Peace Maker - Chapter 198

INTENSITY WARNING!

Screaming, screaming, screaming, and crying. That’s all she could do. That’s all her body felt like it could do.

It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. IT HURTS!!

“ARGGGGH!!!!” she yelled again, her back lifting up the bed slightly as the pain constantly pressed down on her. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ARGHHHHHHH!!”

“Calm… remain- bre…..stay….awa- focus…” the words from the person that stood above her seemed to be translated in code, her mind being unable to even comprehend them.

She huffed heavily, her breath unstable, her eyes blurring, her body in pain. She was scared, terrified. It hurt. It ached. It-

“ARGHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH! AH! AH! AH! AHHHH!” she continued to scream, her voice yelling out to the people that ran around her in such a panicked mode. It was almost comical to her. How they were running around, trying to help her but nothing felt better. It just hurt. Pain, pain was all she could feel, all she could hear, all she could see.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

It wasn’t like it was the first time. It was the same thing, the same pain, the same situation. But it felt surreal all the same, it hurt all the same. Everything felt like it was trying to hurt her. Like her own body was trying to split her apart.

“Gent-… Push…. Out- breathe…” the voice beside her called out to her. She could barely see his face, his long lanky figure standing over her like a shadow. It was scary. This was scary. She was in pain. It hurt.

“ARHHHHHHHHHHH!” she bellowed again. Her voice seemed to reach out to the grey ceiling above her, calling out to no one in particular but to everyone. It was funny how her voice didn’t seem to be reducing, the strength in her voice not straining at all. In fact, it felt like she was getting louder, like her screams were growing more prominent.

Pain. Pain. Pain.

That was all.

She pushed, she could swear she was pushing. She could tell by what she felt, the warm liquid that was flowing out of her like a river, the warm liquid that wet the surface below her. Blood.

It wasn’t her first time seeing it. It wasn’t her first time giving birth. But yet, it felt so painful, like this pain that she felt now was something she had never experienced before. A moment that was so terrifying and horrible that it felt new even during the second time she was going through it.

“Push! Push! Steady does it, keep pushing!” the voice beside her called out. It was encouraging her. Telling her to continue, telling her that she would do it.

She wanted to shut the voice up. To silence it. To silence it all. It was annoying having to hear it, how through all the suffering she was going through, that through all the screams the made, and all the bloody sheets she caught glimpses of maids carrying away when her vision cleared, that through all of that, the only thing that person could do was to sit there and tell her encouraging words.

“ARHHHH!” she screamed.

“Keep pushing!”

Shut up.

“Hah… HAH… HA…. HAHHH…” she huffed with her short and unstable breaths.

“Keep pushing! You’re doing well!”

Shut up!

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“I see the head! It’s almost over! Just keep pushing and steady breaths!”

SHUT UP!!!

“ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Her head was swooning and she could barely stay conscious. It wasn’t as bad as now, it wasn’t as intense as now. She gripped the thing that held onto her hand tightly, her eyes rolling into their sockets. It was worse. It was worse than before. She gripped the bedsheets, tears falling down her face. ‘Help me…’ she thought weakly, ‘Kalmin…’

“Someone get ready to hold the baby as it comes out!” the voice beside her commanded to the seemingly hundreds of people around her.

Everything was dizzy, her head throbbed. She was going insane. She was losing her mind. ‘Why… for what?’ she thought to herself as she pushed again, another flood of emotions overwhelming her with pain. It was hot. Everything was hot, everything burned.

“ARGHHHH!” she screamed again as she gave another push.

“You’re almost there! Just a little bit more!” the doctor sweetly coaxed her, their gentle voice a failed attempt to reassure her.

Her body jerked back as she pushed again, a long exhale of breath leaving her lips. It was like everything was in override, everything hitting her at once and her body deciding to split. It was hot, oh so hot and there was a foul stench in the air. Blood, dense cloud of blood, and the smell of fecal release. She hated it all, she hated the pain, the people around her, everything!

But her mind couldn’t settle on one thing to hate, like her brain was fried from all the agony her body was going through. No thoughts could cross her mind, no strong emotion of hate could stay in her mind. Just pain. And pushing, pushing, and pushing.

Again and again, until the baby she could feel at her entrance finally got out. She thrashed her head back and forth as her eyes rolled back again. But she kept on pushing, just like that annoying voice kept insisting. Pushing… pushing… pushing… crying and screaming.

“IT’S ALMOST OUT! Prepare a bath and continue to change the sheets!” the physician called out to the little scampering people around him. He turned back to Alice and he continued to mutter the words she hated the most. “You’re almost there, just keep pushing.”

Yet, she kept going. To get the baby out, to get her baby out. Her child….

Her head jerked back in pain as she screamed again.

His child.

*

It was during his running that the reality started to dawn on him. That the screams he heard started to really kick in.

His sister. Alice, his younger sister. Someone he’d known for all his life, someone he had watched over and made an ill-fated promise to protect was in labor. Giving birth to the second child of a beast he wished he could kill.

Alice.

His sister.

His world.

“AHHHHHHH!” the scream hit him again as tears started to form in his eyes. That was her voice, it was in so much main, so much suffering and he wasn’t there to see it. She was all alone. Again.

He didn’t know what came onto him, but moments later, he was stairs in front of Annabeth. Racing, rushing, running, as tears fell down his cheeks. ‘She needs me… she needs me….’

His hand had long let go of Annabeth’s, his feet barely touching the stairs that he ran on as he neared the voice that was screaming, the voice that was crying. Alice’s voice. He cried out for her. “ALICE!!!” he bellowed, his voice cracking as he nearly slipped on a stair, his balance becoming unstable for a moment before he pressed forward.

“ALICE!!!”

Behind him was Annabeth, trying her best to keep up as she watched Kalmin run in front of her. Her eyes laid on his back. The wide but thin canvas in which the long, black and red lines decorated. Marks that were her’s, blood from her anger. She shuddered.

It didn’t seem like he was the same person from earlier. He was fast, quicker, filled with so much energy when not even a minute before he had looked lifeless. Moments from death. ‘No…’ she thought to herself, ‘he was dead, he was wishing for it himself.’ She shuddered again, her lips pursing against each other as her eyes ran over the long slashing on his back. ‘That looks…. Horrible.’

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” the voice cried out in agony, her voice so raw and strained that it hurt just to hear.

“ALICE!!” Kalmin yelled back in response, his tears falling down steadily. “I’m coming!!!!”

Annabeth watched as his steps grew faster, his speed increasing every time he heard a scream. ‘…’

Soon, they reached the flood that the screams came from, and Kalmin’s head turned back and forth the hallway, like his eyes were trying to figure out where she could be. He turned to Annabeth swiftly, his eyebrows furrowed in distress. “Wher-” he asked, his eyes locking with Annabeth’s. She couldn’t even get out a word as Kalmin turned to the scream.. He ran.