Chapter 18: Fever Dream
The steady beat of a heart monitor pulsed in Jonas's ears. It lured him from the grasps of sleep and urged him to wake up. He tried to ignore the sound. He didn't want to wake up, not yet. Still, the beat droned on. Finally, Jonas gave in and slowly forced his eyes to open.
He was greeted by a darkened infirmary, showing very few signs of life. The only light came from the flickering of computer monitors, and the slight bit that was creeping in from the hall.
The infirmary was scarcely populated, with only one other patient who was sleeping quietly in the next bed over. Jonas listened to the sounds echoing around him, trying to fall victim to sleep once again, yet sleep refused to take him hostage this time.
His entire body ached, and his eyes burned as though he were exhausted. He closed his eyes, and still he could not sleep.
Cautious footsteps walked by his bed, stopping momentarily to check his readings. With a slight sound of approval, the footsteps moved on to the next patient. Jonas listened, the nurse woke the patient and began asking general knowledge questions. From this, Jonas deduced that the other patient had to have been suffering from a head injury. The tired voice of the patient told Jonas that it was Sergeant Siler who was sharing the infirmary with him.
With a quiet sigh, Jonas rolled away from the nurse and Siler and somehow, dropped into a light, restless sleep.
He awoke with a start. Something had caused him to wake up, but what? He looked sleepily around and saw nothing, not even the nurse who had been questioning Siler earlier. How long had he been asleep? An hour or two? He didn't know.
The lights in the hall had dimmed out a bit, and Jonas was left in fairly heavy darkness. He closed his eyes again, and as he lay there in silence, he heard steady breathing coming from the direction of Siler's bed. He ignored it, and tried to fall asleep again. The breathing drew closer and he opened his eyes. Seeing nothing, he turned his head to face the breathing, what he saw caused him to draw in a sharp breath.
In the darkness, watching him, were two, glowing red eyes. Eyes that were eerily familiar. With a small whimper he closed his eyes tightly. When he opened them again, there was nothing there, he saw movement coming from Siler's bed, and saw the man turn toward him. For a moment, Jonas thought he saw Siler's eyes flash red, and he blinked again, finding that the other man's eyes had returned to normal.
"Jonas? Are you okay?" Came the tired voice of the Sergeant.
Jonas jumped slightly, not expecting the man to speak, but nodded in the dark.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" Jonas asked, breathing a sigh of relief at the creature being only a remnant from a dream.
"I heard you yell. I thought something was wrong." Siler replied, now sitting up in bed.
"Did I yell?" Jonas asked.
"Oh yeah. I'm surprised that the doctor isn't in here by now. I figured you yelled loud enough for the control room to hear you." Siler stated, a bit of a worried smile quivering at the corners of his mouth.
"I didn't realize. Sorry if I woke you." Jonas's voice was guilty.
"Don't worry about it. It's near impossible to get a decent rest here with a nurse coming to wake you up every hour or two. You must've been dreaming, nothing big." Siler deduced.
"Yeah, that had to have been it." Jonas muttered, turning his head away. He hoped that was it.
He heard shifting from Siler's bed, and when he turned back, he saw Siler laying back down, eyes locked on the dark ceiling. With a sigh, Jonas closed his eyes, attempting to go back to sleep, but he knew it would be a futile attempt. After what he'd just seen, he'd be lucky if he could keep his eyes closed for a few minutes at a time.
A few moments later, Jonas felt a heavy feeling in his stomach, and opened his eyes. He caught a fleeting glance of a moving shape, and when it looked back, Jonas saw its eyes glow red. He called out, but his voice didn't carry.
As the thing looked at him, Jonas felt searing pain ripple through his wounds, followed by an extreme sense of weakness. He kept his eyes glued on the creature, and the room began wildly capsizing around him. A sick feeling bubbled in his stomach, and he immediately clenched his eyes shut, the spinning room vanishing into darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, the creature was gone. In the next bed over, Siler shifted. From the hall, Jonas heard a distinct clattering of something, followed by intense silence. His breath caught in his throat, and his heart pounded against his ribs with so much force, it was almost painful.
Numbly, he struggled to sit, choking back nausea as the room began to spin again. He drew in a ragged breath, and slowly let it out, his stomach settling a bit. With a surge of strength, he pushed himself from bed, grabbing onto the bedside stand as he threatened to fall forward.
"Jonas?" Came Siler's voice, echoing from far off.
