hey! here's part two, i'm sorry if this is moving really fast. it's gonna drag out longer in the next few chapters.
thanks so much to silvie for reviewing! it means a lot!
i hope y'all love this chapter!
I sit in a chair by Tadashi's bed, my head in my hands. I'm so tired I can barely function, but I can't fall asleep. I need to watch my brother.
After Dashi started coughing up blood, I helped him down the stairs into the café and Aunt Cass freaked out, immediately closing the café. She and I got Tadashi into the car and rushed to the ER. The doctors told us that he'd contracted the flu, which we knew, but that it had progressed into severe pneumonia, which we didn't.
Now Tadashi is peacefully sleeping, hooked up to an IV and oxygen. I don't know if he'll get better. Even the doctor's aren't certain. They're hopeful, but they're not absolutely sure. And I'm more scared than I've ever been in my life.
I have a headache and my back hurts and I'm so tired I think I might pass out, but I can't fall asleep. Tadashi needs me. Somehow I've got it into my head that he'll die if I leave. Aunt Cass is asleep in a chair on the other side of the bed, snoring softly. I wish I could sleep—I feel my eyes starting to close. The darkness is soft and all-consuming…
Suddenly, I hear a terrible scream.
I bolt upright and my chair falls over. I scramble up, rubbing my bruised back, and sprint over to the door. Looking frantically around the hallway, I can see nothing, no one. What was that? Who screamed?
"H-hello?" I call shakily. "Is anyone there?"
All I hear is the wind and the rain outside. Thunder booms outside, followed by a flash of lightning and then more thunder. That kind of stuff always scares me, so I start to retreat into Dashi's room.
I don't get all the way there. A bright flash of light appears at the end of the hall and speeds toward me, and I feel a physical force hit me in the stomach. I yelp as I fall over, landing on the floor of Tadashi's room, the door of which immediately slams shut.
Winded, gasping for air, I drag myself back to Dashi's bed and collapse into my chair. Massaging my abdomen where the light hit me, I wonder what the heck that thing was. Whatever it is, it can't be good. And I have to protect Tadashi from it.
That's the last thought in my mind as I fall asleep.
The next morning, I discover two things—a) my stomach is bruising, b) Tadashi is awake. I completely disregard my first discovery in favor of the second.
"Tadashi!" I yell, flinging my arms around my brother. He hugs me back, trying to avoid the IV in his arm.
"Oh my gosh, Tadashi!" I exclaim. "Are you feeling better? Did you know you have pneumonia? Do you need anything? I can get you Advil or something—"
I stop as Dashi laughs. "I'm fine, Hiro," he rasps. "Just tired. I think my fever broke in the night—I felt something hit me, and I thought I must have imagined it…but it was there. And right after, I started feeling better. Did you feel anything last night?"
I nod. "Actually, Dashi…I heard somebody scream. I don't know who it was, but I went out to check and I didn't see anyone. I saw this flash of light and then something hit me in the stomach. It was really weird."
Tadashi looks confused. "That is really weird. Be careful. Hiro. I don't want you to get hurt without me there to watch you."
I smile down at him. "I'll be fine. You just get better fast. I'll let Dr. Armstrong know you're awake—he'll probably want to check on you and make sure there aren't any more complications."
I exit the room and look around the hospital for Dr. Armstrong, but he's nowhere to be found. Neither is Tadashi's nurse, Ellie—whom I think has a crush on my brother. Where are they?
None of the other doctors and nurses have seen them—and I can't find them anywhere. Where are they? They can't have just evaporated. In the back of my mind, I can't help but wonder if their disappearances had something to do with the weird light I saw last night.
I head up to the second floor, wondering if Dashi's doctors are up there. I check every room, but I don't see anyone. Finally, I come to the end of the hall and peer into the room.
No one is there. But something about the cupboards in the room looks off. What is it?
I step inside and discover a button on the side of a cupboard. Acting on impulse, I press it.
