Sink Your Teeth Into Forever

Sandra’s POV
When I woke up in the morning the first thing that I thought to do was check on Ash. I knew that an infection like that could spread very quickly and kill someone within a week. I hoped that with Ashley being less than human perhaps it would slow things down, although it was disconcerting that I had no idea how long he’d been infected. I rolled out of bed and went straight into the living room to see, and I was shocked at what I saw. He was still asleep and covered in a sheet of sweat. He was mumbling in his sleep his head rocking back and forth. Clearly him being inhuman wasn’t helping the infection. In fact it appeared to be speeding things along for some reason. I sat next to him on the couch, anxiety was clouding my thinking. I had to get some sort of medicine. Even though it was fairly obvious that he had a fever I reached up to his head to check anyway.
When my hand touched his head I immediately jumped back in surprise. It felt like he had a fire inside his skull. Surely the fever was going to kill him before anything else did. I was about to take dire measures and put him in a bath of ice just to keep him from spontaneously combusting. By this point he probably would be awake, but his brain was turning to mush in his skull. I knew what happened when you got overheated. You begin to have trouble breathing because all you brain can focus in is not being turned into goo. I was about to begin to panic when I felt his hand over top of mine. I looked up, and his eyes were partially opened.
“Ash you’re burning up,” I said, he smiled.
“I’ve always been called pretty hot,” He smirked; had he not been dying I probably would have smacked him. Although this did mean that he hadn’t yet melted enough to lose his personality.
“Ash, how do I keep you cool, you have to be somewhere around a hundred and four degrees,” I said.
“Don’t worry about that too much. I usually run about four degrees warmer than you do anyway. So this is a very mild fever for me,” he explained. I sighed in relief. I was about to ask him if he needed anything when there was a knock at the door. We both jumped about a foot in the air. He sat up slightly; I noticed that he was trembling at the effort of even that. Clearly this infection was really weakening him more than I thought. A deep rumble came from his throat, he was growling.
“Sandra please, open the door,” a familiar voice came through.
“Jerome?” I called back.
“Yes, please open up, I’ve brought someone to help you,” He said. I started to get up, but Ashley grabbed my wrist.
“Don’t open that door,”
“Ash, they’re here to help you,”
“If they are lying and trying to hurt you, then I’m not strong enough to protect you,” He pleaded. I looked at into his eyes. Every ounce of his being was begging for me not to do what I had to do. He was terrified and it broke my heart but I understood why. He had been so strong that he couldn’t hug people too hard for fear of breaking them. Now he was reduced to barely being able to sit up on his own. Even his grip on my wrist was weak and I knew he was holding on with all of his might. I had to open that door or risk him dying.
“I have to,” I said before pulling myself away from him. I walked slowly to the door. My hope was that my trust in Jerome wouldn’t be forsaken. I pulled it open to see, well, just about what I expected. Short and chubby Jerome, in a nice suit looking relieved that I had opened the door. Behind him was someone who I’d never seen before, it was a young man about 25 years old. He was tall and fit, with a short cropped off hair cut, in his hand there was what appeared to be a massive medical bag, he was wearing a medic’s uniform.
“Please, let us in. This is Steven, he has been given orders to check on Mr. Purdy and check that he is going to be okay,” Jerome explained. Steven stuck out his hand for me to shake, I shook it.
“Why were you torturing him?” I asked.
“I’ll explain later, just please let us inside,” Jerome said, nearly begging. I looked back at Ash, he was sitting up on the couch, breathing heavily, glaring at the two men in the doorway. I hesitated for a moment and then let them both inside. Steven went straight to Ashley looking concerned.
“It’s the leg right?” Steven asked Ashley. Ash didn’t answer; he simply glared stubbornly like a five-year-old throwing a fit.
“Yeah, the right one,” I answered for him; Steven nodded in thanks at me and began examining the leg. When he unwrapped the bandages he swore. I guess I was right when I thought that it was bad.
“Why were you torturing him?” I demanded, at Jerome. He held up his hands in surrender.
“I wasn’t. In fact most of the officials on this island didn’t even know that he was here yet. Braikens captured him without our knowing, and began to torture him to find out where the rest of his pack was. He wasn’t authorized to do that, we were supposed to befriend you guys so that we could learn more about you in a peaceful way; research only, no one getting hurt, except maybe a blood test or two. Unfortunately Braikens has other ideas. He wants to rid the world of creatures like Ash; he thinks that they’re demons, things that shouldn’t exist. He’s leading a group of agents to find your friends. He wants to kill them. Unfortunately most of the men following him think that what he’s doing is authorized. They’re going to kill without thinking because they think it’s right. We have to warn your friends, they could be in grave danger,” Jerome explained desperately. I was stunned but I had to believe him. Suddenly Ash tilted his head back and groaned in pain.
“Sorry man, this isn’t going to feel real good either, but in a few seconds it will feel a lot better,” Steven said. He had a large needle and was ready to inject something into the wound.
“What is that?” I asked.
“Antibiotic and a painkiller, this will help him a lot. After the first dose you just have to get him to take some pills for the next week and he’ll be fine,” Steven explained. I nodded, but had to look away when he pushed the needle into Ash’s skin. Ash let out another groan of pain, gripping my hand tightly. Then he relaxed and let out a sigh. He slumped back into the couch and his breathing slowed. I felt better that the one friend who was right in front of me was not in any immediate danger; but now I had to worry about my other friends.

Notes

Hey guys sorry if this one has some points that don't make a lot of sense. I'm falling asleep over here. Anyway hope you liked this week's chapter, things are getting intense. Subscribe and leave a comment to let me know what you think. Tell me what you think is going to happen, do you think I'm going to finally kill off someone or not? Remember if you think no one loves you, I do. See you next week.