A/N: Hey, guess who is back! Still not a doctor, though. Anyway, I am so ecstatic with the love I've been getting for this story! All of these reviews make me so happy, as well the insane amount of followers and favorites! This makes me so happy! I love all of you and your support!
This is so cool, considering this is just the second chapter of my story, but it's still shocking! Anyway, here is the second chapter of Sick and I hope you all enjoy it! Also, my tumblr is meowkasa for those who'd like to follow me or something.
Also, I'm planning on making a new title for this story, so if any of you have suggestions, I'll be glad to consider it!
And wow! Almost 5,000 words! I'm on a roll!
Several weeks passed since the encounter with the man who reeked of blood and utter pain. Eren was always awake during the nighttime- just in case the man appeared again. He never did. The weeks following were still ever so boring, but Eren was always on his toes waiting to see if the man would pass by. It felt like months to Eren, and he would've believed it if Gunther had not told him it was nearing April.
He'd always shake the thought off; after all, the man was in Intensive Care and was not allowed to go anywhere for a while until he was fully healed. There was this strange feeling about the man that made Eren uneasy. He had so many questions in the back of his head, but knew there'd be no answer.
Once April rolled over, there was a rumor weaving itself into the mouths of the nurses and doctors. Apparently, a patient had run away. And it also seemed that the same patient was a criminal with a heavy Want on him. Petra had told him, as well as their small group, during a lunchtime session and they'd argued over it for a while. Eren still picked at his food, and found his bites getting smaller. Something was bothering him in the back of his mind, but he couldn't pin-point what it was.
But that was beside the point. He'd asked Erwin about the rumor, but the doctor merely shook it off saying it was only a rumor. Eren picked at his fingernails in doubt of the man's words, but he still said an annoyed 'okay' at the thought of being kept from secrets. The two dismissed the subject as quickly as it came and the doctor told him of his condition for umpteenth time while Eren just nodded emptily.
Eren was told countless times that he was in a point where he wasn't getting any worse or better. That had happened lots of times, but it was only a matter of time until he'd get a little bit worse day by day. His body was shutting down on him and Eren could do nothing but feel it make his bones weaker and his heart ever so fragile.
More than once his breathing left him gaping like a fish depraved of its water. His lungs stopped functioning, and his heart just failed to pump the oxygen into his system. Or so they said. Eren didn't know what was what anymore. Everything that happened to him just seemed the same and it was always a continuous repetitive pattern of his something failing which caused him to do whatever. Nurses had to be sent in when those moments happened in order to calm him down and make him breathe normally again.
Eren never talked the rest of the day.
Eventually, the rumors that were floating around were deemed true, and everyone went hysteric. Bets were fulfilled and apparently, the head of the hospital called the police station to file a report on the missing criminal. Apparently, the hospital no longer needed to worry about the man and just let the police take care of it. Of course, everyone was still looking for the criminal on their own free-time hoping to reap the benefits of turning in such a horrible criminal.
"Hey there, Eren!" A voice came from the door, but Eren kept his gaze downward as he played with his hands.
"Hey, guys." Eren responded.
Eren recognized the footsteps and the voices of his friends and heard them settle down for another lunchtime session together.
"Do you guys know if they'll ever find that criminal?" Erd asked them, obviously still interested in the weeks old rumor.
"Well, it's been weeks since the guy ran away," Gunther began and Eren looked up- suddenly interested in the conversation.
Eren decided to speak up. "Does anybody know his name?" His voice was raspy from his lack of talking, but also due to his throat swelling up sometimes.
"Not that I've heard of. They probably have it on the news or the internet. Whatever the man was here for wasn't my medical area." Gunther said as he took a bite of his burrito.
"I think he was in the Intensive Care. I've heard his name was Levi, or something like that. Apparently, he came in with several bullet wounds and lacerations. He was bleeding a lot, and I heard they had to use around three blood bags to make sure he wouldn't die from blood loss."
Petra gasped in shock at that and spoke, "Oh my goodness! That's horrible!"
Eren chuckled at her and played with his hands over his quilt, that Eren thanked was lighter and airier. "Were they bad?"
"Well, what the hell does it sound like, brat?" Auruo chimed in in his usual arrogant voice and Eren's face quickly turned into a scowl.
"Guys, please stop!" Petra begged and Eren could feel Auruo's trying-to-be-threatening aura calm down. Eren smiled a little at how much Auruo cared for Petra, and knew that the man probably had a crush on the sweet woman. He'd bet his life on it.
