Chapter 8
For the first time in months, my dreams were eventless, no visage of torment, no figure in the dark, just... black, nothing but it, no more things to spook me in my sleep, just an eventless darkness and that made me so unbelievably calm. It was comforting to know that, subconsciously, I knew that no horror of my mind would haunt my restless dreams, like i had been injected with morphine and I was gladly accepting the drowsiness that it brought.
When I awoke, it was to a white room, my entire body - except for my left arm which I could feel had a cast on it but I no feeling came from where Trent had snapped my bone - hurt with a throbbing pain that had become so familiar in recent times. It was in tune with the beat of my heart, every breath, every movement, they all stung my body. a stiff bed was underneath me as well as a thin blanket. I was in the hospital, Hells Pass, the only hospital in South Park. The building was in good shape but the equipment was in drastic need of replacement.
I could see a faint black to my left, turning my head I saw Damien, sitting in a chair next to my bed, he was flicking through an old magazine absentmindedly, and he obviously hadn't known I was awake. 'How long have I been unconscious' I thought, obviously longer than school because why would he visit me in school hours.
"H-hello Damien" I uttered, surprising him slightly as he moved the magazine down to look at me.
"Well, you're finally awake. Took your sweet time" he said.
"What happened" I asked in curiosity
"You don't know? He said "I found you stuffed in my locker, completely unconscious, covered in blood and your arm was... not right" it took me a moment to process what he said, Trent wouldn't have done something like this to me, he was the type to beat you and leave you on the ground. 'Oh god' I thought 'what if he is actually working with Eric for the mutual benefit of breaking me, oh god, oh god.' I repeated in my mind in panic, not aware that Damien was talking to me until he had begun shaking my shoulder.
I snapped out of stupor and turned, my body suffering a twang of pain before readjusting, waiting for him to speak. "Yes Damien" I said
"I said how do you bare with this constant abuse? And the more important matter... who did this to you?" he asked a spark of worry lighting the inferno of anxiety in my mind. If I told him it was either Eric or Trent, like he said yesterday, he'd attack them, and I didn't want him to die.
"I... just, deal with it, you know, and... I don't know, it could be so many people that I have no idea, sorry." I replied, a hitch to my voice. I was glad Damien cared, so, so glad but I couldn't handle it if he died; he was so different, so accepting of me. It was almost unnatural.
He moved closer to me, a glare prominent in his gaze as he slammed he's hands down onto the hospital bed, the thud sounding as if he had slammed against a wooden desk, like an agitated businessmen at a meeting.
"LISTEN PIP, I, I" he sighed "just, tell me, Phillip, tell me. I have the horrible feeling that it will get worse from here, like the calm before the storm. Just tell me and I can stop them, I will be fine, just. Tell me, please" he said the final word with an almost sad twist to it that made my heart fall down my chest and into the pits of my body. I felt so ungodly guilty, like my chest had been cut out and been hollowed, but this was for his own benefit.
"Phillip, I... It was that gluttonous bastard wasn't it, I knew that guy had something wrong with him I-"
"-Don't, please, for the love of god, don't confront him. Please, as-... as a favour, in return for you staying the night please don't confront Eric" I pleaded.
"I, I, ugh, fine, sure whatever" he mumbled "what the hell do you have to be afraid of him, the bastard can barely move five feet?" he asked
"You really don't understand... Eric, he, he's goddamned insane, manipulative, evil... he has a terrifying way with words. Given enough resources, he could probably influence a mass genocide" I replied, even though most didn't show it, everyone was scared that he would snap. If he did, he could damn well take the entire bloody town with him.
"He seems more like a pathetic coward to me, but, I'll take your word for it. If I do find proof that it was him that did this to you, I'll do more than beat him." he said. Why did he seem to care so much, I mean, it was nice, but I'd only known him a day and a bit, and he was already loyal enough to say he'd put his life in danger, just to keep me safe. It confused me.
After his miniature speech, he got up, placing the magazine down onto my bedside table. "Visiting hours are nearly up, according to the doctor you should be good to go back to school by Thursday. Want me to turn off the light when I go out?" he asked, with a curious look I glanced out to the window. It was pitch black, I had been unconscious the entire day!
"Yeah if you could? Thanks" I replied, as he walked out, flipped the switch and plunged the room into almost total darkness. The only light came from the door to the room that slowly closed as Damien walked away from it and within seconds, it was darker, if it wasn't for the glass at the top of the door it would have been completely black.
I tried to think on what had happened to me. Would Eric really get out of bed early just to beat me and stuff me in Damien's locker? even through his determination, he was notoriously lazy. Maybe a teacher, but why would they jeopardise their job to be caught stuffing me in a locker? What teacher had a grudge against me in fact, I couldn't think of any, the head science teacher thought I was a troublemaker but that was it and I hadn't seen his car in the parking lot. Maybe... maybe it was Damien's father, Luke, could it have been him? Had he found me, crumpled on the floor, my arm broken and decided it would be a good idea to shove me in his sons' locker? Why would he do that? his smile was unnerving sure but I didn't think he was completely psychotic. That ruled three people out.
