Chapter Two
Hospital Food.

'The doctors are saying you almost overdosed Elliot,' his mother said with concern, looking as though she was on the verge of tears. His father was sitting the furthest from his bed; he couldn't look at his son.

Neither of them knew he was doing drugs. Had they done something wrong? Was he really that unhappy?

Both Maureen and Joseph assumed this was just a phase that he'd eventually grow out of, not a phase that would grow into him. It was as if they didn't know their own son anymore.

Elliot still couldn't feel his body, and all the medication the doctors had tried to pump into him to sedate him wasn't working. The only thing that seemed to calm him down was watching his little sister try to do her kindergarten homework on the floor. He was glad the nurses had covered up the body that lay below his neck – it didn't feel like it belonged to him.

He hadn't spoken a word since his parents entered the room from talking to the doctor. He didn't want them to find out he had been up to whenever he'd go out, and now they knew.

Elliot looked over at his father who looked as though he was going to say something, when the door opened, and a new doctor walked in.

'Good afternoon, I'm Doctor Clark, Mr. and Mrs. Carver I presume,' the man nodded towards his parents, before taking and reading through Elliot's chart.

'How are you going Elliot?' the doctor asked, hoping to hear that the numbness had begun to disappear.

'About the same, still feel like a floating head,' he cringed. That probably sounded like he was tripping.

'I see,' the doctor wrote something down quickly, 'this is all very strange. We've never had a case like this before. Your body is functioning normally, as it should be, yet you say you cannot feel anything below your neck… and none of our medication seem to be working.'

'Like the drugs,' said Elliot, his mother shuddering at the word.

'Yes. There is a good chance that whatever's going on in your body that's negating our medicine, it did the same to the drugs. Though, that doesn't explain what's happening to you now.'

'You're saying whatever he took did this to him?' his father finally spoke.

'Right now, we need to take some tests, but that's our best explanation. Normally it'll take a few days for his body to be rid of everything he took, but with our help it should be out of his system in a day – we'll have to go from there.'

Doctor Clark walked over to Elliot, pulled back a sheet and fiddled around with his arm. Elliot didn't realise he had taken blood until the doctor had pulled away with the needle in hand.

The doctor turned to his parents, 'Don't let him sleep for a couple more hours before we find out how what's in his body is reacting, we don't want anything to happen. The lab report should be back by the time your dinner rolls by,' the doctor motioned for his parents to leave the room with him.

Elliot watched as his sister sat looking at her writing, oblivious to what was going on around her, wishing that he had that same sort of naivety right now.

x

'Mummy, I'm hungry,' Isabelle finally looked up from her work hours later, startling everyone who were all watching television quietly. Joseph checked his watch.

'Dinner is two doors away,' he said, looking out the door.

'Can you smell that Izzy?' Maureen asked Isabelle who nodded, licking her lips. They had pulled her out of school before recess and she had only had a bag of chips since.

'Smell what?' said Elliot. His parents looked at him in concern as the door opened and their dinner was brought in for them.

'No…' he muttered.

'Darling, are you okay? What's wrong?' Maureen placed held onto her son's hand, knowing he couldn't feel it anyway.

'Bring that food over to me!' he demanded loudly, scaring his mum a little, but she complied and brought over her own meal of curried chicken and rice with vegetables mixed in. Elliot breathed in deeply through his nose, but smelt nothing.

'I can't smell it,' he looked up at his mum, his eyes demanding an explanation.

'Try… try to taste it,' his mum dipped her fork into the creamy curry cream and placed it in his mouth.

Elliot moved the substance around in his mouth, trying desperately to force the flavour to release itself. He could feel the blood drain from his face when he realised that he now couldn't taste or smell a thing.

'I…I can't, mum… what's going on?'

'Joseph, call the doctor,' Maureen looked over at her husband in fear of what was happening to her son.

A/N: Ehh, still feeling a little iffy about this story. I'm taking it in a completely different direction then what I thought as well.
Ah! I'll keep posting it, though, no matter how awful it gets... Damn this dwindling confidence!

Anyhoo, please review.. I'm keen on hearing opinions with this story.