubted that he would, but she wasn't going to take that risk. There was also that niggle in the back of her mind concerning Vyncent; what if something went wrong with him in the night? No, she couldn't sleep, not yet.
She was still sat awake as the sun rose, her knees pulled up to her chest, chin resting on them. Her gaze was on a gap in the curtains, watching as the dark turned to light, seeming thoughtful. She was mulling over the nights events, scowling to herself at the memory of her father. Father, it was such an alien term to her, she wasn't sure what he had been expecting of her. She wasn't some little lost orphan looking for a home, and it seemed suspicious to her that he had only started searching for her after she had begun to travel with Vyncent. In her mind, it seemed that jealousy had driven him to seek her out rather than any sort of blood tie. Bah, and he dared to look disappointed in her when she chose Vyncent?
She tore her gaze away from the window at the thought of the demon, sighing heavily as she looked down at him. He wasn't going to take this well, and she wasn't sure that she would know how to look after him. Caring wasn't in her nature. It had been loyalty that had saved him before, but now, now that the risk of death had passed, she wasn't sure how to proceed. He wouldn't take the theft of the sword well, and he wouldn't take well to having to rest, and she wasn't sure that she could cope with him, but she couldn't just abandon him and leave him to heal alone. Bah, this was a complicated mess that they had become tangled up in this time. "Stupid fucking demon, why'd you have to go and get stabbed?" She mumbled, shaking her head and looking away again.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 19:09:27 GMT -5
Vyncent, at least, seemed to have registered that the feeling that he'd been ripped inside out had dulled to a sharp, but managable ache during the night, and his unconsciousness had turned into real sleep a few hours after he'd closed his eyes. When she spoke, and when the light from the gap in the curtains started to become bright enough for him to notice, he began to stir. He groaned and lifted his hand to rub his eyes, instantly regretting it. "Holy fucking shit!" he cursed, his voice hoarse as he let his arm drop. The sear of pain in his wrist was enough to warn him not to do anything like that again.
He slowly opened his eyes. Thank fuck, he could see. Though, he wasn't sure if he wanted to, gazing down at the bandages on his wrist and frowning. That was broken. He recognised the stinging aftershocks from jolting the broken bone, carefully resting his arm back against his chest as if to make sure it was alright. At least until he woke up properly, anyway. The demon was still terribly pale, he still looked like a wreck, but he was alive. And he was in a much better condition than yesterday, too. A light frown cast a shadow over his face as he felt the other bandages, and slowly he looked down.
What happened there? He strained to remember, scowling and closing his eyes again. The village. Fire. Altair... FUCK. A growl rose up in his throat at the thought of the demon, and the memory of how he'd been humiliated and almost killed at his hand. Etoile. Etoile was there, where was she now...? His eyes opened again and he looked up at her, his expression a mixture of confusion and utter horror and mortification. She had saved him. He remembered. She'd saved him and he'd been a useless wreck. He'd been beaten. By Altair. With his own sword.
At the memory of the rapier his good hand habitually went to the scabbard to grasp the hilt of Amor (he did it so often it was practically muscle memory) but he froze as he found nothing. Slowly, he lifted his questioning gaze to her face. More and more of the memories were flashing back to him now. Everything hurt. He felt sick. Anger danced through his eyes, and as his fist clenched, black fire crackled around it before promptly fizzing out again, the demon coughing and seeming puzzled. He could still taste blood.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 18, 2009 20:15:20 GMT -5
Etoile didn't look down at him as he began to stir, leaving him time to wake up properly. He needed time to notice his injuries, to remember where he was and what had happened to him. It would be better for him to see what he could remember rather than her giving him a run down on what had happened. She would, of course, answer any questions that he had, fill in any gaps in his memory. She didn't, howeevr, want to be the one to tell him that Amor was gone. Not even Etoile dared to tell him that. No, he had enough to come to terms with, once he had got his head around what he could remember, she would tell him the rest, but not until he asked.