Jonas ignored it, and stumbled to the door.
"Jonas? Should I call the doctor?" Siler asked, his voice taking on a worried edge.
Jonas waved him off and continued to proceed to the door. From behind him, he heard heavy breathing, and when he turned, he saw the red-eyed shadow staring at him.
"I gotta get outta here." Jonas whispered harshly to himself.
"What?" Came Siler's voice, oddly distorted in a deeper lilt of threat.
"Can't you see that? It's right there." Jonas said.
"See what? There's nothing there. Jonas, I'm going to call the doctor, okay?" Siler asked, sounding cautious.
Jonas found himself frozen to the spot. Siler made a movement, the creature turned, and Jonas tore his eyes away. With that, he stumbled to the doorcase, and leaned against it for support.
Looking out into the hall, he saw that it was empty, and there was nothing to be seen anywhere. He struggled to move outside into the light, stumblingclumsily. Before reaching the light, hefound himself being held back by something. When he turned, he saw the unsteady form of Sergeant Siler, holding him around the waist.
"I have to get to the light!" Jonas yelled.
"What are you talking about? Jonas, you don't look very good." Siler replied.
"The light! If we don't get into the light, it's going to kill us both. We have to go. It can't get us in the light." Jonas said, his voice sounding on the edge of insanity.
"Jonas, you're running a fever, it seems to me as though you're delusional. Come on, let's get you back to bed." Siler said, the sergeant tottered on his feet, but kept a firm grasp on Jonas as he tried to tug him back to the bed.
"I'm not! You don't understand, how can you?" Jonas yelled.
"Jonas! Snap out of it!" Siler exclaimed, his face was paled, and his eyes strangely glazed.
Behind Siler, Jonas saw the creature again, and he forced himself not to meet its eyes. Instead, his gaze drifted to Siler's neck, where he saw three jagged scratch lines that stretched under the collar of the hospital clothing he wore.
Jonas stared wide-eyed and lifted his eyes to meet Siler's. The Sergeant's eyes glittered a menacing red. Jonas tried to wrench from his grasp.
"Let me go!" Jonas wailed miserably.
"Jonas, come on, the doctor's on her way. Let's get . . . " Siler's voice trailed off to be replaced by a snarling, gravelly sound that sent shivers up Jonas's spine.
"You can't escape me. You have been marked, and you have no chance." The gravelly voice challenged, the words were coming from Siler's mouth, and the Sergeant's lips curled into a malicious snarl.
"Let go of me!" Jonas yelled, wrenching free and shoving Siler back in the process. The Sergeant toppled backwards, landing sharply on the ground, his head hitting the floor. There was a shout of surprise from Siler and then nothing.
Jonas looked up, and saw the shadowy creature had advanced on him. He yelled out and turned to run. He only got a few steps before Dr. Fraser's form was seen hurrying toward him, at first she looked concerned, but then her eyes took on a dangerous red hue, and Jonas turned away, only to be stopped by the shadowy creature itself.
The creature was silhouetted, and in the light, Jonas saw a twisted face, with greyed skin and glittering red spheres for eyes. It smiled and the smile was pure evil. It raised a hand, and Jonas saw three claws extend from the fingertips and begin toward him.
His legs gave out and he landed hard on the ground, the air being expelled from his lungs in a single breath. There were hurried footsteps and Jonas turned to see Dr. Fraser kneeling next to him, her eyes still glittering, and her skin appearing grey. She reached a hand toward him, and Jonas saw the claws. Then the figure shimmered, and Fraser was Fraser once again, her eyes appearing to be nothing, but afraid.
"Jonas!" She called.
Jonas slammed his eyes shut as the corridor began to spin once again, and he coughed as he choked back the nausea that threatened to overtake him. His face felt hot, and his wounds blazed with pain. He brought trembling hands up to mop at his face and when he saw his hands, three long claws extended from each.
He yelled out in horror, and the corridors tilted around him, tunneling out of sight as blackness edged his vision. He yelled out one final time, and fell backwards, his head made a solid connection with the floor and he heard Fraser's urgent voice echoing away into nothing.His eyes slid shut, the last thing he saw before passing over completely, were two eyes glowing red, and surrounded by the greyed skin and the malicious smile. Then he knew no more.
A/N: Okay, that's probably as far as I'll go with the Jonas bashing thing, don't wanna overdo it. Let me know what you think, and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can! Don't worry if you're a bit lost at the moment, everything will be explained in good time, I promise!