Chapter 25: Chapter 25 BLOOD

“But what can we do for the baby?” Kayla unclenched Scarlet’s hand, her nails were piercing through her skin.

“I don’t think there is anything we can do.” Stephan was resolved to losing the baby. There had been no guarantee that she could carry the baby to term. This wasn’t like her first pregnancy, Scarlet was part vampire now.

“Please help my baby.” Scarlet sobbed.

“Let’s get her upstairs.” Stephan lifted her into his arms and cradled her to his chest.

“She’s still bleeding out.” Kayla stared in horror as blood dropped from her friend’s body.

“Let’s get her in the tub.” Stephan got her to their room and stripped her. He then put her into the bathtub when Kayla had filled it with enough water.

“I’m glad she not awake to see this.” Stephan watched as the clear water slowly turned to a deep shade of red.

They drained the tub when she was still in it and waited for the bleeding to stop. They sat there watching, waiting and hoping that Scarlet wouldn’t regain consciousness.

“Mom?” SJ stood over the pool of blood, his shopping bags crashing to the ground. He knew amongst them there were only two people capable of bleeding that much and Eric was with him. That left his mother.

“Mom.” He called out again but there was no answer. SJ decided to follow the trail of blood that led to his parent’s room. He froze at the door when he saw his mother’s bloodied clothes.

“Keep him out of here,” Stephan instructed. He was barely holding himself together and he couldn’t handle SJ’s hysteria.

Solara closed the bathroom door and stood before it, just as SJ charged towards it.

“Where is she?” He tried to get past his uncle but couldn’t.

“Your father and aunt are in there with her. She’ll be fine.”

“But all the blood. She can’t be fine. Tell me the truth.”

“Your mother bled out.” Solara didn’t tell him any more than that, because he didn’t know anything apart from the obvious. “Go downstairs and wait.”

“No!”

Stephan could hear his son’s hysterics from the other side of the door. He knew that soon Solara would not be able to keep him from getting into the bathroom.

“Stay with her.” Opening the door just enough to get out without offering a view to the bloody bathroom, Stephan stepped out. “SJ do what your uncle says, I’ll be down to get you.”

SJ stared at him but didn’t answer. His angry look turned to that of horror.

“Did you hear me?”

SJ’s stare did not break.

“SJ?” Stephan followed his gaze to his once-white shirt. He hadn’t noticed that he was also covered in blood.

“Is that all hers?”

“SJ, your mother will be f-,”

“If you say fine I will freaking lose it.” SJ roared, the tone in his voice harsher than he expected.

“Do not take that tone with me. Go downstairs and wait.”

Scarlet was pulled out of the darkness by the sound of Stephan and SJ arguing. She was also puzzled to find herself chin high in water.

“Why are they shouting?”

Kayla sat up relieved to be looking into her hazel eyes once more, “SJ wants to come in here but Stephan won’t let him.”

Scarlet nodded. “Why am I in water, and why is it pink?”

Her bleeding had turned into spotting. It wasn’t as bad as it was the first and second time Kayla had drained out the discolored water.

“I’m glad you are awake.” Kayla swallowed hard, “It’s your blood. You were bleeding out.”

“I lost it, didn’t I?” her hand floated over her belly, daring not to touch it.

“We can’t be sure, but we think so. You lost a lot of blood Scar.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But dad-,”

“SJ can you do what I tell you.”

Stephan and his son were still arguing on the other side of the door. Scarlet listened for a while and when she heard enough she decided to stop it.

“Hand me my robe please.” Scarlet stepped out of the tub. She looked back at the pink water knowing the last of her baby was mixed in it.

“Scarlet, here you go.” Kayla could see how longingly she looked at the water and could only feel sorry for her. She didn’t know the pain of losing a child just that of not having one, and adopting Jade had quenched that. So she remained quiet and did not attempt to soothe Scarlet’s pain.

Scarlet took a deep breath before swinging the door open.

“That’s enough Stephan.’” She took a step between them, “I used your name in plural because you are the same. You are both worried about me and when there is nothing you can do about it you turn psychotic.”

“Mom, I just wanted to know how you were.” SJ wrapped his arms around her laying his head on her chest.

“I’ll be fine, baby. I just need to lie down for a while.” She gave him a stretched smile.

“Scarlet, how are you?” Stephan stood behind her his chest on her back for support.

“I would say ok, but the look on Jade’s face says otherwise.”

Everyone turned to look at Jade and a look of pain and sadness was painted all over her canvas face.

“What happened to the baby?”

“SJ we don’t know what happened, but we can assume that I lost it. The amount of blood that I lost there is no way it survived.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t think about it. I need to lie down, do you guys mind leaving me alone for a while.”

