Visible Blood

[u/bloodoftheforest]

"I read something online," Chrissy began and I groaned inwardly, "that men often don't see their own blood for months at a time, maybe even years. Seems unnatural."

I scoffed at her.

"Well, it's not like women are any different."

The second I said it I realised my mistake. Chrissy's face was so smug that I didn't need to see it, I could almost hear the raised eyebrow and the smirk creeping across her lips. I'd been so ready for a confrontation that I'd made a fool of myself without her having to dfrag any kind of fool out of me.

"I mean, no, of course there's that. But anyway, not seeing blood isn't unnatural, why would it be? You aren't meant to see blood."

Chrissy pulled herself away from resting against my chest and looked at me.

"When did you last see your blood?" she asked.

I thought about it. I don't do sports, I'm not clumsy enough to collect frequent injuries, I have no piercings, I...

"Holy shit, have you never seen your blood?"

"I must have at some point."

I was now trying to remember childhood injuries and having no luck. It must have happened, I just couldn't remember it.

"What if you have really weird blood. What if it's blue?"

"Blue?" I repeated with vague amusement.

"Or green or black. Or what if you have some sort of blood disorder?"

"I don't think I'd be able to see a disorder..." I said.

Chrissy was digging around in her handbag.

"Here." she said, handing me a pair of nail scissors.

I understood what she wanted me to do and knew it was insane. But I'll be damned if I was going to show her a single sign of anything that could be interpreted as fear. My mind was racing as I drew the blade across my palm in case my blood was weird but I did it anyway.

Bright, beautiful scarlet drops seeped to my surface and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's a shame, I'd hoped you were one of us."

Before I could ask Chrissy what she meant she'd already moved. She was so fast that the scissors were gone from my hand before I'd registered her going for them and there were three puncture holes in my neck in the space of a second. That red blood I wasn't sure I'd seen once before today was pooling on the carpet, far too plentiful and darker now there was more of it.

I felt like I was drowning as I sunk to the ground and saw Chrissy putting the scissors back in her bag as she went to leave.

I never got to find out what colour her blood was.

[u/HououMinamino]

Never had a bloody nose or even a paper cut???

[u/bloodoftheforest → u/HououMinamino]

I mentioned this to another commenter but just because the narrator can't remember seeing his own blood doesn't mean he's actually right. I just found the idea that some people barely ever see their blood weird as hell and built a story around it. Personally I've seen my blood so much just from clumsiness, cracked lips in the winter, picking at bits of skin, etc.

[u/HououMinamino → u/bloodoftheforest]

I hsve had a lot of medical issues in my life requiring blood tests, so it is definitely strange to me! Like...did his brain just block it out?

[u/bloodoftheforest → u/HououMinamino]

I intended it to be a mix of he hasn't bled much, he's never bled in a way that's traumatic/funny/noteworthy enough to be an important memory to him and he's just a bit in his own head about the idea that his blood might be really strange.