Fluorescent Adolescent (On Hold)

Chapter 9

Eric and I walked hand in hand through the hospital drive way. My hand tingled from the contact and my heart beat was never calm. He set me on edge, but I loved it.

I sighed contently and a slight smirk played on my lips as I replayed today's earlier events in my bed. Eric looked down and saw me smiling as a blush began to creep up my neck. I knew he could tell what I was thinking because he grinned at me and his eyes shone.

We walked through the automatic door and the all too familiar smell of alcohol and antiseptic filled my nose. I followed the signs again to the room where my mum is kept.

But as we stepped through the doors which lead to her ward I could hear raised voices and footstep moving frantically. My breath caught in my throat and I was frozen to the spot where I was standing. My hand went to my mouth and I squeezed my eyes shut praying that it wasn't my mum. This feeling was unreal. I felt as though my body was floating.

Images of my mum's lifeless body filled my mind, drained of any sort of nourishment and colour. Her lips blue and cracked and her eyes even more glassy that before.

"...n your eyes Ruby." I barely heard him talking to me. I opened my eyes to Eric standing in front of me. "C'mon, it'll be okay." No, no ,no it won't be.

I flung his hand out of mine and ran towards my mum's rooms. As I rounded the corner I saw where all the noise was coming from. Several doctors were surrounding an old woman. The monitor which was attached to her finger by a clamp and wire showed a flat, green like and a high pitched whine was coming from it. Her heart had stopped.

I could only watch as the doctors fought to save her life. They were trying CPR, one man was pumping her chest, but this appeared to have no affect. I recognized the man giving her CPR as Doctor Newman, the man treating my mum.

Slowly, I walked past as they pulled her dress open, exposing her chest and slapped on what looked like slices of spam on her chest. I looked away at this point and hurried past to my mother's room. As I left the ward I heard a man shout 'clear' and a loud jolting noise, followed by a bang.

Shock flooded through me, and my heart lept as my neck grew clammy.

I cringed, grinding my teeth as I flew into the small, yellow room and the frantic voices were shut out by the closing of the door. I crossed the room and sat in my usual seat next to her bed and reached over for her hand, glancing down at it as I did so. Her nails were long and her hand were the driest I've ever seen them. I immediately felt awful, as if I had been neglecting her. I tried to tell myself I wasn't, but as I looked down at her pale and gaunt face I couldn't help the ache that formed in my chest.

"Don't torture yourself Ruby." Eric's calm voice pierced the silence in the room. I took a shaky breath.

"I can't help myself." I whispered, and sighed.

It was hard having the only person in your life taken away from you, and Eric didn't understand how I felt.

Eric

The pain in Ruby's eyes made me think back to my childhood. My parent's adopted me as a baby. They used to say I was a gift from God. Ha! The thought made me laugh.

I was quite the opposite.

I was a difficult child, for whatever reason everything my parents did was unsatisfactory. I would refuse to eat the majority of the food they'd try to feed me and scream and wail for hours, forcing them out of bed at 'stupid-o'clock' as they'd refer to what ever hour I woke them at was.

As soon as I began to walk I'd be causing some sort of havock. If I wasn't abusing the cat or smashing anything fragile within my reach I was hiding in some unknown spot. Several times my parents were forced to call the police to search for me.