Prompt: Remember when Colby pranked Aaron by hiding in Sam's closet making loud noises whilst trying to convince him their house was haunted and - little did he know - Aaron, scared, grabbed a knife when he went to investigate and almost ended up stabbing him? What if Aaron actually did when he was pranked by his roommate, taking things from okay to possibly deadly?
SLAM!
Colby slams Sam's closet door shut once more and giggles like a little kid, filming shakily as he awaits Aaron's arrival for the prank to really kick in. The anticipation is almost killing him, and he wants nothing more than for Aaron to open the door so he can scare the crap out of his roommate. Oh how evil he is.
Smiling widely, Colby listens carefully for the sound of Aaron's footsteps padding down the hallway. He's practically vibrating in anticipation, clutching his camera in a tight grip as he waits, a smile wide across his face. Such a perfect opportunity presented itself to him. Sam, Kat, Elton, Corey and Jake are all out, it's just Aaron in the house and he wholeheartedly believes there are ghosts in the house.
What better way to prank him than to make loud ominous crashes from within the house, thus scaring the crap out of him?
Trying to suppress his giggles, Colby quiets down in the closet, opening the door before slamming it once more, aware of Aaron's presence down the hall. Unbeknownst to him, Aaron jumps at the sound, clutching a knife firmly in his grasp as he comes prepared to confront whatever the hell is in their house (he knows something or someone is there, he just knows it).
Colby smiles and can just barely hear Aaron talking, which he immediately realizes means his roommate is talking to his camera. Just as Colby had hoped, Aaron is vlogging, which will make his prank oh so much better considering then he'll have footage of Aaron's face as he slams doors and generally makes loud noises.
Colby hears Aaron push open Sam's bedroom door and after a second, a small bar of light is cast into the closet from the bottom of the door, meaning Aaron turned on the lights in the main room. Colby's body is pulsing with adrenaline, so much so that he can barely keep still. The rush he gets from pranking/scaring something is almost addictive, and Colby can't wait to see the look on Aaron's face when he jumps out of the closet and scares him.
"S-Sam?" Aaron stutters breathlessly, padding into the room. Colby can hear the hesitation and fear in his friends voice, and it makes him feel guilty for a split second. But it's too late to go back now, he just has to go through with the prank.
Colby can hear and feel Aaron approaching the closet, his steps quick yet delayed, almost like he's second guessing himself. Colby waits and waits, and feels his heart rate quicken as he hears Aaron grasp the door handle and turn it, slowly opening the door.
In the next moment, Aaron quickly opens the door, standing defensively on the other end and Colby wastes no time in responding accordingly, letting out some sort of battle cry/scream, to scare his roommate. And it has the intended effect on Aaron.
However, he has no time to react or even comprehend what's about to happen when Aaron, fuelled by fear, surges forward with the knife and plunges it into Colby's chest (or as he sees it, this figure in his closet's chest). All it takes is a second for Aaron, acting on impulse, to plunge the knife into Colby's chest, which takes the prank from moreover harmless to dangerous.
To make matters worse, as soon as the knife is plunged into Colby's chest, Aaron lets go of it and takes a step back in shock, eyes wide as he stares at the scene unfolding in front of him.
They both stop for a second, and that's when Aaron realizes it's only Colby in the closest and that's also when the pain registers in Colby. He gasps and struggles to breathe as he stumbles backwards, his camera slipping from his suddenly sweaty palm. Eyes wide and jaw agape, Colby looks down and gags when he sees the handle of the knife sticking out of his chest, at an angle somewhere in his right pec. Time slows down yet comes crashing down on him in the next instant threatening to suffocate him all in one as Colby's life flashes before his eyes.
"Oh my God..." Aaron practically screams as he grips at his hair, staring at Colby in front of him, whose wound is starting to leak blood, staining his shirt. He's swaying somewhat, and Aaron knows that's not a good thing. "C-Colby?"
Colby looks up, a lopsided grin on his face as he meets Aaron's gaze. "Y-you shoulda seen the look on y-your face..." His smile wavers and the next second, he's crashing to the floor.
Teetering backwards, Colby falls against the wall of Sam's closet and slides to the ground, his face screwed up in pain as his wound is jostled. Unsure what to do, Aaron surges towards his friend and starts severely panicking, honing in on the scene ahead of him.
"Oh my God, Colby... you-you scared the shit out of me I... I think I had a heart attack..."
