Winged and Hurting (AU!Virgil One-shots)

Malnutritioned (Shadow Personified Cont.)

Malnutritioned (Shadow Personified Cont.), Age 11 {6/15/2020}

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The steady beeping of the machine greeted him as he gained consciousness. He was staring up at a white paneled ceiling. He groaned as he tried to sit up. He put a hand to his head. His brain hurt and his memories felt so jumbled up. What happened?

With his arm moving, he noticed the I.V. sticking out of his arm. His eyes followed the cord to the bag of fluid and then the other hospital machinery. His throat felt raw and it hurt. He tried glancing down at it before realizing running into his nose and, presumingly, down his throat.. He put his hand on it to tug at it but the door swung open.

The sudden movement startled the child, causing him to jump. He glanced to look at them, eyes wide with fear. He was shaking but he seemed otherwise frozen in place.

Noticing the fear, the lady with her hair hidden in an African hair wrap came forward and held his hands. "You're okay. Take deep breaths. Can you do that with me?" She exaggerated her own breathing, tapping a finger on his hand in a steady beat.

After a bit, when he seemed to calm down, she opened her mouth to speak again, "My name is Kamirah. What's yours?"

"Virgil." He muttered softly.

"Can you speak up, dear?" It was hard to hear someone who was muttering.

He cleared his throat some before speaking up. "Virgil."

"Last name?"

"Storm."

Kamirah glanced at one of the other nurses who was jotting stuff down before turning back to Virgil. "Do you know how old you are? What year is it?" She continued to ask him a few more questions before dropping the last one. "Do you know what happened?"

Virgil opened his mouth to answer before closing it. "I... I ran." Memories were starting to return to him and tears started to block his gaze.

She fell quiet for a moment. "Virgil, I'm going to ask you flat out: Do you have an abusive person in your household?"

Virgil didn't say anything, tears running down his face.

"Let me rephrase: Were you forced to go without food? Did your punishments often include being locked someplace, denied food and/or water or caused you physical harm?" It seemed to be her job to determine what happened.

Again, Virgil didn't say anything. He nodded slowly, wrapping his arms around himself. He felt so overwhelmed and stressed outside. He tensed, feeling his arms unclothed. "Where's my hoodie?"

"We removed it from your body to better examine you. You collapsed on the ground and someone called the ambulance." She got up from where she was and went to the side. She picked up the hoodie and dropped it. It clinged against the floor. "The hoodie deceived the system and everyone."

The eleven year old winced at the loud clank as the hoodie touched the ground. "Can I have it back?"

She gave him a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Virgil, but you can't have something covering your arms due to the I.V. I can grab you more blankets if you would like that?"

Virgil nodded, pulling the current blankets close to him. He felt so exhausted and achy. While he waited, it wouldn't hurt to rest his eyes a little.

Kamirah sent one of the nurses to retrieve the blanket and noticed the child drifting off. She didn't expect him to stay up long. His body was exhausted and malnutritioned. He'll probably be here for a few more weeks before they could take him off the feeding tube.

{To possibly be continued...}

A/N Writing is hard. Screeeeeeee-