A few hours had passed by and Manny was beginning to stir again, slowly opening his eyes to see that daylight was now shining through the window but the brightness was bothering his sore eyes and also his head was still burning a little. The boy groaned and covered his eyes with his arm as he slowly pushed his aching body up into a sitting position.
"Good morning little one, it's nice to see that you're finally awake" someone took hold of Manny's arm and gently pulled it away from his face and sitting right there in front of him was Shrignold "so, how are you feeling my child?"
"My head and throat hurts" Manny replied, his sore throat and clogged nose making his voice sound raspy "and I ache all over." Shrignold nodded and went to place his hand on the boy's forehead but he flinched back a little with a nervous expression on his face.
"You don't have to be afraid, I am not going to hurt you, I just want to feel your forehead" Shrignold told the child before putting his hand on his forehead "well, you're still burning up but not as much as you where after we found you out in the woods and brought you back here." Exhausted, Manny collapsed back onto the bed but there was a look of confusion on his face.
"I had a really weird dream last night" he rasped "you and the others came in here, you told me that my friends had abandoned me, left me behind."
"That wasn't a dream dear child" Shrignold told Manny "we we're in here last night, you must have been really delirious that you probably thought you were dreaming it."
"So it really did happen then" Manny replied as he coughed a few times before finishing speaking "they really have left me, but I thought they where my friends, I don't understand how they could just leave me behind."
"Well the ones you trust the most can unexpectedly stab you in the back" Shrignold explained as he helped the child sit up, putting his arm around his shoulders "but like we told you last night, you can trust us, me, Paige, Tony, Colin, we're not going to abandon you like those two nobodies that just left this world without even saying goodbye or taking you with them. I bet you must felt really lonely after they left so you ran away in the middle of the night during a storm so that you could find your so called friends, am I right?" Manny slowly nodded followed by a small coughing fit "and now look at you dear child, being out in that storm in the middle of the night has made you sick."
"Where you in here with me all night?" Manny asked, his tired voice still rasping from the sore throat.
"Well I believe that it wouldn't be right to leave you alone, not while you're sick and no one should ever be alone" Shrignold explained "and Tony suggested that one of us should keep an eye on you after we brought you back here and I simply volunteered to do so, I have to say you slept a good few hours after the others came in here to tell you about those so called friends of yours just left you behind." Manny then recalled himself having a really bad coughing fit the previous night after the teachers had brought him back after they found him collapsed in the woods and that someone had turned him on his side so that he didn't choke and began to wonder if it was actually Shrignold who had done that, he wanted to ask but exhaustion was once again beginning to take it's toll on his small body, he still didn't feel very good and he felt his eyes growing heavy.
"So sleepy" he rasped.
"What already?" Shrignold asked with a chuckle "you just woke up, you can't still be tired. Well I guess you do need plenty of sleep if you're sick so you go ahead and have a great big nap, you'll probably feel a little better afterwards." Manny weakly nodded and rested his head on the butterfly man's shoulders who began stroking the child's hair and singing softly.
"Have you ever wondered why we're here? What's it all about? You've no idea, and everywhere you look, all you see is hatred and darkness, death and fear" Shrignold sang softly as Manny's eyes began to flutter as he slowly drifted into slumber "But you know it doesn't have to be, that I hate you, and you hate me, cause even though we're different, it doesn't make a difference and we can live in harmony" Manny was now in a deep sleep and Shrignold gently layed the child down but still sat beside him, watching as the boy's chest slowly rising and falling, a slight wheezing emitting from his mouth caused by his current sickness.
"Don't worry little one" Shrignold told the sleeping child "you'll never be alone ever again."