"Say, do you think they'll ever find the guy?" The group continued their conversation while Eren's thoughts drifted away.
Eren looked down as he remembered that one night several weeks ago; that one strange night where he had a strange conversation with an equally strange man who just happened to be bleeding intensely. Eren wondered for a moment if he was the criminal everyone was talking about, yet he felt dubious at the same time. Then again, why else had the man barged into his room thinking it was empty?
Eren grit his teeth in frustration, but made sure to not show it. All this thinking was making him frustrated, and he wondered briefly why he cared so much about this whole ordain. He sighed internally, but he knew the answer. It was only because something exciting was finally happening in this boring hospital.
Though, he wasn't too sure if the excitement was good for him. His headaches had been getting worse from overthinking, and time was still flying by.
"Here, let's watch the news and see if anything happened! I'm sure they have something about it on here!" Eren heard Petra quickly grab the TV remote by his side and turn on the tiny TV hanging up on the side of his room.
The news was playing, and all they were talking about was the weather and traffic. It was boring for a while, and the others picked up on small talk. Eren was just sitting there, thinking about small things and the criminal who ran away.
It was silent for a while, only the munching and crunching of food being heard, as well as the TV which was on a fairy low level. Just low enough for them to hear without being heard from across the hall. It took a while before a woman was heard on the TV talking about a certain criminal who had run away from a certain hospital who was now being pursued by the cops.
Petra quickly shushed all of them, and Eren smiled as heard Gunther make a confused sound. None of them had been talking.
"It has been announced that the criminal with no last name, Levi, has escaped from Maria Hospital three weeks ago."
"Escaped? They make it sound like this is a prison?" Erd added in with a slight hint of amusement in his voice, and the others laughed.
Eren's eyes moved around as the name was announced. Levi. Levi? He has no last name? What?
"This criminal's whereabouts are once again unknown and county police are on the search. Please be aware of your surroundings at all time for this dirty criminal could be somewhere near you." The woman's voice was monotonic throughout the announcement, but when the words 'dirty criminal' came out Eren heard her voice drop into this deep, disgusted voice filled with malice.
"This criminal is wanted for homicide, larceny, kidnapping, and drug-dealing. Please inform the nearest police station if you've seen this man." The voice paused, and Eren could hear a slight detection of hesitance before the broadcasting ended and went to commercials.
"Wow, that's a lot of crimes for one person." Gunther said as he cleaned up his platter of crumbs. Eren nodded in a daze, and his head began to pulsate heavily.
"He looks pretty thuggish to me," Erd said, referring to the pale skin covered with scratched and bruises, and a tattoo here and there. "Looks like the type to commit those crimes."
Homicide? Kidnapping? Had the man really done all that, yet left everyone at the hospital untouched? It seemed odd to Eren, but it seemed no one else cared enough to think about it.
Eren flinched as his throat sent a painful, scorching shockwave to his stomach and he began to cough violently. He tried to keep it down, the cough, the vomit, the blood, whatever it was. But it seemed to have a mind of its own, and before he knew it he was vomiting onto his bed while his friends were frantically calling for a doctor, and trying to get a bucket to him. The guilt just made it worse.
His heart was beating to erratically, and he was trying to breathe. He was gasping like a fish out of water, and he cursed his luck. He was hyperventilating.
After several minutes of the same wretched sounds and feelings of his stomach being hacked up by his throat, he was being held by his doctor whose grip was tight on his arms and he eventually calmed down. Eren could not see the mess he made, but he could feel it, and it felt disgusting.
"Calm down." The voice was firm as it always was and Eren took deep breathes. Of course, his breathing was still shaky and his back was quivering in its skin.
"Petra," Erwin began, and Petra looked at him with concern on her face. "Get a new sheet. We're going to throw this one away. Have Erd assist you."
Petra nodded and hastily ran out of the room to retrieve the new blanket, Erd trailing after her. Gunther and Auruo were asked- rather told- to rid of the filthy blanket that laid on Eren.
While the others did so, Eren sat there with his mouth sealed shut, and his hands wiping his mouth clean. "I think I'm getting worse." He said softly, it was too difficult for him to say a word. For a moment, Erwin laughed, but it soon stopped and Eren closed his eyes. "I'm tired." It was a raspy whisper.
"I know, Eren. Anyone would be tired if they were in the same position as you. Your stomach has been out of sorts lately. Did you eat anything weird?" Erwin asked him, and Eren felt his bed sink with his weight.
