Madhouse

First Encounter

The sterilized white walls and hushed tones of the people within them didn’t hold much hope for those fighting for their lives.  Everything about this place was cold and lifeless.  The continuous beeping of the monitors and the swish of the blue curtains still rang within my ears even after I had walked from the intensive care unit.

Everyday was the same. I would arrive and take my place next to my sister’s bed and endure the depressing wait to see if anything would change.  If you had told me 3 months ago that now I would be struggling to hold my family together from my sisters bed in the intensive care unit I would have laughed.

My mum and dad didn’t even know what to do with themselves. People say that the sickness of a child tears families and marriages apart. They were constantly bickering over Jess and her condition. Sometimes I was even thankful for the beeping the monitor made. Especially when they decided that sitting in silence was better than the fighting.

Today was one of those days.  My mother was still asleep at home and my father had popped into the office.  They left me here to just sort of deal with it all. Pondering whether or not my little sister would ever wake up and where my family was heading.

“WHERE IS SHE?” the voice of a male boomed as the blue door to our room swung open.  My mouth hung open as I watched a boy about my age charge into the room.

He looked like a mess, like he had just thrown on whatever he could find. His black skinny jeans clung to his legs and his dress shirt with only the bottom two buttons done up was hanging loosely off his frame giving me a great view of the multiple tattoos the covered his chest.

His curly hair was all over the place and his eyes were dark with worry and anger.  I jumped out of my chair flinging my forgotten magazine from my lap. He was gorgeous and it would be just like my sister to have been a little more than friends with a guy like this.

“Where is who? Are you one of my sisters friends? You can’t just come barging in here?” I walked over to him pushing him from the room. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had been a fling of my sisters. For the past five weeks I had seen the likes of her friends and old boyfriends coming in to see how she was doing but I had never seen one barge into a room like that.

“What? No. I’m looking for my sister she’s supposed to be in here. Oh God no. Not her.” He grabbed his curls and pulled them smoothing them into his face. I could tell from the tone of his voice he had just assumed the worse as he crumpled to the ground in tears.

“She couldn’t have possibly have been in this room. We had been here for the past five weeks.” Running my hands down his arms trying to soothe him. I felt for this boy, as I knew exactly what he was going through. He seemed drained enough as it was.

“Hey I’m sorry, I didn’t think before I.”  His eyes met mine before he pulled me into his chest crushing me to him. For a second everything in my body went tingly and light. I felt his rushed breaths on my neck, which caused me to shiver involuntarily.

“I can’t loose her.” His hands tangling in my hair as he held me and I felt his irregular breaths calm.

“Its okay. Everything is going to be fine” I chanted into his ear saying not only for his benefit but also for mine. No one had sort of held me and told me it was going to be fine and I clutched on to him as if he was my life support just as I was his in this moment.

“HARRY” I felt the boys arms that were tightly around me release and pull me up from the floor.  Searching for the voice that had obviously called his name. He looked back at me his eyes finding mine. Cause me to look away shyly. His hand snaked out towards my chin pulling my head back up to meet his eyes. Brushing a strand of my hair from my face.