A couple of minutes passed and Manny's arm dropped to his side and the phone receiver fell from his hand, dangling from the cord and the teachers watched as the child fell to his knees, indicating that he was still asleep.
"Well, now what?" Colin asked as Tony walked in front of Manny and crouched down to examine the kid, seeing that he still have his eyes shut, he was still sleeping.
"I say we wake him up" he suggested "ask him if this whole sleep walking thing has happened before."
"No don't do that" Shrignold replied "you're not supposed to wake someone if they're sleepwalking."
"Alright then genius, what's your suggestion?" Tony asked in a sarcastic tone "just let him wonder round in his sleep, possibly escape again, if he wakes up and finds himself outside, he might try and run away again."
"Just watch and learn my friend, watch and learn" replied Shrignold with a cheeky smirk before walking over to where Manny was still sitting and gently helped him to his feet "come along now little one, let's get you back into bed."
"Wha..?" Manny asked groggily, opening his eyes a little as Shrignold led him back to his room, keeping hold of his hand "somebody, phone, talking."
"No one was speaking on the phone child, you were dreaming" Shrignold told the boy who seemed to stir a little as he was lead back into his room, only to fall asleep again after he was put back to bed.
"So, what do we do now?" Paige questioned "if he ends up sleepwalking again, he could leave the house."
"We keep a closer eye on him from now on" said Tony, not taking his eyes of Manny "there could be chance that if he was to go sleepwalking again, he could leave the house like you suggested and if he wakes up and finds himself outside, he could try escaping again, he could still try attempting to find his friends, he'll probably think they still care about him."
"Not if we keep on convincing him that they don't" Colin pointed out "and it did seem like he couldn't remember them, when he was speaking on the phone just a few minutes ago." Just then, there came a small groan and the teacher's looked to see that Manny was beginning to wake up so they walked over to his bed and stood round it as his eyes began to open, a look of confusion on his face.
"What's going on?" he asked when he noticed that the teachers were all standing round his bed "am I in trouble?"
"No, you're not in trouble" Paige replied, sitting on the side of his bed "we just wanted to ask you something, it's about you sleepwalking?"
"What are you talking about?" the little kid asked with a confused expression "was I sleepwalking?" the teachers nodded.
"Has this ever happened before?" Tony questioned "this whole sleepwalking thing?"
"Sometimes, but I can't remember anything about it after, just that I go to sleep in my bed and the next thing I'm waking up somewhere else" Manny replied "but if I went sleepwalking, then why am I back in my bed, why haven't I woken up somewhere else like the other times I been sleepwalking?"
"That's because I lead you back in here after we found you in the kitchen talking on the phone, even though there wasn't anybody on the phone" Shrignold explained as a look of confusion spread across the child's face.
"But, there was someone on the phone and I was in that dark room" he said "I heard someone talking to me on the other end, but I couldn't remember them, I can't remember who it was, but their voice, it sounded familiar but I can't remember what they looked like or what their name was, why is this happening?"
"Well you know what I think" Tony replied "I think that you're mind is beginning to accept the fact that those so called friends of yours just abandoned you and want to forget about them all together and I think that it's for the best, if you just forget about them completely, after all, who wants to remember someone who just leaves you behind without so much as a goodbye." Manny nodded and began to accept the fact that maybe it would be for the best, he couldn't run away now, not if he had no one else to run to and he was still sick with a cold and the weather outside was still wet and cold which meant that his current condition could worsen if he did attempt a second escape attempt, making him too weak to go any further and the teachers would have been able to bring him back easily. Over the next couple of days, Manny slowly recovered and was well enough to get out of bed but he was still forbidden to venture the house alone unless he had one of the teachers with him so he spent most of the time in his room and the teachers would take it in turns to sleep in the room with him on a night time to make sure he didn't try and escape.
"Well your fever seems to be going down nicely" Tony said after taking his temperature "are you feeling any better in yourself?"
"I do a little" the child replied "my head doesn't feel burny anymore."
"So it shouldn't, seeing as that nasty fever you had is starting to break" Tony said "you've had it easy the past few days but now that you've almost recovered things won't be so easy now, you do remember the rule don't you, about not venturing the house alone unless you ask permission or I or one of the other teachers is accompanying you?" Manny nodded "good, now just stick to those rules and we won't have any problems will we?"
"No sir" Manny replied.
"Good" Tony replied before looking at his watch "oh would you look at the time, I think it's bedtime for you young man, what do you think?"
"Do I have to?" Manny complained but when he saw the stern look that Tony was giving him, he decided not to protest any further and immediately got into bed and fell asleep almost straight away and satisfied that the kid had obeyed, Tony decided to read one of his Dr who novels before turning in himself.
It was almost Seven Am when Manny woken up to a grumbling feeling in his stomach, since he had eaten for the past few days due to his sickness, he could only guess that his appetite was beginning to come back and he wanted to go downstairs to get some food but he knew that he wasn't allowed to walk around the house alone unless he asked permission or had one of the teachers with him. As the grumbling in his stomach grew louder, the child looked over at Tony who was asleep in one of the other beds, snoring lightly and considered asking him if he could go to the kitchen to make something to eat but he didn't want to wake him, fearing that he would be angry if he had woken him so early but he was finding it impossible to ignore to grumbling in his empty stomach, he was in desperate need of food, maybe if he could just quickly go downstairs and make a quick sandwich and head back up before Tony woke up then he would be fine and without hesitation, he quietly snuck out of the room and downstairs, constantly checking over his shoulder and listening for any sounds before slowly heading into the kitchen which was empty.
"Okay, maybe if I just make a sandwich and eat it down here pretty quick, I could head back to bed before Tony wakes up and notices that I'm gone" he mumbled to himself before getting out a couple slices of bread before climbing onto the kitchen counter to see what was in the cupboard that he could put on his sandwich and found some jam so he decided to use that on his sandwich.
"I like jam" he said to himself with a grin as he grabbed hold of it and slowly began to pull it out of the cupboard.
"And just what do you think you are doing young man?." The angry voice of Tony had startled the boy that he lost his footing and fell from the counter, hitting his head on the tiled floor as he landed and searing pain spread through his head and black dots swam in his vision as Tony stood over him, glaring.
"Owww" Manny whimpered as he slowly sat up, his vision how doubled so it looked as if there was two Tony's glaring at him.
"Get upstairs now" he ordered, his glare hardening "I'll be up to deal with you in a minute." Still clutching his head, Manny got to his feet and headed straight upstairs, tripping a few times as his injury was making him unsteady on his feet and once he was back in his room, he sat on his bed and began rubbing the area on his head that had been hit when he fell.
"I guess I shouldn't have gone downstairs after all" he muttered to himself and knowing that he was in big trouble now made the child scared, he knew that Tony could be capable of anything if he was angry and in a state of panic, he decided to hide under his bed, he would always hide whenever he was in trouble and just as he managed to shuffle himself under and conceal himself, the door opened and he heard Tony's voice.
"Alright young man, where are you?" he asked "I don't have the time or patience for your silly little games, hiding won't get you out of trouble so either you come out now and face the consequences for your actions." The pain in his head was making Manny feel dizzy but he wasn't too worried about that now, he was far too concerned about Tony finding him and possibly giving him a much worse punishment for hiding instead of facing up to his actions. feeling more and more lightheaded from his injury, the child watched as Tony's feet stood next to his bed, just barely inches away from his face.
"I know you are in this room somewhere and I've checked every possible hiding place" he implied "I guess that leaves only one place, under your bed." Watching as Tony's hand reached out to pull the cover up, Manny's vision began to grow blurry and darken until he lost consciousness completely.