Eren scoffed at the question. "Define w-weird." Eren felt extremely uncomfortable chatting. His throat was burning like there was acid rotting it away, but he tried to keep the pain from affecting him. His voice kept cracking and words kept slurring together he briefly wondered how on Earth Erwin understood him.
Eren flinched when he felt Erwin slowly reach for his ribs and stomach. He inwardly groaned in exasperation and annoyance at the persistence, but it was the man's job. Eren wondered how the doctor would feel if he'd died because he didn't bother to check his dietary habits. He didn't know how the man put up with him, and honestly, if he was Erwin, he'd quit.
"Have you been eating anything at all?" The voice, Eren noted, was firmer than usual. Eren wanted to roll his eyes, but felt weird doing so. Erwin sighed and rubbed his temples. "Jesus. You need to eat, Eren."
Eren felt another pang of guilt override him as he heard the man's voice that sounded so tired tell him to eat. Everyone always sounded so tired in this hospital, and it always put Eren in a damp mood. Just being in here, still breathing, still having to take up the time of Petra and the others made him sour.
He cursed under his breath, and it ended up in him coughing. Erwin was caught off guard and just waited for Eren to stop, who was grateful. He hated it when people tried to rub and soothe his back when he was coughing at any point during the day whether it was light cough or a heavy one.
Eren sighed heavily under his breathe and closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he was asleep.
Eren woke up in a fresh smelling, new blanket and he was glad they had traded that gross blanket out and got a new one. If they had merely washed the other one and tried to make him sleep in it, he'd outright refuse. He wasn't a clean-freak, not by a long shot. But if someone were to sleep in a blanket they had just hurled onto, Eren would question that person's mental state of mind.
It was warm, as usual. April was warm, and May would turn hot. Eren, although he could never actually feel the heat of the atmosphere by sitting in his hospital bed like some recluse, could feel the sun beating down on him through his window that shone right on him.
The days passed normally, or as normal as they could get. His headaches would hurt more, his coughing burned more, and his heart and lungs were getting weaker; the usual stuff. They began to use the nasal cannula on him just in case. It wasn't every day, but they weren't taking risks.
Mid-April rolled over in no time, and Petra came barging into his room, squealing a little and Eren felt his hands get pulled into hers. He could feel her excitement roll off of her and he couldn't help but feel happy too, though for reasons unknown.
"What's up?" He asked her, and she happily squeezed his hands. If he could see, he'd be sure she was smiling rainbows. He smiled softly with her, and she quickly sat down beside him.
"Eren! I managed to convince Dr. Smith to let you go outside!" Petra announced in such a wondrous tone, and Eren froze. "It took a while; I think two and a half months? Well, from February to April, right? Oh, who cares! Eren! This is such good news!" Petra was bouncing up and down on the bed.
"Eren?" She asked with a slight tilt of her head. Eren was silent at her calling, so she asked once more, a little concerned. "Eren?"
Eren was frozen in spot, and his limbs felt weak. It was sudden, and it was amazing. He was going to go outside. Outside… The thought made shivers shoot down his spine, and he felt so incredibly excited. So excited, and so thrilled.
His mouth began to move, and it turned into a smile. It started small, and over the course of a few seconds, it turned so incredibly large it was as bright as the sun, or so Petra believed.
Petra, in all her life, had never seen so beautiful. The smile on the usually tightly locked lips made her feel so proud, knowing it was her doing that allowed Eren to feel that happiness. The brightness radiating from those lips made Petra imagine what those eyes would have looked like if they had been filled with color, and if the boy could have been able to see. They would have been filled with this radiating light, she knew it.
Eren squeezed her hands back and Eren could feel his heart racing. His stomach was churning, and he knew it was due to nervousness and fear.
He felt arms wrap themselves around him and he froze at the warmth. Petra giggled and squeezed him tightly. Eren slowly brought his arms up and did the same to the woman, and he let out this sigh that sounded so content.
Though Eren may have felt like he was exaggerating things, he could argue that he wasn't at all. He hadn't been outside for years, and he was so excited to feel the world. Feel the sun, feel the grass, feel the fresh air that wasn't air condition from the hospital's vents, and he was so ready to take it on.
They sat there for a while, until Petra whispered into his ear. "Come on, Eren. Let's go." And the voice was so delicate and soft, Eren nodded slowly and eagerly swung his legs over the side of the bed in astounding speed, but he flinched when his head pounded heavily in his skull, but he kept it hidden. He wasn't going to let some meager headache stop him from doing this.
