Nightmares

Episode 5.2

2 am

The hospitals get quite scarier after midnight. My eyelids are getting heavy so I sip from my cup. It's my 15th cup of coffee since morning. I don't know how Joshua does it. Waking up all night. My body is so exhausted from sitting here all day.

Beep, beep, beep, beep..... The high pitch sound of the ECG monitor. It's showing some numbers. The doctor has told me to keep an eye on it. 105, his heart rate, 108/73, his blood pressure, 93 oxygen level. These three are main.

I look at his hand, completely still. It has a bandage too. I put my hand above his and caress his knuckles. I'm imagining his big smile if I had told him that I got the job. He would have hugged me tightly and kissed me. I would have taken him out for the dinner, surely not forgetting about the ice cream after that. Why has it all happened?

Suddenly, I saw him opening his eyes slightly and then shutting them close again. Did he just wake up? Or I imagined it? I didn't sleep for a single second in these three days. I've started to see things like him. I slap my cheeks lightly, shake my head and look at him.

"Joshua?" I try saying his name.

He opens his eyes a little bigger this time. He's awake? He's awake! Thank goodness! He's awake!

He looks at the ceiling and frowns, then looks right to left around himself to recognize the place. I sit on the bed beside him and hold his hands. "Baby?" I said, he looked at me.

"You...y- you're here?" he said weakly

"Yes, I'm here." I quaver, I could feel my eyes getting watery. "I'm here, I'm here, I'm here," I was saying repeatedly. "Yes, I'm here baby, I'm here," I kissed his hand.

He tries to get up and wince in pain. "Careful!" I say and help him sit up being cautious of his wounds.

He stared at me for a moment, then teared up seeing me. He throws his arms around my neck and starts crying, "Don't leave me again, please,"

"No, no, never," I hug him close to my chest, "I'm so sorry I left you alone,"

"You don't know.....the- the table...." He breaks out into sobs, "D-door..... it was- it was....locked and I.... and th- there was a..... it was hurting m-me..." He wasn't able to say anything properly. "You-you were not...there,"

"It's okay, it's okay. Relax, I'm here with you now." I touched his face. I glanced at the heart monitor, his blood pressure was increasing rapidly. "You can tell me everything later," I need him to calm down right now. "Shall we call the doctor first? To check you up, right?"

"No," he cried, "I want to be with you,"

"I'm not going anywhere, baby. It's important." I push the call button near the bedside. In the next two minutes, the doctor was here. Joshua clenched onto my shirt and moved closer to me. "He won't harm you. He's a good guy." I said to him.

The doctor seemed happy to see Joshua. He came near him, "How are you feeling, buddy?" he said smiling

"I'm fine," Joshua answered

He placed the stethoscope on his abdomen. "Do you have a headache?" he asked

"No,"

"Fever?"

Joshua took a pause to think, "I don't know,"

The doctor looked at the monitor to see his temperature, 102. "You do have a fever. Open your mouth now,"

Joshua looked at me, "Yes, open your mouth," I said, he did.

The doctor checked his eyes after that. "You were crying?" he said

"No, I don't cry,"

"Of course, you're a strong boy," the doctor smiled, "Okay, now show me your hands," he examined his cuts and injuries, took his chin to observe his face damage. "Okay," he released a breath, I looked at him, "Nothing to worry about,"

"When can he go home?" I asked

"Not now, he needs to be monitored for few more days, in case the bleeding starts again," 

"Oh, okay,"

"Are you feeling hungry?" the doctor asked Joshua. He nodded. "Good," he turned to me. "I'm prescribing some medicines, the nurse will bring here. The fever isn't a good sign. Give him after he eats something, okay?"

"Yeah, thank you,"

"And drink plenty of water, alright?" he said ruffling Joshua's hair.

After the doctor left, he buried his face in my chest. "What do you wanna eat?" I say stroking his head.

"Nothing. Don't go anywhere," he mumbled in my chest. He's still too scared. He won't let me go and I also don't want to leave him alone here at 3 am. But he really has to eat something. They deliver food at this time, don't they?

He refused to leave me even for a second, so I'm sitting with my arms around him until the food arrives. Though I have tons of things to ask him, I don't want to bombard him with questions. He just woke up. But there's one thing bugging me inside. I make him look at me, "Was there someone in the house that day? Who did this to you?" I ask

"A ghost," he said

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