The Boy with the Purple Eyes

So, before we start the beginning of the second ending, I just want to tell you that the first two paragraphs are the same as the beginning of the first ending. Afterwards, it's different. So now that that's said, please enjoy the chapter!

April 28, 1973 continued

A door! I can't believe it! Who has a secret door in their house? And on a more important note, what could Ivan Braginski be hiding? I began to scratch at the wallpaper, looking for something, anything, that would open the door. Frustrated when I didn't find anything, I banged my fisted hand above the thermostat. Suddenly, I heard the sounds of gears moving behind the wall. I had to step back a little as the door slowly opened outwards, toward me. I moved towards the doorway and was about to look inside when I was greeted with a harsh, cold gust of wind and a dark staircase that descended down into the unknown bottom of the house. I looked down when I felt something hit my legs, and found that the paper that I had originally seen was a picture, moved by the cool breeze so that it had hit me. I picked it up and examined it noting that it was another photo of Matthew…"Why would that be here?" I thought to myself. I assumed that Ivan had brought it down here, but why? Why would you need to bring a picture down into this stairway when you can't see anything…?

I took a deep breath and decided to descend down into the inky abyss but before I did, I groped around on the other side of the doorway, onto the wall. Suddenly, my hand hit a switch and I flipped it. All of a sudden, the walls became dimly lit as old style hanging light bulbs became illuminated. The earthen walls and the lights somewhat reminded me of an old 1800's style mine. Once again, I looked down and began my walk. As I descended, I took note of how everything was made of earth, the stairs, the walls, everything. I came to the conclusion that Ivan had to be the one to do this, who else would have needed a secret chamber under his house? Suddenly, a bigger realization came to me, bigger that the one of Ivan making the tunnels by hand. It was the realization that Matthew was here, somewhere in this tunnel. The thought of Matthew being here pumped me up and I hurriedly ran down the stairs, reaching the bottom as fast and carefully as I could. Once there, I looked around and I faced two closed doors, which I assumed led to more rooms. I decided to go to the door on the left first.

The door easily opened as if someone had used it many times before. As I began to walk in, I was hit with a frigid gust of wind, much cooler than the cold air that was already present in the tunnel. Large fluorescent lights that hung on the ceiling flickered on by themselves and a huge, white, empty room was unveiled right before my eyes.

What caught me by surprise was not the size or color of the room but that half of the walls in it were covered in pictures, while the other half was not. The unfinished conditions of the walls unsettled me greatly for some reason. I walked closer to one that had pictures on it to examine what was on them that would make Ivan, the one who I supposed did this, want to cover the whole place with them. I gasped. They were all pictures of Matthew! Every single one of them on the wall in front of me had Matthew printed, in some form, on it. I ran to another covered wall to see who was on those pictures and I was once again met with Matthew's familiar face. "What was this place!?" I thought to myself. It was as if Ivan was making a shrine to the boy or something…

I was about to leave the room, when I noticed a platform like structure with a white sheet placed over it, in the middle of the room. I guess that I was so distracted with the pictures that I never noticed it. I began to walk over to it to check it out, curious to see what it was.

When I got closer to it I realized that it was, in fact, a platform. I lifted up the sheet and noticed that there was nothing there underneath it. Satisfied that the thing was only a table and not something deadly or strange, I folded up the sheet and placed it back onto the table. I then left the mysterious, cold, white room, feeling just a little curious as to why Ivan was working so hard on it.

I went to the other door and tried to open it. It was heavy and I was met with a lot of resistance. "Strange..." I thought. "The other door didn't give me this much trouble. Maybe he didn't use this room as often." Finally, after some heavy pushing and attempted shoving, the door gave way and swung inside. The temperature of the slight breeze that came out of the room was horribly cold, but not as cold as the first room. From the outside, the room was incredibly dark and musty smelling. I walked in and groped around the walls near the door for a light switch. Finding it, I flipped it on and was met with a horrible sight.

Torture devices such as clubs, whips, and breaking wheels were hung upon the walls as well as chains with cuffs attached to them. Also scattered throughout the room were steel bar cages that were large enough to put a human being in. Some of the cages were a bit smaller than the others but not by much. The room was indeed a scary sight and I desperately wondered why someone would have such a room.

As I started to look around, something dully yellow caught my eye. I ran over to one of the smaller cages and realized that I had found him. To my horror, it looked as if Matthew was barely breathing. His chest would only rise a little and it was so hard to believe that he was still actually alive. My eyes never left him as I tried desperately to get him out of the cage, taking note that he was covered in a small, shabby blanket that barely covered him and offered very little warmth. To keep himself warmer, Matthew had curled up into a ball underneath the blanket, making sure that only his hair was showing from underneath.

