Phantom Moon (Nora's part)

Untitled Part 8

As soon as they disappear, I want to scream. I want to run around hitting anything that gets in my way. Luckily, though, by now I know that's not going to help. So, instead, I save the running and hyperventilating for later, and decide to actually be helpful for once in my life. I kneel by Janus, who, ironically, has been hit nearly exactly where Ander had been stabbed.

"You look worried."

I gape at him. How can he sound so calm with a knife in his gut?

"Of course, I'm worried, you moron! You took a knife for me!"

"Oh, I'm fine. I think. Not really, but am I ever actually fine?"

His hands are just laying limp at his sides, so I bring them both up around the knife.

"Keep pressure here. I'll be right back. Don't bleed out."

He sighs. "Whatever."

I run, or more accurately, stumble and trip, over to Garet. I can tell immediately that the rope is too tight to untie, which tells me it was probably my uncle that did it. He can tie knots as well as any sailor. It's really annoying.

"Do you have a knife? I can't untie it."

Garet shakes his head, but Janus raises his hand, for some reason.

"I have one. It's in my gut, but I have one."

"No, don't you even think about it. Pulling it out might just cause more damage."

"Oh. Ok. Fine. Do it your way."

I take the gag out of Garet's mouth.

"Do you happen to have anything else I can use? Please say yes."

"But then I'd be lying."

"Of course, you'd be. Ok, I'll just have to find something myself."

"I could bite my way out."

"No. Just, no."

"Well, then, I could just tell you how to help the emo idiot."

"Great idea! Let's do that."

"Really?"

"Really. Now, what do I do?"

"Well, first, you have to take the knife out, obviously. You'll have to be ready to put a lot of pressure on it because it's going to bleed. Luckly, it didn't look serrated, so you should be able to just pull."

"I can do that myself."

"No, Janus, shut up."

"Shutting up."

"Next thing you'll have to do... you know what? I don't think this is going to work. It'll have hit organs, and I don't think you can handle that, no offense. There are some surgical tools in my bag. Use those to saw through the rope."

I gape at him. "You couldn't have said that in the first place?"

"No time to argue. Janus is being stupid and bleeding out."

I look behind me and see that he's right. Janus is indeed being stupid and bleeding out. Now, the bleeding wouldn't be his fault, except for the fact that he took the knife out. Now, there's a pool of blood around him, and his face is even more pale than before.

"What the fudge do you think you're doing?!"

"I followed his instructions. Also, I like fudge. Do you have any?"

Then, just like Ander, he passes out. Fantastic.

"Ok, in that case, just slide my bag over. I'll saw myself out. As for you, you need to put pressure on that thing."