He Caged Me for Fifteen Years novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Back of the Wolf

By the tenth night the wound on my back burned and the gauze stuck to it.

I tried to change it myself.

The mirror in the box room hung too high, and I could not reach between my own shoulder blades with my bad arm.

After twenty minutes I sat on the floor with the old gauze half peeled and my forehead on my knees.

Niall knocked.

I did not answer.

He opened the door anyway and stood there with a metal box under one arm.

"You've got a fever," he said. "I can hear you breathing."

"Go away."

"It's going to turn, Maeve. I've seen it before. Sit on the chair and face the wall."

I thought about the knife under my mattress.

I thought about the five old men at the kitchen table.

Then I turned a wooden chair around, sat astride it with my arms folded over the back, and pulled my shirt up to my shoulders.

The air hit my skin.

He set the box on the dresser and washed his hands at the little sink. He was slow about it, and I understood he was giving me time to change my mind.

I did not change my mind.

"This will sting," he said.

It did.

He peeled the old gauze away a quarter inch at a time, and I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

Then I felt his fingers.

They were rough and careful. They moved along the edge of the wound, never inside it, and I realized he knew exactly what he was looking at.

"It's clean at the top," he said. "Red along the left. I'll wash it."

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