Suddenly, the cupboards descend into the floor. I step back in shock as they reveal a door and more impulse leads me to open it. That's my problem—I'm incredibly impulsive, even if acting on it will get me killed.
As I pull the door open, I stop dead.
What.
The.
Flip.
There are four dead bodies in the closet. And I know every single one of them.
Dr. Armstrong.
Ellie, Tadashi's nurse.
Baymax.
And Honey Lemon.
They're all bleeding from deep wounds in their backs, every one of them already dead. Their eyes are all wide open, and there's so much blood.
So much blood…
Suddenly, my head spins. I can't look. It's too bloody, I can't handle it—
My vision goes dark and I collapse to the floor.
What must be several hours later, I open my eyes to find myself still sprawled uncomfortably on the tiled floor. My head aches and my whole body is sore and stiff from being in such a weird position.
I sit up, rubbing the back of my head where it must have hit the floor. There's a big bruise on my skull, but nothing worse. I seriously hit my head all the time—it's kinda sad.
Struggling to my feet, I stumble back over to the closet, trying not to pass out again when I see the bodies. All of them have been stabbed ferociously in the back, even Baymax, who has been punctured and ripped apart, his skeleton dismantled. When I work up the courage to look through the metal and vinyl, I can't find Baymax's chips anywhere. The person who ripped him apart must have stolen them.
My eyes start to fill with tears as I stare at the bodies. Dr. Armstrong, who's been my physician ever since I was a chubby, sensitive little toddler. Ellie, the nurse, who I didn't know all that well but who I know cared about Tadashi. Baymax, who helped everyone he saw and whose first priority was to make sure I was safe. And Honey Lemon, Tadashi's first and only girlfriend, who he was on the verge of proposing to. Who killed them? And why? It's not fair.
I turn and leave the room, breaking into a sprint back to Dashi's room. I half-run, half-fall down the stairs back to the first floor, then round the corner and burst back into Tadashi's room, slamming the door behind me.
"Tadashi," I gasp. "There's something I need to tell you."
That night, Tadashi is still sobbing. I feel so bad for him—four people he knew and cared about are dead. I'm crying, too, but Dashi is worse. And he's still sick, too—it's not good for him to strain himself like this.
I fall asleep quickly, and my dreams are filled with the spirits of the dead. I think I wake up sometime in the middle of the night, thinking that there's someone in our room. But I see nothing.
The next morning, I wake up to Dashi coughing violently again. I hurry over to his bed and check on him. "Dashi?"
"Hiro—" he gasps. "I—I can't breathe—"
I rush out of the room and flag down a doctor, alerting the man to my brother's condition. He evaluates Tadashi and proclaims that he has COVID—but something's off about it. The doctor finds a small puncture wound in Tadashi's arm and concludes that someone must have injected him with the virus. There's no other explanation—there's no other way Dashi could have the flu, pneumonia, and coronavirus so quickly. Something's seriously wrong. And I think that whoever injected Tadashi is most likely the same person who killed the four people—well, three people, one robot—in the closet.
And it's up to me to find out who.
The hospital is going on quarantine lockdown.
Since there was a terrible coronavirus pandemic around twelve years ago—which I almost died in, incidentally—the doctors decide that they can't risk Tadashi giving his illness to anyone. So they lock the hospital—no one can go in.
Of course, it also means that no one can go out.
The hospital is being closed down for other reasons, too—the doctors called the police about those bodies I found, but they can't make any sense of it. They can't find any trace of a murder weapon and can't think of any reason why a murderer would kill not only three people, but a robot as well. It just doesn't make any sense to them, and it doesn't make sense to me, either, despite being a genius.
Forget what I said about being more scared than I've ever been in my life. This is so much worse I feel like screaming in fear every other second. I jump at every passing shadow and go ballistic over small noises. It doesn't help that Tadashi is getting steadily worse. He keeps coughing horribly, and it sounds terrible. He doesn't have the vomiting or nausea usually associated with COVID, but the illness apparently attacks all people differently. He does have muscle aches, a cough, and a fever, so it's for sure COVID, but not as severe as some forms of it.
