Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Erik's Flesh Wounds ( Chapter 15 )

Disclaimer: Let's see...hmm....I own a duct tape wallet that I made all by myself, and the $15 inside it too! Back off!!! *throws a rock at the approaching IRS agent.*

Chapter 15: Erik's Flesh Wounds

The next two hours were tense, everyone keeping a close eye on Erik, all of them quietly cheering him on, their hearts rising when the small city of Winhill appeared in the distance.

"All right, Tidus, you handle the bandits, and I'll get the boy over to the clinic." The woman quickly instructed, jumping out of the van.

"Gotcha, Yuffie." Tidus responded, grabbing the bandits and pulling them out of the van.

The woman opened the back door and let the teens out, careful when helping Erik climb out. "Alright, come on, let's get him over to the clinic. It's right this way."

They rushed past the many Victorian-style homes, Yuffie bringing them to a stop in front of a gray-ish blue one. The only thing making it differ from the other houses was the sign hanging in one of the windows. Erik suddenly froze for a moment, studying the building. Red stepped beside him, offering him silent comfort.

"Hurry in." Yuffie said, quickly walking up the steps and opening the door for Erik to step through.

Erik was relieved when he saw that the waiting room was empty, except for the receptionist who sat behind a counter. "Hey there, Yuffie? Can I help you?" She asked in a sweet voice.

"Yeah Kira, we've got a serious injury here." Yuffie said, motioning to Erik.

"I'll get Dr. Kadowaski right away!" Kira said, taking a second look at the group before rushing away, her thick brunette hair flying behind her.

Kira came rushing back down a hall followed by a woman with graying hair pulled back into a tight bun, and her glasses slid down her nose, adding to the severity of her pointed features. "Where is he?" She asked.

Erik gulped as the woman approached him. "Hmm…follow me." She said, quickly turning on her high-heel shoes.

The group followed her back to a small, typical check-up room, only adding onto the severe de-ja-vu that Akirame and Riku were beginning to experience. Kira walked in and quickly shooed them back out. "Don't worry! Dr. Kadowaki has gained more than enough experience with Laguna around." She assured them.

The doctor led Erik over to a metal table and made him lay his arm on it. She carefully untied the pillowcase and began to slip it off, making Erik shiver as his bare skin came in contact with the cold metal surface.

Dr. Kadawoki's eyes widened when she saw the hyena's severed head still latched onto the boy's arm. "What in Hyne's name! How did you manage to survive the attack?" The woman asked, looking up at his face.

"I don't know how, but I managed to…break its neck."

"With a weapon?"

Erik only shook his head.

The doctor raised an eyebrow and went over to a counter and began to search through the drawers, then pulled out what looked like a medieval torture device. "Woah? What in the world is that?!" Erik asked, backing up.

"The most vicious set of pliers you will ever see." She replied, inserting the contraption into a gap in the animal's mouth.

She then began to crank the animal's mouth open by turning a crank on the contraption. Slowly but surely, the mouth opened, and a searing pain began to run through Erik's hand, burning in his bones up to his shoulder. "AHHHH!" Erik let out a small scream through tightly clenched teeth as he tried to keep standing.

Dr. Kadowaki quickly pulled a syringe out of her pocket and, using her teeth as she used her other hand to brace Erik's arm, she pulled off the protective cap and quickly jabbed the needle into the clenched muscles in his shoulder. "Just hang in there, it'll take it a moment to start working." She said, tossing the needle aside and quickly grabbing him a chair to sit on.

Erik, his head dizzy and fogged w/ the searing pain, sat down and rested his head on the edge of the metal table, trying to outlast the waves of nauseous heat now building up in his mind. Suddenly, he felt a tingling numbness overtaking his arm, starting in his shoulder, and now gently moving through his veins, cutting off his brain from feeling any pain. "Unnhhh...so groggy." Erik mumbled, closing his eyes and listening to the sound of the doctor walking around in the room.

"Yeah, anesthetics will do that." The doctor told him, quickly calling in the nurse.

Kira came rushing in, her hair flying behind her. "Yes Doctor?"

"I need you to help me out by making sure the boy here doesn't fall on the floor."

"Yes, Doctor." Kira quickly pulled Erik upright and held his shoulders as he started to slump.

Dr. Kadowaki then resumed using the pliers to force the locked jaws of the head open, and the boy's hand was finally free from its gruesome prison. "Okay, you can take your hand out now." Kira said, helping him by slowly withdrawing his hand.

Well...it had been a proper hand at one time. Now it resembled a piece of swiss cheese, several neatly punched holed oozing blood and puss covering his hand in a sickening crust.

"Ugh. Is this your weapon hand?" Dr. Kadowaki asked him, a note of something in her voice.

"No. I do everything with my left hand." He informed her.

The doctor, grateful that he was entirely numb and unable to absorb what she was telling him, quickly pulled out a sterile towel and placed his hand on top of it as Kira scurried about, pulling out various things from different cabinets. "I think I just might be able to salvage it, but even so, your hand is never going to look the same again."

Erik sighed and looked away, already having resigned himself to this fate when he had felt that....inhuman surge of power and anger at seeing that look of hate in the beast's eyes.

Something about that look had brought back bitter anger from his past. It had driven him, causing his mind telling him to stop cowering and to fight back, even though his fragile heart was screaming for him to submit.

Erik closed his eyes and allowed the numbness to finally creep into his mind, and felt his eyelids close.

"What do you want?!" The man cruelly snarled, slightly wavering in his drunken state.

"I want you to stop wasting all your money on beer!" The child's voice stuttered out.

"Oh yeah? Why do you think I should stop?"

"B-because, you always come home late, and you're mean!"

"Heh. So you can't handle me, eh? You just gonna be a sissy and ask me to stop?"

