Symposium 1

Everything hurt. Roxas felt weird and couldn't figure out whether he was lying down or sitting up. He moved slight and noticed that the fabric he was on was scratchy, and that the air smelled sterile. He opened his eyes for one excruciating moment, only to quickly close them in reaction to the bright light.

"Roxas?" a masculine voice came.

"Dad?" he replied. He was still really disoriented. A hand squeezed his own, and he realized that someone had been holding his hand for a while. It felt warmer than the rest of his cool body.

He tried to open his eyes again, this time only half way. He saw blond spiked hair and bright blue eyes. "Cloud?"

"Hey Roxas," his older brother replied. "How do you feel?"

"Like there's a cool blanket…" Roxas tried to word it accurately, "a cool blanket under my skin…and my body's gone."

"You should probably try to sleep some more," Cloud said. Like he had pronounced a spell, after the word "sleep" Roxas had already shut his eyes and began to breathe deeply.

Roxas heard voices murmuring the next time he awoke.

An unfamiliar voice spoke. "…other than the mental trauma he sustained, his physical state is good: no internal injuries, no broken bones, not even any sign of whiplash. He has some superficial cuts on his face and arms, as well as bruises. Once I can give him a physical examination, we should be able to find out if he has any sprains. He does have some rather heavy bruising around his collar bone and hip bones, probably from the seat belt, and I'll prescribe a cream to help reduce the pain and increase the circulation in those areas to expedite healing."

"Okay, so he should be able to go home today?" Cloud said.

"Cloud?" Roxas opened his eyes again.

"Hey. The doctor says you're doing well." Cloud smiled at him.

"I'm Dr. Leniman," a man in white coat said. "If you're awake enough, I'd like to give you a quick physical examination. If you do well, I can probably go ahead and release you to your brother."

The doctor carried out the examination, and Roxas responded to every direction. His attention however, was only half on the doctor. He stole glances whenever he could at his older brother, who looked tired and stressed, and something was off in his eyes. His gaze was different than Roxas had ever seen it before.

Roxas became more and more distracted by trying to figure out what was off with his brother when the doctor spoke to him at length after finishing the examination. Roxas found himself nodding in response to the doctor's instructions, although he really had no idea of what had just been said. The doctor left the room.

"Cloud, where are Mom and Dad?" Roxas asked.

"You don't remember what happened?" Cloud responded hastily.

"No…well…we were at Ikea, and we bought furniture, and I talked Mom into buying me this really cool orange lamp, and we had hot dogs and ice cream. Then we left to go buy groceries... We were on the road…and there was…it was big and so close…it was…there was an eighteen wheeler," Roxas's heartbeat started accelerating. "Cloud, there was honking, and Mom was yelling, and everything got loud, then…then I just remember a lot of pain…and then I woke up here." Roxas took a deep breath, the realization that he and his parents were in a car accident hitting him. "Where are Mom and Dad?"

"They're gone, Roxas."

"Gone where?"

"They're dead."


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