I'm Just Septic-Eyed

Chapter 12: Blood on the Horrizon

A/N: Goodness. This has gotten more than 600 reads! Thank you all so much! How are you liking the new cover? ;) I'm actually super proud of it. It's fucking gorgeous.

EDIT: FUCKING SHIT. I DID IT AGAIN. I'm so sorry I forget abou the titles. 

Neither Mark nor Felix could believe their eyes; all they could do was stand there, frozen with shock and horror. Was this really them? They looked like they were beaten and left to rot. Which was probably intended. They were both on the ground. Cry had blood spilling out of his mouth and nose. His lip seemed to be split wide open. And when Felix was finally able to move they discovered his fingers had been bruised and broken. Felix began spewing out words in Swedish, a habit he had when he was nervous or scared. While Felix fussed over Cry, Mark let Chica run toward Sean. He -- on the other hand -- still couldn't bring himself to move. Of course Sean is going to look worse than Cry is, Mark tried to reason with himself, Cry has an obvious advantage that Sean doesn't.

Mark gained the courage to move his shaky legs toward his friend. Sean looked up at Mark from his spot on the concrete and smiled as best as he could. One of Sean's eyes was swollen shut and there was an awful lot of blood coming out of his nose. As Mark's eyes trailed further, he caught sight of blood soaking through random spots around Sean's shirt. He nearly stopped breathing when he looked at his friend's leg. There was a pool of blood glistening on his thigh. "J-Jack," Mark couldn't think straight. "Were y-you stabbed?"

Felix's words stopped almost instantly. He looked at Sean and then back to Cry, who looked away. Sean let out a pathetic, raspy laugh. He mumbled something that Felix couldn't hear, but Mark could. It sounded like, "Better me than you." Mark didn't know what that meant. He stored that in the back of his mind to bring it up at a better time. Right now Sean and Cry needed immediate attention. They could be questioned later.

Both Mark and Felix felt the need to take Sean and Cry to the emergency room themselves. So, Felix took off sprinting toward the apartments to get his car while Mark stayed with the two injured students. Chica was sitting obediently beside Sean. Mark couldn't look away from his close friend -- he was just so worried. He was about to ask who attacked them when a name came to mind. But that didn't seem very likely. Even with Sean's disadvantage, two people were more than one. Mark sighed and leaned against the building. The smoke was black now and Mark wondered if it had started to spread. The buildings they were behind were far enough away from Mr. Morrison's class.

Mark wanted so badly to speak, but he also wanted to keep quiet. Yet he managed to will himself to talk despite his other thoughts. Sean always got uneasy when there was silence with people. "I..." but there was nothing to say. Mark bit his lip as he attempted to think of something. Cry couldn't say anything without his hands and Sean's mind seemed to be somewhere else. "You feeling okay, Jack?" Mark finally spoke. "You just..." Have a lot of blood everywhere but inside you. Mark couldn't bring himself to say that last part out loud.

Sean seemed to recognize he was somewhere where his brain wasn't. "O-oh. Yeah, I feel fine. Relatively speaking, at least." He gave a half-assed smile then returned to whatever he was thinking about.

Mark frowned. He was thoroughly concerned and Sean was just blowing him off. For some reason it made his blood boil. "You know what, Sean," both Sean and Cry jumped at the harsh tone. "I'm really scared for you and you don't seem to be taking me seriously. You were fucking stabbed in the leg, for Christ's sake! How can you be so calm?!" Mark's voice began to tremble and his body suddenly felt too heavy for his legs. "I'm so fucking scared, Jack. I'm so scared of everything. Of the fire, f-for you, of Sam. I... I don't even know what he looks like -- I don't even have the advantage of knowing his voice. For all we know, I could've passed him on the street. If I knew what he looked like I would be able to contact the police and say I saw him. Maybe Taurtis would be found. Maybe you and Cry wouldn't be here. Not knowing what I should see scares me." Mark added that last part quietly. But Sean heard him. Sean hears everything.

After ranting, Mark realized that he started crying. He angrily wiped his tears away, then slid down the wall to sit on the ground. He pushed up his glasses to cover his face in an attempt to remain strong. But just willing the tears to stop forming didn't really help. Sean listened to Mark's muffled sobs and felt something break inside him. He planted his hands on the ground and tried to push himself up. It hurt like hell, but he was able to do it. He limped over to Mark and cautiously sat himself down. The wound on his thigh was on fire and he felt a bit light-headed after the whole ordeal.

"Mark," Sean said with lack of breath. "I lived my whole life without seeing. Up until now it wasn't such a big deal. Sure, I kinda always wonder what things look like, but I know I can't ever have that opportunity. But you can, Mark. I may not be able to tell you what Sam looks like, sure, but... I honestly hope to God you never have to meet him. I know the fear of not knowing something is there, Mark. I live it. I just don't let it control my life." Sean sighed. "I'm really sorry about all of this."

Mark took off his glasses and looked at Sean. He never really thought that someone who was born blind could be scared of things without even seeing them. "You don't have anything to be sorry for, Jack. I was the one that shouted at you."

Right. He couldn't let Mark know. Especially after this. "It's fine. I wasn't being as considerate as I should have." Sean gave a small smile but it faded slowly. "Is it really hot or is that just me?"

"Hot?" Mark thought about giving a smart ass response, but something told him it wasn't the time. "It's actually kinda cold, Jack. Why do you feel --? Jack!"

A/N: I'll just leave it off here. I actually got this chapter done faster than I expected. That's good for you guys, I suppose. :)