John's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night to my stomach rolling. I ran out of my room, down the hallway, and into the bathroom. I flicked the switch as I ran in and haphazardly fell in front of the toilet moments before my stomach contents made its way back up my throat. It hurt. It burned. I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I held my stomach tightly. Just when I thought it might be over, I threw up more. I was sweating and crying without meaning to. My hair was sticking to my forehead in clumps. I was shaking uncontrollably.

The hall light came on as I puked again, and I heard the sound of Dave's feet hitting the floor. "John? What's going on? It's like, three." He walked in and instantly jumped over and pushed my hair away from my face. "Dude!" I just kept throwing up again and again. I shouldn't have had anything else in my stomach after the first or second time, but it just kept coming. This wasn't right.

My stomach eventually settled, but it still hurt. I noted the taste in my mouth: acidic and metallic. How odd. "Ugh. If you weren't feeling good, you should have told me. I could have given you some medicine or something." Dave got a washcloth from a cabinet and wet it with cold water. "Look at me, John." I pulled my head up, spitting, then turned to face him. He didn't move. I knew I had vomit on my face, but he should have expected that. He didn't move though. "John, can you stand?" He kept staring at me while he said it.

"I think so." I sounded weird, and the longer I sat there, the more it felt like something was in my nose. Maybe I got a little puke up there.

"Get up." He wiped my mouth quickly and ran out of the bathroom. "GET UP!" He yelled from down the hall. I stood and turned to flush the toilet. I found out why he stared. I understood why he didn't move. I had just puked up a bunch of blood. That explains the metallic taste on my tongue, but where was it from?

It felt like the thing in my nose was starting to come out. Like I was having a snot issue. I looked in the mirror to find myself having a nosebleed. It wasn't too bad, but it started getting worse. I held my face over the sink because only a few seconds later my nose started spewing like a faucet. I pinched my nostrils shut in hopes that it would stop. Something really wasn't right here.

"Dave." I tried to speak loud, but I was having to fight against the blood starting to come into my mouth. I let my nose go, it was useless. I was spitting and trying not to be too messy. Dave came in a few seconds later. He was fully dressed and had my shoes and a robe and a blanket in his hands.

"John, what the hell is even going on?" He was extremely distressed. He had his shades on top of his head, so I could see all of the emotions in his eyes. He was scared.

"I don't know what's happening." He was scrambling for towels. Upon finding one, he held it to my face and helped me into the robe. He wrapped the blanket around my shoulders and squatted to put on my shoes. I held the towel tightly to my face. We were going to need more than just this. It was filling up quickly. "Where are we going?" I asked weakly.

"Hospital." He finished lacing up my sneakers and grabbed more towels, which he handed to me. I started walking slowly towards the staircase while Dave ran in my bedroom for my glasses and a little trash can. He hooked my glasses onto his shirt and caught up with me, putting his free arm around my torso to keep me steady. We got to the door and he grabbed the keys to his rental car on the way out.

After helping me in, Dave ran around and hopped in the driver's seat, made sure I was buckled in, and sped off down the road. He was careful about his speed while he was in the neighborhood, but when we hit the freeway he was going way too fast. Luckily, there weren't way too many people driving around.

The usual twenty minute drive to the hospital had turned into a ten minute one, and Dave parked as close to the emergency room entrance as he could. He flicked down his shades and helped me out of the car. We walked slowly. Everything was getting kind of dark, darker than it already was at least. "Dave."

"Yeah, John." He looked down at me and me up at him. He had already pushed all emotion and expression from his face, so I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

"I can't..." He looked like his face was at the end of a hallway.

"Can't what?" He sounded like he was underwater, or maybe like I was underwater.

"See…" I could barely see anything at all. "Hear…" Everything turned completely black, and all I heard were muffled screams. It was like being plunged into a dark pool. It was almost like being asleep. I couldn't feel my body. Time was nonexistent. For all I knew, I was standing at home. Maybe I was at school. I didn't know. It was just black, but I could have been anywhere. It felt like I had water in my ears. I couldn't recognize the voices swimming around me. I could vaguely hear them, but I couldn't make out what they were saying or who they were. I was just stuck here with no time and no feeling. It was frightening, and I wanted to wake up.