Stephan kissed the back of her head and ushered everyone out of the room. He looked back at Scarlet and the pain and sorrow were laced in with the hazel in her eyes.

“Kayla could you hung back for a minute.”

“Sure.” She closed the door once Stephan had left the room.

Kayla tucked her into bed before they began discussing what was on her mind.

“It’s not your fault. Some things are just not meant to happen.” Kayla refuted.

“When I found out I was pregnant I went crazy. It’s Karma.”

“No, it’s not. It’s just one of those things.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t think it works that way Scar.” She answered before Scarlet could ask.

“Why? With SJ you could tell.”

“Every baby is different. This time your mind wasn’t blank to me, so maybe the baby wasn’t the same as SJ.”

“But could you just check from time to time?”

“Scarlet you just lost your baby, and I know you are hanging on all any hope that it survived. But I don’t think so.”

“Kayla please could you just check.” Scarlet cried out, her voice thick with emotion.

“Ok fine I will. Just get some rest.” Promising Scarlet that she would keep tabs on the activities of a nonexistent baby was crazy and she knew it. But how could she refuse her such a reasonable request?

They weren’t normal anymore, so they could expect the abnormal to happen. The impossible was possible in their new world and Scarlet’s baby might have survived.

“Ok.” Scarlet sank in between the sheets and closed her eyes. She fell asleep almost right away but she heard Kayla leaving the room.

“How is she?” Stephan asked as soon as Kayla stepped into the living room.

“She is holding it together considering. She blames herself of course.”

“But that’s absurd.”

“I told her that. Where is the kid?” Kayla was asking about SJ.

“They went out for a run. I wish I could do that right now, clear my mind. But I don’t want to be far in case she needs me.”

“She’s strong. Scar, will get through this. She just has to stop thinking that the baby will resurrect.”

“What do you mean?”

“Solara do you remember when she had SJ and her mind would go blank. She wants me to keep an eye out for that.”

“Is it even possible? All that blood-,” Solara faltered.

“Stephan I hope you aren’t thinking the same way she is,” Kayla warned. “The only reason why I am humoring her is that she is my best friend and desperately grasping at straws.”

“So you don’t think there is any hope.” The flicker of hope that had lit on his heart was immediately extinguished.

“Did you see all that blood? Who cleaned it up?” Kayla was pointing at the place where they found Scarlet lying in a pool of her blood.

“Jade did.”

“She is such a cutie. Any way Stephan, it’s a miracle that Scarlet is conscious.”

“We need to feed her.” Stephan thought about giving her blood to replenish the one she lost.

“Yeah, but not now. Let her sleep for a while.”

***

Scarlet knew she was about to start the long walk to recovery, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. She lay in the bed thinking of the child she wouldn’t have. She had only two days to show it love and she hoped that her baby knew just how much she did love it.

She closed her eyes letting the exhaustion consume her and hoping that sleep would soon follow.

SJ crept in just as she was falling asleep. “Hey, mom.”

“Hey, you. Come here.” Scarlet pulled down the covers, inviting him to lie beside her.

“How are feeling?” SJ held onto his mother’s trembling hand.

“I’m feeling.” Scarlet pulled her lip in a tight smile, as a tear escaped and slid down her temple.

“I remember the first time I came in here on my own. I would lie beside you just like this. And when Aunt Kayla wasn’t looking I would open your eyes, try and wake you up.”

Scarlet laughed but it pained her to hear that. She hadn’t been there when he was learning his firsts and so desperately hoped she would be there for the new baby. But now there wasn’t a new baby.

“I remember feeling your little warm nose on mine. I remember the sound your little feet made when you ran down the hall.” She giggled, “Then your eyes when you peeped at me from behind your aunt. I’ll never forget that.”

“That was a good day for me.”

“I can’t believe that three years ago you were just a peanut and now you are as tall as I am.”

SJ went quiet for a while before saying how he felt. “I’m sorry mom. This is entirely my fault.”

“Why would you say that?” she made an attempt to sit up but the sourness in her body wouldn’t allow her. Instead, she propped herself up with her elbow.

“I heard that stress may sometimes cause miscarriages. And I stressed you this afternoon.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened this afternoon. The baby was just not meant to be.” She wiped away his tears.

“Ok, I guess I should let you rest.”

“That would be a good idea.”

SJ climbed off the bed and tucked the covers around his mother. He planted a kiss on her forehead before leaving her alone.

Scarlet was in solitude once more than, as much as she didn’t want to be alone, she needed it. Having her family around feeling sorry for her wasn’t helping her at all. She had to deal with the loss in her way.

She closed her eyes willing herself to sleep. In this state, she wouldn’t be able to think about anything. She could rest her mind and her aching body.