Her gaved moved down to him as he growled, the flash of anger in her eyes telling that she felt the same as he did. She was just as angry as he was, she had just had a little longer to calm her anger, to put it aside for future use. Revenge, it would come soon enough. She may not be able to chase after Altair right now, not with Vyncent being so hurt, but he wouldn't be difficult to find. He was a noble, all she needed to do was to work out where his house was and she would find him. Altair would find that his more 'cilivised' characteristics was what would lead them straight to him. He wouldn't give up his luxeries, she would bet that much. Psht, he may be a full blooded demon, but he was more mortal than she could ever be.
"Want me to get you a drink of water?" She questioned, trying not to sound too concerned. She moved to grab the jug of water from the bedside table and hold it out for him to take. "If you need to know, we're in a healers house. I don't think that anyone knows that we are here, yet." She explained, looking down at him. "What do you remember?"
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 20:32:28 GMT -5
He nodded lightly to her question, and while she moved to get the water he carefully and slowly managed to pull himself into a sitting position, leaning back against the head-board and closing his eyes for a moment or so. He took the water with a nod of gratitude, not saying anything while he took a long drink. That would wash the taste of blood away, he hoped. He sighed heavily and sat the empty glass down on the bed carelessly, his movements more awkward because of his useless left hand. When she spoke the demon's eyes were still closed, and the faintest of scowls appeared on his face. Etoile knew him pretty well by this point, he imagined. She knew what he was like. And she knew what had happened, probably a lot better than he did without the gaping holes in her memory. So, with yesterday's events in mind, a question like 'What do you remember?' was guaranteed to put him in a worse mood.
They both knew it. Yesterday, Vyncent had been rendered helpless and humiliated by none other than her father, the man he held the greatest contempt for. And she wanted him to re-live it? He could have hit her, if he'd had the energy.
"Altair. Fighting. You interfering. Getting stabbed. Then it goes black until we get here. You know what happened after that, I'm not going to repeat it." he put in softly, his voice low and composed. The memories of that examination table were going to be put away and shoved to the back of his head where he didn't have to think about them. Then his eyes flickered open and he leant forward ever so slightly, his gaze flitting keenly around the room, as if looking for something. No. She wasn't on the floor either. Had Etoile taken her? He glanced across at the half-demon.
"Where's Amor." he asked flatly. Ordinarily he wouldn't have noticed so quickly, but after looking down at the wound covered by bandages and knowing that the same weapon that usually sat in the scabbard at his waist had caused it, he was keen to find the rapier. He was blocking out the feeling from the actual stabbing. He didn't want to think about that yet.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 18, 2009 20:47:51 GMT -5
Etoile did know Vyncent rather well by now, well enough to know that he would never acknowledge any of his own weaknesses, just as she wouldn't have done, but that wasn't what she was asking him to do. She wanted to know what he remembered of the fight, more what he remember about the events which lead to the state that he was currently in. He had been conscious, barely, but she wasn't sure if the pain and shock would be enough to block out this memory, or if he had merely blocked it out himself. He must know that something was wrong to ask the question, and she had seen it in his eyes as he had looked around the room. She knew exactly what he was looking for, and she knew that he wasn't going to find it. Oh, why did she have to be the one to tell him this?
"He took her." She told him, her tone surprisingly gentle, Etoile avoiding saying her fathers name, as though she thought that it would aggrivate the situation. "You lunged to attack him, he dodged and disarmed you. He stabbed you, and left with Amor." She didn't know why knowing the chain of events might help, perhaps it would distract him from the fact that his beloved sword was gone? No...no, that wouldn't work. Nothing would distract him from that. From the way he had reached for the sword and grasped thin air she knew that this would be liike losing a limb for him, or even worse than that. He wasn't going to take the news well...maybe she should start running now?
"I would have fought him, but I didn't have the time. I needed to get you to a healer." She explained, as though answering a question she expected to come. "We will get her back. You just have to heal first, and then we will get her back." She assured him, though she was unable to look at him, as though she feared the rage that was, undoubtedly, in his eyes.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 18, 2009 21:13:33 GMT -5
His eyes were pressed closed as she spoke those fateful words. Vyncent had known that they would come, even when he had first made a grab for the sword that wasn't there, but he hadn't wanted to hear them. He thought that maybe he'd imagined it. But he remembered the burning feeling as the sword was ripped out of his stomach, and seeing the departing figure of Altair, Amor by his side.
