What We Left Behind

Chapter Seven: In Which Magic Happens and Eric "Lulls" Himself to Sleep

Ms Brown's breath came up in a shudder when she pushed in the room where Eric was lying. She looked at his condition. Almost dead. A blue hospital gown hugging his body, with tubes and instruments attached to his arms. A nurse was beginning to clean up. She looked up at the sudden movement, her hand going still for a moment. 

"I'm sorry," she offered, gesturing at the patient. "Is he your son?" 

Oh, how I wish. 

Ms Brown just shook her head wordlessly, then walked forward, her legs feeling like they would give away from beneath her any moment. She stumbled to stand beside the boy, staring at his pale, lifeless face. 

And in a small voice, she asked, "Are there no chances of survival?'

The nurse came around to the other side of Eric's bed. And when Ms Brown looked up, she was shocked to see a small smile on the nurse's face. "There's nothing such as certainty. There's a probability, but there's never a surety, neither an impossibility."

When Ms Brown looked confused, the nurse elaborated. "There was no pulse within this young man when he was brought here. But now there is. You still don't believe in miracles?" 

The nurse looked wise for her age. She sounded wise. 

"We have got life back in him, the defibrillator has," she said. "But they say that the infection is far too much in his bloodstream for him to survive. Even live through the night." 

"But he's a survivor," Ms Brown's voice took the desperate, ragged edge now. "Eric has been a survivor. I know him." 

The nurse nodded. "Then hold on to that belief." She reached out to pat Ms Brown's hand that was resting on top of Eric's arm. "I'll let you stay with him in private." Saying this, she turned and walked out of the room. She bumped into Eric's mum who was just entering the room. 

Ms Brown was relieved. She released a loud sigh and shook Eric's arm, knowing she was doing something crazy. Because Eric's mum was just standing there at the corner away from the bed and staring at the two of them.

"Eric. Eric," Ms Brown said. "Come back, Eric. Please." 

Please.

_____________

Erix was walking along the grimly polished corridor of this rich castle when he felt a tug at the back of his brain. Like a thread being pulled. 

A voice being called.  

He stopped, a dull pain waking up in his knee at the sudden halt. Since there was no one he could see here, he leaned against the wall in relief. The back of his head hit the brown wall behind him, all his will giving up at the pain in his leg and the pain in his head. 

Then he heard it again.

A voice chanting his name. Eric. Eric. Eric. 

Nothing else came through. Just these two syllables. 

He closed his eyes, tears of exhaustion and frustration leaking out. 

I want to sleep. He pleaded. Let me sleep.

It was so ironic; how in one world he was doing everything in his will not to fall asleep, while in another world he just wanted to be unconscious at all times so he didn't have to deal with anything. 

He was torn between these two words. Stuck in here while his body was there. 

I want to come back. Call me back.