Watch Your Back

Chapter 13

Aaron woke up to bright, sterile lights and a slow, swaying motion, like he had been drunk the night before. The white lights infiltrated his closed eyes and beckoned him to investigate his surroundings. He was in a normal hospital bed with normal hospital equipment around him. There were no tubes connected to him, and if anything he was just brought into the room and placed him on the bed. The only things out of place were him and the wrinkles that he left on the sheets. The clean, white room indicated that nothing serious had happened to Aaron, bursting his bubble of anxiety. He looked around and saw his mom standing outside the room with a doctor. She was crying. Oh, no. Was this like one of those movies where he was dead and he was a ghost but he didn't know until someone walked through him? Aaron poked his stomach. He was alive. But why was his mom crying? He wasn't dead. Just had a run-in with a fucking insane man in the bathroom of a high school and was injected with a mysterious liquid. Nothing serious. Aaron made sure that nothing was attached to him before he slowly stood up and stumbled around the room. He swayed for a moment, but then he regained his footing. Aaron walked past the open door out to the white, sterile hallway where his mom stood.

"Uh, mom? Are you okay?"

His mom spun around to face him and pulled him into an lilac and vanilla scented hug. "Aaron! Aaron, my poor, poor baby! Are you okay?" She pulled him away to squish his face like a baby and sharply turned his head from side to side.

"Mom, I'm okay." Aaron mumbled and pushed his mom's enveloping phalanges away.

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought you had been seriously hurt back in the school. Luckily, they caught the man who attacked you." Aaron's heart lept, metaphorically, of course. He held his mom's hands and stared at her intensely.

"Mom. I need to see him. Where is he?"

"Aaron, I don't think it would be a good idea if you saw him right now. Or at all." His mom's eyes darted quickly around the hall, suspiciously eyeing doctors and nurses.

"Mom. PLEEEASE! I NEED to see him!"

"Hm..." His mom looked at the doctor for assistance.

"I suppose he could see him for a bit. We've stripped him of any weapons he was carrying. Follow me." The doctor motioned with his clipboard down the hall to their left and passed a crowd of surgeons speedily pushing a stretcher past them. The woman on the stretcher was fine, there seemed to be nothing wrong with her. When she was wheeled into a nearby room, one of the surgeons screamed, "We need her on life support. NOW!" Aaron passed several nostalgic framed paintings of flowers and pretty landscapes. This did nothing to calm the knot of rage that nestled in his stomach. He was going to give the man a piece of his fist. Because he had already taken enough of Aaron's mind. Aaron approached a small room on his right and the doctor opened the door for him. Aaron reluctantly stepped in and was taken aback. The "man" sitting on the bench attached to the wall was definitely not the person he was attacked by. This person had purple floppy hair, much like his attacker, but his hair contained ombre blue tips. His green eyes shone a dark emerald of fear and were perceived even brighter with his pale skin. He had a nose piercing, snake bites, and triple piercings on his ears. The teen was wearing some kind of band shirt with black skinny jeans and Vans. Plus, he was wearing a beanie with multiple rings and bracelets. Aaron sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Fuck." He whispered.

"I know, right?" The mystery teen answered. He was sitting with his legs drawn up to his chest and was leaning against the wall. Aaron knew that they had the wrong guy. But he needed to figure out how to catch him.

"Aaron, are you alright?" A high voice behind him asked. Who was that? It wasn't his mom, the voice was too high. Aaron turned around, but there was no one there, just the white hallway and a painting of a flower in a vase. He turned back around to face the bench and jumped. There was the man with the lab coat, bloody and bloodshot, holding a scalpel to the teen's neck. The man had a determined look on his face and stared straight at Aaron with his gorgeous green eyes.

"Wh-who are you?" Aaron whispered, his voice gaining confidence, "Who are you? Who the hell are you?" Aaron was shaking. "Well, answer me, dammit! Who are you?! Who the fuck are you?!" Aaron's fists were balled up into his shirt and hot tears were running down his face. The man blankly stared at Aaron before, for the first time, speaking.

"Harrison. Doctor Harrison." And Dr. Harrison dug the scalpel into the boy's throat and slashed it open. Crimson blood instantly seeped out of the wound and the boy dropped lifelessly to the ground. A puddle of blood was beginning to form underneath the teen's face. The blue tips of his hair were staining a dark violet, almost black. Dr. Harrison stepped towards Aaron while Aaron stepped back against the wall. He lifted the scalpel and pointed it at Aaron's eye.

"Blood must stick together." And Doctor Harrison stood back, looked at Aaron one more time, and walked out of the room just as Aaron's mom and the doctor came running in.

Aaron didn't know how much Doctor Harrison had just told him.