He took her.
The actual sequence of events might have helped him, were her words not just sailing over his head. Everything came crashing down around him, the shame and the degrading sense of helplessness, that he hadn't been able to stop his opponent. Altair had walked up, stabbed him with his own weapon, stolen it from him, and walked away, leaving him to his death. As if that wasn't bad enough, he really would have died were it not for his reliance on the half-breed he travelled with.
Luckily, the rage was blocking most of this out right now, and when Vyncent opened his eyes it was as though hell itself was stirring in them. His fists were clenched, the bandages around his broken wrist splitting without him even noticing, and the air was shimmering around him. Luckily for Etoile, his wrath wasn't focused on her, but on... well, everything in general. She could run. There was time.
He took her.
An animalistic snarl bubbled up from the demon's chest, and black fire positively exploded around them, charring the walls and incinerating a few of the floorboards to leave gaping holes in the floor. Vyncent was on his feet, his teeth gritted and any and every curse he had ever heard threatening to be bellowed around the room. "Altair." when he spoke, that underlying current of chaos laced in with his words, giving him that unholy double-voice which only appeared when something had really managed to get under his skin.
Every muscle was tensed, and the fire condensed around him, threatening to unleash itself and probably take half of the town with it, before it just suddenly... faded. The High Demon was still clearly infuriated beyond logical thinking or belief, and it flared up again a moment or so later. But only a second passed and it flickered out again, Vyncent practically screaming a curse and plunging his already broken hand through the wall, tearing it out again when his legs gave way under him.
He was blinking dumbly at the ground, his bloody fist sitting uselessly in his lap. That was it. He was drained. Already? He felt so cold all over again, and the crushing futility of the situation was suffocating him. Altair had his sword. He had taken her... and he had almost taken Vyncent's soul along with her. His head was bowed towards the floor, the demon breathing heavily to try and catch his breath. Useless. Worthless. Wretched. Miserable. Over a thousand years in the making and here he was, inwardly destroyed by a single sub-par demon.
Maybe something in him had snapped. Perhaps it was his spirit. He didn't know. But suddenly he couldn't find the strength to even lift his head. If he thought he could have stood it, he might have even cried.
"...Leave. Get out..." he whispered.
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 19, 2009 20:05:37 GMT -5
The wait for his reaction was probably worse than the action itself; she would rather he just tear her apart and get it over with rather than leaving this gap. Her breath was held as she waited, and she was sure that even her heart beat suspended, waiting for the Hell which he was surely going to unleash.The gap just meant that it hadn't sunk in yet, that the shock was too great for him to accept what had happened, and she worried that the longer it took for him to react, the more this was affecting him. She had expected the rage to be instant, fr him to get up and demand that they went chasing after Altair to retrieve Amor. Not this, not that he would just sit letting the events of yesterday hang in the air between them.
Etoile murmured the spell for a shield as the black flames exploded out around them, before breathing out a sigh of relief. She had been beginning to worry that he would never react, that what had happened had actually broken him. The flames prove that the Vyncent that she knew was still in there somewhere, even though the reaction had been delayed. She knew how to deal with him when he was angry, she would much rather have an arguement with him, or even fight with him, instead of having to try and comfort him. What was she supposted to say to comfort him? 'Yeah, you had the shit kicked out of you, you almost died, and your precious swod was taken, but it'll all turn out good in the end, promise'. For some reason, she doubted that would work.
It didn't last for long, which was to be expected. He needed time to regain his energy, she wasn't really concerned by this. He had almost died, it was surprising that he had enough energy to make the flames appear. In hindsight, she shouldn't have been expecting him to raise Hell, should she? As if he was in the condition to do that. He could barely stand. A scowl flickered over her features as he hit the wall, the half demon rising to her feet to linger next to him, unsure of what to do. Should she go as he had asked? He looked so...broken. He didn't look like he should be left alone, but he would hate her for staying.
"Let me bandage up your hand again, and get you back into bed, then I will go." She sighed, black flames springing up around him, guessing that he would be cold after wasting all that energy. "Not leaving you to be all pathetic though. You are going to heal, and you are getting Amor back, end of story."
