Sqaishey's POV
Crystal and the other nurse left after they finished putting three more straps over me. Another two on my chest and one that could be undone crossing over my thighs. All of them were horribly uncomfortable. Especially the one crossing over my bare thighs. The thick leather dug into my skin, casuing red and angry marks to rise up to the surface of my pale skin. I stared up at the plain ceiling. The only reason there was a light shining up their eailer was so they could see where they were placing the splints. As if they could mistake my arm for something else! It was stupid! I looked over at where the window was. The curtains had been pulled back a crack so I could see into the hallway. I craned my neck upwards and tried my best to see what was happening. There was a few people, mainly nurses, walking along the squeaky floor. Some of them pushed trollys, wheelchairs and even hospital beds. Each paitent I saw looked dead. I had a awful feeling that I was going to turn up like one of those people very, very soon.
I stayed like this for a few minites until I saw Crystal herself walking down the hallway. In her hand she was holding a silver tray that had a few things in it. I flopped my head back down onto the hard matress and closed my eyes. I knew that if I was awake I would have to indure so many embarrassing things such as being spoonfed, washed with the chance that somebody would come in on me and seee me...Yea...as well as the dreaded bedpan proceedure. So if I was asleep then hopefully she wouldn't bother with any of those things. I mean, she had to let me sleep, right? Isn't sleeping meant to help you fight dieases such as the dreaded 'C' one? So surely she had to let me sleep for at least an hour longer? I heard the door that led into my room open and close seconds later. There was a few seconds of complete silence until I felt my bedsheets get pulled from of my body. I felt a small jolt of fear run through me. Was she just going to clean me while I was fast asleep?!
I refrained from opening my eyes or talking in any way though. Maybe if I just stayed quiet and pretended that I was alseep Crystal might come back in an hour or so. I felt a hand on my shoulder. If she was going to shake me awake then I had no chance. I was going to have to endure everything that she said earier. I felt tears prick up in my eyes. Why couldn't they put me into a coma? It would have been much more better than this! Even if I didn't wake up then at least I wouldn't have to worry about anything else for the rest of my life! I wouldn't have to worry about realtionships, family...My own freaking child...How could Stampy just give him away like that?! How? Did he even care about his own child anymore and give him away just because he hated him!? Ugh, surely not. Stampy isn't like that. He probably gave him away so that he couldn't look after him properly anymore. That's what it seemed like to me at least.
"Beth? Hello? Can you please wake up?" Crystal whispered. I thought about staying alseep and waiting until she left, yet after a while she spoke again. "Please wake up, after I clean and feed you you're allowed to see somebody." I mentally sighed and let my eyes flutter open. Crystal was standing over me and in her hand she was holding the dreaded bedpan. At once I could feel my face turn a bright red. Was I really going to have to use it? If so, exactly how did you use it? I just thought that bedpans were just like pots or something weird like that. So how was I meant to use it when I was chained down to a bed? "How are you feeling?" She asked. I gave her a split second death stare. How did she think that I felt? I was stuck to a bed for what seemed like the rest of my bloody life! "I know you're probably not feeling well, but you want to look nice for this visiter, right?" I weakly nodded, not wanting to argue.
I knew that it was Stampy. I just knew it. Who else could it be? I craned my neck up and tried to see out of the window. I didn't think that I would be able to see him, or any other people for that matter, yet he was standing right outside of my room. He was on the other side of the hallway, leaning up against the pale blue wall. His face was ghastly pale and the whole of his body was shivering. What on earth had happened to him? I rested my head back down on the matress and looked back up at Crystal again. I guess I had no other choice but to deal with all of the embarressing stuff. Hopefully I would be out of this hospital soon, or let out of these stupid splints incasing me to my bed. And besides, at least I have a new, much nicer nurse. If I had to go through this with my old nurse then it would be the worst expreicance of my entire life.
"So...I think you know what happens next." I closed my eyes tightly and nodded. This was going to be living hell and I knew it. I felt Crystal lifting up my back and slipping something underneath it. I knew that it was the bedpan. Without any warning tears started to roll down my face. I didn't want to use this...Yet I knew that I was going to have to stay like this for a very, very long time. "Oh, please don't cry. It's going to be okay. It's not that bad." I wanted to bury my face in my hands and sob but I couldn't. "Listen, how about I leave the room while you're doing what you need to do?" I nodded, my face turning an even brighter red colour. With that she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her. Even though she was gone it took ages to actually go. I felt as if both Stampy and Crystal, as well as every body else in this hospital could see me right now. And it wasn't that nice.
