Even a serial killer gets sick sometimes… Part 3
"Either he gets better or not," the doctor finally told the caregivers, who only listened and answered with a nod, "If it doesn't get any better, you can always call me and I'll try other methods."
"Of course," said one of the caregivers, "Thank you for providing us for free."
"Of course", Replied the medical expert with a friendly expression, which he also kept, as he continued: "By the way, you should leave the child alone for a little while. It's a bit aggressive because of the injection I gave him."
"Oh, he's always like that.", The other caregiver, who had just kept out of the conversation just beckoned it, "He has mental problems."
"A real psychopath.", The first supervisor hastily added. After all, no one should learn that the two were guilty of Zack's aggressive behavior. So, the reason for his strange behavior was just put on the psyche, that was worse for orphanage children than for normal, happy children who had a family. But if they had known what the doctor really was like, they probably wouldn't even have had to hide it.
"How can I help Zack the best?", Rachel Gardner paced thoughtfully, passing Zack's bed again and again. She stopped short and looked down at him worriedly. "He seems to be restless in his sleep. He probably has a nightmare again. Should I wake him up?" She shook her head once, "No, he would just yell at me afterwards. Either way, he will do that…"
She sighed and continued running up and down. Thoughtfully, she had put her index finger to her chin and wondered what else she could do to make her sick friend feel better: "Don't we have any medicine books here?" By this thought, she facepalmed, "My mobile phone has online connections."
So she sat down at the edge of the bed and opened Google, where she entered Zack's symptoms in the search bar:
"I hope I will find something useful" she thought as she scrolled through the search results and widened her eyes at the word "flu." "Flu? Did Zack get infected with it?" When she compared the symptoms to Zack's, she knew he had the flu. She pityingly looked at the peaceful sleeping Zack, "I feel sorry for him", She sighed and closed her eyes thoughtfully: "If I tell him how worse he will get, he will surely kill me.", She opened her eyes again and smiled a little: "But I'll help him anyway."
With this decided thought, she scrolled down from symptoms to treatment.
"Bed rest," she thought and sighed, "Zack won't like that, but he has to go through it now. With that awful pain, he has, he would prefer to stay in bed, I guess." She looked briefly with pitying eyes on Zack and wondered: "Is what he dreams just terrible?"
"Argh! God damn, damn doctor!" Zack cursed so silent that it couldn't be heard by the caregivers who watched television next door. He clenched his teeth and tried to ignore the intense pain he felt all over his body. Painfully he squinted and cursed the effect of the injection: "As if he had ever planned on helping me! This syringe causes me nothing but pain! My whole-body hurts like hell! What was that fucking drug?"
Full of pain, he curled up and he whimpered softly: "Stop this awful pain!"
But especially from the puncture site, which had been untypically his side, was a painful, much too strong pain. So, Zack knew that the doctor had injected him no medication. And the pain got worse every second ...
"Zack!", Rachel was startled and jumped up from the edge of the bed when Zack had trembled hardly.
"What ... is it?" gasped Zack, who had awakened from her cry. He was still breathing a little fast, making him cough a lot and he could hardly stop.
"You had a nightmare and you trembled," she explained and sat back down on the edge of the bed.
"So, what?", His cough had calmed down, but his voice sounded a lot more scratchy, as if it was giving up at any moment.
"That scared me," she confessed and then looked down shamefully: "You have these nightmares quite often, don't you?"
"Yes," he croaked, clearing his throat to get some understandable words out of his throat, "But it's not like I couldn't handle it. I'm used to it- "he had to cough again afterwards, which had finally given up his voice and he could no more than make a soft, pathetic croak.
"Your voice!" Rachel remarked, taking her hand over her mouth in surprise.
"It's gone, I know.", Zack replied mentally. He made clear what he thought with an annoyed eye roll.
"What are we going to do now?" She asked a little worried and pulled her phone out of her pocket. With quick taps, she opened Google, typed a few terms into the Google search bar, and waited for the results she couldn't see because Zack tore her cell phone out. She looked at him in surprise. He just gave the display a questionable look and then he looked responsively at his little, puzzled girlfriend.
"I'm just looking for a way to help you." Rachel tried to explain, "I'm not calling a doctor. Promise!"
He only gave it to her with a loud groan, in the sense of, 'If you do so!'
"Thanks," she picked up her phone and looked at the results the search engine had given her. She read briefly through the results, then shared her newly acquired knowledge with Zack, who became impatient. Apparently, the painkiller still worked, otherwise he would probably have long ago bent back in pain. But maybe he also had pain, but he didn't want to show it and be called weak and pathetic.
