Right feels Wrong

Seeing the guys in blue-green scrubs cart in the bags I nod in appreciation as they unload them onto my desk.

"And here is your prescription." One of the men handed me a small glass container that held the liquid medicine that was capped off with an aluminum cover, followed by a couple syringes.

"Thanks guys. I got it from here." Doug nodded in appreciation as he held the door till they left taking their cart.

Closing the door he made sure to check they were truly leaving by peeping through the crack paired with hearing their footsteps turn the corner before letting the tough façade of not being injured fall. It was so painful that he nearly collapsed to the floor as he used his back to close the door. Holding himself up against the wall wincing from the sharp pain that crawled over his whole torso.

Trudging to his desk he had fought to hold a bag in each hand as he limped his way to the washroom. As he let them fall to the floor he leaned across to the valves and turned on the cold faucet full blast. At the bottom of the bath he twisted the metal stopper so it could slowly fill with water.

By the time it was close to the halfway point he had brought the remaining four bags in then shut it off. Using my teeth he had ripped open the bags as he poured the contents in one at a time. It may seem such a process wouldn't take much time but it nearly took half an hour for him. Heel toeing his feet out of his boots he kicked them to the side as he repeated the same process to get out of his socks.

'Now comes the difficult part,' With shaky fingers he pried off the vestiges of his shirt which was now simply a burnt and torn fabric from his shoulder to his navel. For the shorts and underwear it was a bit more challenging to unfasten the button and zipper. He could barely hold a grip. But all that matters is the endgame. He had to say he did manage to get them off. Taking the vial and syringe from atop the sink he drew all the liquid out and injected it back and forth into the cold water before him.

With the ice and prescription in the water he took a few breaths to brace himself for the most discomfort he would experience all day. Without hesitation he carefully stepped into the tub making sure not to topple over or slip.

'!@$%!'

In between clenched teeth he brought his other leg in.

'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.'

Making sure not to forget to initiate the timer for being submerged he pressed the start button on his scroll on top of the toilet top.

Taking ahold of the handle bar angled at a slant imbedded into the concrete wall he lowered himself neither slowly nor speedily into the ice water till the level reached up to his neck as he laid his back against the ceramic shell.

'Fuck. Fuck! FUck! FUCk! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!! F-FUCK!!!'

On the exterior he made it a point not to voluntarily tighten his nerves nor make an audible sound. However. In the 'Safe' confines of his mind, he was cursing any and every person on the planet for simply existing. Hell he was cursing existence in and of itself.

In the silence he kept his expression as apathetic as possible. Letting the lids of his eyes rest halfway open he kept his breathing as steady as he could. He brought his attention to the new bright red tint that filled the tub. His entire body could go into shock. He could die like this. He didn't even know how long it would be until someone came to check up on him.

'If anyone even had it in their mind to want to check on me in the first place... Rubes more than likely.

After a few days.

Maybe.

On second thought perhaps not after today.

Yang is a sure fire no. No pun intended.'

Taking a small breath he lowered his head underneath the water till it soaked through all his hair.

<𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕>

With his psyche separating from the physical turmoil that his body was experiencing his eyelids slowly lowered until they were fully closed.

<𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕>

'Blake....For as close as she has been acting towards me I don't know if she would want to after my blackout. Speaking of which I didn't see her when I was in the library. I hope to heaven I didn't hurt her to the point...'

<𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒊𝒕>

'What's the fucking point of hoping for anything at this point. I need to keep my mind on the endgame. Take Salem down. Establish my government to usher in order. By any means necessary. Yeah. Any means. It's the only way after all.'

Raising his head above the water he took in what felt like freezing air.

So many thoughts were swimming inside his head to the point he hadn't even heard the alarm and vibrations of his scroll till it was on the edge of the toilet top. Bringing his arm up with his palm face up he caught the device as it teetered off the seat. Keeping his arm suspended in the air he could see his arm was shaking not only due to being exposed to the air but also from how his entire body was now numbed.

"Haah." Using his thumb to brush across the button at the bottom of the device he shut off the alarm and set it back on the seat. Reaching up he once more relied upon the angled handle bar to hoist himself up taking the majority of his body weight on his wrist and shoulder.

