Eternal Darkness - Book One ✔

Chapter Nineteen

When I was eight years old my mom and I were hiding on an old farm, which lay, secluded within a cluster of trees, far from everything else. There was a tall red barn behind the farmhouse; the insides littered with junk and a few large rusted vehicles my mom called 'tractors'. 

It was in the middle of the day and I was playing Poisoned Earth with myself in the barn, jumping between the tractors and the wooden planks lying scattered all over the floor, a result of half the tin roof caving in. 
To make these games more exciting I always imagined someone was after me, giving me a sense of thrill as I scurried through the small obstacle course as fast as I could. 
I had just jumped from the small front tire of a tractor and down onto a large rectangular wooden beam when a burst of pain shot through my left foot. I gasped in surprise and took a staggering step backwards, feeling an uncomfortable sensation as something left my tender skin. I ripped off my worn out sneaker and with widened eyes I saw the blood slowly trickling out of a puncture hole in my tattered sock. I discarded that as well and gazed down at the wound on the sole of my foot. I stared over at the beam and found a three inch rusted nail protruding from the wood. It wasn't until I had found the source to the pain that I really felt the deep throbbing in my foot. 

I don't remember crying as I hobbled out of the barn and across to the small garden on the side of the house where my mother was hunched over a patch of greens. I rarely cried as a child, not since that night when we had to leave my father behind. After that I grew up quickly and learned to assess pain in a way that didn't result in tears flowing down my face. I staggered across the gravel from the barn to the farmhouse. She heard me approach and glanced up, then stood up straight immediately seeing me hump towards her. 

"Emily dear, what happened?" she said in her worried tone. My face was clenched into a pained expression and I sat flat down on the ground, lifting my injured foot up for her to see. 

"Baby what happened?" she asked again, gently cradling my foot in her hands as she crouched down.

"Nail," I grunted, wincing when she caressed the bloodied skin around the wound.

"We need to clean this immediately or it could get infected." My mother's tone was serious and she helped me into the house.

"Does it hurt a lot sweetie?" She had me lay down on the battered couch in the living room while she searched high and low in the kitchen for anything of use. 
At first I just nodded in reply, but realized she couldn't see me.

"Yes, but not as much as before." It was odd really, how quickly the pain was subsiding.

My mom returned with a red box, which had a white plus sign on the front.

"How lucky are we. I found a first aid kit." She smiled and settled herself by my feet. 
Pulling open the dusty box, she searched through the meager content before taking out some cotton wads and a plastic bottle.

"Disinfectant. I hope it still works." After dipping a cotton wad in the clear liquid she cleaned the wound and area around it, removing the dried blood. I flinched once when she put the wad directly on the wound, but she barely took notice. The pounding pain that had been hammering my foot a few minutes ago was barely there anymore, but I think I was more relieved than amazed at the time to ask anything of it. 

"There. Let's get that foot bandaged up." She took a roll of white gauze and wrapped it around my foot.

"You lay still for a while okay?"

"Okay."

My mom kissed my head and went back outside. As the minutes ticked by I felt the pain turn from stabbing to a dull low throb. Curiosity filled me and I reached down to pad the bandaged area on the bottom of my foot. It didn't hurt when I touched it, not like when my mother had just before.