𝐃𝐄𝐉𝐀 𝐕𝐔 • Percy Jackson.

II-12

         HIS EYEBROWS FURROW AT THE CONTINUOUS BEEPING. . The darkness recedes and he finds himself surrounded in white and silver glinted from the harsh lights. He wasn't in his plains of lavender with a soft breeze, no, he was at the hospital ward looking at a child sleeping. The heart monitor softly beeped as the nurse placed an IV on the child. He could only discern that the child had black hair and brown skin, the rest covered by an oxygen mask.

There's rustling and a nurse along with a doctor come in. "He's stable for now, his pulse is still weak."  She stated glancing at the child before her, "the list of injuries?" The doctor asked. "Both his arms are broken. He might have some brain damage and his ribs are fractured. He's got internal injuries. We don't think he'll make it."  She kept listing things, on and on, and he could only listen with wide eyes. "The nanny and the driver are in slightly better condition." The nurse explained.

He looked back at the child before flinching at the sight of a transparent young boy staring at him. "Hey mister?" He called out to him, Amani originally didn't want to say anything, but he felt he couldn't control his body as he answered, "yes?" The boy's stare unnerved him.

There's a constant dull tone in his ears as he hears the boy ask, "Are you the grim reaper?"

"I'm not." Was his reply.

"Satan?"

He shook his head.

"An angel?"

Again, he shook his head.

The boy frowns, lost in thought, before shrugging. "Then what are you?" He gets no reply and the boy lips press into a thin line.

"That's okay, but… since you're here, can you save me?"  He asks and he's strangely silent. "Please? I don't want my mom to cry anymore." He whispers on the verge of begging. His eyes shine with a layer of tears waiting to fall. "She's always crying. She doesn't know that I know, but when she turns her back away and closes the door I can hear her." He explains, his voice going softer and softer until he finishes with a meek, "I heard her once say she wished she never had me–well it was today actually." He rambles, and Amani wonders why he is told this.

"Then why do you want to go back?" His voice croaks out, "to a family that doesn't want you?" He finds himself asking, Amani realizes he is simply the eyes. His dream was out of his control. There's a period of silence, as if the boy hadn't thought of this before, "because I want to live." Is his final answer. "But nobody wants you." The voice was cold and it hit the sore spot of the child.

"That's okay, because I want to live for myself."

Ah.

He looks down, his heart seems to hurt.  "It's not free." Is Amani's response, but it's enough for the young boy to sit up straight.

He seems to hear muffled panicked voices surrounding them. "Anything–I'll do anything!" His eyes could be practically sparkling and Amani hears himself sigh. "My solution will not make you live." Is what the boy hears, and his heart freezes. "What--why?"

"You will be driven to hell like me."

"But you're here?"

"...I don't why, but I am."

The boy's energy seemed to be sucked away. He caved into himself, before asking in a weak voice, "what's your solution?" There's a wild beeping in his ear, it was so loud it could be deafening, but Amani could make out, "Then…Live for me." The statement is absurd. "I'm afraid I can't –" He feels the boy fade away and he feels like he's being sucked in. "Wait–!" He hears himself say in a panic, but the deed is done and the world collapses before him. He hears voices of panic in his ears, "wait he's not gone yet!"  Is all he hears.