"Mmph!" Standing up has much more strain than it did when he sat down.

Once he was up at full height he could feel all the ice and water rolling off and out of his wounds. It was as if he had lost but at the same time gained weight on his back. He couldn't quite explain it properly. This was the first time he had ever felt something like this. Strange.

After stepping out the tub he took a look back. A good amount of his blood had soaked the water below to where the tub was now tinted bright red. He could be experiencing anemia. Beginning stages of Hypothermia? Perhaps.

Wrapping a towel around his waist he walked out the bathroom taking notice that a wild Yang was sitting on his bed.

....

"Eh?"

If he wasn't feeling so lethargic he would have slapped himself to check to see if he was still awake. Not to mention the sharp glare she was giving him that made him think twice about her surprise visit.

'Is she mad? She's not saying anything. What do I 𝒅𝒐 in this situation? What do I 𝒔𝒂𝒚?'

Taking a look at his front door he noticed it was slightly ajar.

'Did I forget to lock it? Did she kick it in? I hope to heaven its the former. If it was that could have been bad if it was a hired hitman.

"Ya look shocked to see me." He heard her kick her boots off her feet along with her socks.

"..." Walking to the door he closed it, taking note of the lock and hinges. 'Doesn't seem to have been forced entry. That's good. I don't have the time nor willpower to fix this thing right now.'

"Aren't ya gonna say anythin?"

Turning back to where he could see her, he could see that her jacket was missing and all that she had was her tank top and shorts. Her gauntlets were on his desk across the room. "And what exactly would I say?" With his shoulders slumped he took the chain and latched it as a precautionary measure. Not that it would stop much if anything were to happen. Not in this academy.

"For starters you could tell me what the hell is going on inside your head for once."

"You know that alr--"

"No! I clearly don'. I thought I knew b'fore. But I was wrong. Now spill it." Her shout was abrupt not only cutting me off but her words were bleeding together showing her accent that she worked pretty hard to cover up most of the time.

"You weren't wrong. Nothing has changed, 𝑰 haven't changed." I spoke in concise deliberate breaths. Mindful of how my tone came across. But no matter how controlled my response was, it didn't stop Yang from reaching her boiling point. I could tell from the way her head was down as well as her gripping the mattress beside her thighs and the constant fidgeting of her bouncing heels. She was fuming.

'Yep. She's mad.'

"Don't lie to me."

'Oh boy. Here we go.'

"I'm not lying."

"Then explain what's going on."

'Fuck it.'

"You wouldn't get it."

"Why not?"

"It's not meant for you to 𝒈𝒆𝒕 Yang."

In an abrupt motion she stood up, stomped over in front of me (all while keeping eye contact) then without hesitation.

*𝑻𝑯𝑾𝑨𝑲!*

With his head now to the side he slowly brought it back to where (He thought?) he witnessed a seething Yang heaving with every breath.

"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR DAMN SECRETS!"

It was like his body was rebooting with the force it was dealt to endure. All the while her voice faded out of his ears. The whole room was swaying, blending into itself. A few glitches invaded his vision as Yang's hair faded into black back into the golden blonde he was all too familiar with. Blotches of blood caked onto her cheek and disappearing. 'Wait. Her face. It was different somehow... older? But why? That can't be right.' Soon the world became more rigid and set into its place once more. Sound came back and the brief reprieve he had from her verbal onslaught ended.

".....You make it all so complicated! Every time you go off on a rampage I'm the one that has to come behind you and try to pick up the pieces!"

Her eyes were red as she wailed at me.

"Do you know how it feels to have the whole town look at me and judge our family solely based on you?! Ever since you decided it would be a good idea to attack Seth's Dad without any cause all my friends back home stopped talking to me! And because you're my brother I stood by you! I supported you because that's what family does! But it was miserable to live like that! But that all changed when I got accepted here! No one here knew who I was. Who 'you' were. They couldn't give a damn. I finally felt what it was like to have friends again. Until you went ahead and-" Tears were threatening to fall as she hitched in a breath that I nor her for that matter expected.