When I did finally go though Crystal somehow knew that I had done so and walked back into my hospital room. Luckily when she opened the door nobody was there to peek in on me. She took away the metal pan of death and quickly rubbed a damp flannel over my entire face, before rubbing the mositure away with a rough towel. Once she finished doing that my face felt so dry that I was shocked that I still had saliva in my mouth. I watched her as she placed the towel and the flannel in a bucket, as well as pour the contents from the bedpan into another small bucket before walking out of the room to take them somewhere. Luckily she didn't feed me anything, but at the same time I kinda wished that she had done so. Because then at least I would know what it feels like rather than thinking and worrying about it for the next twenty four hours or so. I would much rather expreicance something right away and hate it then worry about that thing and end up hating it even more. Then again most things in life were things that I had to worry about now. Like my son potentially getting beaten in some type of orphange, why Stampy looked so ill, and how the heck was I going to stay like this for at least another year...That just seemed horrifying. I guess I was going to get used to it after a few days though, just like I had to get used to many other things in life.
The door that led to my room opened for the millioth time that day and Stampy walked in. He looked even worse than he did when he was out in the hallway. I wanted to sit up and get pulled into a hug yet we both knew that it wasn't going to happen. Instead he just leaned up against the wall that was right next to my bed and stare at the ground. I could see that there was tears welling up in his eyes. There was nothing that I could do but lay there and listen to his gentle sobs. It was so hard to listen to. I wanted to say something yet what the heck could you say during these times? How was I meant to start up a nice conversation while I was like this? Being imoblised really made the simple things in life much more harder. We both stayed silent for what seemed like years and years until Stampy carefully sat down on the edge of my bed, making sure not to sit on any of my limbs. It was quite hard though as Crystal had pulled all of my arms and legs out so when I had all of my splints on I looked like a metal person doing star jumps. It pulled my limbs which forced me to be contantantly strecthing, which at first felt nice as I hadn't strecthed in a while, but now it was just plain uncomfortable.
"Sqaishey...The reason you're like this is because...Did they tell you that you had a cold or it was getting worse?" Stampy choked out. I nodded. "There's more to it though. They have found tumors in your spinal cord...Which means that if you move then there's a high chance that you'll get paralysed." I stared up at him in shock. I thought that I had to stay still so I would get less out of breath but...Was it really because my cancer was getting...deadly? What?! I found it almost impossible to belive. "I'm so sorry Sqaishey. I'm so sorry. You're getting worse by the day. I want to do something to help you but there isn't much that I can do and...and I feel so terrible about it." He ran his fingers through his hair and a few more tears spilled down his face.
"It isn't your fault, Stampy! It's...It's nobody's fault. Please don't cry...Please. I'm worried about you, Stampy...You look sick." I mumbled. Stampy looked down at me, more tears spilling over his eyes.
"I know it isn't techinally my fault but...I just feel awful about it. Maybe there was something that I could've done, you know? I shoud've made you go to the doctor after Kendal was born. Then maybe they would've dected the cancer and started treatment at once. Yet now you got it in all around your chest and it's spreading all throughout your bones." His phone went off. He pulled it out of his pocket and stared at it for a few seconds. "Ugh, I need to go. Me and Squid need to go to a YouTube meeting now. Seen you later, ducky." He slipped off from my bed and kissed me. We both stayed like this for what felt like months. His lips against mine felt so warm dispite the fact that he looked like he was shivering. When he pulled away he wamrly smiled at me before walking out of the room. I watched through the small gap in the window as he walked down the hallway and out of my line of sight. For once I actually felt happy after Stampy left rather than feeling depresed as I was scared that I would nevr see him again.
Stampy's POV
As I walked out of the hospital I noticed Squid's car at once. He drove up to me and I hopped into his car. If I was totally honest I didn't want to go to this YouTube meeting yet it was compuslary. Yea, it sucked, but after the two hours that the meeting was supposed to go on for, Squid said that he was taking me somewhere for a 'suprise'. A new haunted house had opened up aroung three miles away from place that the meeting was being held at so I had a horrible feeling that we were going in there. I wouldn't really care though. Maybe if me and Squid got separated then I could just find a hallway by myself and cry priavtely. Not because I was upset...It was more stress that was making me cry nowadays. Just with everything that was going on with Sqaishey was enough to make most people stressed out. I rested my head against the cold window and looked out onto the freezing cold street. It was almost Christmas and a few houses had strung up lights and decorations. It looked pretty but knowing that I would have to spend Christmas with my family just scared me out of my mind.
Around a full our of driving in traffic Squid pulled up outside the meeting place. Somehow when we walked into the room itself we were early. I had a weird feeling that all the other people that were planning to be here were going to be late...I just knew it. Yet hopefully if the meeting overran because everybody was late, then the haunted house Squid was most likely going to take me too would be closed...It might sound horrible but, after what I saw today I don't really want to be scared any further. Well, not much else would be able to scare me. It was horrible seeing her like that. I thought she would just be laying down on her bed, that was it! I was expecting that if it was really bad then she would be in a few casts, that was all. But there was these weird metal sort of braces over each of her limbs, as well as leather straps over her limbs as well. When they meant bedrest they seirsouly meant that she wasn't leaving the bed, didn't they? How the heck was she going to survive in that thing for atleast another whole year? Heck, I couldn't stay in my bed all day when I had a cold without feeling bad, yet she was going to have to stay in the same position for atleast another year.
