"Where's Charlie?" I ask Michael as he haphazardly drags Onai across the floor, towards the stairs.
Michael waves me off. "He's taking a nap."
I sigh in relief. Perfect timing. I wipe the sweat starting on my forehead. I'm not even the one carrying Onai.
"But I don't know where Megan is," Michael adds.
I freeze. What? I look to the top of the stairs. Her room is right beside it. If she comes out...
I try to pass Michael on the stairs, but he's as reckless as ever. On one particular bump, I see Onai bite his own arm not to scream. "Get off me. Get off me. I'm fine." He shoves Michael away from him, nearly knocking me down in the process, but his eyes say it all. He tries to climb up one step. Then he falls to the side.
Michael yanks him back up before he can start falling down the stairs, which doesn't seem like an easy task considering Onai is bigger. Michael glares at him. "Stop before you make this any worse." Then he looks at me. "Stop trying to pass me before you make this worse."
I cock my head back. "I'm trying to see if Megan is coming or not."
"We have bigger problems." He points to the trail of blood Onai's leaving.
My eyes widen. I look around for something to clean it with.
"Don't bother," Michael says. "Just try to make sure none of it gets on the carpet."
As Michael drags Onai up each step painstakingly slow for the sake of keeping quiet, I unfortunately have to hold his pile of clothes below his wound, which can't be making it feel any better. I try not to pay attention to the fact that I'm kind of getting an eyeful of butt action. I just focus on what I'm doing and hope that's enough to keep the mess under control, because Michael's right. We can come back for the hardwood floor easily. But if blood gets on the carpet, it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
Michael helps Onai into my room, which is the closest between the two of ours. I follow him in, closing the door behind me. Thankfully Megan's room looks undisturbed.
"Are we under attack?" Michael asks immediately. "Is our family in danger?"
I shake my head. "I don't know." I look at Onai, ready to ask him.
Michael drops him to the floor without any shred of delicacy. Onai winces when his wounds make contact with the rug.
"Is my family in danger?" Michael glares down at him. What is he doing?
Onai doesn't say anything to him at all. He just glares. Then he looks at me, about to open his mouth.
"Don't look at her." Michael bends down to his level. "Look at me. I'm your problem right now."
I nearly smack my forehead. He's seriously doing this? I hand Onai his jacket so at least he doesn't have to deal with Michael's craziness in the nude.
Onai doesn't even register it. He's too busy holding eye contact with Michael. "This is the last time I'll ask you to get away from-"
"Watch yourself now." Michael waves one of Mom's necklaces in his face.
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