'This is one hundred percent awkward. I want to retort but I have this feeling that if I were to do that I'll end up making this go on longer. Maybe if I stay quiet she'll run out of things to complain about? I kind of feel bad that I don't really care about any of this. But not about the part of her old "friends". Those pricks were leeches anyway. Only thing they cared about was either using her as a muscle lackey or getting fap material anyway. Especially Seth's dad. The fucking pedophile. I'll never regret tearing out his Achilles tendon. Who says that teeth aren't a weapon? By Tooth and Claw baby. 𝑻𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒉 and 𝑪𝒍𝒂𝒘.'

"I can't deal with this anymore." She wiped her face with the back of her hand as she took a step away from me. "I'm going to ask that dad pull you out of here and send you home."

A wave of silence permeated throughout the room as her words sank in before registering in my mind.

"....What?"

"You're dangerous not only to everyone here but also to yourself. You left me no choice." To drive her point home she pulled out a small bag from her pocket. An all too familiar one.

'She didn't! Just where- Did she go through my stuff?!'

"...Where did you get that?"

Her head tilted to the side as she shifted her weight to one side, "Why don't you tell me?"

Steeling his emotions he walked past her to the bed, mindful to set Yang's boots and socks to the side and sat down. Too much was happening too soon too fast all at once. He couldn't keep up at this rate. So much dialogue in one day to where he had to juggle while jumping through psychological hoops with so many people was straining his mental capacity as time went on. All the while he had to theorize and hypothesize on how to acquire the power of a genetically engineered creature that may or may not be the first of a series of experiments conducted by the settlement of Vale.

"You ignorin' me now?"

"Yang...My head hurts...My body is in immense pain...I'm cold...Wet...My bones are more likely than not fractured and broken in various places. I'll argue with you till you're blue in the face another day, hell, even if it's tomorrow I won't mind. But right now, I'm going to bandage myself and after that lay here in these covers where its safe."

"So you think you can just deny your problems by pretending they aren't there?"

Placing another towel over his head and shoulders he closed his eyes. "While I am within range and or beneath my blanket Life isn't real: Reality doesn't exist. Any and Everything on the outside isn't real. Worries Begone!" He spoke as though it was a spell or enchantment he could impose on the world.

"You are such a dork."

Ignoring her verbal abuse he took up the gauze and bandages only to realize he had trouble getting his fingers to tear the seam to unwrap it from itself. When he was about to resort to tear it with his teeth Yang had took them from him and easily did it herself.

"I could've done it ya know," He spoke in a frustrated gruff.

"Stop whinin' and be grateful will ya?" She started on my arms in a swift but thorough fashion.

"...Thanks," I grumbled with my head turned to the side.

"See. That wasn't so hard now was it?" A small chuckle escaped before she could hide a grin from her face.

"Humph!" he grunted at her being smug.

After a few minutes she was already working on wrapping his calves.

"You've gotten pretty good at this huh?" He asked turning his bandaged arms.

"Heehee. Falling for my feminine charm are we? For putting in the effort I say that was worthy of 20 points." While she was crouched she put up two peace signs followed by a toothy grin with her purple eyes in a breathtaking squint.

"Yeah, yeah...Now stop that. You're gonna get me riled up. I can't handle that right now." His face felt a bit warm and his heartbeat slowly rose.

"Now that sounds more like the old Doug." She stood up and hopped on the bed behind him.

"Hey-!? Yowch! Watch it will ya?!" He winced in pain as she began tying bandaging the tape around his ribs and torso.

"Oh hush ya big baby! Minus 10 points." She teased in a sing-song voice as her arms went from below his arms, to under his chest and behind him as she wrapped him up. "But if you wanna know why I got so good at this," Her voice took on a melancholic tone. "I had dad teach me back when you would come home late all hurt in the middle of the night in the yard."

In that instant for a brief moment of rash hypotheticals he considered just thinking , 'Ah screw it all. Let's just tell her the truth. That I have been having a tough time reeling in my wide range of emotions bringing out my violent tendencies more frequently. That I had blacked out during todays fight.' But within a microsecond of that thought out of nowhere he coulda swore he felt Déjà vu for the third time.

What is going on and why is this feeling interfering with his judgment? Is this all due to David being in his head? How does he make it stop? Or better yet, can he?