A Message to Scott Cawthon: Reimagined

Chapter Ten

No one dared to move. They all sat around their unconscious friend in a defeated manner. It was Baz who first came back to reason. “Rhys!” he yelled up the stairs. “Where’s his phone!?”

Rhys had spent what felt like an eternity going through Lewis's drawers, his cupboard, and his suitcase. He threw clothes over the floor, ripped the covers off of the beds, snatched pillows away from seats. He had heard Lewis scream. Yet the phone could not be found. In a sweaty and flustered panic, he heard Baz call to him. The reminder of the question he had been trying to answer made his heart beat harder. Where else would you put a phone? Where did Lewis have it last? Rhys couldn't remember seeing his youngest friend with it this morning. He didn't have it when he was out golfing either.

Where else did Lewis go this morning? The bathroom.

The pink-haired man looked down at Lewis's unconscious heap, his mouth agape as a feeling of dread washed over him. He's not breathing. F***, he's not breathing! Baz could remember Lewis's pale body in the hot tub from yesterday as if it had happened a few seconds ago.

Will pushed the hopeless feeling from his mind and came up with a new plan. They needed to get Lewis breathing again. Does he actually have a pulse? Is his heart still beating?

Rhys saw it as soon as he rushed into the bathroom. Lewis's phone was in the sink of all places. He hurtled towards it and grabbed it with a shaking hand. He turned the phone screen towards him and looked at it hesitantly. The screen was smashed. Not the sort of "smashed" when you drop it on the floor. No, it had been smashed on purpose. There were what looked like stab marks all over the screen. Not giving up hope, he turned it on and to his surprise it worked. Most of it worked anyway.

No one was ready when Lewis suddenly gasped, sucking in a deep breath that audibly scraped against the inside of his throat. The musician was instructing the Ryans on how to put their younger friend into the recovery position, and they were half-way done when Lewis gripped the rug next to him with one hand and clutched at his chest with the other, keeping his eyes clamped closed. "Oh my God, Lewis!?" Will asked quickly. Ryan began spurting out questions, but Baz shut him up quickly.

"Lewis, can you hear us?" the musician asked slowly and calmly, despite his voice breaking. Lewis still had his eyes shut and was still breathing heavily, sweat trickling from his forehead. The black substance he coughed up stuck around his mouth as it hung open to take in deep breaths. Will waited patiently, but Lewis never answered.

"Do you remember what happened?" Baz asked softly, shuffling onto his knees. Lewis rolled onto his back with his arms spread either side of him. There was a slight smile on his face that couldn't be explained. After a few seconds of this, he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

Rhys gave the phone an uncertain stare. Some of the pixels were glitching out and flickered through different colours while others were completely black and didn't work at all. He swiped the screen to get to the emergency phone setting, cutting his thumb as it slid over the jagged glass.

The number pad appeared.

Rhys wanted to scream in frustration.

The glass over the nine-button was practically non-existent with the amount of stab marks over it and the pixels were not even turning on. And to really rub salt in the wound, Rhys could see 4G bars in the top corner. It was the only phone that had connection, and it was useless. Forgetting that he didn't own that phone, he threw it against a wall, watching as shards of glass erupted from the screen which had gone completely black the moment it struck the tiled surface. It fell in the bath with a crash.

"Woah!" Will exclaimed. "Take it easy, Lewis, please! Slow down a second!" But Lewis didn't respond, he just shuffled into a more comfortable position. His head turned to the musician. He slowly opened his eyes. Will froze. "Does anyone know what... err... a concussion look like?" he asked, trying to be logical. That's not normal. This isn't normal...