Tourniquet

Chapter One

It was blood red.

The flimsy piece of material, one you could easily misplace and be destroyed in the eruption of a house fire, was a lovely shade of blood.

It was also ironic.

Here I was bleeding out, and there it sat, almost blending into the growing puddles at my feet.

Doing nothing.

“Where’s the tourniquet?” The bald headed paramedic spoke out, his voice sending a shiver of hate through my already trembling body, his grubby hands gripping onto my blood soaked leg, squeezing tightly. I flinched.

Doesn’t he know that hurts?

Prick.

I’m the one whose leg is about to drop off, not his. I’m the one currently bleeding the life out of me, not him. So there he was ruffing up my already messed up leg, destroying it even further.

“Quit it.” I snapped, letting out a moan, stirring as my uncomfortable leg began to ache, my vision swimming slightly. The colours of the paramedic’s yellow and green jackets began blurring into one. They look like sick.

Speaking of sick.

“Stay still.” The bald prick commanded, the grimace on his mouth showing his distaste to the new puddle of vomit by my head, his face disappearing behind a small white tissue as it was suddenly shoved in front of my face, the hard dabbing of it wiping away the remnants of my earlier out break.

You’d think I’d get used to this.

“Here,” The assistant paramedic, who looked to young to even be able to drive a flipping ambulance, finally passed over the piece of red I had been dreading. The boy’s eyes lingered on my face before quickly hovering over the exposed skin of my neck, the ripped shirt clinging to my body from the rain.

“Thanks, go and set up the gurney.” Baldy stated, oblivious to the young ones prolonged eyes, his own focused on the gushing red coming out of my wound. Sighing, I watched as the boy retreated back out of the alleyway, leaving with a quick look back at me. I gave him the eyes.

Snake.

The small smirk on his lips had me shivering, what the hell is that abo-

“Mother of God!” I screeched, my eyes flinging to the bald prick as he wrapped the torture device around my leg, tugging it tightly until I’m pretty sure he would be slicing my leg off.

I swear I almost blacked out.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, the tone of his voice clearly indicating he was anything but sorry, his fat hands continuing to destroy my left leg. “You’ve done this before.”

I rolled my eyes; of course I have done this before, I do this almost every time.

I hate my life.

I hate Hemophilia.

Thanks mum, glad you got with dad and passed on this ridiculous disease to me. No, really, top-flipping-notch.

“Are you okay?” Oh now you ask.

“I’m fin-” and that’s when the coughing fit started.

I stuttered, I choked and I'm pretty sure I vomited again.

I could feel my body reacting to the amount of blood loss. I could sense the change in atmosphere as the bitter taste of metallic began to linger on my tongue, the slight stench hovering in the air.

“Shi-Graham!” Baldy called, the frantic tone in his voice shaking with…worry? That would be a first.

My eyes swam as the blackness began to creep in; it was almost like that thick fog you witnessed on a cold autumn morning in the Peak District, dense and impassable.

My body was burning; the dreaded ache drifted upwards tightening it's hold on my stomach until it finally stopped.

Right above my heart.

I could almost see the fear creeping up myself; I could see the monster, his dark eyes glowing with satisfaction.

Something wasn’t right.

It was never like this, it was never as intense. I was used to the feeling of floating, feeling light as a bloody feather as my body began to shut down, but now, I felt like stone. I felt as if you could grab my body, shake it and haul me into a river, my whole being would just sink, straight to the bottom.

To the fishes. Soul and all.

This disease had become a burden in my life, I always blamed my mother, she had a mild case, but when the doctors had told us mine was a type A, everything went belly up.

My life spiralled.

My parent’s life spiralled.

I could feel my body lifting, what was only four hands felt like ten, they were everywhere, squeezing and pinching, leaving me in a ball of pain. The loud muttering of the two paramedics sounded distorted, almost as if I was underwater, drowning in that river. The blinding light of the street lamps looked like the fish as they swam by at a fast pace.

I let out a high shriek when I began slowly moving, my body jerking up and down, side to side, as Baldy and Snake carried me out into the street. One set of worried eyes, the other a black abyss of happiness.

Snake.

“Get her on the ambulance now, she’s lost a lot of blood, the tourniquet has stopped it.” For now, the unspoken words drifted over, you didn’t have to be a genius to understand the bald man's silent words. I heard a light snicker to my right, the cold pressure of something on my leg almost felt like a burn.

“She’ll be fine,” Snake spoke up, his eye’s penetrating mine as the new paramedics lifted me into the back of the ambulance. “Won’t you, princess?” He smiled giving my leg a tight squeeze before moving back and allowing Baldy to step in with me, his hard gaze on the clipboard in front of him, never sparing a glance at my flinching face.

“Lets get you back to normal, Lily.” He joked. He knew I could never be normal.

Good old Hemophilia.

I could feel myself slipping, the darkness finally getting ready to consume me, and was practically consuming him. The once boyish features began darkening, becoming more prominent and endearing.

I watched as this new face of his light up, the little smile turning into a full-blown smirk as the ambulance doors closed, cutting him off from my view.

As the darkness finally crashed on me I realised my life would change, for better for worse, for something I am not sure of.

This was the first day I saw him.

Not the young paramedic snake.

The real him.