All right, fourth chapter, right here. Getting closer to the sixth chapter that some of you have been waiting for. ^_^
Hello, hello, hello! ^_^ It's only been a couple of days, and I've already got the next chapter of the story for you guys! It's really sad, though.
Chapter Four
It's cold right now… Frank's damn heater doesn't work… I'm holding Sam close to me to keep him warm, and he coughs before nuzzling his head into my chest. The poor guy has been coughing a lot for the past week or so… He started coughing up phlegm about a day in, too… I really hope he's not getting something serious… I really do…
He sits up quickly and starts coughing again, this time harder than the last. He puts his hand up to his mouth, and he sounds like he's hacking stuff up. When he takes his hand away, he looks at it, and his mouth goes agape. "O-Ogie…" He sounds really worried…
I sit up as well. "What's wrong?"
"W-why is this red? Th… That isn't blood… is it?" I look more closely at his hand, and I see red splotches on it… Oh, no… No, no, no… I don't wanna worry him, though…
"D-don't worry about it. Just go wash your hands and try to get some sleep, okay?" He slowly nods and gets up, walking over to the sink and running the water. I watch him as he washes his hands clean of the bloody phlegm… Chaos, I can't believe he's getting sick enough to cough up blood…
He walks back over here and rapidly gets back under the covers. "It's cold when you're not under the blanket. Like really cold… It feels like it's zero degrees…"
But it's only twenty degrees out… He starts nuzzling even closer to me as I feel his forehead. Oh, jeez… He's burning up… "Just try to get some sleep. I'll keep you warm." He nods and starts coughing a little more, but thank goodness he's not hacking anything up this time… I just want him to be okay. Please, even if I end up getting sick, I just want him to be all right after this.
After about twenty minutes, I think he's finally dozed off, but I can't fall asleep. I'm haunted by what might happen to him. If this is the illness I think it is, then he's in some real danger. If this is tuberculosis, like I think it is, then he might end up… I can't even think about it… For Chaos' sake, he can't die! He's the only one I have left, and I've pretty much given up hope that my father will ever come home! Just please let him be okay! If there's any type of god up there, could you please listen to me?!
Please… I need him…
I'm woken up by a large fit of coughing… Oh, no… I open my eyes as quickly as I can and see Sam standing over the sink, coughing up more bloody phlegm… He soon stops coughing and falls on his butt before starting to shiver. I hurriedly rush over there and wrap the blanket around him before rubbing his back.
"It hurts… It hurts every time I cough… Why does it hurt so much… and why am I coughing up blood? A-am I dying, Ogie? I don't wanna die…"
I can feel a couple tears accumulate in my eyes. I can't believe he just asked that… "Don't be stupid, Sam! Of course you're not dying! You're just sick, okay?! You'll recover in a week or so and be back on your feet! Don't say or think things like that!" I'm lying to both him and myself, unfortunately… His symptoms are really bad… I'm really not sure if he's gonna make it, but I have to hope that he is.
"But I feel horrible… Do I have to go to school today?" Did he seriously just ask if he has to go to school? I thought it was a given that he didn't have to.
"No, you don't. C'mon, I'll take you over to Milly's and have them take care of you for the day."
"But it's only seven…"
I glance up at the clock, and it reads 7:03. "That's fine. I'm sure Mrs. Mutti is up by now, and maybe even Milly is, too." He nods before getting up and walking over to get his coat on, but he walks so slowly… Maybe he's disoriented from all the coughing he did… He slips it on over his arms before zipping it up, and then he slips his shoes on. I walk over and do the same, but I grab my backpack as well.
However, he starts walking out the door, and I stop him before he does. "You're not walking there. I'm not letting you exert yourself any more than you have to." He starts to protest, but before he can even get a word out, I pick him up and carry him out the door.
"Y-you don't have to carry me. I-I can wa—" Before he can even finish his sentence he starts coughing again, and after he's done, he spits some phlegm over my shoulder.
"You're not walking when you're like this. I know you don't wanna burden me, but you're really not. You're my li'l bro, after all."
I can't see, but I think he's smiling at me. "Thanks." And after he says that, I start running as fast as I can toward the orphanage that Milly lives in. When I arrive there in a couple minutes, I knock on the door, and after a few seconds, a stout human lady with brown hair and glasses opens the door.