"Let me go get the others real quick! I don't want them to miss out on this!" And the woman fled in a dash, leaving Eren to sit there beaming like the sun itself.
The way from Eren's room to the first floor was a struggle and took some time, but they guided him, and he trusted them to do so.
"Come on, Eren. We're almost there," Gunther said to him, reassuring him and Eren smiled at their generosity. He could hear Petra beside him happily chatting away, her arm on his, guiding him to their destination.
With every step, Eren seemed to get more intrigued, more nervous, more excited, and more anxiety. For the first time in his life, he felt something other than wanting to just never wake up, or let his useless life end there and then. He felt hope. He felt happiness. It felt so strange to feel those foreign things.
He'd felt amusement before at the antics of his friends, but it was never there for more than a minute. He wanted something to happen, something that made him feel something for more than a long time. And this was that something.
Petra stopped walking, and Eren heard the sound of a door opening, and he stopped walking. He heard noises. He heard what people hear every day. Nature, cars, people walking around, and it felt weird.
"Ready?" Petra asked him, and it took him a while to really process everything.
"Y-Yeah," he said, and it was this mixture between a sigh and an inhale.
"Alright, let's go!" Erd said and patted Eren on the back and walked ahead of them. Eren stumbled and he gripped tighter onto Petra's arm that did the same to reassure him.
He stepped forward, and it was a shaky step. He was uncertain of his steps, but knew Petra and the others would make sure he got this right.
"Come one, brat, we don't have all day," the snarky voice passed Eren and Eren's face just seemed to automatically contort itself into a scowl.
"I have all day." Eren retorted and he heard Auruo scoff lightly, and Eren did the same. This was what made Eren feel human; the banters and fights with someone else. It was a normal thing normal people did, and it relieved Eren that the older man did not pity him in all his depressed glory.
And the first thing Eren felt was sun. It was hot and burning, but maybe it was because he had not been outside for ages. He felt somewhat like a caveman, taking its first steps into the world. It felt new, but nostalgic at the same time.
The air was fresh and clear. He could only imagine what the sky would look like. Something gorgeous for sure.
He took several deep inhales, just appreciating the air. It was so free and filled with possibilities - of what, Eren didn't know. He could just imagine all the things soaring throughout the sky, and he smiled.
"Do you like it, Eren?" He heard Petra ask and he nodded vigorously. He knew if he spoke, he'd cry. This was everything he'd imagined it to be.
"Let's walk around," Gunther suggested, to which Eren and Petra agreed with a fiery passion.
Eren spent two hours outside. Nobody said anything about the time, and Eren knew they all enjoyed walking around too. Petra had given flowers to Eren who was then ordered to smell them, and he did. They smelled wonderful. They were lavender. They were scattered around the fields of the hospital in small patches.
He smiled genuinely and laughed genuinely and Petra told him his laugh was so beautiful. Gunther and Erd and Auruo followed them, chatting softly with one another. Auruo seemed disinterested, but Eren knew he was content. Eren, too, was content. So incredibly content.
They sat on the bench in a warm and comfortable silence, until a shout came from somewhere Eren didn't know.
"Petra! Gunther! Auruo! Erd! We need you! Now!" The voice was sharp and firm and Eren could hear fear somewhere in there. He felt Petra grab his hand.
"What's wrong?" She asked the woman and the woman was gasping for breath.
"There was a bus filled w-with kids," the woman gasped out and she yelled at them to go over there to help them.
"Eren, I am so sorry," Petra began and Eren softly smiled at her. "I have to go, please stay here! Don't go anywhere!"
"It's fine," he said. "I'm fine. I'll stay put. Thank you, Petra." He said softly to her and she hugged him quickly before running off.
"Listen to the woman, brat!" Auruo screeched at him and Eren rolled his eyes. He heard Auruo yell from a distance about not rolling his eyes to his superior, but Eren just smirked and shook it off.
"Just stay put, we'll be right back," Erd and Gunther ran off with the others and Eren was now alone.
Eren sighed quietly and put his hands under his thighs, all the meanwhile shaking his legs back and forth underneath the bench. Several minutes passed, though he could hear the panicking of the accident in the distance. He looked around his area, and kept sighing.
He was disappointed that they all had to leave. They were what made this special. But he reluctantly told himself that it was their job to help people, so he had no choice but to agree with them leaving. It wasn't like he could tell them to stay.