"Well, Zack, I read a lot here I can help you with. I can make you tea, you can take another throat painkiller, inhale, a scarf ... ", she began to enumerate, but her list was interrupted by his annoyed sigh, whereupon she also sighed: " You have to let me help you already."
He just rolled his eyes irritably. Having no voice excited him even more. Now, he couldn't even say what was wrong with him and the sign language slowly got on his nerves. Actually, everything got on his nerves and he just wanted his peace, which he was not granted one way or the other. Whether in sleep the nightmares or in the waking state, the innumerable symptoms that made his life a living hell for him. He was beginning to wonder if he would be spared again, if only for a few painless, non-coughing minutes in which neither his neck nor his nose was burning. But these minutes didn't seem to exist for him.
"Well, I think I'll make you some tea now and you'll be sucking another pill in the meantime.", Rachel suggested and handed him another throat painkiller,which he just sucked without a word. At least at that moment the fire stopped in his throat, but he didn't feel safe about it. He already suspected that this pain relief wouldn't be permanent, nor would the painkillers help. That hadn't been the case from the start. He still felt strong pain, but he had control over it and didn't show his pain anymore. Even though it felt like an ordeal from all the torture methods he had met, he tried his best to swallow the pain and not show it. What would the whining and whimper bring to him? Nobody had helped him in the dream and Rachel would surely stop if it would be too much for her. Zack also knew that, which is why he tried to make his painful illness appear as harmless as possible.
"Here, this tea will help you." Rachel said as she handed Zack a mug of hot tea. With his face twisted in pain, he sat up and took the hot drink into his shaky hands.
When she realized that he was shaking, she wondered, "Huh? Do you feel any pain? The analgesic should actually work."
"I-It's okay," he croaked in a halfway present voice, but it sounded as if it almost broke off again.
"Oh. I thought so. ", She exhaled calmly and watched him drink. She didn't notice that he had lied. After all, she didn't believe that Zack would ever lie to her - after all, he hated liars. His statement had only half made him a liar, because even if the pain was more than unbearable, they didn't get to him that easily. He was still holding it in, though he wasn't sure how much longer he could go through it. At some point, namely when the weakness of his body would become too strong, he would have to give away his cover. But he hoped that this moment wouldn't come. He still needed his blond-haired friend.
When he drank the tea, he was just glad that he couldn't taste anything because of his stuffy nose. He hated tea over everything and found the hot drink disgusting, which made the tastelessness at least a small consolation for him: "At least a positive thing. But if I didn't catch that damned cold, I wouldn't have to drink that groaning tea either. So, it's shit after all."
When he had emptied the cup, he handed it back to Rachel and cuddled back into the blankets. He felt very cold as if he had settled in a freezer.
"Shivering?" Rachel wondered, becoming more worried, "But the fever cannot get any higher!"
Uncertain what to do about it, she tore the blankets away from Zack, which gave her a very, very pissed look.
"W-what the hell- what do you think you d-?", He couldn't continue to speak, because a violent sneezing interrupted him. Shivering, he wrapped his arms around him and he trembled like aspen leaves. His nose was now too abundant.
"Your fever will only increase" Rachel explained apologetically, "That's why I had to take the blanket away from you."
"I-I'm cold." Zack croaked a little defenseless. He was really exposed to the cold in his body and then he felt heat. An unpleasant heat in his throat and an incredible heat in his head. His remaining body felt cold as metal.
"It will go away soon." his friend tried to reassure him. She wanted to stroke him, but she thought again about the last reaction received.
"W-Why would that shit go away?!" Now Zack raised his voice and ignored the terrible pain it caused, "It won't go! Argh! I hate it! I hate it ... "At the end his voice became weak and weak again. He had to cough aloud from the effort, so Rachel looked at him worriedly. He looked at her with an angry look, "Don't look at me like that. I'm fine."
"But you're sick, how can you act like you are fine?" She asked, looking a little calmer now.
"I say I'm fine.", Zack really had trouble making his words sound. For him it just felt as if every word stuck in his throat. Every sound seemed to fade away in his throat, narrowed in pain, and his words broke off now.
"You sound really awful, Zack. Please don't talk anymore. ", wanted Rachel, who looked at him again with deep blue, worried eyes. For a brief moment, he just looked into those worrying eyes and lost himself in them, like a human being lost in the vastness of space, like a glimpse of the distant horizon or the vast sky. Somehow this deep blue calmed him down and he got away a bit from his anger. He started to relax. Or perhaps that was because the fever was so high that it numbed him and made him apathetic. As a result, his eyelids became heavier and heavier, so soon he couldn't do anything but close them and wait for the next nightmare. The worried Rachel, however, remained at his side and didn't even leave the edge of the bed when he fell asleep ...
