Chapter 63 - Injury (19)

Act 14

It all happened in a split second. Even after years had passed, however, I could still clearly remember this moment—the man who lunged at Keith with a knife, the guards rushing in too late, Keith backing away, and even the other people who were now screaming.

“Keith!” I shouted in fear. My head was blank. All I could think of was Keith. I had to stop that man. I had to take the knife from him. I had to protect Keith.

I sprinted with all my might. I stretched out my arms in an attempt to stop the man. Strangely enough, the scene gradually unfolded before my eyes like a panorama. He was moving very slowly. It felt like I could reach him if I tried a little harder—if only I could stretch out my arm just a little more. The man raised the knife, swinging his arm in a circular motion. Keith seemed to back away. But it was too late. The man’s knife drew a long line on Keith’s arm right before my eyes.

“…!”

Blood spurted out before my eyes. The screaming voices became even louder. Guards rushed in from all directions to pin down the man.

Even then, he kept shouting out erratic slogans. “Curse you devils! All Extreme Alphas should die! Doom is impending, and God will punish all of you! O, God, let divine retribution strike those devils!”

I blanked out for a moment. I couldn’t believe that I had failed. I stretched out my arms with all I had, but I was too late. Keith was already bleeding from the wound on his arm.

I quickly came to my senses and immediately approached him, undoing my tie. “I’ll stop the bleeding.”

I quickly checked his wound and wrapped the tie tightly around it. I then confirmed with those around us if they called the ambulance or if there was a hospital nearby.

“Going to the hospital directly seems like it would be faster. Is that all right?” I asked briskly.

Without a change in his expression, Keith nodded briefly.

I turned toward Whitaker right away. “We should head over to the nearest hospital right now. I will contact them so that he can be treated as soon as we arrive. Please hand the perpetrator over to the police, and let me know what happened.”

I looked up at Keith once again.

“Are you okay? Will you be able to walk to the car?” My tone was much too formal—so much so that hearing myself almost gave me goosebumps. I didn’t know what went through Keith’s head at that moment, but he glanced down at me and turned his body around without a reply. I immediately followed after him and loaded myself into the car.

“…Yes, Mr. Keith Pittman was just attacked. We’ll be there in 10 minutes. A knife cut, about four or five inches. I’m not sure how deep the cut is, but he has no problem moving his arm and I’ve stopped the bleeding. Yes, please be prepared to treat him as soon as we get there.”

After calling the emergency room, I reported back to Keith. Keith was sitting beside me and he must have heard everything I was saying, but he didn’t show any particular reaction. I became anxious that he might lose consciousness from all the bleeding.

“I’ll contact press control so that the terrorism doesn’t become a big issue,” I reported. Although it was something obvious that didn’t need to be reported, I intentionally spoke to Keith. Keith didn’t reply, but watching him staring out the window and blinking brought me some comfort.

Even though I had wrapped the tie tightly around his arm, blood began to seep through the fabric. I bit my lip to keep myself calm.

* * *

The medical team who was waiting for our arrival treated Keith’s injury right away. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like the knife had cut through any major blood vessels or nerves.

“There may be a scar, but perhaps not… After all, he’s different from normal people,” the doctor added, sounding unconfident. I was relieved to hear that the injury would heal quickly. Contrary to what I had been worried about, there was no excessive bleeding or any other complications. The doctor had said that they just needed to stitch up the cut.

“Still, you need to come back one more time to take out the thread. We had to make quite a few stitches…” After telling us when to visit again, the doctor left. I handled all the admin procedures and called everywhere I needed to in order to direct security maintenance. I also called Charles to let him know what had happened. He would be keeping this in mind when attending to Keith henceforth. He could also take care of the injury more carefully. Just in case, I also made sure to tell him when the next hospital visit would be.