The Chaotic Interim (boyxboy)

Chapter 12

The wide corridor of the hospital’s second floor erupted into noises. Footsteps from a handful of nurses fell heavily over the linoleum flooring as they ran past the lounge room where Josiah had fallen asleep hours earlier.

Startled by the shouts coming from the hospital staff, Josiah snapped out of his slumber. He sat up so quickly he felt all the blood rush to his head and he had a powerful impulse to vomit. The boy who had skin the colour of toffee and eyes resembling the shade of dried sage leaves gently shook his head to clear the dizziness.

A few seconds later when he felt well again, he looked to his sides to see the reactions of the people in his company. Josiah’s parents had left the hospital around ten p.m. and even Faith had gone home as she was needed at work the next day. In his groggy state, Josiah recalled that Keri and Carson were both sleeping in Ayden’s room, so his wide, sage eyes only landed on two older men.

“What’s going on?” Josiah asked, voice still very much thick from his sleep. That didn’t stop the undertone of alarm that was buried in his question.

Neither Walt nor Eric gave an answer, as they had none. Instead, they shot up from their own equally uncomfortable waiting room chairs and ran for the doorway to the hall. Josiah didn’t even give himself a chance to think clearly as he was soon on his own feet and chasing after them.

The shouts grew louder as the three men neared Ayden’s room. Josiah’s stomach exploded in nerves and fright. About five feet from the room, Josiah could see the door was wide open. The frantic beeping of machines was trickling out into the hallway and falling heavily upon the ears of the three figures as they approached the source.

Eric stopped first and then Walt did the same. They both seemed frozen in their tracks, but Josiah pushed past them, his heart beating uncontrollably in his chest. He dodged past the arms trying to hold him back from getting any closer to the room where pandemonium was ensuing, and kept moving forward until he was stood fixed in place about a foot from crossing the threshold.

Those sage eyes locked onto a seizing body, twisting in the blue hospital sheets. Blonde hair flew through the air in a yellow blur and nurses arms were attempting to turn the girl onto her side without crushing her cast-covered arm. The young spectator’s jaw slackened and his eyes went increasingly wider as the sight shocked his system. Josiah forgot to breathe and his body turned numb as if he suddenly had nothing but jelly for bones.

He didn’t see anything but the writhing form of his girlfriend until a body was abruptly thrown into him. Josiah stumbled back and looked down to see that what the nurse had shoved at him was his best friend. Keri stumbled out of the room--the same nurse pushing at the small of the woman’s back--with terrified awe the sum of her expression.

In the next instant the nurse slammed the door in their faces and Josiah realized that what had felt like hours of watching Ayden’s seizure was really nothing more than five seconds.

Keri erupted into a fit of tears as her husband drew her into a strong circle of arms. Eric was stunned by what just occurred and his first instinct was to pull his son to him protectively, but when he saw the way Josiah was already holding Carson's back tightly to his chest he just stood there staring at the boys.

Keri sobbed, unable to give any sort of explanations for what had just gone on in that room a few feet away from their distraught group. Walt tried his best to comfort his wife even though he was going through an equally disturbed thought process as she was.

Josiah had an arm wrapped around Carson’s chest underneath one of the shorter boy’s armpits after catching him from the nurse’s toss. The brunet was holding onto the darker boy’s wrist and forearm so tightly that his short and slightly jagged nails were digging into the skin in half crescent moon shapes.