These Demons

Chapter Twelve

"Okay, this is it," I hear Zoe saying in the distance when I slowly open my eyes.
She stands above me, showing off how damn flat her stomach is, and I feel the hard and cold tiles below me pressing against my spine, causing sharp pain piercing through me, but at least it makes me feel again.
I'm terrified because I have no idea what just happened, but when I want to jump back on my feet, I notice I'm too weak to do so.
That fact worsens my fear, but instead of freaking out, I try my hardest to play it cool.
"It's fine," I croak while I grab Zoe's hand to slowly get up.
"Shut up, you liar. I'm taking you to the hospital. Right now."

That lights me up like a fire.
"What? Hell, no! Zoe, no! Fuck!" I can't stop cursing and fighting regardless of how weak I feel because this cannot be possibly happening.
"You can't do that to me!"
"Let you kill yourself? That's true for once."
"What? I'm not fucking... Zoe, don't you dare!" She drags me from the hallway back to the front door and I hope she's just a very strong woman and I'm not actually too fragile to fight her off.
"I'll take you there and I don't give a shit what you think about that."
"Why?" I yell, furious because of her words. "I'm a fucking adult and you're not my mom! You can't fucking make me do anything! Let go of me! Zoe!" My voice continues to grow louder in my blazing anger, but she obviously couldn't care less.

"Do you even listen?" I shout at her, shaking her. "You can't make me do anything!"
"Watch me," is all she has to say and I hate her so much right now.
Barely realizing that my emotions completely slip out of my control, I scream like a crazy person when being taken back to her vehicle and I can even get rid of her grip a few times, but she clutches my wrist again every time because she's so much faster and stronger than me right now.
Escape doesn't seem to be an option and that would leave me speechless if I weren't so mad. How can this tiny girl win against me, a grown man with a height of more than 6'2''?

"Your neighbors are probably watching you right now, you know?" Zoe notes when I kick against the seat inside the car and she slams the car doors shut and activates the safety function that locks them to prevent children from doing anything stupid. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I huff.
"You can't be trusted."
When I start to yell at her for daring to make choices for me and taking me to a place I don't want to go even though she doesn't have the right to do so, she continues: "I don't care about what you have to say. You're not thinking rational. I'm taking you and you can't change that. I won't let you collapse again."

"I didn't-"
"Oh, shut up already, Andrew."
"You're not my mom!"
"But I'm sure she'd agree with me. Besides, what are you afraid of? If you're really as fine as you claim to be, doctors shouldn't scare you. They'll just agree with you then, won't they?"
That shuts me up, but my veins are still boiling even though my vision is blurry and the rest of me shaking, my fingers half blue with the veins showing. Where the hell did I leave my gloves?
"Why did I even call you?" I question aloud and her adorable chuckle fuels my fire. "You're horrible," I let her know.
"Everybody needs some saving sometimes, you know."

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The fact that she actually drives to the emergency room instead of the regular hospital entrance is just so ridiculous that I can just scoff, but let's just get it over with already.
My palms are sweating coldly, but I swallow my fear.
They won't notice anything. I'm malnourished, that's all, a little dizzy because I didn't eat.
Nothing else. There is nothing wrong with me.
I keep repeating the words in my mind because a part of me doesn't seem to be convinced, but as soon as I spot the emergency reception once we somehow got inside the ugly huge building someone stupid painted deadly gray believing that would give sick people hope to recover, I turn around and face the entrance again before Zoe can retain me.

"Don't be so immature."
"Immature? You-"
Before I can yell all over again without minding people being present, Zoe has already approached the employee with my arm held firmly.
For some bizarre reason, it makes me feel a little superior that the man in front of us is chubby.
When he and Zoe greet each other nicely, I press my lips together.
"He needs to be looked at by a doctor," she tells him.
"Like, right now?" the man asks and I feel affirmed in my opinion.
"No"
"Yes", Zoe and I say at the same time and she bumps me which hurts more than it should.