Colored Full of Trauma

Corrupted Kid. 💜 (End)

In the foggy night, a truck engine starts, before a loud crunch is heard and a teenage boy's blood curdling scream follows.

Hours later, that same scream is heard, but it's not him. It's his mom, calling Zoey as she recovers from last night's hangover. The pitch of the mother's tone immediately chills Zoey's spine as she sits up in her dark room, listening to the desperate cries. Alex is in the hospital, damaged intensively, and she has no idea who did it. Worst of all? He feels like that even if he could speak well right now, he wouldn't. And not just because of the pain.

Zoey wakes Charsley up, and tells him the news shortly after hanging up the phone. A few minutes of hugging later, and she tells Tommy out on the couch, who hasn't slept. Admittedly, they don't know what to think. They just met this kid, so it's not soul crushing. But the fact that this happened to him after such a nice night together.. it stings..

"I'm going to call off work.. then later I'll go visit him. His mom said I could." Zoey says, staring at the wall as she sits defeated on her coffee table.

Charsley puts his hand on her left shoulder, sitting next to her.
"There are very skilled nurses there, I have confidence and trust that he'll be okay. Or at least ALIVE. Take some solace in that Zoe."

He's a big optimistic teddy bear, but at times he can be very straightforward and realistic. It helps, strangely. Zoey just doesn't feel that way. She doesn't really feel anything right now.

Tommy looks at her back as he slouches on the couch. He doesn't really know what to say, if there even is anything that he can.

"Let's um... get some rest. Are you guys going to see him with me?"
Zoey says, silently.

"I'll go. But I really don't know what to say to the kid."
Charsley replies.

Tommy goes to say something-
but Charsley said it for him.

A metal chair over the head equivalent of sadness hits Zoey as she breaks down. Charsley saying the word "kid" really brought it into perspective for her. And the fact that somebody did this to him. Why? And why she got so drunk instead of making sure he got home safe. It makes her feel sick to her stomach.

"..I'm going to ly down..."
She says, before going into the room.

As Charsley follows, he notices that she's not in the bed, and neither are her blanket or pillow.

Their bathroom door (in the room) is shut and locked. Inside, Zoey lay on the cold floor in the dark indefinitely thinking about Alex until her mind finally lets the void pull it away. She falls asleep.

*Thunk*

Zoey's head gently smacks into the passenger car window as Charsley climbs into the driver's seat. Her hands sit in her lap, timidly.

Tommy gets in the backseat and they begin driving.

He's feeling an extent of emotions. For one, he's tired. Barely sleeping will do that. And two, he hates seeing Zoey this way.

He puts his elbow on the window sill, his knuckles to his cheek, and just like Zoey, his head is against the window too.

They both watch the neon signs turn off as they drive to the hospital. Nobody says a word, Charsley turns on the radio, but keeps it quite.

[Fun fact about neon, the crystals are mostly made of it. Well, that and a transparent material which I haven't decided yet.]

They make it to the hospital. Charsley looks to Zoey.
"You okay to go in?"