8

She was so calm, so quiet. She slept peacefully and it made me hopeful just watching her.

There was still blood caked on her clothing and her wounds needed to be washed. But for the moment I let her rest. It amazed me how much I could stand her blood now. It barely fazed me anymore. My body had reacted in some weird way that I didn’t understand. All I knew was that I couldn’t let her die. Thinking of how my life would be right now without her, made me shudder. That was eternal damnations, right there.

She was comfortable now. My Alice was sleeping on a bed with not only clean blankets, but a mattress too. The entire room was a lot cleaner than the last. It wasn’t hard to get the room. I simply knocked Fred out conscious and I had the entire building to my leisure.  I picked up Alice and choose a nice room to put her in. She was a little more exhausted than I thought and when I left to get some clean rags and water to clean her wounds, she had fallen asleep.

To be honest, I was afraid to wake her up.  I was afraid to feel her painful emotions. But as I watched her I knew her wounds needed to be cleaned.
I moved toward her slowly. Sitting down on the bed as quietly as I could I took a damp rag to her back. I stopped. This was going to be a little more difficult than I had imagined.

Alice was still clothed in her torn dress. It was filthy from the many days she had worn it and now it was drenched in blood. But of course I was raised as a gentleman; I was never to take off another woman’s clothing. That or see another woman’s body without her permission, even then not until your married. Does she count as my wife at the moment? I’ve married her, in the future but… I hate time travel.

Shaking off my feelings I slowly removed her dress while keeping her back facing me. I only took off the dirty little dress as much as I needed, not revealing her butt, even though I would have loved it. So that once I was done only her back was revealed and she lay on her stomach comfortably.

I picked up the damp rag once again and this time I wiped off the grime and blood off of her back. She stirred a little and I wiped off her back again getting a clear look at her wounded skin. This time she woke groaning a little. Almost immediately I felt her pain wash through me.

“Shhhh,” I whispered quietly, hoping to calm her.

“Jasper?” She whispered.

“Hmmm?”

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning off your wounds,” I answered.

She winced as I wiped off her back again.

“That hurts.”

“I know.”

It was quiet for a while, I stayed busy getting more of the blood off of her. Her emotions where getting a little more relaxed with only the sudden streaks of pain from me. But she dosed off slowly and quietly.

“Jasper, what are you?” She whispered suddenly.

I froze. “What do you mean?” I asked quietly.

“You seem to freak out when ever you see blood.” She whispered.

I was quiet for a moment.

“It’s probably nothing.” She whispered. “Frank talks about me as a monster all the time. So I wonder, what if I’m really a monster? What if there are things like monsters. I never wanted to be one. But if I am then, maybe I could be a good… monster.”

I was silent as she fell asleep with her resolutions.

Is there such things as good monsters?