The Fourth Closet (Fanfiction)

The Hospital

Marla scooted her chair closer to the side of Carltons bed, "So, tell me everything! What happened?" She said excitedly. "Ow, Marla! The nurse said I need to get some rest and shouldn't be exposed to stress right now" Carlton whimpered, reaching for his child sized juice box. Marla blocked his hand before he could grab it and pushed it away, "Come on Marla, leave him be" Quinn laughed. "Oh please, I practically am a nurse, plus, I really wanna know what happened, so tell me! Marla said, lifting a bunch of wires and tubes and pushing them aside. "Marla! Those are attached to me; they're keeping me alive! Carlton said frantically looking around at the sides of his bed. "Where's my panic button," he said half truly and half sarcastically.

Quinn watched as Marla felt around the side of the bed, she pulled out a little device with a big red button on it and placed it neatly in her lap. "No juice box, no panic button until you tell me what happened!" Marla whined. "Marla, just let him be, hasn't he been through enough?" Quinn chuckled a little. "Yeah he really does need to relax" Jessica chimed in. Carlton gave them both a reliving smile though it almost immediately faded as he began to dart his eyes around the room. "Where's dad- I mean Clay" Carlton asked. "I'm right here" Clay said gazing out the window, his face was so tight with worry. He turned around shaking his head. "You gave us a scare Carlton, and this time it wasn't a practical joke". Carlton grinned but again it was only short lived. "Are all the children okay?" he asked worriedly. "They're safe, all of them," Jessica said quickly. "All of them?" Carlton said in a little disbelief. "Yeah, you saved him, the last one," Jessica smiled. "And he's okay" Carlton asked for confirmation, Jessica nodded her head.

Carlton looked down at the end of the bed, "And what about Charlie" he said softly. Quinn felt her blood run cold. Charlie. How could she have forgotten? John had left with her that afternoon and she didn't even think to ask him when they had gone when he made his perfectly timed reappearing. Clays deep husky voice snapped her away from her thoughts. "We don't know," he said, stepping forward. "I've been looking for her and I'll keep looking, but so far," he broke off, then cleared his throat, "I'm going to keep looking" he reassured. Quinn looked around at everyone. Jessica. Marla. Carlton. Clay. They all had the same worried and uneasy expression on their faces. Carlton looked down thoughtfully then looked up once more, "What about hot Charlie?" he asked. Marla raised her hand into the air swiftly, swinging it down to slap Carlton across the shoulder. "Ow, Marla, I almost died, this is blood on my bed!" he yelled. "That's Kool aid, you spilt that on yourself an hour ago" Marla rolled her eyes.

"John?" Carlton said, pointing to the door. Quinn turned around to see John. He was leaning up against the doorway, only smiling slightly. "Looks like they patched you up well" John said nodding his head at Carlton. "Yeah" he replied. Quinn stared at John for a brief moment, "Somethings wrong," she thought to herself. She opened her mouth to question him but was interrupted by the nurse who had just walked into the room. "Sorry guys, visiting time is over." The lady said apologetically. Clay stepped up to the side of the bed, "Now you get so rest huh?" he said and patted the top of Carlton's head. "Dad!" he groaned, "I'm not five". Clay smiled at him then left the room to join John in the corridor. Marla bent down giving Carlton a quick hug before following Clay out the room, "Hope you feel better soon!" she yelled before going out of sight. Quinn watched from a distance as Jessica pulled a folded piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to Carlton. His eyes widened when he unfolded it and a smile appeared on his face. Quinn approached them to hear what they were saying, she gazed down at the drawing on the paper. It looked like a child's drawing; it was done messily with a few different coloured crayons. "What's that?" Quinn asked, pointing at the paper. "It's just... something special to me" Carlton said heartfully, still staring at the drawing. He quickly shot up his head to look at Jessica as though he had just remembered something. "Where did you find it?" he asked curiously. Jessica looked a little surprised, "Oh right, it was lying next to you when you were..." she paused, "I found it next to you last night" Jessica corrected herself.

"Alright guys, I really need you to leave, we need to run some test" the nurse said a little impatiently. Jessica tapped Quinn on the shoulder, "Time to go". "Just a second Jess," Quinn said waving her away with her hand. She turned to Carlton one last time, "Ya know, I told you you'd get yourself killed" she smirked. Carlton chuckled, "Well, I don't think I'm dead" he looked down at himself. Quinn laughed, she was about to say something else, but someone grabbed her by the wristed pulling her towards the exit, "You may not be dead but your still an idiot!" Quinn called out to him still laughing. "I know!" he yelled just before Quinn was pulled out the door by Jessica.

* * *

Everyone just stood in the hallway silently, they all seemed to be relatively calm considering the circumstances they were under. Except for John, he looked worried, uneasy like he could just lash out at any moment. "John, are you alright?" Quinn questioned. John completely ignored her and instead turned to Clay, "You're going to keep looking for Charlie, aren't you?" John asked in a bit of a flat tone. Clay looked at him surprised, "Of course I am John, I'll do anything I can in my power to find her '' he said reassuringly. John sighed sadly, "Don't bother... cause you're not gonna find her" he muttered before turning around to leave. Jessica quickly swung her head up from her phone, "Wait, what!?". "John, you can't just leave and not tell us what's going on!" Marla called out angrily. John didn't even bother turning around to look at anyone nor did he say anything, he just left with his hands in his pockets and his gaze to the floor.