The Silence Unheard

Chapter 1: The Awakening

 Deciding he no longer wanted to stand in the waiting room full of sick, and possibly contagious, people, he started to make his way back to Clarice's room. That was, however, before he was once again stopped in his tracks.

"Hey Aaron, we need you to watch over Clarice, while we go and get her a change of clothes for when she wakes up." Clarice's older sister stated as she and the rest of Clarice's family rounded the corner and bumped into the aforementioned male.

 "O-oh, of course. I Won't let anything else happen to her, she's already gone through enough..." he said trailing off near the end

"You better. Or so help me--" the older, man was cut off mid threat by his wife.

"Please do Aaron, you're really the only person we know well enough at this point, to watch over Clarice. Just let us know if anything happens o-or changes while we're away." Clarice's mother pleaded, grabbing the boy's forearm and searching his eyes for any sign of reassurance. With a nod of his head, Aaron swore that he'd keep Clarice safe. Waving to the family as they left, intentionally avoiding the father's protective glare, he continued to make his way towards the room he was in before being called to talk to the officer.

He finally arrived to the room number and quietly open the door, so as to not disturb the sleeping girl. After closing the door, he pulled the chair from the corner of the room and brought it closer to the hospital bed.

"I'm sorry this happened to you clarice, this is all my fault...." he whispered, fatigue hitting him hard as the days action finally took its toll. Resting his head near clarice's hand, he gradually started to lull into a deep slumber.

A few moments went by of complete silence, at least that was until unsteady labored breaths started to rake through the room. The Rapid Movement of clarice started to shake the bed, causing Aaron to awake from his short stupor. Realizing, clarice was now concious and was once again having a panic attack.

"Clarice, calm down." he spoke calmly, lightly rubbing her white, slightly bruised knuckles. "Alright, babe...just, try to steady your breathing, no one's gonna hurt you-- I won't let them." he said the last part more to himself in determination. He gave a small smile as he noticed her calming down, she must've finally realized where she was.

"Wh-what happened, how did I get here?" she questioned, looking puzzled as she examined the room.

 "You don't remember? You were hit by a car..." he explained subtly still holding onto her hand as if she'd disappear at any moment. " do you remember anything at all?" she shook her head in response

" I remember us leaving the party. We were walking back to my house, weren't we?" she said slightly wincing in pain, most likely from her concussion. Aaron still curious to why she had no recognition of anything up to that point, he just moved his hand to gently caress her bandaged cheek.

"Well, I'm just glad you're okay. I was so worried-- everyone was!" he said nearly in tears, he truly did love this girl with all his heart. They spent a few moments just basking in each other's present before conversing amongst themselves, having a few good laughs here and there.

Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes to hours, until eventually they both peacefully fell asleep, this time with Aaron holding Clarice protectively to his chest as they lay upon the hospital bed together.

It was around midnight by the time anything happened. It went from everything in the room being hushed, to it sounding like a catastrophe. Whatever was happening, aaron remained in a deep sleep, still content that his clarice was alright. Until finally the noise became to much for him to handle, he awoke with a start after hearing a blood curdling screech, followed by the sound of glass breaking and a thump just after.

 Dazed at first, he looked around the room before finally feeling the breeze hit him. He glanced to were clarice should've been, but found nothing but a wrinkled sheet.

'Oh no..' he thought as he rushed to where the broken window was, completely ignoring the pieces scattered on the ground. He leaned out the window a bit, only to spot what made him even more scared; it was a puddle of blood with a trail leading towards the forest hidden just a little ways south of the hospital.