Isaiah's Love

Chapter 8: Hospitalized

            A couple of hours had passed since Isaiah had lost consciousness and he lay still asleep in the private emergency room. Caleb had fallen asleep in the chair next to him and Carla still paced the floor at the foot of his bed. Isaiah opened his eyes and he looked around when the feeling of the pain came back to him. Isaiah squinted at the brightness of the florescent lights that lit the hospital room brightly. He glance around the room still staying quietly, he could see his mother who had not yet noticed him standing at the foot of his bed with her back to him. He realised that they must have called her after he passed out, Isaiah couldn't help but think of how mad she might be now that she knew he had lied about where he was. The room he was in was very plain and smelled very disinfected. There were one or two cabinets where they must have kept emergency equipment and then there was nothing, no windows, no other beds and there was no I.V. Isaiah looked over at Caleb who laid there in the same clothing he had saw him in earlier in the night, telling him that he had not left him, and smiled then took his hand loosely. The touch of his warm skin brought him comfort beyond what he ever imagined anyone's touch could. He was so thankful to have Caleb there earlier in the evening. If Caleb hadn't have found him he might have been in there all night. Isaiah recalled sitting in the shower as the water ran over him turned from warm to cold. He felt so powerless to do anything that he couldn't even gather the strength to get up. A few seconds passed and Isaiah inhaled a deep breath feeling a sudden tightness in the skin on his chest meaning that they must have given him stitches to the wound his attackers had inflicted on him. The thought of living with the word on his chest for the rest of his life was disturbing, he still couldn't wrap his mind around what he had done to deserve such a thrashing. He thought back about it wishing that he had of at least tried to defend himself thinking that if he had of gotten a good hit off on at least one of them he might feel better about himself right now. The only sounds in the room Isaiah could hear was Caleb's breathing and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights. He knew that the second he made any type of sound his mother was going to hear him. He knew that after this it was going to change everything, even if his mother still trusted him she would never let him go anywhere alone again. Isaiah started to become used to the light and opened his eyes fully after a few minutes when his mother noticed that he was awake. She approached him with tears in her eyes and slowly and carefully put her arms around him from the opposite side of the bed Caleb was on.

"Oh, thank god you're awake," she cried quietly, "I was starting to think you wouldn't wake up." Carla pulled back for a second and put her hand on his face. "Oh, my god, my baby. Why didn't you tell me what happened? Caleb told me everything. Isaiah flinched as she hugged him a second time brushing up against the wound lightly. "I'm sorry did I hurt you?" she asked pulling back quickly.

"Still hurts." Carla sat down carefully on the edge of the bed and took Isaiah's free hand. She looked at him with bloodshot eyes. "I'm sorry mom," Isaiah whispered, "But I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry about me." Isaiah looked up at his mother who just rubbed her free hand through his hair gently.

"How were you going to keep this from me?"

"I don't know." Truthfully Isaiah hadn't thought the whole situation through the pain was too much for him to just put aside for the time being.

"Do you know who did this to you? We have to call the police."

"Mom, please don't," pleaded Isaiah. Isaiah knew that if there was any retaliation on his part that the people who did this would just strike back and hit harder. "If you do, things will just get worse." Carla looked at him with a look of angry desperation in her eyes that Isaiah had never seen before.