The Royal Contract

He stared at her, assessing her for any kind of injuries. He scanned her from head to toe, checking for any signs of bleeding from wounds or broken bones.

The only indication that she was hurt was the tiny blood spots on her shirt. Still, Jacob could not locate the source of the bleeding. 

"I am sorry, but I think this is all my fault." She quickly apologized for the misunderstanding, pointing to their situation. She moved into a sitting position, readying to stand up. 

She believed that he rushed to her house thinking she was in danger. But it was all a miscommunication. She suddenly felt foolish for calling him for such a silly accident.

"What is going on, Cassie?" He asked, rubbing his hands and elbows, mildly bruised from its impact on the rugged floor. Luckily, the thick carpet had softened their landing. "I thought something terrible happened to you." Admitting his earlier fear.

He stood up first and offered his hand to her to help her up as well. She finally offered him to come inside, closing the door behind them.

He was confused with the way things turned out. He was expecting to see her covered in blood or something. Still, he was glad that she was ok.

"I am sorry if I misled you to believe that. It was not my intention." She started explaining, a bit mortified for causing too much trouble. "I panicked and called you." She kept saying in an agitated voice.

She walked with him further inside the apartment. It was a decent space. It was actually double the size of his apartment. Alex did not disappoint in choosing a suitable place for her.

"Hey, don't worry about it. I am sure that you have a valid reason for calling me." He could see that she regretted being a bother to him. He did not see it that way. He was glad that she called her. "Tell me what happened."

He let her lead her to the living room. Then, he accepted her offer to sit down with her. He wanted her to be comfortable while she told her story.

"Well, I was preparing a meal in the kitchen when suddenly the lights went off. I suddenly panicked." She narrated to him the earlier event that led them to this situation.

She remembered when the oven suddenly lost its power. Then, simultaneously, every appliance shut off, she began to think that someone else was inside the apartment.

She abruptly turned around and accidentally knocked down a glass on the tiled floor, shattering it to pieces. She grabbed her phone, considering whom to call. 

"I first dialed Alex's number but reconsidered. I figured he already helped enough. Besides, he had too much going on with his life." Cassie further explained to him.

She searched the room and trained her ears to the other rooms, wondering if someone was out there. Her heart started hammering on her chest as she imagined another person about to enter the room to take her. But, there was only silence. 

Her fear was unfounded. 

There was no other person in the room. It was just her imagination playing tricks on her. But still, her body could not stop shaking from the horrific experience.

She blamed the movies that she watched all day for conjuring up images in her mind, making her a scary cat. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her composure.

Then. "I started picking up the shard pieces of the glass on the floor when a loud noise came from the hallway. I was not looking at the glass as it accidentally cut my fingers." She showed him the towel that was wrapped in her hand.

Eventually, she realized that it was just some noisy punks who lived at the end of the hallway, passing through. It was too late to stop what happened next as the glass cut through to three of her fingers, making a deep sliced.

"Will you let me look at it?" He did notice the piece of clothing that she was holding earlier. It was the only thing he found disturbing in her appearance.

He carefully took her hand in his and inspected the damage. Slowly, he unwrapped the rag out of her fingers, finding the fresh wound underneath it.

"I'm sorry if I called you. I know these are just some minor cuts that I should handle myself, but..." She could not finish the sentence as she felt the pain when he tried to move them.

But, it was not the pain that concerned her. In fact, she had a high pain tolerance. What scared her was the amount of blood that gushed out of her fingers, dripping on the floor.

She did not mind a prick or a drop of blood. But seeing the red liquid making a pool on the white marbles was a different story. To her mind, it had a making of a horror movie.

"I tried to call Alex again but found your name instead of his." She remembered putting his number in her phone's home screen for easy access. "I called you."

She remembered as fear gripped her when she saw all the blood. She grabbed the rag, but it still would not stop from flowing out of her flesh.

"I am glad that you did because these are deep wounds that would need stitching. It might have stopped bleeding as of now, but it will again if not treated properly." He examined the wound again.

It was not life-threatening, but it could get infected, which could cause a lot of health complications. He could already see a swelling on the other side, indicative that he should apply medications urgently.

"Thanks for coming." She still appreciated that he came when she called. She might be embarrassed by her action, but she was glad not to be alone.

"Anyway, I was wondering what happened to your phone." He did remember calling her back, but she was unreachable.

"The battery died down. Since I was not using it much, not having anyone to call, I totally forgot to charge it." She felt silly again for not even remembering to do some basic things.

"Another question if you don't mind answering. Why did it take you so long to answer the door?" It was the other reason he thought she was in a terrible state.

"I was in the bathroom in my room, trying to debate whether to clean the wound or not. Only the sound of the doorbell could be heard inside the room." But since the electricity in her apartment was out, she could not hear anyone from the inside.

Fortunately, she decided to leave the wound unattended and went out of her room to get herself a glass of water. That was when she heard the knocking on her door. Then, the rest was history.

"That all explained it." He concluded. "Shall we attend to your wounds?" He stood up from his seat and walked back to the front door, remembering dropping his bag when they both fell.

"Please, just be gentle." She begged him. "Besides a large amount of blood, the worse thing I feared the most is needles." She confided in him. Remembering the last time she had a shot. That was a decade ago.

She recalled almost not getting the injection as she struggled against the doctor administering it.. But it was a traumatic experience that she did not want to endure again.