Carmyn was the funniest of Amelia’s cousins, she was in High-School whilst Amelia was in 7th grade. Carmyn was lively, always bringing her cheerful energy everyday with bright smiles and her enthusiastic hugs and caresses…though since Carmyn started living with Amelia, Amelia kept thinking that something was strange. Either because of the lack of affection or the strangely dead expression always on Carmyn's face whenever she goes outside the house or even just out of her room, perhaps it’s the bandages, though it's probably all of the above. Carmyn’s current behavior was quite irregular.
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This was the Summer after Carmyn’s High-School graduation…
Frankly, I was a particularly honest person, though it wasn’t always my greatest trait. My honesty almost always caused me trouble, whether with those from school or sometimes at home. I even once blurted out the answers to a test after a group of students simultaneously shouted out across the classroom for the answers. Fortunately for them (and everyone as well), they definitely got a 100% for the test, and fortunately for me or everyone else, nobody got caught as for some unusual reason the History teacher had always put on noise-cancelling headphones before supervising the room to check if anyone was cheating. ‘It really wasn’t wise to do that, sir. There are so many ways that students can cheat if you do that…or maybe you want us to cheat so you could earn more money if we get good grades. Though that’s probably just paranoia.’
I wouldn’t lie, I certainly wasn’t thinking straight when I asked Carmyn with the lackluster expression of mine which most people usually despise when they need comforting. But I didn’t even realize that I had made that expression, it's not like I wasn’t concerned about Carmyn, it just happens subconsciously sometimes without me noticing!
Carmyn was lounging dejectedly upon a Recessed-Armchair in the corner of her temporary(?) room, looking exhausted, of life, of school (though she had already finished High-School and had been accepted to a prestigious university), or perhaps just because she probably hadn’t been sleeping enough these 2 days which Carmyn had started living here? I really didn’t understand, ‘Why?’
The door was slightly agape, though there were several pieces of furniture blocking further access to the door, ‘Glad to know that Carmyn was still alive enough to add some resistance in case someone, particularly me with my appalling lack of respect for personal space, attempts to open the door.’
My first thought was that Carmyn’s face looked dreadful, and it was the honest truth as Carmyn’s face was gaunt and frankly quite lifeless, while her eyes were like the veterans from war which I had seen quite some times beforehand when I went with Carmyn to the Nursing-Home which Carmyn frequently volunteered at. Whilst, my second thought was that I wasn’t wearing any slippers which I had previously decided to leave in my bedroom so I wouldn’t make too much noise as I approached Carmyn’s room, I also noticed how my feet were wet. The reason was unmistakably because of the spilled water bottle laying partially crushed on the floor of Carmyn’s room. The third…was the large amount of bandages upon Carmyn's left-hand, once as pristine and beautiful as marble now bandaged for some – unknown – reason. Carmyn herself stared downwards towards it with lusterless eyes, upon the bandages which covered her left-hand, perceiving how her attempt to move her hand only gave the slightest twitch. Fourth, how my bluntness caused the door to suddenly shut in my face and immense confusion and anxiety to overwhelm me.
“Your face looks dreadful, and it might stay that way.” I exclaimed without a second thought about what I had just said, and Carmyn instantaneously turned around to face my direction, her expression felt like a harpoon to the heart.
Instead of Carmyn’s typical response to my bluntness, though I wasn’t technically expecting laughter nor her usual outgoing comebacks considering the current situation, I didn't expect that what happened next.
“Get out,” Carmyn whispered hoarsely, her eyes looking everywhere but at me, but that wasn’t what was so unnerving.
I didn’t move, no, I couldn’t move. There was something wrong, oh so wrong. Perhaps the trembling in Carmyn’s voice as she talked or how my curiosity (definitely my stubbornness) had probably gotten the better of me.
Fortunately, the lamp never reached me, shattering against the Bedroom-wall as the pieces of ceramic ornaments and glass, descended downwards to the floor, though the metal platform of the lamp remained attached though awkwardly naked.
