A/N: Here it is at last, chapter 10. I've had writers block lately, so yeah.
Chapter 10 - Results of a Nightmare
Eddy tossed and turned in the darkness. His face was contorted in an expression of fear and pain. Occasionally he would whimper or cry out loud. He was reliving every horrible minute of the inncident that had put him here.
"It was an accident! I swear to God it was!" he screamed as his dad drug him from the room. The door to his room slammed shut and he was cut off from his friends. The much larger man drug him into the living room. He felt the sting of a fist connecting with his face as he was knocked to the ground.
"Look what you did, you little fag!" his dad shouted, pointing to the shattered trophy.
He kicked Eddy in the stomache, then pulled him to his feet and punched him again. Eddy had gotten the wind knocked out of him and was almost too terrified to fight back. It was all a painful blur, really. He was thrown into the wall, slammed into furniture, punched and kicked, repeatedly. He recalled painfully landing on the floor and bracing himself for the next blow, but it was slow in coming.
He dared to look across the room from where he had fallen and saw his father pick up a sharp piece of broken trophy. The angry drunkard pinned Eddy down again, as the boy had been trying to escape from what was coming next, and started slashing away at him with the sharp pieces of broken glass and plaster. Eddy was writhing beneathe him, sobbing uncontrollably. He knew his dad was yelling and swearing at him, but he couldn't process the words. He was so scared and everything hurt so bad. He cried out for mercy several times, but his cries fell on deaf ears. He grabbed a hold of one of his father's arms, trying to pull the shard away from him. The blood he saw running down his own arm horrifed him and he hesitated. That moment of hesitation doomed any chance he had at escape. His father twisted his arm sharply and hit him again.
The next thing Eddy knew, was that he was being drug down the hallway again. His dad kicked the door to his room open and Eddy tried to squirm away again. His father had him by the wrist and snapped it sharply. Eddy heard a sickening crack followed by an all new burst of pain shooting through his arm. He was thrown down to the floor again and curled up into a tight ball, shielding his face.
"Please, stop it!" he cried.
"If you ever touch my stuff again, I'll kill you!"
He heard the door slam shut and another wave of terrified sobbing ravaged his body. He felt hands touching him gently and heard Edd's and Dea's voices. He couldn't answer them. He was freaking out. He shook horribly and couldn't bring his sobbing under control. He felt like his heart was beating about 100 miles per hour and his chest felt horribly constricted. He managed to roll over and inform Dea, "I can't breathe."
He heard Edd's muffled voice say something about an ambulence and felt Dea holding him and squeezing his hand. There were flashing lights all around him and his vision swam. He saw his brother's face vividly and then there was darkness...
In the hospital bed, Eddy relaxed a little, but he still didn't wake up. He was still for a few seconds, then the nightmare started up again. It started where it had left off, with flashing lights and Nick's face, only there were new frightening images accompanying it this time...
Eddy was in the dark. He felt cold, very cold. There was the sound of squealing tires, followed by a loud crash. The scene burst into light. There were ambulances and police cars with their lights flashing all over the place. The pavement looked wet, as if it had been raining.
Eddy observed the scene from a distance, like he was outside of himself. He saw a gray car, smashed into a tree with a guard rail cutting into the side of the crumpled vehicle. It looked like the car had been rolled. The windows were all broken out and the driver lay on the wet pavement, surrounded by glass. An EMT ran around the back of the car and hopelessly tried to revive the driver.
Eddy moved closer to the accident, trying to see who the driver was. He froze in place and his senses were dulled with coldness as he looked down upon the dead driver of the car. It was Nick.
He contiued to stare disconnectedly, in another wordly state almost, as he saw himself, in a much more distressed state, run onto the scene and fall to his kness beside his brother. He looked horrified and cried as he shook Nick helplessly.
"No...Nick, c'mon...wake up. You just came back...don't leave me again," he heard himself plead.
Eddy watched himself hopelessly crying over his brother. Edd and Dea came onto the scene and stuggled to pull him away from the body. Ed had to forcfully hold him back. He watched the ambulences leave and the lights faded until he saw only himself, crying under a solitary street lamp as his friends tried in vain to comfort him...
Eddy awoke with a start. He sat up straight in the hospital bed. His eyes were wide and he was trembling all over. His breathing was heavy and his heart was racing. He looked around and realized he was alone and still in the hospital. /It was just a dream/ he told himself. He sat there for a while in the dark. He cluched his sheets to him and waited for his heart rate to return to normal. At last he layed back down, but didn't sleepany more. The horrible visions he had seen in his dream made him afraid sleep.
The next morning, Nick was the first to pay Eddy a visit. Ed, Edd, and Dea were just arriving as Nick was coming into the hallway for a "food break." He looked tired and distracted and not half as lively as he had looked when he arrived the night before.
"Good morning, Nick," Edd said. Nick only mumbled something in response. He looked at Dea and smiled weakly.
"Maybe you can cheer him up," he said to her.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. He won't talk to me. He won't respond at all."
Dea nodded grimly. She continued on to Eddy's temporary room with the other two Ed-boys while Nick continued on down the hallway.
Dea, Edd, and Ed all pulled a chair up next to Eddy's bed. Nick was right- Eddy looked aweful. He lay on his side, staring off into space as though no one else were around. They all greeted him, but received no response. His eyes remained wet and shining with tears that wouldn't fall and he'd visibly shiver every once in a while. Dea placed her had on Eddy's shoulder.
"Talk to us," she said, "what's going on?"
He didn't answer, except to pull his covers tighter around himself. Dea, Edd, even Ed, tried several more times to get Eddy to respond to them, but to no avail. They sat with him for a while longer, but at last, like Nick, left for a break from Eddy's depressing state. Dea kissed him on the cheek and told him she loved him. It was all she could do and she regretted that it was all she could do.
The group walked down to one of the waiting rooms where Nick was sitting on a sofa holding his head in his hands. Dea sat down next to him and Ed and Edd sat together on another sofa. The room was empty except for them.
"Any luck?" Nick asked them.
"No," Dea answered.
Nick shook his head. "I swear, if I ever see our old man again, I'll kill 'em."
"If you ever see him again, hold him for me," Dea said, "I want a piece of the jerk to annihilate for myself."
Nick smiled a little at her words. He got up and got a soda out of the pop machine, then sat back down next to Dea. If she wasn't already going out with his little brother, he probably would have asked her out himself. He liked her attitude.
"I can't help but think Eddy's upset over something other than his father," Edd said.
"Maybe its this stupid hospital," Nick mused, "Hell, I get depressed after being her for five minutes, let alone being kept here for several days."
"Perhaps," Edd said, still not convinced that was it.
"I'm gonna talk to some people about getting him out of here," Nick continued, "Mom hasn't even been in to see him yet, so maybe we don't even need her to check out. Eddy's 18 now, maybe he can sign himself out and just send the bills to mom. She deserves it. She's the one that married that no-good, rotten scumbag that did this to him."
They all nodded in agreement. They sat around the waiting room for a while, then went as a group to tell Eddy good bye. After that, the four of them went to dinner together. They lifted each other's spirits by telling stories, all the while feeling guilty that they could be out moving about while Eddy was restricted to stay in a hospital bed. They agreed to meet at Eddy's house the next day and all go to the hospital in Nick's car.
A/N: Maybe not as graphic as it could have been, but eh, tell me what you think.