It could still kill him. And at the rate he's going, it probably will.
Three days later, another body is found. GoGo, who somehow managed to get into the hospital to see Tadashi, was discovered in the hallway just after midnight, stabbed through the back. Just like all the others.
Wasabi, who has been studying abroad, is flying back immediately for the funeral. He's really upset, as anyone should be when their fiancée is brutally murdered. The weird thing is that GoGo brought Fred to the hospital and he's fine. The murderer didn't even try to go after him. Yet.
Tadashi is pretty upset, too, because he was taking care of GoGo when Wasabi was gone. GoGo's little sister was killed in a freak escalator accident a few weeks ago, and Wasabi asked Tadashi to comfort her and help her cope until he came back from Rome. Now GoGo is dead, Honey is dead, Dr. Armstrong and Ellie are dead, Baymax has been destroyed, and Tadashi might be dying. I'm terrified. This is the worst week of my life.
I can't sleep that night. It's dark and I'm scared of literally everything that could be lurking in the shadows. I just wanna go home and curl up in my own bed, hiding underneath the covers. But we can't leave the hospital, and even if we could, I wouldn't leave Tadashi.
I slip out the door and creep across the hall and up the stairs to the closet that the bodies were housed in. They've been removed by now, but I need to see if there's any evidence of the—
My ankle catches on something and I let out a loud yelp as I land sprawled on the floor, gasping as my chin slams against it. I scramble back up, wincing as my ankle twinges painfully.
"Ow," I mumble, rubbing my bruised chin and trying not to let out a whimper of fear. "What on earth…"
I squint through the half-darkness, trying to make out what I tripped over. My eyes widen in terror as I see that it's Fred.
Or rather, Fred's body.
I start to hyperventilate and back up as fast as I can, but something else immediately catches me around the knees and I tumble over backwards. I don't even register the pain that shoots through my tailbone—I just jump up and look down, horrified, at Wasabi's limp body.
My breath comes faster and faster, and I limp as fast as I can back to Dashi's room. I collapse into my chair, panting and rubbing my twisted ankle. It hurts, but I'm not worried about that. I'm worried about the fact that Fred and Wasabi are dead. My friends are all dying or already dead.
And there's nothing I can do about it.
The next morning, Tadashi is struggling to breathe. So much so that he's obviously dying for want of air.
Seconds after I open my eyes, I rush over to my big brother. "Dashi! What's—what's wrong?"
"Can't—breathe," he chokes out. "Get—doctor—"
I run out of the room and flag down the same doctor that diagnosed Dashi, and the worry in my face sends us sprinting back down the hall. The doctor shoves some oxygen tubes up Tadashi's nose and flicks on the oxygen machine. Tadashi relaxes and starts to breathe normally again, and I let out a sigh of relief as I collapse back into my chair.
"Hiro?" Tadashi says weakly.
I reach out and clasp his hand. "What is it?"
"I think…I think I'm dying, Hiro. I'm not getting better…and the flu, pneumonia, and COVID this fast…can't be good for me…I'm pretty sure my…my lungs are ready to give up…"
"You're not going to die, Dashi. I promise. You're going to be fine."
"I'm not, Hiro." Tadashi smiles weakly. "I'm not going to make it…I just…I want you to know I love you. You're the…the reason I fought so hard after the fire…and every day of my life. I knew…I had to take care of you, and I wasn't…just gonna leave you. But now I have to…I'm close. I can feel it…"
"Don't say that, you're gonna be fine—you can't leave me—"
Tadashi's eyes close. Terror courses through me and I lunge forward, ready to do CPR, but I don't need to—he's just asleep. The heart monitor is still beeping.
