your lipstick stain is a work of art » stylinson

eighteen⚤

part eighteen

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"thank-you," louis says with a little cough as the woman drapes a thick blanket over his shoulders, which have started to shake again. he doesn't get a response, she just gives him a tight smile and beacons him to follow her, kindly staying at a slow pace that way he can keep up with her on his wobbly legs.

he has to use all of his strength to propel himself forward, and he realizes that his shoes have been removed, he can feel the cold tiles on his severely frost bitten feet. with furrowed eyebrows, he moves the blanket a little to look at his toes and blanches. they are dark purple and shriveled up. he nearly faints right there, but he makes his head rise and he tries to focus on walking, trying not to think what his fingers might look like.

"he's in there, with my brothers. we put him by the open oven to try to warm him up since he was so much worse then you," says the nameless woman and wow that sounds promising. "do you need any help walking?," she asks, noticing how pale and frail louis looks.

he just shakes his head though, and makes hand gestures for her to keep walking, "he said he wanted to see me?," he asks, and the lady nods, weaving them around tables, towards a red door with a square glass window. "how long has he been awake?," he asks, limping a little, tightening the blanket around his shoulders.

"about five minutes... wouldn't hardly let me little brother look him over, started demanding to see you. figure he remembers how you got that nasty cut on your forehead?," she asks, pushing the door open with her back, nudging her head to the side to gesture louis in.

" - you can try to stitch it up after you get me louis!," harry cries out, and he's trying to shove two boys away from him as he comes into louis' line of vision, and a relieved sigh leaves his lips at seeing that harry is well enough to at least put up a struggle. "stop!," he cries as one of them touches his ankle, and louis' eyebrows furrow.

"hey!," he shouts out, hobbling forward, and everyone looks over at him in surprise, harry going from confused to desperate, throwing his arms out for louis, who crosses the room and squats down beside him, collapsing on his weak legs, nuzzling into his neck immediately, comforted by harry wrapping him up in his arms. "you okay?," he whispers, leaning forward to look at harry, blinking in surprise. despite the heat of the oven beside them, his lips and ears are a dark purple shade, his veins are completely visible under his pale skin and his eyes look grey and nearly disoriented as he clutches at louis' shoulders. louis gulps deep in his throat and looks over at the three adults looking over at them, "we need to get him some help. emergency help. i don't care how, he's dying," he says, trying to remain calm, but harry doesn't seem to be fazed by what he's said, too caught up in clinging to louis.

"we can't move him until we get a tourniquet on his ankle," says the tallest of the 3 people, crossing his arms over his chest, giving harry a hard look, which goes unnoticed by the delusional boy, who is looking at louis, his eyes blinking slowly. "he's severed several tendons and i think his ankle bone. it's barely holding on, and i'm pretty sure he has a blood infection. if you could get him to cooperate, i could get a tourniquet and could probably get his condition more stable," says the man, crossing his arms over his chest, giving harry a hard look.

louis' throat tightens up. a blood infection? "how bad is it? yeah, i'll get him to be still...," louis whispers, clutching harry's hand tighter, trying to divert his attention as the man nods and takes a step forward, still not drawing harry's gaze as he sits down beside his ankle, using a hesitant hand to lift up the flap of his skinny jeans.

"how bad is it? i... um... this isn't looking very good... okay. we really haven't much time. he's not in the right mind right now, so you're going to have to make the decision. if we don't take action right now, this infection is going to spread up his body and poison his entire nervous system, he'd shut down before anybody could get to him," the man says quickly, looking up at louis, whose spine has straightened.