Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 21: Keep Breathing

Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 21: Keep Breathing

Right foot. Left foot.

Right foot...

Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot...

Left foot. Right foot -

My breath catches as there's an abrupt moment of confusion, finding myself staring down at the left foot that suddenly refused to move. My head is so numbly blurred that I don't immediately realize I'm stumbling forward, still trying to convince my foot to putt itself in front of the rest of my body. As soon as I realize that it simply won't, my arms instantly jolt to the right, to the figure standing next to me. I latch onto his shirt the same time he wraps his free arm, the one that's not cocooned over my shoulders, around my torso to prevent me from falling. I never have had this much trouble walking, and to be honest it's quite annoying not able to be in full control of my own body. It's strange, how I'm still shaking, even though I now know it's okay. My legs feel frail and broken, yet I still try to force them to walk, to take one step after another. After a few moments, I pick myself up and stare back down at my feet, watching as they slowly begin move again, one in front of the other.

Before I can take the next step, slowly growing more confident in my legs again, I can hear Len sigh as he swiftly leans down and wraps his arm under my legs, suddenly sweeping me off my feet. It takes me a moment to realize what he's doing, and I blink before looking up at him. He doesn't meet my gaze, instead keeping it forward down the hallway. I want to say something, either to thank him for carrying me or tell him to put me back down, but ultimately I don't. Instead, I bring my gaze down to my hands, to the silver key still cool in my palm - well, the palm that isn't covered in scratches and cuts for when I grabbed the broken, rigid plastic-ware. With the silence, I begin to wonder how Len and I will appear to anyone that may walk past us - being a hallucination is carrying me - though I doubt we'll bump into anybody. When Yuma and I went walking earlier there wasn't anyone besides Dell awake in this building, aside from the shuffles of the nurses somewhere in the building. But... but if they're still awake and wandering the hospital like it sounds, shouldn't they have at least heard me screaming? Luka was the only person that heard and came.

Was I imagining the sounds earlier? Are there really no nurses up at this hour, walking around? I listen past Len's footsteps against the floor, past his breathing in my ear - the shuffles are now gone I realize, and the only sound that echoes back to us is the dulled rain outside. Perhaps everyone is asleep then, and my screams are only just "normal", to them nothing more but an average little problem that they don't find rather important. Thinking about the girl in the room over that screamed earlier, would the staff here really ignore something like that when it came down to me, or maybe they didn't hear...?

"You're all right now, so don't bother yourself with something so insignificant," Len says, his voice practically close enough to feel. I don't look up at him, keeping my gaze lowered onto my hands. I don't reply, and he seems to not really expect one because he doesn't say anything more than that. Normally it's quite aggravating to know that he can read my thoughts, but right now I don't even care if he plunges into my head or not. I want to ask him if he can hear my thoughts clearly yet, since his whole process of coming back from the pills has been extremely fast, but I let that question die on my tongue. It doesn't matter, really, if he can or not. We'll soon go back to normal if we aren't already there yet. It's just a matter of time.

"Thank you," I whisper, my voice cracking. I stroke and fiddle with the metal in my hands. "Thank you for saving me, Len." I wasn't expecting to be saved at all. I thought I was left alone to fend for myself, and honestly a part of me wishes it stayed like that, even if it costed more harm to my life. A part of me didn't want to be saved, wanting to prove that I can pull through by myself with no help, that I'm strong enough to escape situations like that. I don't need a hero. But then the other part of me, the more logical part, realizes that I would've died  if I wasn't saved. I'm no where near strong enough against Dell, and even if I prayed to the gods above, I'm sure they would just laugh and wave me off. Would I really be dead right now if I never stopped taking the pills so I can see Len? If I just ignored my curiosity and went on with living here - if Len never came to stop Dell - would I even be alive? When I'm on the medication Len is still there of course, but I can no longer see him, hear him, feel him. If I hadn't stopped swallowing those pills, would Len be left to absently sit there and watch as Dell stabbed me, bled me, killed me?