I fall back into my chair, my head in my hands. I can't take it anymore. I need to figure out how to help Tadashi get better. Because my big brother is not going to die.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
That night, I resolve to catch the murderer in the act. That's the only way I can think of to figure out whoever it is. And I'm absolutely certain that it's the same person who injected Tadashi with the virus. Whoever it is has a heck of a lot of protective little brother fury to deal with.
I cautiously tiptoe out of Dashi's room and into the hall, trying not to slip on the recently mopped floors. I creep up the stairs to the second floor, enter the room at the end of the hall, press the button, and peer into the closet.
No bodies lie inside, something I'm really glad about. I stretch out a hand and discover that there is no back of the closet—rather a deep, yawning passageway. I don't want to step forward, not yet. Especially when I hear the sound of a faint explosion from inside.
I quietly shut the closet door and start to back out of the room—but I just back right into the door of the room, which is shut.
And locked.
I start hyperventilating, trying to get my brain under control. It's okay. I can just bang on the door until someone comes to let me out.
I bang for several minutes, but nobody comes. I then try slamming myself into the door, thinking that will probably work. However, I stop when I hear footsteps coming down the hall. I peer out the window and see—
A figure dressed in jet-black, wielding some kind of weapon—a syringe? A knife? Actually, it looks like they have both, one in each hand. The figure is tall and slender, with slight curves that suggest it's a woman. Her face is entirely veiled in black cloth, as is the rest of her body.
It's the murderer. And she's coming for me.
I look wildly around the room and discover a tiny window in the corner. I sprint over to it, wrench it open, and start to pull myself through.
But when I'm halfway through, my stomach over the windowsill, I stop.
I struggle frantically, trying to free myself. This can't be happening, not now. There's a murderer outside and I'm stuck in my escape route. Stupid baby fat—I don't know why it hasn't gone away by now, I'm fourteen—
Suddenly, my torso comes free of the window and I plummet to the ground with a yelp. I land hard on my shoulder and let out a gasp of pain as I hear a pop. That's not good. Disregarding it, I try to get up, but all the wind has been knocked out of me and my shoulder really hurts. I'm forced to stay on the ground in the fetal position, shuddering and hoping against hope that the murderer hasn't noticed me.
After several minutes, I manage to work up the courage to raise my head and determine that no one is following me. I pull myself up with the wall and pull back my shirt to look at my shoulder. It's swollen and bruised, and a jolt of pain shoots through it whenever I move it. But it's not excruciating, so I hope it's not too bad.
I somehow drag myself back up to Tadashi's window, open it, and collapse inside. I need to bandage my shoulder, which is most likely sprained, and I need to figure out who the murderer is, and I need to sleep. I decide on the third one, but I can't sleep. I'm too scared.
Instead, I gaze at Tadashi's heart monitor, which is beeping steadily. He's not dead, not yet. I feel a stab of guilt that I didn't just stay and watch him instead of trying to find a murderer all by myself.
Suddenly, a flicker of movement outside the door catches my eye. A flash of black and a glint of silver, then a shattering of glass as someone punches the small window on the door out. I yelp and scramble over to Dashi's bed as the black-clad figure reaches into the window, unlocks the door, then opens it and steps inside.
It's the murderer. And her next target is in this room.
I struggle to keep back a scream and instead let out a tiny whimper of fear. The murderer turns her face to me, still covered in some kind of mask. I can't tell who she is, but she seems oddly familiar.
The murderer laughs, pulls something out of her pocket, and points it at me. My eyes widen as I realize it's a syringe.
The woman lunges forward and stabs the syringe into my injured shoulder, pushing down on the plunger and forcing the liquid into my veins. I finally let out that scream as she withdraws it and flings it to the side, where it shatters.
I collapse to the ground, my vision going steadily dark. It's over. The murderer is going to kill me. And Dashi is unprotected, vulnerable. I tried to protect him.
But I couldn't.
He's going to die.
And it's all my fault.
These are the last thoughts in my head as the world goes black.