Colby's breathing desperately. "I-I guess that makes two of us..." He lets out a whine and grasps at Aaron, tears collecting in his eyes. "I-I'm sorry Aaron..."
Aaron almost gets whiplash from whirling his head towards Colby, cocking his head with brows furrowed. "You're sorry?! I fucking stabbed you, dude. Why the fuck are you apologizing?"
Colby lets out a sigh. "I-I scared you a-and got hurt because of m-me... it was s-stupid, bro..."
Aaron shakes his head. "Now's not the time to argue or apologize. We gotta get you to the hospital. S-so no one's home?"
Colby shakes his head and immediately after hangs it in exhaustion and pain.
"Alright, alright lemme call an ambulance and grab some-some like, medical supplies, something to help the... the bleeding. Just-hold on, Colby, hold on. I'll be back in a second, bro."
With that, Aaron gets up and runs down to the kitchen to retrieve his phone, whereas Colby just stays in the closet, bleeding out whilst trying to maintain his breathing. Come on, man, just breathe. In and out, in and out... He tells himself.
Bleary and disoriented, Colby turns to the ground and sees his phone laying there on the carpet, about an arms length away. He reaches for it, groaning and whining when it pulls on his burning slice wound, but eventually he successfully grasps it and leans back to the wall, trying to catch his breath. After a second, he's able to unlock his phone and, still barely conscious, he blearily clicks a random contact and calls it, trying to inform his friends of what went down despite his inability to focus properly.
There's a few rings before whoever it is picks up.
"Colby?" It's Kat. She sounds somewhat concerned yet there's loud music all around her. "Everything okay? You never call. Oh, wait. Do you want Sam?" Colby barely gets a word out before Kat sighs. "Alright. Sam, here, it's for you." She hands the phone over to Sam, who clears his throat before beginning.
"Colbs? What's up, bro? I'm kind of in the middle of my date with Kat right now so, can it wait till I get back, dude? Not trying to be a hard ass." He lets out an impatient chuckle, and Colby looks down, guilt enveloping his body.
"Well, I mean you could wait until after to get back to me," Colby begins, almost panting from exertion. "But I doubt you'd want to given the, uh, circumstances, dude. Trust me."
Sam pauses. "O-kay. What's that mean? What's going on?"
Colby takes a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut as tears drip to his cheeks. "Well, uh, you know how I was planning on pranking Aaron with the whole haunted house thing?"
"Yeah...?"
"Well, he... I scared him alright. So much so that he..." Colby swallows thickly. "Well, he had a knife and-and he accidentally... stabbed me."
"WHAT?"
"I guess he was so scared he grabbed a knife for protection or whatever and when he opened the closet door, he... I dunno, impulsively stabbed me, bro." Colby clears his throat, his head bobbing.
"Wait, are you being for real?" Sam asks, voice wavering. "Yo, what? Is-is this a prank?"
Colby can't hold back the chuckle, however that turns into a cough that turns into a gargle of some sort of liquid bubbling at the back of his throat. He leans forward (despite how much it pulls on his wound) and holds his hand out, coughing into it a red liquid that makes his gut churn at the sight. He leans back and tries catching his breath, his ears tuning out Sam asking if he's okay.
"Colby?"
"Hmm?" Sam's voice finally snaps him out of his dazed stupor and he shakes his head, trying to orient himself. "Yeah, no, this isn't a prank, bro. I'm starting to cough up blood and-and I'm scared," His voice shakes and cracks at the end, tears rolling down his cheeks, palm filled with blood. "I just... wanted you to know from me and-and not Aaron or the cops."
"Call an ambulance!" Sam exclaims, and Colby listens as a chair is pushed back.
"Aaron's doing that right now," Colby admits, sighing.
"Dude, I'm on my way. Kat-" Sam's voice grows distant and Colby realizes he's covering the speaker of the phone. "We gotta go. I'm sorry to cut this short, babe but Colby's hurt."
Colby hears Kat inhale and her voice is even further away. "What happened? Is he okay?"
Sam hesitates. "I'll explain on the way. Colby?" Sam's voice becomes louder, and Colby snaps back to reality, Sam no longer covering the speaker. "We're on our way. Just hang on, bro, you'll be okay."
Colby can only manage a weak nod as Sam hangs up. That's when he hears loud and rapid footsteps pounding up the stairs and the next second, Aaron is running into the closet, holding a first aid kit with a phone pressed between his shoulder and ear.