It had to be Trent, but that was such an out of character move that it couldn't be him that did it, even if he did, he would have done something much more violent and threatening. Something like carving 'A gift, to the emo kid' into my chest before shoving me into the locker, so that reduced the possibility of it being Trent, but that left me at a blank.
I led on the bed, only thinking, trying to figure out what the hell was going on when all light went out, as if I had been instantly transported. It had shocked me for a second, the light had been beaming directly on me from the window in the door, now someone was covering it.
Silence smothered the room for a few seconds before, from outside my door, I heard whispering. I strained, trying to understand what was going on. I knew it was un-gentlemanly to be nosey but I had wanted to know what was important enough to block my light.
Listing in, I only heard a few words "one... lord... memory" one whispered voice said before another, a rather old sounding women replied
"Do" that was the last word she had said and the only thing I could understand, they only stood in the way of my light for a minute before the two people walked off. I gave myself a short smile, I didn't know what I was going to find by listening in to two people who obviously just stopped to talk for a bit. I was being too paranoid and anxious.
Eventually light wormed its way back into the room, it couldn't have been too late, but I was sure that I wouldn't be sleeping through the night. Throughout the earth's short spin away from the moon, I did nothing but lay still on the bed, I didn't want to move as that would flare the pain so I just led, as stiff as a board, waiting for the sun to rise. A nurse came into the room once, to make sure I was alright although she only had a brief look around the room before moving onto another patient.
Throughout the night I had the strangest feeling put me on edge. I felt as if someone was watching me, eyes, tentatively staring from outside my window, but no buildings surrounded the hospital. No matter how much I convinced myself, the feeling wouldn't leave, eventually my curiosity grew too big and I decided to have a small look.
I thought about calling the nurse to ask her if she could check for me, but if there was no one there, I would be thought to be mad.
With a sharp intake of breath I raised myself off of the bed, the pain coming all in one second, brining me to my knees. Slowly the sharp sting ebbed away enough for me to slowly stagger towards the window, every step as if glass was being shoved into my legs. What had actually happened to me?
Once I reached the window where the moon shone a small beam of moonlight through, I got a good look at the outside car park. I was on the first floor, near the center of the building. The lampposts brightened the surrounding area well but the center of it was mostly dark, snow fell, piling onto the already packed sidewalks and cars while slowly covering the remaining traces of the main road. The scenery was peaceful but that innate fears of having someone watch you overpowered any comfort the surroundings could have brought.
I looked at the car park, the feeling was coming from there but I couldn't pinpoint it, most of the cars were empty, four cars and two vans (one a plane white Ford the other, a silver Toyota publicizing some kind of plumbing company) held people, probably waiting until visiting hours to see if friends and family were safe, I saw no madman staring directly at my window with a smile on his face, no horrible creature gazing at me with a hungry stare. Just an empty car park. 'What if there is someone watching from a car?' I thought, lighting a new fuse that led to a bomb of paranoia, maybe there was, but they would have hidden back into their hole or led back in their seat, the visage of sleep like a blanket above them. I had no way of knowing if someone was watching me, I could only wait. 'In the morning' I planned 'I'll see if there are any cars or vans still with people in by visiting hours, if they stay there, I'll know'
As always, the sun rose, meekly peeking over the edge of buildings like a confused bystander standing behind a crowd, curious as to what the commotion is. The bright rays filled the room, illuminating it once more, as well as the snow smothered car park.
The feeling of someone watching hadn't left, if there was someone, and I was certain that there was, it had to be someone who was staying in their car. I had managed to get an idea of all of them with my fearful journeys to the window, which surely wouldn't be good for my weary body but I didn't care. Huh, this must have been like how Tweek felt when he was ranting about people watching him, maybe not, but I sympathized with him a little more.
By around half five three of the sleeping drivers had awoken, two had already got on their phones and the third was eating. It could have been them, it could have been none. It could have even been no one at all and this was all just a figment of an imagination that had snapped after receiving that last bit of torment to fling me off the edge like a fragile china doll being dropped off a cliff, shattering against the rocky depths below.
Was I simply paranoid, no, the feeling was too strong to just be a figment of my imagination, unless I had truly gone off the deep end.
On my third painful trip to the window in the span of ten minutes I thought 'what if... what if it was not someone in a car, but maybe Eric or one of his lackeys watching from the distance. That would make sense, he is always prepared, maybe he is planning some heinous plot and it involves me... it wouldn't be the first time.' It could have been anyone, it could have even been Damien himself, he could have been waiting on the outside for visiting hours to come although it was probably not. It didn't fell right, it had a dark intention, the feeling, and it was as if I was being watched by a dark spirit and not a person.
When the sun finally rose, confidently, to the sky, the feeling didn't leave. It wasn't an hour until visiting hours and the evil feeling person still watched and I was still unawares as to his location.
