Purple Roses

Chapter 16 - Holding On

The front doors to the hospital burst open as a sea of people flooded in. We follow close behind.

Every now and then I catch a glimpse of Luca, I yearn for him to move or anything else. Before long we are stopped by hospital staff from going any further and they all force us to sit down.

Mum is frantically on the phone with our grandparents in the corner of the waiting room while I sit with Mabel and James.

We are all dead silent, not a single sound is emerging from any of us, we all have a 50 yard stare painted onto our faces.

Mum ends the call and returns to us. "Your grandparents are on their way... we still don't know what is happening so we thought it would be best if they dropped in." Mum says to us solemnly.

"He's... going to be okay right?" James asks gravely, still staring at the floor.

"I'm sure he will be just fine honey, he's strong." Mum replies trying to sound reassuring, hugging James slightly.

At this moment another doctor hastily enters the room and turns his attention to us.

"Is this the Jacobs family?" He asks us.

"Yes. That's us." Mum replies swiftly. "What's going on, is he okay?"

"Unfortunately I can't really make a judgement at the moment. he's received two gunshot wounds in his chest, one of which punctured his lung and we suspect there is internal bleeding, in addition we cannot operate on him because he is too unstable and his blood type does not match our records as he is a Shadownite." He responds. "We have to rely on some of his wounds healing internally before we can do anything, however his vitals are all over and to be honest it's not looking the best."

"What are you saying?" Mum asks.

"I'm saying that at this point I think the best step forward is trying to make him as comfortable as possible, and if you wanted to say goodbye, I'd consider this a good time." The doctor responds. "I'm sorry."

"Is there a chance he will be okay?" I quickly cut in.

"Yes, but, I wouldn't rely on it... our hands are tied until he gets better." The doctor replies.

"I'm a shadownite... I could give my blood!" James suggests. Fear raging in his eyes, yet so determined.

"I know you want to help but you're just too young and you might have different blood types and we don't have the means nor the time to test it, it's just too dangerous." The doctor finishes.

We all slowly drag ourselves to his room and open the door. We are met with quite a sorry sight. I can see my best friend, unconscious, a nasal cannula around his face. The only sounds in the room being his unsteady breathing and the constant beeps of the heart rate monitor. I keep gazing at the blood stained bandage around his chest, but I cannot bear to gaze much longer.

We sit in silence, it feels like an eternity. This is interrupted when mum gets a text. "It's your grandparents, they're stuck in traffic but they are coming as fast as they can." Mum tells us sadly.

Mum keeps stroking the top of Luca's head, she's been doing it for minutes now, I can see guilt in her eyes, I don't see it often but when I do it is so apparent. I just keep thinking "Wake up, please wake up!" In my head, but he doesn't, he remains there lifeless.

James is clutching Luca's hand and I think he has been doing so for a while. He keeps silently whimpering to himself. I tried grabbing his other hand at one point but his hand was so stone cold that I let go.

"Please come back... please!" James quietly begs.

Mabel is leaning against the wall in the corner, hand in her face, she's thinking, she's thinking of trying to do something, anything to help.