Carmyn’s eyes were Blue, not the typical shade, but instead a depressing shade of Blue which I had never seen in Carmyn’s eyes before. Those Blue eyes were a complexity in the family. Alec, my second and probably the most annoying cousin of all 4 of them, had often teased Carmyn for them, telling Carmyn they were similar to fish eyes. And Alec was partially correct, to thoguh I would hate to admit it, Carmyn’s eyes did resemble fishes, though not just any fish, right here and right now, Carmyn’s eyes resembled the eyes of Sharks. An abomination of an expression, as if the prey was hunting the predator instead of the natural order of things…though wouldn’t that mean that now the prey was the predator instead?
“Get out, get out, GET OUT!” Carmyn screamed without hesitation, her hair sticking to her skin while Carmyn clawed at her scalp as she finally looked me in the eyes.
They said that the eyes were the windows to the soul, though the closer I peered into those Blue abysses, I only saw just that. Blue abysses full of resentment, clouding the sadness and loss that’s underneath while hiding them from unobservant eyes.
Those eyes looked dead.
Carmyn had arrived in the afternoon, there were bandages on her hands. Mom only shook her head in acceptance, or perhaps pity, before guiding Carmyn to her temporary room. I was fairly excited, Carmyn was going to stay here for the night…only then I didn’t know how long she would be staying here and if her room was really temporary. I wasn’t particularly concerned about the bandages on Carmyn’s hands, the ones on her right-hand was soon removed so the ones on her left-hand would probably be removed sooner or later, it just taking more time to heal. I didn’t question the bandages despite my out-spoken nature, I barely talked as I was too caught up in the moment. Observing the sutures littering Carmyn’s face, her attractive features all covered by dozens of sutures, there was even a thick bandage upon Carmyn’s neck.
Mom didn’t explain, she never does and I could only tolerate it for so long, it's so devastatingly annoying and it always causes problems. I suppose we are the opposite of one another, while I’m out-spoken in nature, Mom was always reclusive…though only towards me. ‘I don’t know why.’
“She’s probably just busy. She cares about you, of course.” Carmyn once said, her voice slightly quivering and her eyes glistening with unshed-tears. I didn’t understand why Carmyn appeared so miserable when she said those very words, I didn’t even voice the problem but Carmyn already understood.
Now I wish I could be like her…I always did.
“Get out, get out, GET OUT!” Carmyn repeated continuously, Mom wasn’t at home today and neither was my caution. I didn’t leave, whether it was because of my stubbornness or my curiosity, I persisted in standing at the entrance of Carmyn’s temporary(?) room without faltering. Carmyn kept repeating ‘Get out,’ and as she persisted in repeating those two words again and again, it sounded less like that her words were being directed at me but someone (something?) else instead.
In lightning speed, Carmyn pounced at the entrance-door, though she was partially blocked by the numerous pieces of furniture that were limiting further access into and out of the bedroom. Carmyn’s feet were bleeding hastily from the fractured pieces of the lamp which Carmyn previously threw. It appeared that Carmyn was attempting to close the entrance-door, though she quickly failed as I recklessly squeezed my right-arm through the door in quick succession.
The pain was excruciating and would definitely leave bruises, notwithstanding this situation was currently the most efficient method inorder for me to finally have a “sensible” conversation with Carmyn, to discover the truth of the bandages all across Carmyn, to ask about the stitches and lifeless expression on Carmyn’s face, and to ask who?
Carmyn continued to close the entrance door, although I barely moved my bruised arm from the door, either it was my stubbornness or the adrenaline I felt at this moment but I succeeded in grabbing Carmyn’s left hand...somehow peeling the thick layer of bandages off her hand entirely.
It was only a moment's notice before I scrambled away from the entrance door, as Carmyn instantaneously closed the door shut though I wasn’t irritated.
Goosebumps marred my skin, my back suddenly feeling terribly blistered whilst my right-arm was pitifully limp from my previous endeavor, Purple bruises blooming across that arm as I encased my arms around myself though it was less because of the physical annoy which I was facing but what I had just saw…
‘Where were her fingers?’ I thought to myself, tremblingly slightly as shivers went throughout my body, Carmyn’s index and little finger were missing, sections of unhealed flesh now visible without the bandages encasing it. ‘And I only noticed this now?’