Reprogrammed (Hunter Angst)

Bloodbath

Hunter's throat burned as he wormed his way awake. He was halfway asleep again when a nurse came in to make sure he was actually firmly conscious. The blonde forced his eyes open to see his roommate already up and mostly dressed. The vertigo was back in full force as he pushed himself to be sitting. Everything hurt, and his heart thudded in his throat. Nausea was an ever-present beast coiled tightly in his sternum.

Breakfast involved more of the same; forcing himself to eat food while the same colorful male nurse from earlier told him about anything and everything. About an hour after eating, it all came back up along with more bright red. The amount of it in the toilet was concerning. After he came out of the bathroom, they immediately thrust his Sertraline into his face for him to ingest.

Mrs. Rose pointed out that he seemed distant and confused for much of their session, and he explained it away as having a hard time adjusting to the sleeping situation, claiming he'd never had a roommate before. Luckily, she seemed to buy his words.

The blonde had no idea how he'd managed to continue lying to his therapists for an hour straight, day after day, but somehow he did it. The lies were piling up and it was harder to keep track of what he was saying. It was hard to keep track of everything in general. Every time he stood up, the world blinked out and he had to fight just to keep himself upright.

Strange things flitted across his vision. At one point, he swore that he saw Belos's headless body skitter across the hallway from one room to another. But then he blinked, and the trail of goo left behind was gone, simply imagined. As always, this should have concerned him much more than it actually did.

Everything felt sweaty and clammy, and it was increasingly difficult to keep his thoughts in a straight line. After a strangely slimy bowl of soup at lunch, he plunked down in an armchair, allowed his eyes to drift closed, and he slept for three hours , completely undisturbed.

In the Coven, he'd been trained to react on the flip of a coin to any noise. He slept light on purpose, that way if there was anything amiss, he would know. This, of course, had changed with the introduction of his sleep medication, but he still consistently woke up to some noises. For Hunter to sleep in a busy common room for so long without waking up once came as a shock and surprise.

Worse still, he felt horrible when he woke up. Another trip to the bathroom yielded more blood in frankly an alarming quantity. He vaguely wondered how much blood was inside of a Grimwalker's body, and how much one could lose before it became an issue.

He was a tough kid. He could handle a bit of blood loss, right?

A strange, yet fast consuming sense of dread began to wash over his thoughts throughout this day, and the ones after. Everywhere he looked, he feared that people were talking about him, looking at him, scrutinizing every moment. Did they know that he was from another realm? ...Did they know about all of the terrible things that he'd done in his life? His heart beat in his ears, worsening the nausea.

"Earth to Hunter, anybody home?" A nurse called. He snapped back into his body, the sudden jolt sending his senses briefly spiraling. For a moment, he'd forgotten where he was. Breakfast sat in front of him; hash browns, canned fruit, pancakes. The same nurse as usual, the one with the over bright demeanor and slight accent, was encouraging him to eat. Hunter finally noticed that he'd been wearing a nametag the entire time. The guy's name was David.

"Sorry," He barely got out. He spooned sugary, metallic tasting, room temperature fruit chunks into his mouth. He spaced out again for just a quick moment, eyes distantly staring at a wall across the room. When he absently looked down again, Belos's rotten severed head stared back, teeth sinking into the soft pancake.