The Nightmare Angel

Amnesia

Luke sat beside Michael's bedside, holding his hand tightly. One month. He had been in a coma for one month, and Luke didn't move from his side. The boys had begun the lawsuit, and even though it would take a while, it was looking promising. Michael however wasn't. Every day the doctors lost more and more hope of him ever waking up. Luke refused to give up on him. He insisted that soon he'd wake up. Soon he would be okay.

~~~

"Mikey, what are you doing?" Luke laughed, sitting next to his best friend.

"I'm bored and I want someone to cuddle me," the young blond boy said, pulling his friend into a hug. Luke's heart fluttered and he wrapped his arms around the boy. For the past year and a half, Luke had found himself fighting his feelings. He didn't understand why he had fallen so hard for a young boy. It wasn't that being gay was a foreign thing, he had an uncle who was openly gay, but he himself had never had feelings like this towards another boy, until Michael.

"Lukeyyy," Michael whined. "You're ignoring me."

"Did you say something? I zoned out..." he mumbled.

"I was saying that we should go and do something..."

"Oh. What do you want to do?" Really Luke just wanted to sit like this with Michael for as long as he could. He never wanted to move.

"Let's go for a walk. I want to show you something."

Together they walked for what seemed like hours, coming up to a cliff that looked out over the city.

"What is this place?" Luke asked, catching his breath.

"I want it to be our place. Where you and I can come to escape from the world," Michael said, grabbing his hand softly.

"What are you doing?" Luke whispered, his young and innocent eyes widening.

"What I should have done a long time ago..." he smiled and pulled him in for a kiss. It was sweet and gentle, but it completely took Luke by surprise. He smiled and pulled away softly. "Luke, I've liked you since the day I met you and I know that I acted like I didn't but it wasn't true. I was just too afraid to tell you the truth..." Luke smiled and placed his lips back against Michael's.

"This is going to be hard to explain to my family..." he said. Michael laughed and pulled him into a hug. This was how they were meant to be. This is how he wanted them to be always.

Luke woke up to the steady sound of beeping. He sat up in the uncomfortable hospital chair and saw Karen sitting with her son.

"Did you get enough sleep?" She asked, not even glancing up at him. He ran a hand through his messy hair and sighed, nodding his head. "I had always hoped we could avoid this... after the last time I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. When he got home from the hospital he was just so different. So broken. He was always broken I suppose. Only this time I wasn't blind to it. I noticed it. He had terrible mood swings and would lash out at us. He was just so afraid of being alone that he didn't understand that he was pushing us away... when he met you, his attitude completely changed. He'd come home with Calum and all he could talk about was you. He insisted he didn't like you, but we all knew the truth. He was in love with you. You changed him back to his old happy self. The old happy him that I hadn't seen for years." Luke smiled sadly and looked down at the unconscious boy as Karen began crying softly

"Not enough," he whispered.

"This isn't your fault, Luke. You mustn't blame yourself."

"How am I supposed to help it? You read the note..."

"It's that bitch Joanne's fault. She blackmailed him..."

"Because of me. If I wasn't so pathetic then none of this would have happened..." Karen opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off by a strange beep from Michael's heart monitor. They both looked up at it, watching as the once steady beats turned frantic. There was a sudden fast beeping from it and the screen was flashing.

"Michael?"

"Karen, go get the doctor!" Luke said, standing up as Michael started spasming in the bed. Karen ran out of the room for help. They came back inside and pulled the two out of the room, swarming around Michael. Suddenly he stopped moving and the heart monitor showed nothing but a flat green line. "Michael, n-no. Please," Luke begged, watching through the window. Karen clunge onto Luke, sobbing. The doctors pulled out the defibrillator and swarmed around him, pulling his hospital gown down and exposing his chest. The bandage covering the wound was noticeably covering in blood.

"His wound reopened," the doctor called. A nurse grabbed a wad of new bandages and put pressure on it.

"Revive him already, then we can get him back into surgery!" She demanded. He charged the paddles and pressed them against the boy's bare chest.

"Clear!" He shouted. A wave of electricity ran through him, but his heart stayed dormant. "Charge to 150. Clear!" Another wave, same results. He charged them once again to a higher shock and sighed, pressing them against Michael's chest once again. "Clear..." a final shock ran through his thin body and his heart began beeping once again. He forced his eyes open as much as he could manage, choking on the tube in his throat and confused about his surroundings. There was a ripping pain in his chest as people stood over him. They began pushing him out of the room and towards the O.R.

"Michael!" Luke called. Michael's hand instinctively went up and grabbed onto the boy's, squeezing onto it for dear life. There were muffled voices around him. He didn't care what they were saying. He looked over and forced his vision to clear, staring up at Luke as the doctor told him what they were doing. Luke looked down at him and gave his hand a soft squeeze, kissing his forehead. "Hang in there for me... I love you," he whispered, reluctantly letting go of Michael's hand. It fell back to the bed and he watched as the lights passed by over his head. The nurse still pressed against his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, and he was only half aware of his surroundings. One thing stuck out to him the most as a smile spread across his face. Luke. He still loved him. Michael had a reason to hold on again.