The Boy With Rabies

Worsening

A few months later

Theo lay in his hospital bed in his darkened room. The hospital had to keep his room dark because he would scream and thrash against his restraints every time the sun would shine through. He had frequent seizures during the night causing him to feel twice as weak. His parents were in the hospital chapel praying for the recovery of their dying son.

A nurse soon walked in and walked to the curtains, not knowing about Theo's dislike towards the sun. She opened the curtains, and instantly Theo screamed and thrashed. The nurse was confused at first by then saw the way Theo was trying to divert his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry hun." She said and quickly closed the curtains.

Theo was still sobbing and struggling as the nurse struggled to calm him. She called for Dr.Scott, and he came in. The nurse explained what had happened.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "Help me please," Dr.Scott said as he held Theo's arm out as the nurse administered a sedative.

Theo's thrashing soon slowed, and his sobs turned to hiccups. His hiccups of pain turned to hiccups of frustration, and he began to growl again.

"Shh, Theo," the doctor soothed. Theo glared at the doctor and snarled but quickly whimpered from weakness.

"A...a-a," Theo tried to speak. "A...a-a-addy."

"Hm?" Dr.Scott asked.

"Addy?" He was confused.

Did Theo have a friend named Addy? Theo groaned in frustration.

"D...aa-d-dy!"

"Oh, okay!" The doctor said understandingly.

He turned to the nurse and asked her to find Theo's parents. Soon, Theo's parents arrived, and Theo weakly reached out for his father. Matt grabbed two pairs of protective gloves and grabbed his son's hand. Theo's hand felt cold and limp. Theo weakly poked his dad's hand.

"Off." He said. Matt knew his son wanted him to take the gloves off.

"Theo, I can't. If I do, I might get sick too."

"Off!" Theo shouted. Tears rolled down Theo's face as he cried.

"O-o-off. Off. O-off. OFF!" The boy grew hysterical.

"Theo," Matt soothed.

"Once you're all better, I'll take the gloves off and hold your hand as much as you want me to, okay?" His son weakly nodded as his chest still heaved with heavy sobs.

Matt reached a hand over and rubbed his son's head. Theo leaned into his father's touch and weakly grinned. Theo's eyes soon grew heavy and closed shut. Matt looked at his wife, and she gave a sly smile as they watched their soon sleep for a few more moments before returning to the chapel.

That evening

Theo woke up in the middle of the night with a stabbing headache. He tried to speak to let his parents know, but he felt as if he couldn't talk. He grew scared and began crying. He then started screaming and trying to escape his restraints to grab his head but couldn't and growled in frustration. Theo's parents jolted awake and ran over to their son.

"What's wrong, bud?" Matt asked worriedly. Lisa tried to give her son some water, but he turned his head away. Theo swallowed his spit to get some moisture in his throat.

"H-hh-hea-a-add.... hu-uu-ur-t-tss."

Matt got the doctor, and they took him to an MRI and ran a few tests as well. They found nothing wrong with his brain and concluded that it was just a severe headache. However, Theo kept screaming and crying and struggling.

It took at least five people to hold the boy down for Dr.Scott to administer pain medication through his IV. All five people let go, but Theo continued to struggle.

Everyone, including his parents, left the room to give Theo some space to calm down. His limbs soon grew tired, and he stopped fighting but continued to sob. He continued to cry for an hour before the sick boy tired himself out and cried himself to sleep.

Later that night

Matt and Lisa were sleeping on a makeshift bed when they were jerked awake by rapid beeping of a heart monitor. They turned to see their son violently seizing. Matt sprinted to the door and yelled for a doctor. Dr.Scott and a few nurses came running in.

The oxygen tubes in the boy's nose were replaced with an oxygen mask. Just as a nurse was about to insert a calming sedative into Theo's IV, the seizure stopped, and Theo lay trying to catch his breath.

"You okay, baby?" Lisa asked. Theo gave a weak nod as a response.

Theo weakly held out a shaking hand, yearning for it to be held. Lisa looked at Dr.Scott who handed her four pairs of protective gloves, two pairs for her and two pairs for her husband. Lisa put both pairs on and grabbed hold of her son's hand. She rubbed her son's hand as his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

11/30/19 Update: fixed formatting