Jillian Chantal

This week, the writers of Tuesday Tales are writing to the word prompt, Strong. I am still working on my story where the heroine, a former Army nurse, can see and speak to spirits.

Check out the other tales here

“A man inside is bleeding according to Bertha here. I’m not sure who. She thinks she could sew his wound so he must not be too injured. It might be the guy who did it and not the victim if that’s true.”

“Okay. That’s exigent circumstances. I’m going in.” Malcolm broke one of the window panes and reached inside to unlock the door.

Once it was open, he led the way inside with his weapon drawn, leading Lu to think he wasn’t sure who was in there either.

They moved from room to room and ended up at the back near the door leading to the rear of the house. It was clear that was the point of entry for the wounded man as the door was ajar.

He was on the floor with a vast amount of blood near his head. But head injuries always bled a lot.

It was also clear the man was not a threat. He was breathing, but shallowly.

Lu dashed over to him and knelt to check his pulse. “Thready.” She looked up at Malcolm. “Call an ambulance. I think he isn’t mortally wounded but he’s clearly lost a lot of blood and we need to get him warm immediately.” She glanced around for something to help warm his core but there wasn’t a thing. This place definitely used to be a restaurant. Not a blanket in sight.

At a loss for what to do, she did the only thing that came to mind. She got on the floor beside him and pulled him to her.

“What are you doing?” Malcolm asked as soon as he disconnected the call for the ambulance.

“He’s lost so much blood, he’s in danger of hypothermia. My body heat will help him. There are no blankets around so this is all I have.”

“Sometimes I worry about you.”

“For your information, I’ve done this exact thing before in Afghanistan. That guy was cuter though.”

“See? That kind of craziness is what worries me. Cute guy. Pfft.” He grinned, then turned serious. “What if this guy is the man we’re looking to arrest? Would you be hugging him?”

“Maybe. Depends on how bad he was injured. This one clearly is the victim. In fact, I have no idea how he made it this far from the church. He must have a strong will to live.”

“Too bad he didn’t stop somewhere on the way to get help.”

“He did. I saw him knock on the boarding house door and the house across the street. No one offered to help him,” Bertha said. “I urged him to come here but he didn’t act like he could see me.”