Compulsive

Chapter 16

If Lucy thought the hospital hallway was ugly, Mira's room was grotesque.

The walls were a bleak grey; the shades on the windows were a dull brown. The lights were on, but they were dim; the entire room felt like it had a shadow cast on it. Outside, the streetlights flashed an ugly orange glow into the hospital room; through the slits of the blinds, Lucy could see that it was raining outside. Not heavily, but enough to make this depressing moment even worse than it initially appeared.

Mira was lying on the hospital bed, pale and thin. She was hooked up to a bunch of stuff—a tube in her mouth, to keep her breathing; tube through her skull, to keep the pressure in her brain constant. So many machines, so many mechanisms whirring and buzzing, beeping every four seconds. All those machines to keep one girl alive.

A little case lay on the bedside table, with the days of the week written across different organizational sections. Within each day lay tubes of things, pills and bottles. Medication. Lucy wasn't exactly sure how they fed medicine to a comatose girl—probably through a tube, or something—but the sight of so many pills send shivers up her spine.

Lucy watched Gajeel; his eyes flickered to the stacks of pills, the drugs in bottles. His hands scrunched up into fists, and he shook his head slightly. He turned his gaze back to the pale girl on the bed.

Erza began to cry almost immediately. Lucy didn't really blame her—after all, Erza and Mira had been extremely close. The best of friends the facility had ever seen, until Natsu and Lucy met. Erza's knees shook and she nearly fell forwards, her sobbing staying persistent; Laxus stuck an arm out and caught the girl. Gajeel grabbed a chair from the corner, and Laxus eased Erza down into it. She continued to cry, shoulders shake as she silenced her sobs.

Lucy looked at the girl on the bed. Pale as a ghost, her skin practically matched her hair, now. The whole scene before her was really bothersome. This wasn't right. This wasn't Mira. Staying so still, laying down so quietly...that wasn't Mira. More like Mira's ghost.

"She's so...." Gajeel trailed off, dark eyes running over Mira. "Skinny."

He was right. I mean, she'd always been skinny—too skinny, honestly—but even now it was clear that she'd become even smaller. Maybe it was because she hadn't been moving so her muscles were gone or maybe it was because the stress on her body was immense right now, but she was so thin she looked like she could break. Like Laxus could snap her in two. She was wearing a hospital gown, baggy and ugly, but it still clung to her bones. You could see her rib cage through the material.

It looked like she was dying.

All four teenagers were aware of that. How could they not be? The proof was right in front of them. She looked awful, like she weren't even alive right now. If those machines weren't constantly beeping out her heart rate, Lucy would assume Mira was dead.

A wave of sadness hit them all at exactly the same moment. Lucy met Gajeel's eyes, then Laxus', then Erza's. Together they stood there, in that meek little room, so completely aware that their friend lying in the bed wasn't looking so good. Erza put her head in her hands. Laxus patted her back gently—it was his own quiet way of saying he was there for her.

A wave of anger hit Lucy. How could this happen? How could she let this happen? It was her fault—she'd seen Mira skipping meals, eating a carrot or something for a meal, and she hadn't said anything. She hadn't even mentioned it. She hadn't really cared, even. Lucy had been so caught up in her own issues that she hadn't noticed Mira was fucking dying right in front of her.

The first day Lucy had come, she'd noticed Mira right away. Pretty. Oddly thin, but pretty. But comparing that first day to the last time Lucy had seen Mira awake, the girl had gone downhill fast. Only a couple of months, but Mira's body had completely disintegrated. Oddly skinny to...dead girl walking.