Climb to Showbiz (Muse)

War is Overdue

"Oi! He looks terrible!"

Dom shivered at the words he heard in his half-concious state. He had been asleep until there was a knock a the door. The light sound against the wood had caused him to stir slightly, but he didn't want to fully wake up yet. He was much too tired and not ready to again feel the pain throughout himself in his pitiful state.

"Much worse then he was last ni-"

This speaker cut off his own words, as if there was something he was trying to hide, something he didn't want the other person to know. There was a recognizable element in this voice. Dom knew that he had heard it somewhere, but could not recollect where that had been at the moment.

"Boys," his own mother whispered, "It's very kind of you to visit, but it seems Dom needs to rest. I'll let him know that you came. Can I get your names?"

"Tom!" one of them exclaimed, on the brink of shouting. The disturbance made Dominic groan in his half-slumber.

"Matt....er...Matthew." This one hesitated, as if still trying to not give anything away.

"Matt and Tom. Matt," Dom's mother squinted her eyes, "Do I know you from somewhere? Are you the Matt..."

"Nope. No idea what you're talking about, m'am." the speaker spoke rushed and slurred. Even if Dom had been fully awake, he would still have trouble distinguishing what he was trying to say, he guessed.

Lucky for Matt that she hadn't seen him. He had waited in the police car as the officers explained to her what had happened. By the looks of it from his window, she seemed terribly concerned about her son, but extremely grateful for whatever "savior" had come in his time of need.

Tom, sensing the awkwardness, cleared his throat, thanked Mrs. Howard, and then the boys were on their way, Matt dreading what he knew the other boy would ask him.

Later that evening, Dominic was finally able to fully awake. He had been dozing in and out of sleep the whole day, his body needing the extra rest to properly heal. Today he felt the pain much stronger than before. He wasn't sure if it was because it had accentuated, he had nothing else to concentrate on, or maybe since it was the aftermath of the attack the pain was more powerful and the soreness increased.

He surprisingly didn't have any broken bones, just dozens of bruises and scratches from shards of broken beer bottles. He shivered. He did not want to think about that.

Dom sighed when he realized that nobody cared what had happened to him. He wasn't asking to be the center of attention, but if he had so many friends, then where were they now? Were they worried about him-or did they even know what happened? But if they did, why hadn't they bothered? His friends were popular and cool and he knew them and knew they would care about each others well-being...or at least he believed that to the fullest extent that he could.

"Honey," His mother smiled and brought a bowl of soup on a tray, which she set down on the neighboring table.

"You had some visitors while you were asleep."

The surprise practically jolted him upright, for he thought he had only dreamt the conversation with the strangers and his mother. His mum helped him sit up slowly.

"Tom and.......Matthew. He claimed he had nothing to do with the well, erm, incident," she looked down, her eyes clouding up with building emotion.

"It's all my fault. I sent you out. I made you go and I didn't even set off for you when you took longer than usual. I just thought you wanted to dilly dally with your friends or something."

"It's okay, it's not your fault. You didn't know."

She scoffed, choking on it almost. "I didn't know? Oh, what a silly idea. It isn't a secret what goes on down there. I should've thought. I sent you there; happily you walked into the danger. What if......" she shivered, the tears ready to spill over, "What if it had been worse?"