"Mmhmm, yeah, okay yeah, I'm here," he's half talking to whomever is on the phone (Colby assumes its a dispatcher) and Colby himself. "Yeah, I got the kit a-and I'm here with him, what do I do?" Aaron asks as he drops to his knees in front of Colby, dropping the first aid kit as he lowers the phone from his ear and puts it on speaker phone, leaving it on the ground.
"He's still breathing?" The woman on the line asks.
Aaron turns to Colby who nods. "Yeah, yeah he's still breathing.
"Is there any blood blocking his airways?"
Colby sighs and nods, to which Aaron nods and drops his head. "Y-yeah, I think he's got some blood in his hand, um, he coughed it up I think."
"Is your friend still responsive?"
"Yeah, he's conscious if that's what you're referring to. Um, he's awake just quiet and tired I think."
"Do not let him go to sleep. Try to keep him awake and comfort him. If you have some sort of sheet or towel handy, try to stop the bleeding but do not remove the weapon. All you can do at this point is comfort him and keep him awake."
Aaron nods. "Okay. Alright, yeah, that makes sense. Thanks." He gets up and runs back into Sam's room, grabbing his towel from the rack next to his dresser. He runs back to Colby and presses it to the blood running down his chest and staining his shirt, firmly but not too hard. Just then, sirens cut through the air and Aaron and Colby both look up, relieved.
"Okay, they're almost here," Aaron tries to soothe, meeting Colby's eyes as he hangs up the phone. "Just stay awake for a little longer. You're gonna be okay, bro."
Colby nods sluggishly and feels himself almost melt into unconsciousness, despite the fact that Aaron's talking to him and shaking him, trying as best as he can to keep him awake. It's not enough, though. Colby's too tired and he's lost so much blood, he's in too much pain to fight back anymore.
"Come on, Colbs, lemme take you to the door." Aaron says, and Colby just nods slowly as Aaron pulls him up by his armpits, supporting his dazed friend as they head down to the front door. Surprisingly enough, to Aaron, Colby isn't very heavy or hard to support. He's just awkward to maneuver, given how lanky he is. And Aaron thanks his lucky stars Colby isn't too heavy/he's too weak to help his friend. It really pays off to be strong enough to carry his friends, especially in emergencies.
Aaron carefully helps Colby down the stairs (who finds himself stumbling an awful lot) and he picks up speed as they approach the door. All the while, Colby is whining in pain from his wound. Moving so much is agitating it and he's in so much pain.
"Sorry," Aaron mutters as he opens the door, just to be met with the ambulance coming to a speeding halt in front of their house. A couple of paramedics jump out of the car and once they spot Aaron carrying a half conscious, bloody Colby, they grab the gurney and rush over to the two.
Admittedly, Aaron is pretty tired. Mainly from the shock of Colby being so severely injured, and the guilt that he was the one who inflicted it. He's mentally drained and could collapse any second.
The paramedics take Colby from Aaron and help him onto the gurney, and they're sure to be careful around the knife in Colby's chest. They ask Aaron for the story and he begins to recite what happened, his words somewhat jumbled and slurred. As he explains what happened, he watches as they put an oxygen mask over Colby's face and start an I.V. in his arm. They fasten him to the gurney with the straps and pull the sheet over him, ensuring he's taken care of before they race him back to the ambulance.
Just then, Sam's car comes careening over and stops just behind the ambulance, him and Kat sitting in the car, impatient and panic striken (their faces say it all). Sam launches himself out of the car as fast as he can and races over to Colby and Aaron.
"Colby!" He shouts, stopping beside Colby, who just lulls his head towards Sam's direction as the paramedics roll him into the ambulance. Sam tries to grab at Colby's hand, for some sort of physical reassurance that his friend is okay but Colby is pulled away and into the ambulance. He's at least grateful he got to see his friend before the hospital.
"Oh my God, dude," Sam turns to Aaron, who's as white as a sheet and about to collapse. Sam grabs his arm and holds him up, allowing Aaron to collapse into him. "Yo, yo, yo, is he alright?"
"I... I dunno," Aaron mutters, beginning to cry.
"We'll do our best to stabilize him," The paramedic says. "I'm not certain but I think he'll be okay."
After telling Sam and Aaron to follow them to the hospital, the paramedics all clamber into the ambulance as it speeds away, whilst Sam helps Aaron into the backseat of his car to go to the hospital for Colby.