74 Doctor's Office

Although my left hand was bandaged up, that did not stop the blood from flowing. From the looks of it, I will be needing stitches for this big of a wound. Therefore, the only clear destination for me will be to try my luck and hope that the school doctor is in her office. She should be able to stitch the wound up.

Slowly, I forced myself up from the ground, but immediately, my leg felt weak and I stumbled as I struggled to maintain my balance. My head was dizzy and my left hand in great pain as blood continued to gush out of the cut that I had sustained from grabbing onto the dagger's blade. It was a stinging and sharp pain that the wound produced, causing me great agony as there was no way to alleviate it at the moment.

"Take it slow," Luna sighed. "We need to get you to the school doctor."

"I'll go with him," Irina insisted with tears still in her eyes.

"I'll go too," Muria added.

"Will that be fine?" Luna looked over at the theater club president who nodded.

"Of course," the club president said.

"Let's change first before we leave," Muria suggested to Irina, who agreed with her suggestion since she was also not in the mood of wearing such a flashy outfit and risking a congestion of the halls when heading towards the doctor's office.

"Just leave the costumes in the changing room," the club president said. "We'll have people wash them."

"Thank you." Muria and Irina nodded.

"While you're changing," Luna said to the two of them, "I'll start helping him to the doctor's office."

"Please," Muria whispered. On her face was a look of helplessness, a frown that consisted of great sadness. In her watery eyes, blue eyes, there seemed to be a mysterious melancholy presiding over her.

When the two turned to head backstage to undress, Luna started unbuttoning the Emperor's coat. Her fingers moved with great precision as she undone every single button in a quick fashion, and after a few seconds, I was free from the costume. She tossed the coat to the theater club president, who was waiting patiently not too far from us. After that, she brought my right arm over her shoulder as she used her body to help support my frame as we slowly made our way towards the back entrance of the gym.

Outside, the day had slowly started to come to an end. It was dusk, meaning that the guests should be slowly streaming out of campus as the Festival came to an end for the day. Because of this, the school was quieter than before, with only a fraction of the liveliness experienced in the day.

With Luna's help, we entered the lecture building and walked down the hallway. Due to my current weakness from the blood that I had lost, my entire body felt weak. Therefore, I was glad that I had someone which I can rely on at the moment. With a tranquil smile on my face, I rested a portion of my body weight onto her body, while doing my best to support as much of myself as I could. Our current positioning made it so that my head was tilted in the direction of hers. I could once again smell the pleasant aroma of her which acted like a tranquilizer as it calmed my rapidly beating heart and numbed the pain that I felt from my left hand.

I looked at her, taking in the side view of her face. Her eyes were determined as she looked forward, and they were pristine and clear with nothing obscuring her. These beautiful amber eyes of hers seemed to see through everything, and because of how clear they were, I felt attracted to them. They seemed to absorb me, causing my gaze to linger about where her eyes were and on her face.

After walking for a bit, it would appear that she was tired from supporting my weight. That's understandable since we walked for quite some time and it must be difficult for her to help me take each step while I was stuck with great dizziness. Occasionally, I would lose my balance, tilting and leaning towards her. This would bring great stress onto her body as more of my body weight would head her way and she would have to put in greater effort to help me stand. That explained why her breathing had deepened and her face lost some of its former vitality and had became somewhat more pale, even for someone with such white skin.

When we finally made it to the doctor's office at our school, I was lucky and the doctor was still there. According to her, she was required to be present since so many people will be present at the school and some people might need medical attention. That didn't pertain to me, so I ignored most of it. What I was focused on was when she unwrapped the bandages that Luna had done for me and checked the wound while I was seated on one of the many beds in the office.

"That's pretty bad," the doctor said. "What happened?"

"The prop for the play got mixed up," Luna explained, "and instead of the prop dagger, it was a real dagger that the actress was holding. He went to grab the knife to protect the other performer and ended up getting the blade."

"That's quite brave of you," the school doctor nodded. "You rarely see someone who would do such a thing anymore."

I took in the complement in silence as the doctor applied local anesthesia to my left hand and began running a needle through my skin and stitching up the wound. My left hand didn't feel anymore pain due to the anesthesia, and to be honest, having the wound stitched up didn't bring any additional pain as well. The only feeling I felt was something weaving in and out of my skin as well as the existence of the stitches themselves in my hand. It was an odd feeling.

"All done," the doctor said after finishing her work. "You can rest here until the anesthesia wears off," she said as she got up from her seat. "Let me go and prescribe you some painkillers." She then walked away from us, but before she returned to her desk, she made sure to pull the curtains around the bed in order to offer us privacy.

"That was pretty reckless of you," Luna sighed after hearing that the doctor had returned to her desk and was writing down prescriptions for me.

"It had to be done," I apologized as I stared at my left hand.

"But," she said with a smile on her face. Her voice made me redirect my attention from my hand back to her. "That's pretty admirable of you to do that," she finished.

I stared at her beautiful face as she said that. I could feel my face becoming warmer as blood rushed to it, causing me to blush. In addition, I could feel my heart pumping faster and faster in my chest.

She smiled in an amused manner after seeing my blushing face. Then, she sat down on the bed next to me in order to rest her legs and sighed. She seemed to be quite tired from helping me to the doctor's office for her countenance expressed fatigue and her breathing was somewhat deeper than usual.

"You seem kinda tired," I mentioned to her.

"You think so?" she said in a joking manner. "Don't you know how heavy you are?"

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

"It's fine," she said, smiling and looking up at the ceiling.

Then, we sat in silence as I waited for the anesthesia to wear off and for my body to rest up. I was still somewhat dizzy, but it wasn't as bad as before now. However, my body still felt pretty weak. That didn't bother me though. For some reason, my attention wasn't focused on the weakness of my body. Instead, I felt calm... A strange warmth seemed to have permeated my body, spreading throughout every single part of my body. It was a weird yet pleasant feeling.

A strange sense of drowsiness slowly emerged, causing my eyelids to become quite heavy. It was difficult keeping them open as well as sitting up straight. I felt extremely lightheaded, almost as if my brain couldn't think. However, it wasn't a bad feeling at all. No. Rather, it was a pleasant, and extremely calming feel. It was like I was floating on top of a warm ocean under the moon.

Then, before I realized, my head was resting on Luna's shoulder. When I did notice though, I had the intent of moving my head and apologizing. However, a strange thought from the back of my mind prevented me from doing so. A few more minutes, it would tell me, and I would agree. Resting like this for a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

Then, I would close my eyes, but never truly entering into a state of slumber. Rather, it was something that's in between sleeping and being awake. I felt as if my brain was empty due to the great warmth that seemed to melt my consciousness away. This feeling is quite nostalgic, kinda like a child sleeping peacefully in the arms of his parent, knowing that he has nothing to worry about.

This warmth that had permeated my body and soothed every single fatigued muscle within me persisted. When I had noticed it, I discovered that the warmth seemed to have stemmed from the girl that I had rested my head on. It would appear that it was the warmth of her body that had caused this tranquilizing effect on me and had ascended me to the only heaven in the world of the living.

My eyes slowly opened slightly as I kept my head on her shoulder. She was right there. Luna was right there next to me. This effect she had on me was quite strange, but I liked it. It's such a calming feeling that she brought to me, and her warmth seemed to be able to slowly permeate the barriers that I had set up around my heart until her warmth warmed my lonely heart.

Being here next to her, it was like sleeping in a peaceful night with the illumination provided by the full moon overhead protecting me from all harm. That was when I noticed how much I enjoyed the presence of the moon.