54. Please…
O llie sobbed as he tied his shirt as hard as he could around Red’s chest, trying his best to stop the bleeding.
“RED,” he wailed. “Pl-please—ah—please, wake u-up.”
He had tried so hard to get him home, but he’d been too heavy. Red had collapsed just before reaching the stairs. He’d opened the doors and came back for him but…Ollie wasn’t strong enough… He was too weak. He’d always been too weak…
“R-RED, PLEASE!” he screamed, shaking the familiar. “Please, wake up! Ah—Red, please! You have to live! I can’t—ah—” He gasped breathlessly. “I-I can’t live without y-you!”
Ollie’s eyes widened when the form underneath his palms rippled and began to shrink. “R-Red?!”
Instead of a man, his cat was a cat again. The bandages he’d tried to make out of his clothes had dropped uselessly to the floor.
“Ah—Red.” With shaky hands, he scooped the cat up and ran through the already open doorway, up the stairs, and past the other open door. Ollie ran through the house and up to his bedroom.
Laying Red on his bed, he rushed into his bathroom. Slamming the cabinets open, he grabbed all of the bandages he had before returning to the bed.
Crawling on, Ollie bound the familiar’s wounds as tight as he could, sobbing harder when the blood just kept soaking through, while the cat’s breathing became more labored by the second.
“Sto-stop,” he sobbed. “Stop,” he desperately begged as he pressed down on the familiar’s chest wounds. “STOP BLEEDING!” he screamed.
As if struck by lightning, Red suddenly jerked violently beneath his palms. Ollie began to freak out, but then the cat sat up, blinking at him, looking confused.
“R-Red…” He let out a stuttered breath before hiccupping.
“I’m…” Red tilted his head slowly. “Healed.”
Ollie stared for a brief moment, before rushing to tear the bloody bandages off. Feeling around for the wounds he’d been pressing on—while blood still stained the cat’s fur—he found they were…gone.
“They were… They were just here…” A wracking sob rocked though his body. “I was so s-scared—ah! You—ah—you can’t leave m-me.”
“I would never by choice,” Red swore, while beginning to rub against his hands.
“Thank…everythinggg—” His words slurred as exhaustion slammed into him, and he heard Red cry his name right before everything went dark.
Noble was on the stairs, heading up to Ollie’s living quarters, when he heard Red cry out. The sound had him sprinting the rest of the way to Ollie’s bedroom.
Bursting in, he started to ask, “What—” but he cut off when he spotted Red.
The cat was looking bloodied but…less dead than he’d assumed the familiar would be by this point. Collapsed next to him, and clearly out cold, was Ollie. Although he was still bruised and battered, the witch seemed to be breathing fine.
“What happened?” Noble asked as he crawled onto the bed and gathered Ollie up into his arms, holding him against his chest. “You…”
“Healed…” the cat said slowly. “It was Ollie. He fainted right before you came in. At this point, I don’t know if we can assume it’s his third affinity or…something else. But no doubt he used up the last of his energy to do it. He’s…just exhausted. Once he rests, he’ll be fine.”
“This…” Noble hesitated before sighing and saying, “This may be my former hunter side talking, but none of what just happened feels like a good thing.”
“I…can’t think that it is.” Red took a deep breath. “I don’t know what it is, but I fear for him. I fear him being lost to whatever this is.” The cat’s voice broke near the end, and when he spoke next, his words were full of emotion. “Thank you…for stopping him. He hasn’t realized yet what he’d been about to do. There was just too much going on, but when he does…”
“I know…” Noble sighed again. “Let’s just take it one day at a time.”
“One day at a time,” Red agreed. The familiar jumped off the bed. “I’m going to go take care of the body and mess.”
“Do you need help?”
“No, stay with him. I doubt he will wake up until tomorrow, but I don’t want to chance him waking up alone.”
“Opening the library tomorrow wouldn’t be…wise.”
The cat took a deep breath in, seeming to hold it before letting it out. “I’ll handle it.”
Noble nodded and Red left. Relaxing back with Ollie in his arms, he closed his eyes and tried to not think about what all of this could mean.