"I-I-please.....please just stop." The little boy's voice faltered.

"You little Chicken Wuss." The man quickly grabbed the boy's shirt collar and lifted him off the ground, his bloodshot, coffee-colored eyes wandered slightly as he lifted the boy's face close to his own.

The boy tried to not scream in fear as the smell of stale alcohol washed over him from the man's unshaven face. "You want me to stop? Then try being a man for once. Grow up and stop me yourself."

The man dropped the boy and stepped over him as he stomped out of the room with a slight stagger.

"Erik?.....Erik!...Get up!" The man's voice seemed to call from a distance, the sound changing.

"No!"

"Come on, get up already!" The voice wasn't the man's anymore, it was someone else...

"Huh?"

"Erik, get your lazy butt up already! You've been asleep for nearly a whole day!"

Erik opened his eyes and squinted. He was laying out on a stretcher in a strange room. He shook his head to clear his mind, and then remembered where he was. Akirame, Riku, Red and Irvine were in the small clinic room with him. "Huh?" Erik lifted his hand, which was now covered in a light gauze bandage, which he noticed had been signed by his friends. "You coulda asked first." He sleepily commented, stretching and trying to sit up, getting hit in the face by the dirt-orange shirt that Irvine threw at him. Erik quickly slipped on the shirt and swung his legs over the side of the stretcher, letting his long legs dangle for a moment.

Sora and Kairi came running in through the hall, Tidus calmly stepping in after them, Yuffie at his side. "Alright! He's awake! How ya feeling Erik?" Sora asked, folding his arms behind his head.

"Just a little confused."

"Man, that Dr. Kadowaki is something else! She fixed your hand in only two hours! I'd hate to see the bill." Irvine said, quickly sitting down next to his friend.

Erik looked at Irvine's broad grin and smiled, letting the cowboy's cheerful attitude sweep away the bitter memories of his dream. Anything to numb the pain.

"Hey guys, we got great news! We managed to catch those son-of-a-baka bandits, and we got all your stuff back!" Yuffie shouted, placing her fists on her tiny hips and throwing her head back.

"Aw, cut it out `Fi." Tidus said, making Yuffie put away her super-hero attitude for a more business-like stance.

"Right. Thanks to the skills of Dr. Kadowaki, Erik will be able to take off his bandages within two days! Until then, he has to stay here so Dr. Kadowaki can keep poking at his hand to make sure it heals."

"Great. So, when do we get our stuff back?" Riku said, getting up from where he was crouched on the floor next to his blonde friend.

"You can right now! You just gotta come back with us to the Station and fill out some waivers and what-not." Yuffie informed them, punching the air.

"Alright! My precious candy bars! I'm coming for you!" Sora cried, matching Yuffie's exuberance.

"Uh...hehe...those candy bars were yours?" Yuffie asked, scratching her head and looking sheepish.

"Yeah...why?"

"Uhmmm....hehe...I thought those were....uh...evidence...umm..."

Tidus rolled his eyes as Yuffie continued to falter. "She ate your candy, kid."

Sora stood there for a moment, thinking it over. "All of it?"

Yuffie reached into her pocket and pulled out a wrapper holding half a chocolate bar. "Uhmm....not all of it."

Sora sighed and took the half-eaten candy. "Well.....I guess it's no big deal. I can always get more."

Yuffie gave a deep sigh and a nervous smile. "So, let's go and get your stuff, then."

Riku nodded and carefully helped Erik up, making sure he had slept off the effects of the anesthetic. "Uhh...where's Jerdania?" Erik asked, suddenly noticing her absence.

Tidus gave a small chuckle and shook his head. "She's over at the station beating up the bandits for answers. She's actually responsible for capturing most of them. You should have seen her chasing them down! It was like some sort of blitzball play!"

As the group started to leave the building, the nurse came running down the hall after them. "Wait! Erik!" the brunette streak shouted, quickly getting their attention. "Before you leave, you're going to want to take this." She handed Erik a white, unlabeled bottle, pausing to throw her messy braid over her shoulder.

Erik shook it and heard the contents rattling inside. "What is it?"

"Heavy-duty painkillers. Sooner or later the numbness will wear off, and because off all the damage done to your hand, you're gonna need them. Just don't take anymore than two in six hours, or else you're gonna find yourself right back here again, getting your stomach pumped!" she warned him.

"Got it. No more than four in five minutes, right?" Erik asked, opening the bottle and pouring a small pile of the white pills into his bandaged hand.

Kira's eyes flew wide open and she quickly tried to grab the bottle and pills from him. "No! I said two in six hours!" She shouted.

Erik laughed and poured the pills back in. "Ahh, just teasing ya." He said, screwing the cap back on the bottle.

Kira sighed a breath of relief and smiled, throwing her braid back again and quickly pulling on the sleeves on her lavender shirt. "Whew. Well, get on then, and make sure to kick some butt for me, okay?" she said, her blue-gray eyes boldly shining.

"You got it!" Erik said, raising a hand as he continued to walk out with the others.

Kira sighed as the door finally closed and watched the blonde walk away, then suddenly snapped back when she heard Dr. Kadowaki approaching her. "Something on your mind, Kirae?" The doctor asked her, tucking a pen behind her ear and placing a clipboard under her arm.

"I dunno Mom, that boy just seemed so.... familiar. I could've sworn I've known him before. Maybe when I was a kid?" she said, getting behind her desk and playing with the computer for a moment.

"He did seem a little familiar, now that you mention it. He reminds me of someone, but I can't think who." The doctor said, leaning on the counter and staring into space, trying to search her store of information.

Kira sighed, already giving up and starting to enter data into the computer's files. "Well, I dunno. Maybe I'll think of it later."

"Maybe."