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I heard a sniffle, and a few moments later, the door unlatched. I wasn't prepared for what I saw.
Lissa stood before me…
…covered in blood.
Horrified, I squelched a scream and almost called for help. Looking more closely, I saw that a
lot of the blood wasn't actually coming from her. It was smeared on her, like it had been on her
hands and she'd rubbed her face. She sank to the floor, and I followed, kneeling before her.
"Are you okay?" I whispered. "What happened?”
She only shook her head, but I saw her face crumple as more tears spilled from her eyes. I took
her hands.
"Come on. Let's get you cleaned—”
I stopped. She was bleeding after all. Perfect lines crossed her wrists, not near any crucial veins,
but enough to leave wet, red tracks across her skin. She hadn't hit her veins when she did this;
death hadn't been her goal. She met my eyes.
"I'm sorry…I didn't mean…Please don't let them know . . ." she sobbed. "When I saw it, I
freaked out." She nodded toward her wrists. "This just happened before I could stop. I was
upset….”
"It's okay," I said automatically, wondering what "it" was. "Come on.”
I heard a knock on the door. "Rose?”
"Just a sec," I called back.
I took her to the sink and rinsed the blood off her wrists. Grabbing the first-aid kit, I hastily put
some Band-Aids on the cuts. The bleeding had already slowed.
"We're coming in," the matron called.
I jerked off my hoodie sweatshirt and quickly handed it to Lissa. She had just pulled it on when
Dimitri and the matron entered. He raced to our sides in an instant, and I realized that in hiding
Lissa's wrists, I'd forgotten the blood on her face.