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 19, 2009 20:36:07 GMT -5
The demon simply sat there in silence as she responded to him, his eyes glazed as it filtered through to his mind that she wasn't leaving. He caught perhaps the first part of her sentence before it all bled into one, and he flinched away from her flames as they leapt around him. He wanted to be left alone. For a long, long time. Maybe forever. She didn't seem to understand that. And Vyncent wasn't sure that he could make her leave with intimidation or with fear. Couldn't she see what had happened? Did she not see that he was cracked and broken and didn't want to see a single fucking person for the rest of his life? Apparently not. He caught a few more of her words, and looked down at his mangled hand, as though he couldn't even see what was wrong with it.
"Just go." he repeated, pressing his eyes closed. "I don't care. Don't touch me. Go away." he shook his head, sighing shakily and tensing up ever so slightly. Then he did something that he'd never done before. His shoulders slumped, his proud posture fractured into that of someone submissive and powerless, and he put his head despairingly in his hands so she couldn't see his face. If anyone wanted his life right now, they could easily take it from him. He didn't want it any more. Demon, mortal, whatever. Even Etoile. She could just slit his throat and put him out of his misery, if she wanted to. He wouldn't stop her. Ugh. If she wasn't going to kill him, couldn't she just get away from him?
((Okay. I got bored and I was in a more writy mood today, so I added a couple of things. XD))
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Post by Angel ♥ on Dec 21, 2009 21:32:03 GMT -5
No threats? No magic? No fire? He just...sat there. Wasn't he even going to try to do something? She had just directly ignored what he had said, and he was just going to sit there. Who was this person and what had he done with Vyncent? He was really that broken? He could be angry, not depressed, she couldn't understand what was going on. She had no idea what to do now, no idea how to deal with Vyncent when he was like this. Her eyes even widened as he slumped and hid his face, Etoile moving to take a step back towards the door. He didn't look as though he was going to do anything, he wasn't going to charge out looking for Amor, he just looked as though he was going to sit there and feel sorry for himself. It was safe to leave him for a while, right?
"Self pity? Suck it up Vyncent. You're not going to get anywhere like this. If you're gonna let him trample all over you like this then you don't deserve your reputation. It happened, deal with it." Probably not the best of words, but she wasn't one for sympathy. She wasn't just going to leave him to feel sorry for himself, this was pathetic. It happened, it was pretty crap, he needed to deal with it. If he didn't then she would go after Altair on her own. She had saved his life, she wasn't sure how to save his sanity.
"I'll be back later, with food." She told him as she turned to leave, clicking the door closed behind her, sighing heavily. She needed to kill something.
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Post by Vyncent Schwarz on Dec 22, 2009 6:24:57 GMT -5
It was like she wasn't even there anymore. The words just sailed over his head, as if he was in some kind of a dream, and the demon didn't even look up as she left. Somewhere, in the air around him, her words still remained. Self-pity... trample all over you... deal with it. But none of them even came close to affecting him. The only sound he was aware of was that of the door slamming shut, and he hesitantly let his hands fall from his face. Alone. At last. Well... there was the healer, but he had been incinerated in the initial spark of his fury. He glanced down at his cut up shirt, and wondered vaguely whether he'd been wearing his coat when he got to the healers. Or had Altair taken that too? He couldn't be bothered to figure it out.
The day passed in a blur for Vyncent. He had, at some point, managed to drag himself to the bed, sprawling out there to stare at the wall, his eyes glazed and empty. He was cold... maybe. He didn't know. And his wound ached like a bitch. Not as much as his mangled hand, admittedly, that was held close to his chest, and with every beat of his heart he could practically hear the broken bones scream out in pain. It would be funny, if he wasn't feeling so utterly pathetic, and wretched. It was all well and good for Etoile to tell him to 'suck it up'. He would if he could. But this had never happened to him before. He closed his eyes, sighing shakily and hoping for sleep. He felt lethargic and broken, depressed and humiliated. Maybe soon, when he'd regained a little bit of energy, he might be bothered to get up and commit suicide.
For now, though, he was content to lie there and ignore the world and the annoying way that the sun still seemed to rise and set, even though he didn't want it to.
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