《 Skip a Beat 》

Precious seconds

A nurse bustled out of the room. Everyone shot to their feet. She was wearing thick black-rimmed glasses perched on the end of her nose and a pen behind one ear. She had a clipboard tucked under her arm and multiple papers in her other hand.

She had a kind but weary look in her milky blue eyes, and seemed to tell exactly what they wanted to know.

"He's on life support. We're not sure if he'll make it."

The five of them exchanged glances.

"Can we come in?"

The question came from Jacob that time. His face was creased with worry and his eyes were sunken in, just slightly. The nurse chewed on a lip.

"Okay. Try to be quiet. There are more nurses and doctors in the connected room- the one with the green door if something happens. So far he isn't showing any signs of life."

The nurse continued off down the corridor and disappeared around a corner. They were left hovering around the door she'd closed behind her. Leta sneaked a glance at Tina. Her head was bowed, her shoulders squared. She was staring at the floor.

"Do you want to go inside?" Leta asked softly, to everyone, to anyone. There were a quiet mumble of responses, most of which asking whether anyone else wanted to go. Theseus lifted his eyes to the door. He was afraid- no, he was terrified- but his brother needed him, and he needed Newt, too.

Before he could change his mind, he gently turned the doorknob and slipped inside. The rest of them looked at each other. Then the slightly-open door. Theseus didn't need to turn around to know they were following him.

They quietly filed into the room one after another.

It was rather plain, with bleak grey walls and multiple tables hosting pointed silver tools on one side. Just as the nurse had told them, there was a green door at the far end of the room, with a little rectangular window at the top. There were four beds in the room, but only one was occupied. The two beds on the other side of the room had a green curtain whisked around them. A clock ticked sorrowfully on one side- the only sound in the room, bar a high-pitched bleeping noise every second or so. A machine of some sort, Theseus realised with an unfriendly jolt. They'd hooked him up to a life support machine.

Someone gasped quietly and he turned around.

Newt was indeed hooked up to a life support machine, its quiet, pulsing beeps filling the air. He didn't look like he'd recovered; the scratches on his face were still there, and a clean white bandage was wrapped around his head, the blood from a cut on his temple already soaking through the cloth. There was an ominous looking mask strapped across his face connected to a long tube, and multiple little cables taped to his arms, hands and chest, all connected to the machine, but that wasn't what attracted Theseus' attention.

"He's so pale," someone whispered. It was Queenie. She was standing in between Tina and Jacob, a hand over her mouth. Tina was quiet, but she was staring at Newt, her face blank and unreadable.

Queenie was right. Newt was more than pale- he had turned a sickly greyish colour, making his red-brown hair look like fire in contrast. A white sheet was pulled up to just under his collarbone, so his leg wasn't visible. There was no blood on the sheet. Theseus wasn't sure if it was a good sign or not.

A doctor exited the room behind the green door and quietly moved across the ward, heading for the door they entered through. Theseus watched him for a moment before turning back to his little brother.

He stalled a minute, debating whether he should move or not, then slowly walked to the side of the bed. There was a wooden bedside table on the right side. On it sat a filled-out form of some sort and a clear ornate vase filled with water, but no flowers.