A girl, A boy, and a graveyard

Tears

Lucy POV
1550 Words

🎵Tender is the night for a broken heart
Who will dry your eyes when it falls apart?
What makes this fragile world go 'round?🎵

🎵Were you lost?
Was she ever found?🎵

🎵Somewhere in these eyes🎵
-Space Song by Beach House

The taxi dropped us off outside the hospital. More DEPRAC ambulances and vans filled that carpark than the official one outside their headquarters did. It was scary to see just how many ambulances were turning up, but that's what happened 50 years on in the Problem. We walked through the front doors and up to the slick front desk.

"Hello." George said. George and Holly were in front of me. George held a weird gadget in one hand he brought with him, his other hand perched on the front desk. I stayed behind them, staring off into space, watching George's dry, pale hands fidget along the gadgets smooth sides.
"Hello?" George repeated, I looked up, the office lady was on the phone. Another phone next to her ringing. George looked around helplessly. Holly shook her head. Took one elegant step forward, lay one pretty nail on the desk, and opened her glamorous dark pink lips.

"Excuse me?" It almost stopped time, a nurse which was walking over, holding books, stopped in her tracks and looked at Holly. The office lady immediately looked up. For a moment all was quiet, then time started to move again. The lady spoken into the phone "I'm gonna have to call you back." And put it down.

Holly gave a pretty little smile, "Hi, we're looking for our friend."
"Name?"
"Anthony, J, Lockwood?"
The women picked up a clipboard and scanned it.
"Ah yes, Mr Lockwood. He's in 27B." Whilst the women was talking to Holly and George. A nurse came by, she was guiding a kid towards the front desk, with what I assumed to be the kids mother. The kid looked about fourteen, pale face, sunken eyes, (really sunken eyes) dark matted hair, just like Lockwood's. He had freckles unlike Lockwood, but if you took them away, it was basically Lockwood's fourteen year old self stood in front of me.

The lady at the desk turned to speak with the family.
"Aw, is he better now?" She asked.
"Yes, thank you so much. I was so worried." The mother put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I got a sweetie if you want one?" The lady put a hand into a clear bowl and brought out a lollipop. The boy didn't say anything, he was swaying ever so slightly. He was oh so pale. His eyes gave a dead look. Then he turned and faced me, his head tilting, those hollow eyes bored into me.

I remembered the Fetch I met in the underground prison at Aickmere's, his eyes looked scarily just like the Fetch's version of Lockwood.
"Lucy, come on, let's go." Holly looked back at me with her motherly concerned face.
"Yeah.. yeah.. coming." The boy turned back, his mother held the lollipop up to him, his arm lifted, almost like a rag doll, and took the lollipop.

"What was wrong with him?" I asked, running to catch up with Holly, George was already far down the corridor.
"Ghost-Lock victim." Holly said blandly.
"What? But I thought-"
"They never wake up?" She kept her eyes straight ahead as we walked down the long hallway.
"Well.." I thought back to my old friend Norrie White, when I used to live up North. I remembered her bedroom, visiting her after she got Ghost-Locked. Her eyes white, her mouth open wide. I shook me head, "Some of them do though, right?" I looked at Holly.

"Yeah, more of them do now. I believe they found more serums and pills to help. But there's still such a high amount of deaths to Ghost-Lock."
We walked in silence, following George, he opened double doors that lead to a set of stairs. We walked up them.
"He looked like Lockwood didn't he?" Holly spoke in almost a whisper.
"Yeah, he did. How do you know about Ghost-Lock?"
"For my Rotwell training." I thought that was all she would say but she continued, "We got given a book to study the affects of Ghost-Lock, most of my colleagues threw them away, but I kept mine. One of my.. friends, was ghost-locked.. I would visit the hospitals. They said she was getting better, they were advancing in technology, but she never woke up."

We came to a slower pace, as we drew closer to room 27B. I took Holly's hand. She looked at me, almost startled. "Hey, I know how you feel. It happened to me too.." She softly smiled.
"Thank you, Lucy. Lockwood's gonna be fine." She squeezed my hand, let go and walked up to George. I took a deep breath, and opened the door.

Lockwood was sat up in bed, eating from a red lunch tray. In a bowl was some weird looking soup, on the side on a small plate were buttered crackers. He was just spooning another mouthful of soup into his mouth when he saw us.

Suddenly it all became too much. Lockwood stared at me, his gorgeous dark eyes. But I couldn't concentrate on how my heart should be fluttering at the sight of him, or how I should be halfway across the room by now, how I should be back in his arms by now. I stood still, holding the door handle, staring, mouth agape. George and Holly went on without me. Holly squealed, George stood smiling. But every time I watched his face move, all I could see was the detached face of the Fetch. 'I am what is to come'

Was it still telling the truth? Was it right? He did almost die for me multiple times.
"I'm so glad you're okay." I heard Holly mumble into Lockwood's shoulder as she hugged him. He was smiling greatly. My heart yearned to be with him again, but I couldn't move, I was stuck there. Frozen by my thoughts. What if next time, instead of a hospital gown, instead of a hospital bed, he wore a suit and tie and laid in a coffin. What if next time instead of room 27B he stayed in, it was the ground, the dirt. I could feel my heart hammering away in my chest.

George stepped forward, as Holly pulled away from Lockwood.
"Hey mate." Lockwood smiled. "Did you get the book?" He looked paler, but he looked well rested, the bags under his eyes almost completely gone. Tears threatened to fall as I realised, Lockwood seldom slept. Sure it was part of the Agents world, every agent was sleep deprived at some point, but Lockwood hardly ever slept, he chased that adrenaline. The only time he got to sleep was on the taxi ride home, or in a coma, or dead.

I couldn't stand and watch any longer, I knew I was about to breakdown and cry in front of all of them, and I would ruin the moment. I just knew I would. Slowly, one foot after the other, I backed away from them. I could hear Holly's voice, "Lockwood, you really scared all of us.." Lockwood was focused on his friends, he wasn't focused on me. I stepped out of the doorway, into the hall. I bumped into a nurse, holding a wheelchair with a man inside.

I spun around on my heel to face them. "Oh my gosh I am so sorry!"
"It's alright.. Hey are you okay, love?" The nurse frowned.
"What?" I asked confused.
"You're crying." I brushed my hand up to the corner of my eye, and sure enough I was crying.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Don't worry." I quickly walked off, down the hallway. I didn't even realise I had been crying. I felt my heart give out one final flutter before the dam broke.

To my left was a glass door. It read FIRE EXIT in all caps in green letters, but I pushed the metal bar anyway, and opened the door. Sunny afternoon breeze hit me, I stepped out, it was a back parking lot. There was a square on my right on the ground, it read 'Staff lineup.' in faded white paint lettering. On the wall next to it there was a sign that read the same thing, but I couldn't read it because tears suddenly blurred my vision. They fell onto the grey rocky floor, making small, wet black patches on the ground.

I slide down the wall, so I was sat on the floor. I brought my knees up to my chest and covered my face.

I didn't realise till later but this was the same position I sat in when I was in my new apartment. When everything sunk in, that I had left Lockwood and Co. Now I was sat in the same way, crying because I almost caused Lockwood to die again. And I was wishing I had just stayed at my job in Tooting, as a freelance agent. I wished it were me in that hospital gown, I wish it were me walking out of the hospital with dark sunken eyes, and paper pale skin, just waking up from ghost-lock.

And more than anything, I was Lockwood was next to me. I wished I were back on his bed in Portland Row, my fingers in his hair, his arm draped round me. I cried even harder.