Dying Ichor

SIXTY-ONE

   Elias woke up in a strange room. It's not familiar, just pure white walls with people walking around outside in the halls ad lobby. When he's able to turn his head, he realizes he's attached to an IV stand. It hurts to move, yet he raises his hand and lets it falls the moment it loses strength.

He's in a hospital. He's sick. He remembers this.

Elias feels his hand on a rough surface though. He removes his hand around on the sheets, cringing at the feeling of something hard on his wrist. He takes a quick peek and sees a bracelet.

The one Chloris gave him. Nyx' charm was still attached as well. It wasn't a dream.

"Elias?"

There's a voice he recognizes. He tiredly looks to see a couple entering the room, shocked to see him awake.

"Oh, honey. Oh, God, are you alright? You haven't woken up in so long!" The woman rushes forward and nearly drops the things she's holding. She at his side within a second. "Elias, d-do you know me? The doctors said there was a chance that you'd sleep longer, they couldn't find anything wrong but you just weren't waking up and-"

"Madison, wait. He's trying to say something."

"W-What?"

Elias rolls his head, processing their faces. They look like him. Who were they exactly? He's too sluggish to think, but with how they kept fussing over him, they must be his parents. He doesn't shy away from his mother's touch and leans into it, or tries to. He can barely move. Though it doesn't stop him from tearing up.

He's home.

"Elias, are you feeling any better?" His mother, Madison, asks repeatedly as his father went to get a doctor to check up on him.

"... Mom."

"Yes? I'm right here, tell me what's wrong."

Elias almost starts to cry. He has the feeling, but shoves it back down not to alert her. "Mom... m-my hand, hold my hand-"

His mother takes it without question and gives it a comforting squeeze.

He's finally back home after the turmoil he's went through in Ancient Greece. He almost didn't believe it, already thinking that it was maybe nothing more than a dream he had conjured up, but he didn't dwell on it for too long when the doctor came to examine him.

It was a long process, but Elias managed to stay awake for the duration of the time even though he felt so tired and just wanted to rest. By the time they were done discussing with each other, Roan, his father, slowly explained to Elias that he needed to stay in the hospital just a while longer.

Apparently, for some reason, he wasn't as sick as before. Obviously, that's what happens when someone goes to a hospital, but Elias was always weak and his immune system was terrible as a child. He was quick to fall ill and hardly ever went out except to go to school and just out to dinner on some occasions. Even so, he spent most of his time in and out of the hospital, practically living there.

But as of now? The doctor said that he was getting better. Like some sort of miracle.

It was hard to accept since Elias has been sick for so long, so they agreed with the doctor to let him stay a while longer to do some more tests. Elias only kept quiet and nodded at his parents occasionally.

"Dad, how long was I asleep again?"

At this moment, his parents were still with him, sitting down next to the hospital bed and eating some food as they watched a movie playing on the TV screen. His father took a minute, counting the days on how long Elias was unconscious for.