Red Lighter ✧ John Murphy

XV - I Need Him

August 2nd, 2015

Hiya. :) 

The song for this chapter is "Somebody To Die For" by Hurts. I hope you like it.

Enjoy! ^_^

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Chapter Fifteen

Murphy and I both glanced at each other before we went down the stairs. I had assumed that it would just be a small room, but it was huge! There was a room full of collectible motorcycles, a room with a couch and a pool table, a room with a wine rack and a kitchen... And that was just what we could see from coming in.

A wide smile came onto Murphy's face as he hit one of the balls on the pool table. "Promised land..."

I grinned. "Well, it wasn't what I expected... But so far, I like it," I smiled, then ran over to the room that looked like a kitchen. There were bags and packages on an island in the room, with food inside of all of them.

Murphy and I both opened a bag, eating some of the cheese and crackers before I looked over to see Murphy opening a glass bottle.

"Is that whiskey?" I asked, laughing softly.

He smirked, pouring the drink into two glasses before handing me one.

I grinned before raising my glass to him. "To the promised land. And lighthouses," I winked at him, and he snickered before we clinked glasses.

I downed the whiskey all at once, and he laughed a little. "Slow down!"

I rolled my eyes at him in reply.

We continued to eat the food that was there until we were full.

"Come on," I said. "There's gotta be a bathroom or something in here. We need to take a look at your arm."

He nodded slowly. He seemed surprised at first. He was probably just so happy about the place we had found, that he almost forgot about his injured arm.

We both kept searching through the mansion-like lighthouse, making sure that we looked through every single room. No one was here, and judging from the previous lack of power and completely covered solar panel, there wasn't anyone coming back either.

The room with the pool table, couch, and chair, also had a huge television screen in it, and there was a hallway connected to it. We went down the hallway to find only one. It looked very large compared to the rooms on the ark, and had a very extravagant-looking bathroom connected to it. It had a closet, which we checked. It was completely filled with clothes, which was definitely a bonus.

It seemed that red was the constant colour. Everything seemed to be shades of red, brown, gold, and a small amount of white, but it was mostly all red. The sheets and pillow cases on the bed were a dark red colour, while the walls were a dark brown.

The bathroom was an exception, with everything being either beige or gold. There was a huge bathtub, which, frankly, looked more like a pool than it did a tub. There was also a shower in the bathroom with a glass door, which was slightly tinted so that the figure inside was either blurred or just looked like a shadow. There were also towels and a few other things that were used for basic needs, like toothbrushes and tooth paste. Something that we definitely needed.

"Okay, I'll help you get your jacket off."

He nodded, and I walked over to him. I decided that it would be easier on him to just cut off the sleeve of the injured arm, and found some scissors in one of the drawers along with some gauze and padding. Thank god! We really needed something to wrap his arm up with once we cleaned it.

I used the scissors to cut up the sleeve of his jacket, taking off the makeshift cast at the same time, then did the same with his shirt. I cut all of it right off, so that his left arm had nothing on it.

I bit my lip when I looked down at the wound. It was a pretty bad one. The creature had torn nearly all of the skin off of one side of his forearm. He hissed in pain when I removed the clothing from around it, and I knew that it hurt a lot.

"Now I have to clean it..." I said. "I'm just gonna rinse it with some water, okay? Then I have to do something else."

Murphy nodded again, looking nervous. I brought him to the shower, turning the water on. I guess that the solar power also controlled a water heater, because the water was almost steaming. I turned it down a little, so that it was just warm. Warm water was better for cleaning cuts and scratches than cold water. That's what my mother had told me.

I put his arm under it, and I saw him bite his lip before he clenched his left fist tightly, the fist that now had blood running down it.

"Okay," I said, exhaling nervously when the blood was gone. "Now we have to disinfect it."

He didn't ask what I was going to do, just watched me as I searched through the cupboards until I finally found it: a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. He looked surprised when I pulled it out, then confused. He probably didn't know what it was.

"I need you to put your arm over the sink," I said, then picked up a small washcloth. I handed it to him. "This is gonna burn like hell, so I need you to bite down on this."

He put the cloth between his teeth, nodding to me.

"And Murphy?" He looked over at me when I spoke. "I want you to look at me. Don't look away. Concentrate on me, okay?"

He nodded slowly, watching me as I began.

I decided that just dabbing it wouldn't be enough... It would also hurt a lot longer. So, I simply began to pour the liquid over his wound. I had to work with what I had, and currently, this was one of the only things that I knew about that could help him.

His uninjured arm was now clutching the edge of the counter, and I could see his jaw clenching as muffled screams left his mouth. The liquid worked quickly, I could see it.

Once I was done, I pulled out the padding and the gauze, laying the padding over his arm and beginning to wrap the gauze around. He was very good at keeping still, but I could see the muscles flexing in his arms and back.

Somewhere during that, he took the cloth out of his mouth and threw it away from him. Then he looked away from me, and clutched onto the edge of the sink. He was struggling with the pain.

When I was done, he was still breathing heavily. He looked like he was almost going to have a panic attack. "Murphy," I called to him, but he didn't look at me. He just stared down into the sink, still panting. "Murphy, look at me!" I said, then put my hands on either side of his face and turned his head so that he looked directly into my eyes. "You're gonna be fine, it's okay now. I promise."

He started to breathe a little slower, then closed his eyes and suddenly leaned forwards, resting his forehead against mine. I put my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly as he did the same, putting his arms around my waist and hiding his face in the crook of my neck.

"You're gonna be okay," I told him.

And, as he hugged me like I was the only thing keeping him alive, I realized that maybe, just maybe, he needed me just as I much as I seemed to need him.