Josh Dun Imagines And Preferences ✅

Tunnel Vision

The bleeping of the machines wake her up from her slumber. The first thing she sees is the plain white square tiles that make up the ceiling of her hospital room. The drip next to her bed starts beeping. She doesn't know why it beeps, but all she knows that it won't stop beeping until someone comes in to turn it off. The rattle of trays filled with medical equipment rattle outside her closed door. She knows the deal by now; morning handover happens outside the door, and a different nurse will come in, sort out the drip, and give her the morning medication through the needle in her foot. The nurse will also check her stomach, and see how the scar is healing up.
Today is no different, and the princess finds that this nurse isn't like the friendly nurse she had yesterday morning; this morning's nurse is moody, and doesn't talk to her at all. Once she's checked everything out, the nurse walks out of the room, forgetting to shut the door. Angry shouts from some of the older patients echo down the hall, and there's this constant smell of disinfectant. The princess sighs, and takes a little look at her stomach.
Instantly, her heart sinks. The pale pink scar from the previous surgeries go all the way along the top of her stomach. The new scar, however, cuts all the way down her stomach (and cuts her older scar in half), and is covered in 6 white pieces of medical tape. The rest of the scar is bright red, and there's some dried blood on her stomach. Her stomach itself doesn't make her feel sick; it's the scar, which - by the way it's cut - is an obvious reminder of exactly how the surgeons operated on her.

***

After breakfast, the princess heads back to her room to get changed out of her pyjamas and into some jogging bottoms and a loose t-shirt. She hasn't had a proper wash in a while due the fear of getting her scar wet, and besides, what would the point be anyway? She'd only end up smelling like hospital by the end of the day. The princess does at least brush her hair out of its annoying curly mess, and tries to make it try to look half presentable. She smiles a little to herself, then looks sadly at the full-length mirror. She realises she'd lost a bit of weight, but it's probably due to stress from being so sick. Her hair is also thin, and has started to fall out a bit; another side effect to being sick. Her tattoos are still there on her arms, but so are numerous bruises from where the veins have failed on her arms and hands. Her hands have scabs that are healing and also some scars and bruises. She walks with a limp due to having a cannula in her foot; it's the longest a cannula has lasted since she arrived in the hospital.
She's dragged out of her thoughts by her name being called by a very familiar voice. She looks up and sees him standing in the bedroom doorway, looking very handsome in a white vest top, some black ripped jeans and some black trainers. His tattoo sleeve seems brighter than when she had last seen it, and the black SnapBack on his head can't hide his bright yellow hair.
"Hey, wifey," he says, walking into the room, and sitting down on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in her room. She doesn't answer him, and stays standing, although it's starting to hurt her legs.
"You should sit down; you look tired," he continues. She smiles slightly at him, and sits down on the edge of her bed, facing him. Now that she's closer, she can see his black wedding ring on his wedding finger; her wedding ring, meanwhile, is at home with him. She had been fearful of it getting lost, and had therefore demanded that it was left with him. She also notices the blisters on his hands from when he had been holding the drumsticks, and she smiles as she thinks about how amazingly talented he is at drumming.
"Are you ok?" He asks her. "You haven't spoken at all today."
"I-I need to show you something," she stutters, and before she can rethink it, she lifts up her t-shirt to just under her chest and shows him the new scar. She hears him gasp, and she looks at his shocked face, which then turns to sadness.
"Man, they really hacked at you, didn't they?"
"Y-yeah, they did. Anyway, Josh, how are you?" It's the first time in this meeting between them that she's said his name. She licks her dried up lips, then chuckles to herself.
"What?" Josh asks her, looking confused.
"Nothing. I've just missed you, that's all."
He gets up, and joins her at the edge of her bed. He wraps an arm around her shoulder, and then helps her into bed, pulling the covers over her. She holds his hand, and he frowns at the state of her hands.
"What happened here?" He murmurs in her ear.
"I usually don't do it when I'm in hospital because it's harder to hide, but I guess I couldn't help it; I'm sorry."
"It's ok, just so long as you don't do it again."
"I can't promise you that I'll stop, but I can promise you I'll try."
"Oh, I forget to say this; I got you a present," he says, handing her a strawberry scented lotion from his jacket that she didn't realise he had been carrying.
"Thanks."
"I got it because - no offence - you absolute stink of hospital, and I can see that you've been poked and prodded by what seems to be every doctor and nurse in this hospital, so therefore, I got you lotion so that you can smell nice, and also so that you can feel like this is YOUR body. I'm guessing you don't really feel like this is your body, right?"
She nods; she's been feeling like she's just handed over her body to complete strangers, and she just watches from the sidelines as they poke, prod and cut her open like she's some creature from another world.
"Do you think I'll ever get out of here?"
"Yeah, of course."
"I don't think I will."
"That's just because you've got tunnel vision, my love. But I promise that you'll get out soon. Ok, maybe not soon soon, but defiantly in the near future. You've just gotta find something to look forward to."
She gives a small laugh at her husband.
"What's there to look forward to? Living in fear about this happening again and more joyful outpatient appointments? No thank you!"
"Ok, Miss Pessimistic," Josh chuckles at her, but then sees the tears in her eyes.
"Hey, you'll be ok. I've got to go now, but I'll see you soon, ok?"
"Ok," she whispers, and he walks out of the door, closing it behind him, therefore cutting her off from the outside world.

***

Josh is right; she does end up going home soon enough. Her mother, father and auntie are there to pick her up.
But Josh isn't there.
"Where's Josh, Mama?" She asks her mother, who sighs and looks at her daughter.
"We've been over this, baby.

Josh isn't real, remember?"

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I'M SORRY! I saw a chance and I took it!
PS: Thanks for 7k views and 200 comments :)