Noise

Tommy is frozen, bare feet on linoleum, hospital gown tied in 4 knots down his back, dread flooding him faster than his brain can process.

It paralyzes him, the realization. And realization, in light of something as glaringly obvious as this, is like a rotten tooth dug into. Sharp. Unbearable. His ears ring and a little part of him knows.

Whatever had landed him in this hospital bed, whatever is keeping him from talking, hadn't been the outcome of a normal, non-supernatural occurrence.