"Oh, Ogilvie! And Samuel! What a nice surprise!" she exclaims while smiling..
"Hey, Mrs. Mutti," I reply as I smile back. She's the nice lady who runs the orphanage. She's almost like a second mother to me.
"Come in, come in. It's freezing out there." She motions with her hand for us to do the same thing she was just saying, and I walk in before setting Sam down on the ground. "May I ask why you were carrying Samuel?"
"Well, Sam is kinda sick…" I respond. "He's been coughing a lot… and last night he started coughing up… um… Well, he started coughing up blood…"
"Oh, my goodness!" she exclaims worriedly. "How did he catch something so dreadful?!"
"I think it has something to do with how Frank's heater doesn't work. He's been trying to save up money to get it fixed, though." Well, I'm glad I didn't have to make up a lie for that one…
"Well, I hope your uncle can get the money for that. It's supposed to be extremely cold this winter." Yeah, and with the three months I've spent with him, it's made me doubt that he could ever save that much money.
"I do, too…" I pause for a second before asking, "So, I was wondering if it'd be okay if Sam were to stay here today instead of going to school. He's not in any condition to be doing anything more than resting."
Mrs. Mutti nods. "Of course. I'd be happy to let him stay here. It just so happens that we have an extra bed open."
"What about having an extra bed open?" I look over to the staircase and see Milly walking down it, stretching his arms and yawning as he does. He must have just woken up. "Oh, hey, Ogie. Hey, Sam."
I wave to him before Mrs. Mutti answers, "Little Samuel here is very sick and needs to stay somewhere warm. I'm going to let him stay in the extra bed for today, and maybe even a couple days and nights afterward if it's necessary, in case their uncle's heater isn't fixed.
Milly just nods and walks over to the kitchen. I know he's not one to communicate much when he just wakes up. "All right, honey," starts Mrs. Mutti, "why don't you go upstairs and lay down. You need the rest, and I'm sure you'd love a warm bed after being without a heater… but let me get you a bowl first, just in case you need to cough anything up." She quickly walks into the kitchen and grabs a plastic bowl from a cabinet before she walks back over and gives it to Sam. "Now go upstairs, dear. You need plenty of rest."
My little brother nods, but he doesn't go upstairs till he says, "Bye, Ogie. See you in the afternoon." And then he walks up the stairs before disappearing from my view.
"He's such an energetic child," states Mrs. Mutti. "Even when he's ill, he still acts like he's fine…" She pauses for a few seconds. "Have you had breakfast yet?" I haven't, actually. I shake my head. "Well, I'm going to make some here soon. Why don't you stay and have breakfast with us?"
Well, I haven't had her cooking in a while, and it is pretty good. "All right."
She smiles. "All right, then. You can go talk to Vermillion for a bit while I prepare it. Get that boy to open up a bit in the morning."
And so I walk over to the kitchen and sit next to the vermillion raccoon. "Heya, Milly."
He slightly waves his hand and says weakly, "Hey…"
"What's wrong? Didn't get much sleep?"
He yawns loudly before answering, "Not really… So what's up with Sam? What's he sick with?"
I hesitate a bit to answer… I don't really want to think about the illness that might end up causing him death… "Umm… Well, I think it's tuberculosis…" As soon as I say that, his ears perk up, and he looks straight at me. "He's been coughing up blood and all that…"
"Y-you're sure?" he asks. "'Cause tuberculosis is really serious."
"Unfortunately, I'm sure… With how hard he's been coughing, and how tired and cold he's been, I can't think of anything else it could be…"
"Well, that's not good. I hope he's gonna be okay."
"I do, too… I can't stand to lose him, too… I just can't…" This time, after the tears accumulate in my eyes, they start falling. "I can't lose him, Milly…"
He sighs. "You need a hug?" Yes, I need a hug… I nod, and he embraces me. He's so warm… I don't know how he can always be this warm… His hugs are comforting, to say the least.
After a minute, he releases me. "Okay, now how about we talk about happier subjects." I nod in agreement.
After we ate breakfast, Milly and I headed over to school. It was honestly a boringly normal day, but I couldn't stop thinking about Sam while I was there. His condition has me worried as hell… As soon as we get out, Milly and I rush right over to the orphanage, but when we get there, Mrs. Mutti isn't there, and neither is Sam. As I'm looking around the upper floor, I see someone else laying in a bed.