He didn't know how long he'd been out there, but he eventually, after an internal battle, began to stand up. Eren knew this was a bad idea, but he wanted to walk by himself. He guessed it was to prove something, but he didn't even know what he was proving. His masculinity? No. It was more like his capability of doing something that he set out to do.
With shaky legs, he stood up. His spine was quivering, probably out of fear, but he found it in himself to take a step. Another one and another one. By the fourth step, he was getting confident.
The problem? He didn't know where he was going. Eren groaned a little once he realized that this was a horrible idea, but there wasn't any going back.
The boy wrapped his arms around himself as a safety blanket, and he just kept taking tiny steps. Eren imagined himself looking like a baby learning how to first walk. It was tiring, though.
Eren found his legs pulsating around his ankles and it felt so off. He cringed, but kept walking. He stopped. Eren let out a shaky breathe and began to get that guilty feeling back in his stomach.
He stayed there for a while, until a force rammed right into him, and before he knew it, he was groaning in pain on the sidewalk. He clutched his chest and he began gasping for oxygen. The pain was there, all over his body. He writhed on the sidewalk, turning onto his sides. He never realized how hard the concrete was until he actually fell on it.
For a while he laid there, until he heard a voice mutter a long string of curses.
It sounded oddly familiar.
Eren began to inhale and exhale more regularly, and he sat up even though his spine was screaming and his lungs were on fire. "I-I know you."
"Fuck this," the deep voice said, though it sounded raspy, almost as if it was in pain as well. "You're that fucking kid from before."
Eren squinted his eyes as an instinct, and he sat there. "Y-you..." He began, but he was struggling to make out words. As he tried to stand up, his hand came across a thin, small sheet of paper. He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, but crumpled it into his hand quickly.
"Y-You're the patient that everyone's t-talking about, aren't you?" Eren asked and he was incredibly proud of himself. If Eren had participated in a bet, he would've won.
"You need to shut the hell up," the man said and Eren felt a hand grip his chin, scrunching his cheeks up like a child. "Get up." The command was filled with unspoken threats, and Eren felt a hand grip onto his arm and hoisted his entire body up with one tug. Eren winced at how tightly the grip was and gasped out a little at the pain.
"J-Jesus, let go." Eren said through gritted teeth, and the man let go- albeit roughly. Eren rubbed his arm, hoping a bruise wouldn't form.
"Go sit over there, and stay put." The words were strict and the grip was back again.
Eren scoffed and felt the urge to roll his eyes, but refrained from doing so. "I fucking c-cant," Eren huffed out, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.
"Why the hell not?" The voice was closer and more menacing than before. Eren knew he was trying to play this off so people wouldn't stare.
"Are you blind?" Eren gritted his teeth as he said that and it was quiet for a moment, and before Eren knew it, he was being tugged roughly to the bench he had just been sitting down at and sat him down. Eren winced as his body ached, not only the outside but on the inside. This was too much for him to handle, and he felt a headache coming up. He began to rub his arms, and the bruise was already forming.
"You sit here, and you don't say a fucking word." Eren felt a sense of déjà vu come over him. Just as the man was about to turn around, Eren heard another pair of footsteps come in their direction. He stiffened, and he could feel the incredibly rude man hesitate.
"Eren?" Eren recognized the voice as Gunther and he looked in the general direction of the voice.
"Isn't this yours?" The man who had run into Eren asked in a rough voice and Eren retaliated.
"This?" Eren asked in a high-pitched voice, clearly showing irritation.
"Wait, a-aren't you-" Gunther began, but was interrupted by the man quickly walking pass him with a snarky 'whatever.'
Eren could feel Gunther look at him with a very confused look, and Eren just laughed nervously and said the man was just making some small talk. It was a horrible lie, but it seemed Gunther wasn't good at telling when people lied or just didn't care. Eren let out a sigh of relief.
As Eren was greeted by Petra and the others, he crumpled the paper in his left hand.
He wondered what was on the letter.
A/N: It is 2 AM and I need sleep. Um, so I know this chapter sucks, but please stay tuned! It'll get better, I swear! I don't suck as much as I say I do. Just kidding. I do. I suck so much. Oh, god.
Okay, so lots of grammar issues, and I will go over those tomorrow, so this is kind of a gross chapter. Please review though! I appreciate all of the great feedback I've been getting and I love all of you so much!
Also, please inbox or review me some titles 'cause I'm changing the title and I want help! I don't trust myself with these things!
Anyway, please follow, favorite, review! Thank you so much!
Sorry for such a late update! I've been so crowded with homework and three projects, so yeah. Anyway, I know this chapter sucks.