Drew shot up from his sleep, sweating heavily. He began to hyperventilate and have a panic attack.
"WHAT WAS THAT?!"
He pressed his thumbs against his cheeks and his palms over his mouth. He was breathing quicker into his hands. His body grasped for oxygen. Until he stopped and grabbed the pillow behind him and bit into it.
"God-God-God-God, please help me…what, why, why, why, where am I, where am I."
He whispered, breaking up a bit – he didn't want to go through that again. Drew started to consider praying out of sheer desperation and fear; however, someone stepped in.
"Mister Ford?"
He slowly looked over, still visibly shaken, with his hands lowering under his face. He managed to make eye contact and saw a nurse standing at the door, with black hair with a green highlight and mascara, she looked relieved.
"It's good to see that you're awake."
Drew stared at her for a minute. He recollected himself and stayed quiet for an entire minute. The nurse considered leaving before he shook his head and finally spoke up.
"Uh, where…am I?"
The nurse gave a small smile. She understood that Drew was dazed, but also found his inability to put two and two together a little amusing.
"You're in Royal Hospital."
"The doctors ran a saliva test and a blood test – and you've been signed off by your parents, so you'll be good to go at any minute now; they'll be waiting downstairs until you are."
"Good news is that you didn't have any drugs or alcohol, so you're not in trouble. The only thing I'll point out is the wee bump on your head."
Drew rubbed around his forehead with his left hand and felt a small bump over it, causing him to groan in irritation.
"Your friend said, 'You had passed out on the floor and that's why you have a bruise'– so I take it you didn't get into a fight either?"
"N-nah…no fighting, we were seriously just on a bus and…then all that happened. Outta nowhere."
As the nurse remained silent, Drew started to question himself.
"What the hell is going on with me?"
"I mean, sure, I'm not sleeping that much these days, but COME ON! I shouldn't have fainted! Or even heard those weirdass voices."
"Ooooh, every day is worse than the last now!"
He clenched his fist, looking off, while thinking to himself about how to go around this.
"Could you have passed out from a lack of sleep?"
The nurse questioned. He didn't feel tired in the mornings, and usually when he did, it would go away throughout the afternoon. But in all fairness, he was a bit of an insomniac. He felt it was a bit of a stretch to consider it was a sleeping problem.
But then again, what did he know? So instead of reconsidering it, he went with it. The most logical explanation for hearing things and passing out would be that.
"Yeah. Maybe it's that. I haven't slept much these days."
The nurse nodded.
"Ok please be sure to get more sleep when you get home, it's not healthy at all, and you can see why."
"I will inform the doctor, and he will be here shortly to check on you before you can be dispatched."
Drew nodded as the nurse stood up and left the room; however, she paused at the door and turned back to him as she spoke in a soft tone. She was considering telling him something, but as he noticed that she was still in the room, she decided to come clean.
"You should also know…you were originally found dead when you arrived here."
[…]
"What?"
"The doctors had said, Your heart stopped beating, and your brain wasn't functioning"
"And you weren't breathing either, but then out of nowhere, your eye twitched…yet the body scans and heart rate monitors still say that–"
"You're dead…"
"But we're assuming it's probably just some broken tech, so don't stress too much about it."
He couldn't believe it. And he didn't want to believe it. He turned to the window outside.
He felt a bit sick and his chest felt empty. But he shook his head and muttered,
"Unlucky…it's just a bit of bad luck…it's fine, I'm still alive anyways."
The nurse was confused by his mumbling, before he turned over to her. Drew inhaled and exhaled slowly and responded with a straight face.
"…O-ok…thank you for telling me."
She jumped a little, as she had expected him to have a mental breakdown or even asked questions. But thank her? She hadn't expected it at all. However, she took it, nodded, and left. Drew then reclined onto the hospital bed, and he looked at his shaking right hand – and immediately clenched his right wrist with his left hand.
"It's just a bad day…you'll get over it"
"You always do."
***
A car pulled up in front of a relatively nice house, and Drew's mother and father stepped out. Drew, who remained seated in the car, had attempted to forget about the recent experiences of the last two days. However, the voices played in the back of his head every time he had forgotten them for even a minute – almost as if they were still trying to communicate with him.
After a few minutes of deep thought, he finally stepped out of the car. And decided to ultimately act as if nothing had ever happened. After locking up the car, he went over to the house and opened the door to be greeted by,
Silence.
"Hello?"
He called out, he progressed inside, shutting and locking the door, and he looked around. And saw that the living room was trashed, the lights were all off, and his parents were nowhere to be seen.
"I coulda sworn they just walked in?"
Then, he heard a rummaging noise from one of the rooms. He went up the stairs as slowly as possible. And upon reaching the top. The noises had stopped. And as he looked inside the room;
There was nothing.
"Shit."
It was still quiet, and he couldn't hear any other movements or noises. So he figured "If I can just get out of here, I can call the police...wait...what am I saying? I got to find mom and da-"
He paused and shuddered because it felt like someone was watching him.
CREAK
Something moved closer to him, the creaks if the floor grew louder and whoever this was, was almost right behind him.
And in a desperate attempt, Drew twisted his body around as fast as possible to land a right hook to their head.
However, his fist didn't connect. Not because he hesitated. Not because it was someone he recognised. But before he could even get his hand anywhere higher than his waist.He was blown forward, down the hallway, and slammed into the door to his parents' bedroom face-first.
He struggled to get back up and placed his palm over his nose, and took it back out to see that he was now bleeding out of it.
"The hell was that."
He thought, as the figure walked over to him, their steps soft and slow.
When they reached him, Drew's eyes widened in a mix of rage, fear, and confusion.
The person stood with their left hand held high, with a blue raging fire hovering above it.
"Honestly, I don't want to have to kill you."
"But then again it wouldn't be personal, so I guess that unless you're insane."
"Stay. Down."