"Espio?" I ask. The purple chameleon looks over at me and smiles.
"Hello, Ogilvie."
"Why are you home, if I may ask?" I'm kinda curious as to why he's here.
"Oh, I wasn't feeling too well this morning… Are you looking for Sam and Mrs. Mutti?" I nod my head. "I hate to say it, but Sam's condition got worse. Mrs. Mutti had to take him to the hospital at around noon." My eyes widen at what he said. His condition… worsened? No… No, he can't be getting sicker…
"Are you gonna go over there, Ogie?" asks Milly.
"Of course I am, Milly! That's a stupid question!" Without even bothering to wait for him, I run as fast as I can over to the hospital.
When I arrive, I quickly ask the lady at the desk which room Sam is in, and she says he's all the way up on the eleventh floor. Oh, great… Well, I'm not waiting for an elevator to get me up there, so I run up the stairs all the way to floor eleven, and then I make my way over to Sam's room. When I get there, I see the little brown hedgehog laying asleep on a hospital bed, and Mrs. Mutti is holding his hand…
Oh, Chaos… He looks horrible… "He's been having a lot of trouble breathing…" says Mrs. Mutti, "and his cough has been getting worse…" She looks up at me, tears in her eyes, which is rare to see. "The doctors said that they don't think he's going to make it, Ogilvie…" What? They what? No… No, he has to make it… He can't die on me… Tears start flowing out of my eyes at high speeds, and Mrs. Mutti walks over to me before embracing me.
"No… He can't leave me… He can't die… I promised… I promised I would keep him safe… I promised him that he wouldn't die from this… I promised, Mrs. Mutti…"
I start crying even harder, and after I do, I hear, "Ogie?" along with a lot of hard breaths. I break out of Mrs. Mutti's hug and look over to the bed, and Sam's blue eyes are cracked open ever so slightly. I run over to the bed and start crying over him.
"Sam… How do you feel?"
"I can't breathe well," he responds, "and I've been coughing a lot more… Why are you crying? What's wro—" He starts coughing, and although it's a harsh cough, it's just a dry one this time. I start crying even more… His cough just sounds so… devastating to me… "W-why are you crying even more?"
I can't answer that truthfully… I can't let him know that he's going to die… I just can't… "Nothing, buddy." I wipe my tears away. "It's nothing…"
"Okay…" He says, trying to sound like he normally would when he thinks something more is up than I'm letting him know, but he lets it go. "How was school? Did I miss any homework? Or did you not check. It's fine if you didn't check, Ogie."
He's this sick, and he's worrying about homework? "I didn't check. Sorry, li'l bro."
He smiles. "That's fine." And all of a sudden, he starts breathing harder.
"Sam? What's wrong?" But he doesn't answer me. "Li'l bud, what's going on? Is it getting hard to breathe?" He nods.
"It… hurts…" he chokes out.
"Hey, what's going…?" I hear from the direction of the door. Apparently Milly just arrived… but I could honestly not care less about Milly right now. At the moment, Sam is the one that needs tending to.
In a few seconds, I see a doctor rush in, and he walks over to the other side of the bed, checking the computer. "It appears his heart rate is increasing. There's not much we can do, however. He's just a child, and anything we try could end up harming him more…"
I look up at the doctor, a gray wolf. "You're just gonna let him die, then?! He still has a life ahead of him, and you're just gonna let him go!"
"I'm sorry, but there isn't much else we can do. If we try anything else, we could—" He's cut off by a long beeping noise, and it takes me a second to register that it's coming from the computer. I look at it, and the number on it is… zero…
"No… No, no, no… Sam… Sam… You can't go, Sam…! I need you here!" I look at my little brother, and his eyes, are closed, thank goodness, but just as the computer says, he's not breathing… "Sammy, you can't leave me! You're all I've got! You're the only reason I haven't gone insane! Sammy! Please, come back! Sammy! Sammy!"
But I'm not dumb… I know that my little brother… the only one I had… is dead…
Wasn't it sad? And it was very sudden, too. Now we definitely know that Sonic is, unfortunately, very emotionally scarred at this point. Well, I'm hoping to crank out the next chapter soon. Till then, auf wiedersehen!
-Camobamo1
Just a little while more until I get chapters five and six posted. I promise. ^_^
-Tails Luv-er