A Life (Dead Sea) ✅ (Edited)

7: Sleeping (Edited)

This chapter has been grammatically and punctually edited. Please kindly comment any mistakes you find.

I crashed into the doors of the hospital, immediately entering the waiting room. Sally sat in the far corner. I ran to her.

"Sally, what happened?" I kneeled in front of her. She had tears in her eyes.

"After he talked with you, he grabbed his coat and said he was going to the coffee shop. Then he got another call, I don't know who it was from, and he looked so agitated and stressed. He left and I heard a thump, so I opened the door and he- he-"

"Oh, my gosh. . ." I cupped my hand over my mouth.

Percy had a heart attack.

I quickly wiped my cheeks after realizing tears had slipped from my eyes. I sat in the seat next to Sally, taking deep breaths.

Don't die, don't die, don't die, don't die!

I let out a quiet sob, and then wiped my cheeks and mouth.

-time skip-

We waited for hours. There were so many patients.

But after long enough, a nurse walked up to us, "Percy Jackson?"

Sally and I nodded.

She nods and motions for us to follow her. She leads us down a hallway, and takes us to a doctor waiting outside of a room, room 96. An old man greeted us.

"Hello," he said. "I am Doctor Michaelis. Your son and friend-"

"Boyfriend." I corrected.

He sneered, "Yeah, right, boy. Look, this is a serious matter, let me fi-"

"I'm not tooling with you, so get over it and tell us how he is!" I shout.

He stares at me.

"Well?!" I yell.

He looks directly at Sally and ignore sme altogether, "He's all right. We have new medicine to go along with the old, and a packet on how to avoid this happening again that you'll receive when he's free to go. Right now we have him hooked up and in bed, we estimate he'll stay here about another three days. It was a minor attack. He's lucky."

I turned around so they wouldn't see me cry. I let out a sob amd cupped my mouth. He's okay.

I turned back around, sniffing my nose.

"Thank you. Can we see him?" Sally asks.

The man nods, but puts up a hand, eying me directly, "One person only. And he's sleeping."

I growl, "You piece of-"

Before I could finish, a nurse calls him over, and he rushes away. I look to Sally.

"Go ahead, Ms. Jackson. I'll just wait."

She shakes her head, much to my surprise, "I think you should be the one he wakes up to see."

I hesitate, but nod. I thank her before entering his room.

Once I see him, my heart nearly stops. He looks awful. Machines are hooked up to him by wires. The heart monitor beeps slowly. He looks pale and sweaty, his breathing is even but deeper than usual when he sleeps. He isn't even drooling. He also has a big bruise on his shoulder.

I walk to sit by him, taking a chair and his hand.

I want to cry out, or say his name, or something, but I can't. I just stay silent, looking at him.

I can't help but feel like this is somehow my fault.

I love you, Percy. Wake up for me, okay?