Sunshine by Natalie Wenner Page A

“On what? We don’t have a fire.”
                  “The cigarette lighter in the car.”
                  I ran out to the car and it seemed to take a million years to heat up. It was bright orange definitely hot enough. However the heat didn’t transfer as well onto the tool. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to have to do.
              I put it back in and this time when it popped out I ran inside and stuck it right into his wound. The scream that left his mouth was horrifying. It sounded as if he was being torn to pieces. It, however, had worked. The bleeding had mostly stopped and it appeared to no longer need stitches. He was sweating all over and Sunny was now screaming on the bed. I rubbed on some antibacterial goop and wrapped it with gauze.
                  After removing my gloves I went over to Sunny and placed him and his blanket on the floor. He would have rolled himself off if I hadn’t.
                  Now I had to tend to Marcus’s other wounds.
                  “How are you doing? I’m sorry for that, but it’s all I could think of.”
                  “Yeah, that doesn’t make my top ten favorite moments. Remind me never to piss you off, Princess.”
                  He was still calling me nicknames so I must be forgiven. His cuts didn’t look as bad once they were cleaned up. Only one needed a few stitches. I sewed it as if I was in home economics. He didn’t want me to touch his nose. It was only a little crooked and it was probably for the best. I would have made it worse. After a shot a penicillin and some more Vicodin I helped him into the bed.
                  “Thank you. I feel a little bit better. Keep your ears and eyes open there is still danger out there.” He stoked my cheek gently and I planted a small kiss on his forehead, as it was the only part of his face that was unbroken.
                  I couldn’t stay awake any longer. I knew I needed to keep a look out, but it was impossible. It had been a very long few days. When I awoke there was a very loud noise at the door. Someone was banging around. Had the Baltimore people followed us? That question, however, was quickly answered.
                  One of the stained classes windows viciously burst into a million pieces and a Jack was now standing in front of me. My gun was on the other side of the room next to my bag. Marcus was now awake, but as he tried to get up he fell. The Jack was ignoring us and seemed to be a mission of his own; it was sighted in on Sunny. He was being very quiet, surely he was awake, but he had come to learn in dangerous situations to stay silent.
                  It had already spotted him, though. I ran towards it and jumped onto its back. It was no match for me and quickly threw me off into the shards of glass. I could feel my body tear as it landed. I quickly got up and grabbed the only thing around me, a free standing cross. I hit it on its back as hard as I could, but it didn’t flinch. The cross was now in two. I had to do something it was now only a few feet from Sunny. Marcus was standing and slowly making his way towards the intruder. He had a knife in hand.
                  “Marcus, the knife.” I held out my hand.
                  He threw it to me and I caught the handle, but my pinky managed to catch part of the blade and was now bleeding profusely. The Jack turned; it must have smelled the fresh blood. How the hell was I going to do this? I couldn’t defeat a Jack with just a knife.
                  I saw Marcus had now reached Sunny. “Get into the confessional, now.”
                  I could see he looked desperate. He wanted to fight, but he didn’t stand a chance. He still had morphine in his system.
                  The Jack looked at me with a look of pure starvation.