Unexpected
"Distorted"
"He's dying."
The words rang over and over in Sora's head, echoing louder each time. As it was, Aerith had said those words to him over an hour ago. The teen was pacing the hospital waiting floor anxiously. No news. Not yet. He didn't have a clue what was happening with Zack, and it was driving him mad. He supposed he should be thankful… no news was better than the alternative – bad news. But he still just wanted to know.
The phone in his pocket had been vibrating for a good five minutes before it registered in his mind. Slowly, he removed it and held it to his ear, not saying anything.
"Sora! Sora? Are you there?" Riku's voice bleated from the device.
"I'm here."
"Sora! I'm coming, okay? Just hang on, and I'm coming!"
"Coming?"
"To you."
"It's a seven hour trip, Riku."
"I can make it in three."
The click told him Riku had hung up, so he shoved his phone back into his pocket. So Riku was coming. He wondered why… Logic made no sense to him right now. Not anymore. Never again… if he lost Zack…
Time meant nothing to him either. No news for so long… he went into another state, a dreamland of sorts. The clock was moving, faster than it should have, but slower than his mind could process. He could see figures and shadows moving in and out of his line of view. One of them moved the way Aerith moved. One of them talked the way Leon talked. One of them sat beside him for a long while – this one just felt like Cloud. He didn't know if they were real or not. He didn't even really know who they were.
"Sora!" a familiar voice barked suddenly from the doorway. The named boy looked up to see a Riku-shaped figure hurrying toward him. Had it been three hours already? The older teen's figure grabbed him by the shoulders.
"Hi," Sora said reflexively. Monotone. Riku winced like he'd been struck, and took a step back from Sora. He stood there a moment, pondering over something, then he reached out again and pulled the younger boy into a tight hug.
It broke Sora. He let go. The blurry figures came into view again, only to go blur over as his eyes filled with tears, and Sora completely broke down on Riku's shoulder.
"Not Zack… please not Zack… God, please not Zack." Sora actually heard himself saying the words, muddled by sobs and emotional cries, but he wasn't aware of forming the words at all. He heard Riku humming in his ear, like he would do every time Sora had a nightmare in their younger days. A nightmare… a living nightmare…
He couldn't lose Zack.
Distorted time moved forward. Cloud was still sitting beside the two of them. Aerith and Leon were around sometimes. Riku still held him tightly.
Then… a change…
From behind the pale blue double-doors, a man walked out, dressed in a pair of darker blue scrubs. He was pulling a pair of latex gloves off his hand. The occupants of the room stared at him.
"Sora? Sora Faustos?"
Sora made a noise, not really speech, but the doctor looked at him anyway.
For a moment, the man's eyes burned into the teen's, holding a promise of an answer, but they gave nothing away. Emotion overtook Sora again, and he jumped to his feet, demanding of the doctor:
"Is Zack okay!?"
-end-
Sassy: I felt kinda bad for leaving you guys at a mean cliffhanger… so here's a meaner cliffhanger! 8D
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