Depraved • C.H

Guilt

The early morning nurse flipped through sheets of information on her clipboard, jogging her memory as to which patient she was dealing with before collecting vitals. She jotted down all the basic things such as her blood pressure, heart rate, if she'd urinated or not, etc. Quickly scribbling down her updates on paper before moving to the whiteboard adhered to the wall, replacing the previously written data with the most recent.

The pale, messy haired boy laying on the edge of her patient's bed jumped awake, a sigh of exhaustion exiting his mouth as he propped himself back against the chair. Visiting hours were long over, but the staff tended to give patients a pass, especially ones struggling with their mental health. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you. I just have to check up on her, I'm almost done". She smiled, talking in a gentle tone, as she proceeded to her duties.

"Is she okay?"

"Yes, definitely, her vitals are completely normal, and will likely wake up at any moment. It's normal to be exhausted after an incident like that, she lost a decent amount of blood, but nothing life-threatening".

"Oh okay".

"Yes... she's lucky to have someone by her side through this".

If only she knew, he thought, wincing at the memories he spent hurting her feelings. "Yeah, I guess... what happens next? Like when can she leave?"

"You'd have to ask the doctor about that, in most cases like these the patient is sent upstairs for a psych evaluation. They'll do a number of things such as run tests, figure out if she would be interested in trying prescriptions or therapy, and more than likely would be sent to a specialized institution to help her get better, but what happens ultimately will be decided by her physician, and psychologist. All this should be put into motion once she's less loopy, so sometime tomorrow if I'd have to guess".

"What? Like a mental institution?"

"Yes".

"She doesn't even live here, she's going back to Arizona in a couple days. How can a random ass doctor decide that for her?"

"Then her medical files were more than likely faxed over by her primary physician, don't worry she's in excellent hands. I'll have doctor Novak speak to you whenever she knows what the next step for her is. Anything else I can help you with?"

"No".

She gave him an understanding nod, circling back to the door before proceeding to the next patient she was assigned to. Corpse sighed, allowing his head to return to his spot against Indigo's hand. He yawned, his eyes once again feeling heavy, but his stomach felt as if it was being impaled by thousands of pins and needles. Gurgling with hunger, and a remaining hint of nausea, half of him wanted to eat an entire meal, but in reality he likely couldn't even stomach something as small as a grape. Every time he closed his eyes to fall asleep, he was disturbed by a sharp abdominal pain, eventually causing him to give up on the idea of sleeping entirely.

He hoped Indigo would wake up soon so that he could talk to her again, and more importantly figure a way out of the hospital before they try sending her somewhere she'd be even more unhappy.

•••

Indigo's eyes slowly opened before abruptly shutting again, nearly blinded by the harsh lighting. Trying again she ignored the burning in her eyes this time, intrigued and confused by her surroundings. Her heart began to pound in her chest, she tried quickly sitting up, but her body stayed entirely still, seemingly glued to the bed. The motivation she had was almost immediately diminished, feeling a wave of involuntary exhaustion, as if she hadn't just been asleep off and on for the past 24 hours. While her IV cocktail of medication had been lessened, she was still struggling to fully gather her bearings. Her body wanted nothing more than to fall back asleep, return to her dreams where everything was okay, but her mind needed to understand what was going on.