Chapter 40: Teeth (5)
Everly sat alone outside the operating room, her hands clenched into fists, her head bowed low.
After the tooth extraction, blood was still seeping from the socket, but not much—it wasn’t a serious problem. The wound on the back of her hand had been treated in time as well. It looked frightening, but in reality it wasn’t very deep.
Between her and Old John, the one more seriously injured was actually him. She hadn’t held back with that stab—she had driven the blade straight through his arm. And yet, in order to help Everly, he had continued exerting force even after being wounded, causing the injury to tear open a second time and bleed heavily.
That kind of wound wasn’t something Old John could handle on his own. After giving it a quick rinse and bandage, he drove her straight to the hospital in downtown Micano.
Just moments ago, the ER doctor had examined her grandfather. The results showed that Everly’s knife had happened to pass through the gap between two bones, without damaging the bones themselves—but it had torn the interosseous membrane, requiring surgical debridement and suturing.
Everly’s heart was filled with guilt and anger.
It shouldn’t have been like this… She had foreseen the danger. But she was too weak—too weak physically, and too weak in willpower. That was why the nurse had forced her into that chair, forced her eyes open with a speculum to watch that video. She had even been brainwashed into forgetting the dangerous memory, unknowingly carrying the contamination home with her… If she hadn’t been lucky enough to get Rebecca’s dried toad, if her grandfather hadn’t been there to protect her, she might have already harmed herself to death.
The more guilty she felt, the angrier she became.
Everly couldn’t understand it. She had only gone to the clinic for an ordinary dental appointment. Neither she nor Old John had provoked anyone. So why had all of this happened to her?