Survival [TharnType]

Chapter 5

Type was terrified. He was conscious, but all he knew was that he was lying on a bed. He was aching all over, he didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to face the reality of what had happened. A hand was stroking his hair. He didn't want to see it bending over him, he didn't want to remember what had happened that day. 

Lost in his thoughts, in his memories, and in his imagination, it took him a moment to realise that someone was talking to him.

- Type, you have to wake up. Please open your eyes and look at me my love. I need to see you, I need you to tell me you're okay. If you only knew how much I blame myself. I should never have left you alone. I should have stopped working, stayed at the flat. I shouldn't have gone on that tour. I should have insisted that you tell me what was going on. It's all my fault, I couldn't protect you from that monster. But it's all over now, I promise you. He didn't touch you, you hear me. He didn't touch you. You're all right. He didn't do anything to you. So open your eyes, my love. 

Type felt a kiss being placed in his hair, and his forehead being wet. He wanted to trust that soft voice, to believe what it was saying. Maybe if he opened his eyes, the nightmares would go away?

Slowly he began to move. Finally, he opened his eyes. He fell directly on Tharn's tear-stained face. All the fear of the past few weeks, and the desire to be comforted, came over him at once. 

- Tharn...

Tears began to flow, as he relievedly accepted his boyfriend's arms.

- You're okay Type, you're okay. I'm here for you, it's okay. 

Tharn continued to repeat reassuring phrases in the hollow of his ear, over and over, stroking his hair, and his back, over the hospital gown. For a few blessed minutes, Type could finally forget everything. As he let his mind drift, he suddenly felt like he was in his arms. He pushed Tharn as far away from him as possible, cowering in the corner of the bed with his knees bent against him. As images of the man came to him, more and more insistent, his breathing became shorter. He looked around like a rabbit in the middle of the road, caught in the headlights of a car. 

- No, no, no! Leave me, leave me !!!!

Type started to scream, pulling his hair out. He couldn't breathe, couldn't tell reality from his waking nightmare. Tharn wasn't really beside him, he hadn't arrived in time. He had been defiled, tortured, killed but left alive to feel the pain. Every fibre of his body rejected the very idea of being touched by anything.

Suddenly he was surrounded by other shadows, other menacing faces. Hands reached out towards him. He could even hear his voice, right in his ear, screaming from dozens of metres away.

- Type, Type, calm down. Stop moving. Everything's going to be fine, I promise. 

He screamed even more, struggling. The more he did so, the more threatening the shadows around him became. A sting in his arm, followed by total darkness. 

Type's body relaxed. The doctors and nurses who had to intervene eased the pressure on him. His senior doctor and nurse stayed behind to take notes and look after him. The nurse, a woman in her forties, finished the treatment and approached Tharn. He was still standing in the corner where he had been pushed back to keep out of the way, his face scratched, still in shock. He couldn't take his eyes off Type.

- Are you all right, Nong?

He came back to reality when he felt the hand on him.

- What... What just happened? Why did he... Why did he react like that? I don't understand.