(Author's Note: Apologies for the extremely long Hiatus. Life got hectic and honestly I had a pretty bad writer's block. But recently my creative juices started flowing again, thankfully. So here I am again to give the long awaited 5th Chapter )
Cartman's eyes fluttered open, the fluorescent lights of the hospital room stinging his caramel brown eyes. Sitting up in the hospital bed, he looked around with confusion written all over his pudgy face, wondering how he ended up there.
The last thing he remembered was being at Kyle's house and then nothing. He was drawing a blank. But this wasn't the first time his memory had vacated him. There were a number of things from his past that his subconscious had buried, most likely because they were too traumatic for his waking mind to handle. This was probably the same situation. Something must have happened to make him black out… again.
He looked around the room, expecting to be alone. But to his surprise, his mother was sitting in the chair next to the bed, dozing off. She looked exhausted, as if she'd been up all night, her eyeliner running down her face. So instead of waking her, he quietly crept from the bed and swept back the curtain dividing the room.
On the other side of the curtain, in the bed adjacent to his, there was a familiar sight. A curly head of red hair, skin as pale as stone, freckles lightly dusting his cheek bones. "Kaul…" Cartman muttered and then the room started to spin, a pulsing pain behind his eyes making him wince. He almost fell forward but caught himself on the metal safety bar at the foot of the bed.
His head whipped up to see if his stumbling had awoken the ginger. A sigh of relief as Kyle's eyes remained closed.
He stood there staring at the younger boy for a moment, trying to recall what happened and how they both ended up here. If he were to be honest, it wasn't the first time they'd ended up in the hospital, having gotten into a number of fights in the past and putting each other there. But if that were the case then he would have some kind of evidence of a fight, bruised hands and whatnot. Nothing. Kyle was the only one sporting bruises, a crack in his lips from being split open.
There was a sound behind him, making him turn towards the door. There in the doorway of the hospital room, looking in at Cartman quizzically, was a tall blonde boy, eyes blue as the sky. Or maybe as blue as ice, because there was no warmth within them, not even a trace. Eyeing the blonde warily as he approached, Cartman twitched, the piercing pain behind his eyes threatening to topple him once more.
"Kinny…" he said in greeting, watching as the boy sauntered over to the side of Kyle's hospital bed and dropping something on the table next to his sleeping head. Cartman's hands balled into fists, something inside screaming at him to not let the boy near Kyle, but not knowing the reason behind it, he held himself back.
Cartman looked down at what he had left. It was a ring. And next to that was a black rose, a blood red bow wrapped around the stem. The thorns in the rose seemed to be dripping with a red substance. Upon closer inspection you would see that it was blood. And if you were paying close enough attention you might notice that there was blood on Kenny's hand.
Cartman looked up but just as quickly as Kenny had come, he was already gone. Like a phantom of doom and gloom. Leaving an air of confusion and anxiety in his wake.
After a couple minutes of silence, the only sound the beeping from the heart monitor hooked up to Kyle's sleeping form, Kyle's parents came into the room, followed by a nurse who immediately started fussing at him for not ringing one of them as soon as he'd awoken. Cartman just shrugged and muttered half hearted apologies, more concerned with the other adults in the room.
Touching Sheila's arm lightly to get her attention, he mumbled a little uncomfortably. "Mrs. Broflovski, what's happened to Kaul? Is he gonna be alright?"
Kyle's mom and dad turned to look at him, their emotions playing over their faces, giving away their worry and concern for their son. I mean, of course they'd be worried, they were loving and doting parents after all.
Sheila opened her mouth to speak, her voice failing her the first time before she was finally able to get a response out, "We don't know, honey…"
"Do you.. not remember anything from last night?" she asked, looking concerned for him momentarily. But even she wasn't any stranger to the fractured and broken mind that was Cartman. If she were to be honest, she'd expected him to be hospitalized at some point, but his mother had done everything she could to keep that from happening. Probably because she'd been there herself as a teen and knew that it could hurt more than it could help, at least in the past.
Cartman shook his head before pressing his hand to the side of it, concentrating really hard, trying to bring something, anything, to the surface. There. He clutched his head with both hands, squeezing his eyes shut, as the memories came flooding into him like waves crashing down, threatening to drown him.
"I—I remember…" he muttered, steadying himself. "Kaul… he's in a coma… isn't he..?" he asked, his voice breaking halfway through getting the sentence out.
Sheila nodded, her expression somber, as she turned to look at her sleeping child. "The doctors are hopeful, they say he's showing signs of a minor coma, so hopefully… hopefully he'll wake up soon."
"How long?" he asked, afraid to know the answer.
She shook her head.
Gerald chimed in then "Days… Weeks… Months… there's no real way of knowing. But…. There's no damage to his brain, so they don't see a reason why it should last that long. However… if it's his subconscious keeping him under, I guess… ultimately, it's up to Kyle."
They all turned in unison to look at the sleeping ginger, different thoughts and worries going through each of their minds as they watched him.
A few minutes of silence, deafening silence. And then there was another person stepping into the room. A certain brunette, followed by a long-haired girl with a pink cap, both of them stopping short, a look of shock on both of their faces as they saw Cartman standing there with Kyle's parents.
"Uh… Hai guys…" he said, waving at them awkwardly, attempting a smile.
"The hell are you doing here, fatass?" Stan blurted out, immediately receiving an elbow to the side from Wendy, whom was scolding him with her eyes.
"Eric," Wendy said in greeting, forcing a friendly smile.
Cartman smiled smugly at Stan who bit back another insult, lest he receive another jab from his girlfriend. Lord knew that was the least she could do to him.
After the greetings were out of the way, the two walked over to Kyle's parents and started asking questions and then offering to go and get them something from the store, or whatever they might need.
Feeling as if the room was getting a little too crowded and not wanting to impose on them any longer he went back over to the other side of the room, moving the curtain out of the way once more.
His mother was still asleep in the chair so he approached cautiously before gently shaking her shoulder.
She awoke with a start, looking around dazedly before her eyes focused on her son. "Oh—Eric, you're awake," she said. He nodded in reply and gestured for her to follow him.
She got up from the chair, stretching briefly before following after her son. They walked past the group huddled around Kyle and out into the hallway. Suddenly Cartman felt very claustrophobic and needed to get out of there asap.
After receiving the discharge papers from the doctor, he and his mother left the hospital and made their way home.
(Author's Note: I'm gonna leave it there for now, but I hope the long awaited chapter was enough to at least satisfy some of your curiosities. Though I imagine it may have raised more questions than it answered any. Until next time… Hopefully soon xD )
