Hotaru: Philippines, you can look for the news on the mutiny in Yahoo News.
Frenchy: You make it sound like I have some twisted obsession with murdering people.
Chapter 7: "Reflection""…It took awhile before the text message sunk in, I was still in bed. I'm pretty sure the whole student body already knew by the time I woke up. Somebody attacked Derrick, and I won't lie when I tell you that I feel responsible, that I am responsible for this. I pushed him to reveal something he didn't want to, and look what it got him. I knew that something bad could happen…but not like this. I believed that people actually had more open minds than before."
The sirens shrieked through the peaceful morning, a sheer distraction from the beautiful hail of light that poured down on the streets of Stoneville. It was five in the morning when the guards found the battered body of Derrick Burton on the front gates of the University, with the word "faggot" spray-painted across the green gates in red ink. It was a time honored cliché of gender-specific hate crimes, but it still worked well. In an instant, the news spread like wildfire across the college community through text messages and calls. In an instant, Derrick's secret came out, and he was unconscious while it happened. He was at the brink of existence and shadows.
"I had an exam by eight o'clock. Fuck it. My knees were still sore from basketball practice, but I didn't care. They say that the environment changes through the will of some people, that when people get sad, it rains, when people are happy, the sun shines. I wanted it to rain, but it didn't."
It was seven in the morning when Barry and his wife watched over the body. His handsome features were covered by machinery and bandages, leaving only a horrid shell of his former self. The room was larger than most others, white in color. Barry had his arm around his wife's shoulder, something uncharacteristic since he was internally crippled by Umbrella's creation. Hallie kept silent, still remembering the doctor's words earlier on. "Your son has a concussion, and a good number of bones have been broken." It wasn't the most euphemistic of messages, but neither husband nor wife settled for anything like double-speak.
"I was speeding through the streets, there weren't much cars yet that early in the morning. Fact is, the streets were practically empty, making me think, want to think, that it was all just some dream. I wanted to wake up, and I haven't even seen the body yet…God…how courageous was I? I wasn't ready to see, to feel the repercussion of his coming out."
Both of them knew the possible long-term damages that there could be once he wakes up, from a perennial limp to retrograde amnesia. They didn't even know if the blow to his temple was enough to permanently damage his cornea, and consequently, his vision. Neither of them wanted to know, at least not yet. There was an invisible taboo, a shadow that twists their stomachs each time they even attempted to utter a word.
"Nothing felt right. When I got to the highway, I finally got to see some cars, at least some semblance of life. I almost went far as thinking, wishing that they were all part of this grizzly nightmare of mine. I make a quick u-turn under the skyway, and manage to swerve right into the smaller lane in the hospital zone. I almost collided with another car, now, someone hates this plate number for life."
The sound of the honking horns from a floor below entered through the open window. A taxi softly bumped into a doctor's luxury car, causing a small line of cars behind them. It was still bright outside, warm. It did nothing for the vacuum inside the husband and wife. Barry had on a black sweater, while Hallie clad in violet. An hour ago, they heard that their son was rushed to the hospital after being seriously assaulted. Their daughters still do not know. They did not need to know.
"A good number of cars were piled up in the arc shaped driveway, some idiot bumped into another car. I didn't have time for that. This was my uncle's car anyway, and since he owned the place, I could park it anywhere I fucking want. Let them give me a ticket I thought as I jumped out of the Volkswagen and ran up to the main lobby. I knew that this was the place. This was where they took Derrick a year ago when he had a car accident. His car, my car. This was where we first met."
Barry wanted to comfort his wife, but in all reality, he did not know how. He forgot what it was like to speak from his heart, and not from his ferocious mind. The old man exhaled softly and walked up to his child, feeling how it is finally to care for him once again. With a trembling hand, he touched the bandaged forehead of his son, and closed his eyes. As if on cue, the memory of days, years gone by played back in his mind, when his son was still a boy that he could carry in his arms. Nights that they would spend together in the wooden balcony, watching the endless array of stars so high in the night. Barry shook his head and quickly took a step away from the body.
"I raced up the stairs, after having to argue with the nurse as to where Derrick was. She asked me what my relation to the patient was. For some reason, I couldn't answer. I just knew that he was there. I didn't know what to do when I finally found my way. I was out of breath, in front of the door where they were."
With her hand over her mouth, Hallie kept motionless, watching her husband reach back into humanity. Tragedies really did have a strong tendency to unite people ravaged by their personal conflicts and demons. Tears brimmed her eyes, and she took a deep breath. She placed her hand over her chest and took a seat on a nearby chair. Her husband glanced at her, his eyes asking for an explanation, but he quickly turned away before she could find one.
"…Barry…" she called softly.
"Look at what happens to children who don't listen to their fathers." The old man responded bitterly, still looking away from both his wife and his son.
"I could hear footsteps shuffle from the other side. I lost my breath trying to get there, but when the moment came, I felt my heart stop. What was I going to tell them? They knew I was his best friend…no, they knew that I was more than that. I didn't know if they were going to blame me for their son, for everything about their son. I played out different scenarios in my mind, mostly ones that had them scream at me for existing."
A soft knock on the door then interrupted them, with a young man coming inside a short second after. Slowly, Alex came in, his face twisted by horror and confusion. For years, Hallie and Barry knew him as their son's best friend. Now, they knew that, to Derrick, he was something more, something much more. His mouth was half open as he walked in, then nodding at both husband and wife as he approached the body, as if a request for acceptance. They nodded back in silence. He was wearing a small, but loose beige shirt. With a deep breath, he made his way by the head of Alex's bed, with the glass windows behind him such that Barry was on the opposite side from where he stood.
