𝓻𝓾𝓮𝓵 𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼

• gummy sharks •

*.*.*.*

"Y/n! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, Y/N!" Ruel screamed as he burst into hospital room 266. His eyes were red and puffy, a sign that he had been crying, not for a long amount of time- but a lot in a little.

He shoved over the nurses and doctors in the hospital's deadly white hallways, even if they weren't in his path, because ever since that call an hour ago, he wanted to hurt something. Someone. Because someone had hurt her.

Some stupid-ass drunk driver hit her car— thankfully her its safety mechanisms rescued her from most of the head damage possible, but not from the deep internal bleeding that marred her beautiful features now; her cheeks to her eyelids were caked in crusted blood, and purple bruising stained her neck.

Ruel had wished bad things upon that driver, and hoped to hell he had gotten what he deserved.

Y/n's body was covered up to her neck in a cheap fabric blanket, almost matching the hue of her paling hair. Ruel pictured how broken her body would look underneath the covers, but instantly regretted it as hot tears spilled from his eyes, drenching what was left of his dignity. Not that he cared.

The doctor that had informed him about y/n's crash had told him simply and emotionlessly that there was even more complications with her heart than what it looked like on the outside.

Simply and emotionlessly.

After an hour's drive from the studio he was at in the Gold Coast full of cursing and silent sobs, Ruel had arrived only to see y/n laying limply on one of the the hospital beds, surrounded by her sobbing mother, a life support machine and half a dozen doctors. They all turned, startled to see him breaking down in the doorway, his hands gripping the panels of the wall so hard they became white.

From where Ruel was standing in the threshold, breathing heavily and flushing a deep red, he could barely see his girlfriend's chest moving up and down.

However, even unconscious, she was the most radiant girl in the universe to him.

He rushed toward the bed, and knelt beside it, hair flying wildly across his watering eyes. Ruel lifted his shaking fingers to brush the soft stands of hair off of y/n's face, and caressed her battered cheek as if it were the last time he could do so.

"I'm sorry sir, it's only family here right no—" a nurse with a clipboard and a pitiful look said before being cut off by y/n's mother.

"Ruel is family," she said, handing him an unreadable look of both affection and hurt. Ruel gave y/n's mother a pained smile, but it was gone in a millisecond as he heard y/n's slow pulse on the monitor quicken. Ruel gasped and looked up at the closest doctor dressed in aqua scrubs for confirmation of if this was good... or if there was no hope.

He had a sharp pain that nipped at his stomach that told him that the latter was more obvious. The doctor nodded, and another look of pity was given to Ruel. After a moment the doctor spoke.

"Tell her some stories— it might trigger her..." he suggested quietly, trailing off as he saw Ruel's heartbroken expression.

Ruel's chest heaved as he stood up to sit beside y/n on the cheap, plastic-smelling mattress.
Y/n would hate this mattress— she would want to be on ours, at home, he thought, taking in her face, and remembering each deep cut on her cheeks; she seemed to have aged more and more by the second.

Half the doctors were ushered out of the room to offer them some privacy.

"Hey, y/n..." he said, but his choked throat made it come out a little too squeaky. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Baby... remember the little ice cream shop on Adison Street? Where I'd always get the vanilla and you would call me a basic bitch?" He tried a chuckle at that last part. "And you'd get the chunky strawberry, even though it wasn't your favourite— and always get those gross little gummy sharks on them? I miss that, y/n. We haven't been there in months. How about we go tomorrow? The gummy sharks will always be there—"

"Cut the life support, Cady!" I doctor with a bald head bellowed, striding into the room with another doctor on his tail. The nurse with the clipboard, probably Cady, looked startled at the dramatic entrance, but then began moving to the other side of the bed to obey.

"NO!" Ruel screamed, flinging himself over y/n protectively. A young doctor in his thirties took him by the shoulders firmly and held him back, trying to lead him out of hospital room 266.

"She's flatlining!" The senior doctor bellowed again, as a series of beeps turned to one monotonous sound.
By this time, Ruel's vision and hearing had blurred enough for him to feel numb in all of his limbs, and now, his head. He quit struggling against the doctor, and the young man led him outside, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly.
"It'll be okay, kid," he chanted softly, over and over, until they reached the hallway.

The only sounds from room 266 were the distant words "CHARGING!", "CLEAR!" and a few faint electric crackles, until there was silence.

Nothing.

The hallway was quiet.

Room 266 was quiet.

Ruel sank down to the floor against the blank white wall of the hallway, which matched his complexion. The walls' emptiness mirrored exactly what he felt like inside.

Somber doctors filed out of the room and gave Ruel fleeting looks. "It'll be okay, buddy," they said. Ruel's head spun and their words were faint.

Y/n... y/n was gone.

He didn't get to kiss the love of his life goodbye.

And it wouldn't be okay.

Not anymore.

*.*.*.*