@suresaint said : The scream could be heard for miles. A small boy in agony, the front of his leg crippled, bleeding a deep red, and Zelda, face grave and pale, carrying in her arms, running, running. “Hannah!” She shouts. “Hannah!” It had been an accident. The boy had been hit with a small axe to his shin and torn clean through his flesh, limb barely hanging on. Zelda’s hands are stained red, her shirt soaked through, her eyes wide with fear. “Hannah!” She needs help!
the soaked pale peach tablecloth was dropped suddenly when the scream pierced the otherwise tranquil evening air. the cloth only made it partially back into the basket along with the rest of the cottage’s laundry, but hannah spared it no thought. she was too busy pitching herself over the basket in her haste to get back inside to check upon her children. if it had not been for the twine drying line above her head, she just very well may have fallen.
when she had righted herself and reached the backdoor within record time, she called for them in the calmest voice that she could muster, but her thundering heart caused the words to come out rushed and breathless. where were they? what happened to cause such a noise? let it only be a spider in the house, she begs as she pushes open the back door. samuel and sara both turned to her, their coloring ceasing only for a moment as they looked to her for answers. neither looked to be hurt or in trouble in anyways. if not them, then who?
“ stay inside. ” hannah told them as she heard her name being called from the front of the house by a familiar voice. they do as she asks, but peak from the window ledge in the kitchen as she rushes out the front door. they do not look on for long as zelda brings the mangled boy upon their porch.
their mother cannot look away. she refuses to despite the way her stomach rolls and her eyes water. this image will be burned in her brain as her hands shakily reach out to soothingly push the boys hair back from his face. her mouth opens to comfort him and give zelda directions, but no sound comes out. just a strangled gasping noise. she is no doctor. never took an anatomy class. never even took a health class at that. her knowledge here was incredibly limited and for that, her entire chest burns.
with all the force of a tidal wave, one thought did come to mind. something she had to do once when nathan, a farmhand, crushed his hand under some tractor parts. she remembers how he howled as the bones crushed and shattered under his skin. how he bleed too. they needed something to stop the flow of blood until a doctor could arrive or until they could reach one. what hannah? what will stop it? a second thought, her apron.
reaching around her waist she untied the strings and unwound them from around her body as quickly as she could. “ hold him steady for a moment. ” hannah urged as she wrapped the strings as tight as they would go around his small thigh. the wide flap of fabric that once held her paintbrushes and paint was no longer a dull blue, but scarlet and blooming. “ radio. radio. we need to call this in. ”