"I was afraid of how they would react when they saw me. The moment I stepped into the room, I realized how much I wanted to have never seen him like that. My heart didn't just stop when I saw him there, motionless, I felt like it sunk into some deep abyss. What really hit me was how helpless I was. I promised him that I was going to be there, to help him through each step of the way."
"…" Alex crossed his arms in front of him and kept his eyes on his boyfriend, with Barry keeping his hands in his pockets, doing the same. Sunlight highlighted most of the room, accenting the clear bruises and scars on Derrick's arms and face. It made Alex shiver. For the longest time, they just stood there, bathed in silence, in sunlight.
"I didn't do well on my promise."
The Z2 canteen was alive with people, sharing stories, some related to Derrick, some not. In two days or so, this will pass, and people would resume talking about their lives. But that would be in two days. They were there now, and the revelation of a popular student's sexual orientation, as well as the fact that he was badly beaten, already sent some students into a frenzy. KC, Jay, and Eileen did not join the rambles of human perception. Around the plastic table, they sat, not speaking. A physics book was on the table, beside a half-eaten saucer of macaroni right in front of Aileen. Jay and KC had unfinished rice meals on their plates. They all decided that they needed something to eat before they study for the exam together, but found that they really couldn't.
Aileen, clad in her favorite blue, collared top, poked the food with her fork, watching the people go by. KC, in a plain red shirt, looked down, once again lost in some distant oblivion. Jay, wearing a brown, plaid shirt, scratched the back of his head and took out his file case, and then began to rummage through his endless notes. "My last exam sucked." Aileen whispered in a barely audible voice as she put down the fork and began to look around. A few people she knew passed by and waved at her, and she waved back unenthusiastically.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" she then asked, not looking either one of her friends in the eye. KC shrugged sadly, and then signaled for them to begin leave and begin studying by pointing his lips to the doors. With another deep breath, Aileen nodded, and eyed Jay who begun to put his notes back into the file case. Almost at once, all three of them stood up, deposited their plates on the carrels, and promptly left. Hungry, but not at all.
"Alex texted…said things aren't looking up." KC said, referring to the text message he received a few minutes ago. He said it earlier, but found that it was worth repeating it again.
"…So, he and Alex are…?" Aileen asked, looking ahead as they walked through the open expanses of the beautiful university.
"Maybe." Jay replied with a shrug.
No one in campus truly knew if he was gay or not, but the notion was enough for the resident gay and lesbian organization to let out a frustrated howl. Sexual orientation or not, the crime was still directed to a homosexual, and it meant that they had to do something about it. The student council knew as well that human rights were violated, and was already setting to make sure that the voice of the student body be heard. Some students on the other hand did not care at all.
"I waited in that room in absolute silence, hoping that Derrick would suddenly wake up. I'm sure that it was what his parents were doing as well; thinking that they were alone, one on one with their son, in their own separate worlds. I wanted to talk to him, even though I knew he wouldn't answer. I didn't know what I wanted to say, but I just wanted to…speak, to say something, anything. Only I couldn't. I was afraid of what his parents would do, how they'd react. For the first time since I came out of the closet, I was ashamed of who I was. What I caused them."
Alex shifted his weight, beginning to get mindful of the two other conscious people in the room. He felt like he was being scrutinized, put under some sort of mental microscope. He thought that maybe, they were beginning to see the situation for how it really was, that there really was some bond between their son and his best friend. That, or they only keep him in that room out of courtesy to their half-dead child. The sun was high up in the sky, blazing, an hour before it would begin to hide.
"They asked me once or twice if I wanted something to eat, lunch, dinner, and in the end, it was me who volunteered watching over him while they got something to eat. At least they trusted me enough, or had no choice, whatever, but I was glad to have some free time with Derrick. Maybe they read my mind, maybe they knew that I wanted to have some time alone with him."
With a nod, both of them left, some invisible mode of communication was evident, as they seemed to speak at each other through their now cold eyes. Breathing, footsteps, then the creak of the door softly closing, they all sounded momentous to Alex who waited for the chance to finally be alone. For a moment, he did not know what to do. A million suggestions came at once, talk to him, kiss him on his forehead, anything. For some reason, he knew that Derrick's parents were going to take their time, talk things over objectively.
"Without even realizing it, I was already on my knees, his hands in mine, praying to God that everything would be alright. To tell you the truth, it's been a long time since I really prayed, I mean, get down on my knees, stuff like that. I believe in Him sure, but I was one of those Sunday Christians, the ones who only act Christianly on Sundays."
A tear in his eye; Alex leaned over and gave his boyfriend a kiss on the forehead. "We'll get through this." He whispered to the motionless body, squeezing his grip on the other boy's still warm hand. "I promise." With that, he got up on his feet and wiped the salt water away from his cheek. He looked to the door to find Barry and his wife stepping in, but not seeing or hearing what had just transpired seconds before. There was a grim expression on their faces, but nothing worse than what Alex had seen earlier before.
"Well, maybe God wanted to slap me hard in the face. He does move in mysterious ways after all. Anyway, I didn't know why I did it, I expected to bust out some dramatic monologue at first, but then…something just came over me. When I went home that evening, I somehow felt as if things were going to be all right, it was as if someone reassured me that a miracle was to happen. I didn't know how wrong I was."
Author's note: Looks like bad news is in the horizon.