Romans & histoires Pictures Of A Blown Vein

A vulture sits on the end of the spear, waiting. The self-portrait she promised me. I stand and look out the window at the lawn until the sun sets, then sit back down at the desk. I put my elbows on the table, bury my hands in my hair, and stare at the painting. I notice the small details I missed before—the veins in her neck, as if she’s straining. Red tears fall down her cheeks. Cracks on her chest where the spear went in, thicker near the wound, getting thinner as they spread out. Her body is breaking apart. She’s not coming back.

He passes out again and both Veronica and Luis step back. Gavin throws boiling water first and then Hector throws the ice-cold water. “My favorite part love. Are you ready Edward?” She holds the knife again and Luis places his hand around hers. “You have to be super careful of the carotid and jugular arteries here and here. Then the heart too if you go too deep. There is another artery in the abdomen as well but you shouldn’t hit it unless you go too deep.

The black and green veins that are coming off the mark are making its way to my heart. I pull my t-shirt over my head as I examine the veins more closely, they almost look alive. The knocking on the door comes at the same time the breath is knocked out from my lungs as if they were in a vice. What the fuck is going on? I think as I grip the bathroom sink feeling sick as the knocking becomes louder.

The vein dissolved. My eyes snapped open, brown again, human. “Together,” I whispered. We pushed. Our blood, our love, our legacy—Vasquez, Kane, Moreau, Rosa—flooded the vein. It screamed, a sound of collapsing worlds, and shattered, ash swirling upward, forming a single red petal. It landed in my palm. And burned. The alley was silent. The vein was gone. The city breathed. We collapsed—Elena’s arms around me, Tía Sofia’s hand in mine, Marco’s head on my shoulder, Alexander’s grip on us all, Lila’s scarred smile real. The dawn was clean, the sky blue, the sirens gone.

I ask him, “is he going to be fine soon?” “Actually ma’am” he starts to talk, “we couldn’t find anything that led to his fainting so we rounded it up to stress but that aside, we found a rupture in the vein near his heart. It seems to have been like that for a while now but seeing how swollen it is now, i think something must have triggered it” I swallow hard at his words, that must be Adeline’s injury. “What do you think we should do, doctor?” I ask him, “is there a way to combat it?”

The deep wound is gushing blood. Heavens! Only an animal would do that. He swipes as if to say I haven’t seen anything. Another is the photo of her having the shape of an electric iron pressed to her thighs! My grip on the ball tightens. I try not to give off any reaction when all I wish for is to look back in the sky and beg for my sanity. When he swipes, it’s still the image of the bruised thigh, but the area has swollen with a wild blister that leaks water and pus. The fourth has the thick scar of the knife cut.

Blood coiled through my veins and in my stomach. Why now? Why vanish now? The nurses quickly went to work. One prepared to sterilize the wounds, another grabbed poultices and stitching tools, and a third injected wolfsbane extract to slow internal bleeding from spreading further. Kellan’s breaths were short, rapid. His heartbeat trembled under my hand. He had barely any time left. This was sudden, it was unexpected, unusual, nothing to use in describing the situation; they caught me right in the spot, exactly where it hurt the most.

When the pain finally eases enough for me to breathe, I glance down. The heartbloom is there just as it was before. Perfect and alive. Blood-red petals are etched into my skin, with veins of green curling outward as if the flower is rooted in my flesh once more. The vines wrapped around my arm loosen slowly and reluctantly, before retreating back into the cracked stone like they were never there at all. The air rushes inward. The crack seals halfway. It is still visible, but no longer bleeding wind. I stare at my shoulder in horror.

Black spots danced in and out like they were testing how far they could go before I dropped. I waited it out, counting sheeps slowly in my head until the spinning eased enough for me to stand. Each step toward the mirror felt heavier than it should have. And when I finally looked? I went completely still. The veins had changed though they appear faint and one will miss if you weren’t looking for them. But they were darker now and it wasn’t just around the mark. They’d spread slightly witj thin lines branching just beneath the skin creeping downward toward my chest like cracks in glass.

He moved the edge over her neck painfully slow before pressing it to her throat promisingly. "Do you know the most fragile vein is located around here? It's directly connected to the artery in charge of pumping most of the blood that's being circulated through out the body. One puncture and you will bleed to death" He told her teasingly as he continued to work the knife further before moving it away to stare back at her reaction and it was overly satisfying as the corner of his lip pulled up in a little smile before his expression turned dark yet again.