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His hands ached. His back was hurting terribly. And the blood was burning the small cuts on his hands he didn’t even know he had. The sleepier he got, the more the sharp end of the needle poked his skin instead of the body on the table.
Nubbins was the craziest brother a man could have. He could run at the speed of light. Drayton often joked that, in another life, Nubbins would have chased woolly mammoths to exhaustion.
He stunk most of the time, but Bubba always liked his hot, sweaty hugs. He killed those screaming humans with joy and glee, making it a huge, fun, bloody spectacle. But he was the most loving at the end of the day. To both him and Bobby.
Bubba could have never imagined his brother looking like this. The red getting darker the deeper the cuts were, his face being unrecognizable. The blood sunk into the old wood of the kitchen table, dripping onto the ground underneath with small pit pats.
The chairs were thrown around, just like how they were when they ran after the girl. Grandpa sat in his usual spot, his body not reacting one bit to what was happening to his family. The picture of Bobby they had on the wall not reacting either.
Bubba raised his sore eyes to the picture, and wondered how’d he react after he came home to see. He didn’t want Bobby to see.
Bubba has cried more tears that he thought he could. His face sore and red from how much he’d cried. Until he became too tired to even cry.
He and Drayton sat on the ground after it happened, Drayton babbling incoherent sounds as he hugged the bloody remains of his middle brother.
Bubba watched as Drayton tried to put him back together. Sticking his ripped jaw back onto his face, which just smushed the bones and skin together. Putting his still put together hand on his cheek. He placed kisses on it, promising his favorite dinner if he’d open his god damn eyes.
Only thing was that Nubbins didn’t have eyes no more.
Bubba tried to hold his brothers, both of them, but Drayton kept screaming and screaming for him to get the fuck away.
He then placed him on the table and tried to sew him back together. He whispered to Nubbins that is won’t hurt. Just a small nip, he’ll get used to it. And then he allowed Bubba to help.
After three hours of non top sewing, he whispered something incoherent, and left to sit in the living room.
Bubba peeked his head behind his shoulder to look.
Drayton sat on the couch, his back facing away from Bubba. His hair was messed up badly. He couldn’t see his front side, but Bubba could see something poking out from his right shoulder. And he could tell Drayton was rocking it.
Bubba called to him, but he didn’t answer.
He hesitantly walked closer, and looked at Drayton once he could see.
Bubba recognized it, Nubbins’ baby blanket.
Grandma had knitted one for each of her grandsons. Nubbins’ was blue with white flowers. It had remained soft all these years later. He had kept it at the edge of his bed, Although it ended up on the floor more then half the time due to Nubbins’ sleeping patterns.
But Drayton had snatched it, and he had covered a pillow with it. His clothes were bloody, but dry, the dry blood on his hands peeling off his skin, and getting onto the blanket. But he didn’t seem to care.
He gently cradled the imaginary baby, and Bubba felt the tears tease the sides of his eyes when he realized what baby Drayton was imagining.
Drayton looked angrily at the distance, his eyes almost as red as the blood on his hands and clothes. He blinked slowly, pulling the baby closer to his body once he realized Bubba was there.
Drayton looked at him, and seemed to get even angrier. As Bubba was prove that his fantasy wasn’t real. As how could his baby’s younger brother be standing in front of him, all grown up and covered in so much of his blood?
“Go away.” he murmured, rocking the baby slower.
Bubba could see his tears were leaking out of his eyes again, and were close to falling onto the baby’s face.
“Leave us…”
Drayton’s breath hitched at the last word. A broken sob came out, and he looked ready to break down again.
“Leave us alone.”
Tears left his eyes, but had no choice but to leave. He turned his back away and walked back to the kitchen, covered his mouth as he tried not to cry louder.
Drayton turned back to looking at the wall after he left. And then closed his eyes tightly before reaching down and pressing a kiss to the pillow, who didn’t make a sound.
The sun peaked its head through the window, where life moved on.