Caught Red Handed

Chapter Fourteen, Old and New

Tom's Perspective

I was sitting at the side of the medical bed that Tord was resting in, my thoughts drifting through many different ideas quickly. It was hungry to think about anything and everything right now. My mind settled on the concept of why I was here. Why I didn't find a way to effectively kill demons and then do it. I told Tord that I care about him, but maybe that was a strong word. I was confused and abused and wanted a way out, so I naturally pulled at his emotions so that he might let me free. My mind recalled all of the times that we had fought, tried to kill each other, laughed together, and shared moments as a group. Between us, it's always been clear. We wanted each other dead, or that's what I thought. Tord still seems to want me dead, to drink the blood of my split open carcass and revel in my death. I still cringe at that moment just a few weeks ago. The thought made me sick.

The same person who was treating me now like a dear friend had been carelessly tossing me around a cell and threatening my life. And yet here I am, sitting by his side as his lifeless body laid there and breathed shallow breaths through an oxygen mask. What a messed up world I live in. Part of me wanted to unleash my bottled up rage over the years on him, attempting to murder him out of pure anger. The other part of me was too tired to care about all of my bad experiences and wanted to see him awake. He's the only person I know here, even if I do hate him. Now that I thought about it, I'm not really surprised that he's a demon. It explains his lack of emotions most of the time, but I doubt he's fully demon. Demons can't feel at all, as far as I know. He can feel, he cried earlier. He feels sympathy too, he's felt bad for me before. He feels guilty, just as a human does. Maybe he's just a demon who has adapted to human emotions? It doesn't really matter what he is or isn't, I have to deal with him anyways.

As for me, I'm not really human either. I am a human originally, but not after what happened to me as a young child. I don't remember any of it, but by now I have decided that maybe my mom isn't really my mom. My dad isn't my real dad either. I must have had human parents before now, but no matter what genetic tests I take, no people on this planet match it. I guess whatever altered DNA was put into me at a young age made me not have a match with humans anymore. I'm a hybrid of some unknown creature, but I'm much too afraid to let doctors test me any further. I dismissed my train of thought and stared down at the shirtless male who was breathing shallow breaths. It was eerily quiet in this area of the medical center, where all of the recovering patients are. It was just me here with all of these unconscious bodies. Well, only four in this area. It was still unnerving to me. I didn't have anywhere else to be this late at night, near eleven.

Nobody was active this late, aside from soldiers on nightshift or medical staff. I was just watching and waiting. Waiting for anything. The nurse came in to check on me, asked me if I needed anything. She checked on the vitals of all the patients as well, and sat next to me. Apparently it was pretty slow for her tonight. "So.. How long do you think it'll be until Red Leader gets up?" I asked her and she looked at Tord. "Oh, not long atall." She said with a Scottish accent. "He'll be up by the next morning, surely." She told me and slowly detached Tord's robotic arm. "Now that it's dark out, all I have ta do is check on ta patients. Tests mah patience, if ya know what I mean." She joked and I cracked a smile. I guess she does that joke a lot, and it's pretty funny. "Do you speak Norwegian like the rest of this base?" I asked and she scoffed. "Only a wee bit, the rest is too tough for me." She said and took out a small toolkit, slowly disassembling the robot arm. "Wood have a repairmen out in these parts, but the whole base is in a scatter." She explained, partly thinking out loud as she took out a blueprint for the arm.

"Checkin' for mechanical issues is rough when ya only study colds and biology." She continued and sighed at the sight of a dent, along with busted circuits. "Got ta send this down to them fancy engineers now." She said tiredly and took out a box from under the bed, carefully setting all of the pieces into it. "Well, I'll be off lad. Nice meeting ya." She said before walking off with Tord's disassembled robot arm. I looked at the point where his arm had been removed and curiously examined it. It was right about where his shoulder ended, with a bit of his scarred arm left with a robotic addition to easily reattach the arm. His scarring reached up his neck on his face, covering most of the right side. I'm surprised his eyelid survived the explosion, because all of the scarring near it was deep enough to wreck his eyelid. He had some permanent damage to his scalp from the scarring too that kept his hair from growing back in those spots. He really got damaged after I destroyed his robot. He's so stupid for building it in the first place. He's stupid for trying to take over the world.

Couldn't he have just stayed? Couldn't he have just been happy? Satisfied? He's never really been satisfied. I guess that's a demon for you. I reached down to feel the strange scarring and slowly ran my fingers along the injured skin. It was rather bumpy and rough feeling, but also strangely squishy. It felt really weird and unique. It ran down to the side of his cheek and down his neck. I flinched when his eyes opened and he stared at my hand, then following my hand to my face. He stayed silent and placed his hand on my arm, keeping me from pulling it away. I just stared back at him and pulled my hand away, since he was too weak to stop me anyways. He looked tired and kept blinking slowly. "Tord... I know you can't answer.. And it's kind of stupid.. But.." I didn't really know how to voice my thoughts. "Why did you.. Why did you destroy the house? Just.. Why did you betray us? At least Edd and Matt trusted you for the most part. Why did you betray them?" I asked and looked away. I felt betrayed. I felt all of those bad feelings I felt when I saw Tord with his robot.

I glanced back at him and stared at his eyes for any hint of emotion. He was tired, and he wanted to respond. Tord pulled down his oxygen mask and panted for air because he couldn't breathe properly with injured lungs. "I wish I didn't every day." He responded and coughed, carefully putting his oxygen mask back on. I looked away and sighed. "Whatever." I huffed and helped him get comfortable. He slowly blinked before closing his eyes, falling asleep rather quickly. Or so I thought, but he opened his working eye and stared at me. I stared back and sighed. I pulled off his mask a bit. "What now?" I asked annoyed and he lightly panted. "Can.. You hold my hand?" He asked and I snorted. "No, go to bed you big baby." I said and put the mask back on his mouth. He stared at me silently for what seemed like forever before closing his eyes. I watched him as his breath slowed more, his hand falling to his side. I stared at his hand and glared at it. I didn't want to do anything for him.

Hey guys comment below if you'd like me to chop up the chapters into paragraphs, and I'll go back and edit it.