Wishes In The Dark - A Peterick Fanfiction

Six

"Are you Patrick's friend?" the paramedic asks Pete.

"Um, yes," Pete lies.

No, you're not.

But I guess he cares.

"Then yes, you can come," says the paramedic. "Can I take your name?"

"Peter Wentz," Pete replies.

"Ross, we need to go," says the other paramedic.

Pete and "Ross" help me to my feet and support me as I stagger over to the ambulance. They sit me down next to Kevin in the back of the ambulance. I still feel numb and weak, but it's not as bad as it was before.

Pete sits opposite me, and Ross sits near us. The other paramedic starts driving us to the ambulance.

I look at my brother on the wheely bed, and what I see is horrifying. This is not my brother...this is a misshapen man with little life left, blood covering almost his entire body. This is a man who did not deserve any of this. This is a man who needs more time. I feel a little sick just looking at him.

"So Patrick," Ross says to me. "Can you tell me your brother's full name?"

With all my effort, I manage to say quietly: "Kevin David Stump."

"And how old is your brother?"

That's when the vomit rises up in my throat.

"I'm," I croak. "I'm gonna be sick..."

Pete leaps up from his seat and reaches for a bucket in the corner of the ambulance. He places it on my lap. I lean right over so my head is inside the bucket and vomit. I vomit for a few minutes until the sick feeling is gone and it feels like my throat is empty.

"Twenty-three," I manage to say in answer to Ross's question. "Kevin's twenty-three."

"And...how did this come to happen?" asks Ross.

I can't help it. I vomit into the bucket again.

"I'll explain," says Pete, looking a bit sick himself. "Kevin got into a little trouble with one of my...friends, and he ran after him. But the car came when Kevin ran into the road, and he got hit."

Ross nods inquisitively, but he doesn't question anything Pete says. It's none of his business.

After about five minutes, the ambulance parks in the car park of the local hospital. Kevin gets rushed inside on his wheely bed by the paramedics, leaving Pete and I to hurry along after them. The next part is a bit of a blur; I just know that the next time I see Kevin is in one of the hospital's rooms. Kevin gets put on one of those machines that monitors a person's heart rate. The machine shows bright green lines that make bleeping noises when they peak in the middle.

I pull up a chair and sit by Kevin's side. He looks so...broken. He's hooked up to so many pieces of hospital equipment that I feel slightly overwhelmed. The door closes and I turn my face to see Pete standing behind me.

"This is my fault, isn't it?" he says sombrely.

I feel like I should be mad at him, but I'm just not. In a way it is his fault; it was his group member that mugged my brother, and Pete himself was rude to Kevin. But I can't feel angry right now.

I say nothing.

"I shouldn't have picked a fight with your brother," Pete says. "I'm sorry."

Again, I ignore him. All I want is to be alone with my brother and find some sort of peace in this midst of madness. Pete takes a few steps forward so he's standing next to me. He peers over at my brother.

"Geez, he looks pretty bad..."

Yes, thank you for summing that up.

"Do you want me to leave you alone with him?"

"Yes please," I say quietly.

Pete pats me on the shoulder a couple times, then leaves the room. At least he's gone.

When everything is silent except for the machine's beeping, I lean closer to my brother and speak softly to him.

"Hey Kevin," I say. "I know you can't hear me, but I'm hoping that somehow you'll know I'm saying this to you."

This is when the tears start. There's only a couple at first, but then there are more and more as I continue speaking.

"Get better, Kevin. I can't express how much I need you. You're the best person in my life. You saved me from that woman we used to call Mom...without you, I'd be nothing."

For some reason, I wait for a response, but of course I don't get one. So I just carry on talking.

"Do you remember when I was seven and you and Megan were fourteen, and I fell off the swing and hurt my knee? I started crying like a baby. Do you remember what you said to me, Kevin? You told me, Patrick, you've fallen off the swing...now get back on it. And that's what you've done now; you've fallen off the swing, and all you need to do now is get back on it. Oh, what am I saying."

I'm trying to sound metaphorical but I think I just sound stupid. I sob against my brother's still body and whisper, "Come back to me, Kevin. I need you."

I sit there for ages, just crying to myself and praying to a God I don't even believe in.

Please bring my brother back to me.

Please bring my brother back to me.

Please bring my brother back to me.

I turn my head and out the corner of my eye, I see Pete watching me sadly through the window in the door.

Bleep.

Bleep.

Kevin's heart rate machine thing makes a bleeping noise every time the green line on the screen peaks in the middle.

Bleep.

Bleep.

Nothing is happening, so I just sit there and listen to the bleeps. I'm praying not to hear an eternal bleep. An eternal bleep means...death.

Bleep.

Bleep.

I close my eyes.

Bleep.

Bleep.

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...