Deciding that ultimately that must have been what had happened, I turned around to retrace my steps only to slam into a hard body. I let out a sharp yelp, staggering backwards,one arm flying out in front of me whilst the other-hand shaking- searched for my sword; before I could actually draw it, my eyes locked with another pair and I felt my body relax, only to tense up again at the state of him.
Matthew had three bloody gashes decorating the left side of his face, fresh;his eyes were wide, pupils blownand he lookedterrified, his chest heaving with the deep breaths he was taking, lips trembling.
“Jesus Christ, what happened to you?” I exclaimed, louder than necessary but unable to contain my shock.
Matthew let out a whimper, stepping backwards “nothing” he croaked “nothing. We have to get out of here.Jesus Christ, what are you doing here, Danes?”
“I…looking for you! Fucking Stryker said-the fuck happened?” I found myself stuttering, struggling to form a proper sentence, my heart still in the process of slowing from my earlier panic.
“Nothing”Matthew hissed frantically, trembling hand touching his cheek “we have to leave. We have to leave.” He repeated, more forcefully “I-I need to speak with- fuck-“
“Hey.”I pinched the bridge of my nose, taking a slow breath “calm down.”
“Fuck you.” Matthew spat.
“No, fuckyou.”I snapped back, shaking myself and adding “yeah, we have to head back butyouneed to take some deep breaths and tell me what the fuck happened to your face.”
“Shutup, Danes.” Matthew half sobbed, reaching out and shoving me forward “walk.”
“Stop fucking touching me.” I hissed “and start fucking telling me why you’re about to fucking cry.”
Matthew’s jaw clenched and he shook his head, giving me another shove.
“Stop that.” I snarled.
“Start walking then.” Matthew growled back, hand still on his cheek. It was stained crimson like the rest of the left side of his face. Instead of stepping back like I should have, I stepped towards him to take a closer look, ignoring the way Matthew flinched away.
“They’ll need stitches.” I noted, making a conscious effort to soften my tone.
“No shit.”
“Matthew.” My brow furrowed, hand reaching upwards to take hold of his wrist “what happened? Seriously, this isn’t…this is serious.”
Matthew allowed me to lower his hand from his face, jaw clenching and unclenching “it exists.” He settled on whispering.
The crease between my brow deepened and I searched Matthew’s gaze but found nothing but a dull hollowness.
“What does?” I asked slowly.
“The- the thing. The Fleshbinder thing.”
I could detect the panic creeping back up on the boy- honestly, it was creeping up on myself.
“Okay.” I mumbled “okay. Come on, we- we’ll go back now.” I started guiding Matthew, retracing my steps; the lad was so close to me, I could feel his periodic trembling.
“It get you?” I asked stupidly.Obviouslyit had.
“I think I knocked it out.” Matthew whispered “but I don’t know…for how long.”
“Right.” I nodded once.Thank God.“Right. Okay, we’re nearly back.”
I lead Matthew straight to Jack, who answered the door in just his sweatpants, scratching his chest and squinting. Whenhe caught sight of Matt his eyes widened, alertness seeping in “fuck. What the hell happened?”
I stepped inside the room and shut the door behind me, leaning my shoulders against the cool wood once I had.
Matthew was speaking to him quietly, somewhat frantic- I couldn’t catch a word of it, but Jack was looking increasingly concerned.
“Hey.” He turned to me in one swift movement “is Stryker out there?”