The cage wouldn't open and I suddenly realized that there was a lock on the door. I must have missed it in my rushed attempt to get Matthew out. Franticly, I looked around at the walls from where I was. I spotted the key ring by the door so I rushed up and snatched it, running back to get Matthew out of here. I fumbled the key a few times before I was able to unlock the lock and remove it from the door. Once the cage door was freed, I grabbed Matthew as carefully as I could and made a mad dash out of the secret corridor to the warmer parts of the house.

When I had reached the top of the stairs, I hustled into the master bedroom, placing Matthew on the bed. I took the dingy blanket off of him and saw that the poor boy had nothing but his underwear on. Many of Matthew's bones showed through his skin indicating to me that he had been starved, probably the whole time that he was here. His skin was pale blue and was puffy. He didn't respond when I called his name or shook his shoulder gently. When I tried to feel a pulse, I found that his was incredibly slow but when I felt for his actual heartbeat, it was incredibly fast. "Oh my God! I need to get him to hospital now!" I said out loud. I quickly found a comforter in the closet and wrapped Matthew up in it. Afterwards, I ran out of the room to the kitchen where the only phone was located.

I quickly dialed a number I knew by heart. "Come on! Come ON!" I yelled as the phone kept ringing. Finally, I heard a voice on the other end. "Hello?" When I heard the voice I almost shouted with joy. Remembering Matthew, I practically yelled into the mouth piece "Ludwig, hurry up and get here! We need to take Matthew to the hospital!" "What?" Was his reply. "Why didn't you call an ambulance?" Confusion dripped in his statement. I told him to never mind that and to hurry up, Matthew needed help badly.

Ludwig arrived about three minutes later but by that time I already had Matthew in my arms, waiting for him to pick us up. With the sirens blazing, we drove as fast as we could to the nearest hospital. When we arrived, Ludwig dropped me off in the front and I ran inside, all the while trying not to hurt the kid sized bundle in my arms.

When I reached the front desk, I demanded that a doctor see Matthew now. The lady at the counter gave me a look that said "I really don't care" and I flipped. I began yelling at her and starting a huge commotion that a few doctors came out, all asking about what was going on. I ran up to them and told them that Matthew needed urgent help immediately and when they didn't believe me, I unwrapped a little of the boy so that they could see his horrible situation.

Stunned by the condition of the boy, the three doctors rushed us into a vacant room and instructed me to place Matthew down so that they could see him. When I unwrapped him, I was relieved that the boy was still breathing. It had been at least twenty minutes since I had found him and I had worried that he was already gone. They quickly examined him and concluded that he was suffering from severe hypothermia and malnutrition (if that one wasn't obvious).

The three doctors then ran out two of them heading to the right while the other to the left. The one who went left arrived back first and fitted Matthew with a mask that covered his mouth and nose. The doctor explained that it supplied him with warm humidified air that would warm his temperature. The other two arrived soon after with a couple IVs. They quickly hooked them up to the boy, explaining to me that like the air, some of the IVs were warmed and were irrigating his body cavity. The other IVs, they said, were supplying him with the nutrients to help with his malnourished state. The doctors then explained that Matthew was in a stupor and it was very likely that he would never wake up and die. I gave them a harsh glare and told them not to say that. They shrugged their shoulders, then said that only time would tell if or when Matthew would wake up and then they left.

My brother ran into the room shortly after the doctors had left. He stood behind me and placed an arm over my back saying "He'll be fine Gilbert. We just have to give him time." I nodded and took his words to heart, but honestly, I felt a small notion of doubt that Matthew would make it. I didn't want to believe it though, I wanted to believe that he was going to be able to pull out of it.

After about ten minutes, a nurse came into the room. She spotted us and made us leave, saying that the patient needed rest and that he shouldn't be bothered. Before we exited, I pulled Kumajirou out of my coat pocket where he had been hiding. I placed him next to Matthew's arm, close to his body and whispered in his ear, "I know you missed him so I brought him for you." It was then that I saw the slightest response from Matthew, a slight twitch of the corner of his mouth as if he were trying to smile a thank you. At that moment, I knew that Matthew was going to be fine.

Hello everyone! I hope that the chapter turned out ok, I was really tired today. When I first started writing it, I fell asleep so you know, there may be mistakes. Moving on...This is the second to last chapter of the whole story! :( It makes me kinda sad to know that it's ending but I have a surprise for you, that is, if you want it...I'll tell you about it next time though. Anyways, I hope I got some of that hypothermia stuff correct, I only used wikipedia for a reference and they didn't have much so...yeah...Sorry that I didn't update yesterday, stats homework was killing me, but I was surprised that I managed to upload the first chapter of The Monkey's Paw. It's probably because I sacrificed reading Heart of Darkness to write it...like today...:D Please tune in soon for the last chapter of The Boy with the Purple Eyes.

P.S. Don't forget to drop a review! :)