*Time Skip*
After the meeting me and Squid got back into his car and he started driving. We stayed in silence for what seemed like ages. In fact I almost enteriy forgot about the suprise until he turned off from the main road and started to travel down a creepily long and scary looking road. The road was made out of white gravel like rock which crunched underneath the cars tires, on the sides of the road there was dark green bushes that were bound to be holding all types of monsters, and there was no streetlights to be seen. The only light that made us see was the headlights of the car. The scene in front of my eyes looked like something from out of a horror movie. I shrunk back in my seat and covered my face with my hands. I felt my heart start to beat faster and faster with every second. Where on earth was Squid taking me? I had a feeling that it was more than a haunted house. The car suddenly halted to a stop that was quickly followed by Squid cussing underneath his breath. I dared to peak through my fingers to look at the road ahead of me. No lights were on at all, not even the headlights.
"Squid?" I called out. My voice felt horribly loud in the quiet surrondings. Suddenly, there was a loud bang on the window, as if somebody had slammed their body against it. I screamed out and curled up in a ball. Was I going to die? Was there some sort of murderer outside? Was Squid dead? Was the killer that potentially killed him was going to break into the car and murder me as well?! Tears started to roll out of my eyes. I was terrified out of my mind. This was the worst feeling of fear that I had felt in my entire life. I felt a cold breeze brush across my body.
"Hello?" I didn't reconise the voice at all.
"Please don't hurt me! I'm sorry! Please! I'm sorry!" I yelled. More tears ran down my face, dripping onto my shirt and making it soaking wet. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. "Leave me alone!" I pushed whoever this person was away from me and ran out of the car. The gravel crunched underneath my feet, probably giving me away my postion. But if I ran fast enough then maybe he or she wouldn't see me. I lanched my body towards the bushes, cutting my stomach and most of my chest open. My sleeve got caught on one of the sharp branches and got torn open, making me fall onto my face and into the slipperly mud. I heard footsteps coming towards me so instead of running further I tried staying compleltly still. The branches that were covering my body got pulled away and seconds later, hands wrapped around my leg and I got pulled out. The mud covered my face and most of it went into my hair. I screamed out in utter fear. What the heck was going to happen to me?! Was I going to get mudered? If so, was it going to be a quick murdering or a slow one?
I felt an arm wrap around my stomach as I got pulled upwards. I felt terrified. What was going to happen to me? I tried to fight off whoever this person was but they were way too strong for me. This person dragged me towards Squid's car where he placed me on the road right next to it. I covered my face with my arms and tried to stop myself from sobbing any harder than I already was. Yet after a few seconds when nothing happened I dared to look up. Squid was standing above me, looking scared out of his mind. There was a cut on his face that started from just below his eye and ended at his chin. It was dripping with blood. He reached out towards me and ran his fingers over my arm.
"Jeez, that...that freaking fucker...Tried to murder us. You did a pretty good job at running away there. I just stepped out of the car and he jumped on me. Cut my freaking face open. Anyway, are you alright mate?" Squid whispered. There was a loud rustle coming from next to him. "Shit...Get into the car, right now." He pulled me up by my arm and dragged me into the car, locking all of the doors. We stayed silent for a few seconds as a black figure walked across the road. I held my breath tightly and tried not to burst into tears. After a scary few minties he eventually went out of our sight. "Stamps...Do you know what this 'suprise' was going to be?" He asked.
"What was it?" I replied.
"I was planning to get a beagle. For the apartment. So if Sqaishey ever does come out of the hospital then...yea..." I burst into tears. Sqaishey wouldn't be getting out of the hospital any time soon. Not when she was in that contraption anyways. "What's wrong? Stamps?"
"Sqaishey isn't...Coming out of the hospital any time soon...She's trapped in this weird contraption...and she...she is bed bound. She's litreally t-t-t-tied to the bed with metal straps." I sobbed. Squid stared at me for a few seconds until he reached out and patted me on my shoulder. I bite into my bottom lip to try and hold back the sobs that were tickling the back of my throat. I may have bitten into it too hard because a few blobs of blood rose to the surface of my skin.
"Like a splint?" I nodded. That was probably what those metal contraptions where. "Jeez...She's going to be in there for atleast another year. But it'll help her." He fell silent. "Maybe, instead of getting a puppy we can...get Kendal back. It'll be nice to have him back in the house. If you need help with him I'll be more than happy to help out with feeding, changing...bascially like a second parent until Sqaishey get's better." It did sound tempting. The reason I gave him away because I was scared that I wasn't looking after him properly. Yet...Right now I wanted to take him back. If I did so then maybe, with Squid's help, I would be able to look after him. It would be hard but I had to do it for Sqaishey. If the one thing that she wanted was for her son to come out of the home that I had put him into then...Well...I was going to have to do it...For her.
"Yes. Let's get Kendal." I said.
......................................................................
Its a happy chapter....ARE YOU SATISFIED