The Man (Sequel to The Door)

Chapter 7

Dwayne's POV

I woke up from a 2 hours night sleep. I noticed that I still had my DS on and the battery had died. I got up and approached to the charger by the closet.

I suddenly heard a strange noise coming from the closet. I began to shake as my hand got closer and closer to the door. I quickly opened it with my eyes closed tightly but when I opened them I saw Ricky curled into a ball sniffling wearing a weird raggedy white gown.

My eyes widened with surprise and relief. "Ricky!! Oh my gosh you're back!!" I yelled hugging Ricky tightly with tears of joy. He didn't say a word but hugged me back lightly.

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"Mom! Dad! Ricky's back! Ricky's back!" I yelled running downstairs dragging Ricky behind me.

Mom got up quickly and hugged Ricky real tight. "Oh my gosh Ricky you're finally back home!" She examined Ricky's weird outfit. "Where have you been? And what's with the gown?"

All we could hear from Ricky was little mumbles while he was looking at the floor.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked.

"Um......uh....um." Ricky mumbled again.

"Aw, its okay, baby." Mom hugged Ricky again. "You look quite pale, lets go make you some soup and you can rest."

~~~~~~~~ Time Skip ~~~~~~~~~

I watched Ricky sitting on his bed with his blanket covering him reading his book. He looked very tired and sick. I pondered real hard about where he has been and how he became like this.

Then I noticed Ricky coughing real hard. I thought this was one of his asthma flare ups but then I saw green stuff spitting out of his mouth onto one of the pages of the book. I just froze in shock and disgust.

"H-hey, Ricky." I called to him. He slowly turned his head. "Are you okay bro?"

He slowly turned his head back to the book and mumbled something that sounded like "I don't know."

I have never seen my little brother in this state before and it just makes me feel kind of sad.

When Mom announced that it was time for bed, I put my comic book away and watched Ricky again. He got up to put his book back in his little mini bookshelf. "Do you want me to tuck you in?" I asked.

Ricky stood and smiled a tiny bit. I took it as a yes and got up. He slowly crawled in his bed and laid down. I pulled the covers over him and gave him a small hug.

His head felt cold which I felt alarmed about. But he'll probably warm up in a bit. I laid down on my bed and stared off into space until my eyes got heavy.