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“Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. “
Ashlyn made the nerve-wracking walk down the hallway with Logan and Taylor close behind her. After leaving Ben in the other room along with a bleeding Tyler, she was now making the trek down the hall in an attempt to find wheelchairs, and…Aiden. Shivers ran down Ashlyn’s spine as she remembered what he looked like when they last saw him in this messed-up world. Surrounded by rubble, face caved in, blood flooding the dent in his cheek, and his eyes… grey, lifeless slits. And as if that wasn’t worse enough, Ashlyn remembers the bone chilling smile. The way his smile lifted above his gums, the cold eyes of the phantom. She snapped out of her thoughts at a gut-churning feeling of nausea.
“Hey, you okay?” Taylor asks, placing her palm on Ashlyn’s shaking shoulder. Ashlyn glances over, noticing that Logan is looking at him worriedly. All the red-headed girl could do to reassure them was nod weakly. When after what felt like hours, they saw a small, identical door to the other ones. As Logan swipes the stolen keycard against the sensor and a small click alerts them to the fact that the door is open. As Taylor slowly pushes the door open, a thudding noise faintly echoes throughout the room.
“Aiden? Are you okay?” Taylor calls out.
“Aiden?” Logan exclaims as he shuts the door, preventing any phantoms from entering the room. All that could be heard was that same thudding noise. All that could be seen is an empty room, a blanket thrown messily across the floor. No Aiden in sight. In panic, Ashlyn frantically yells in a desperate search for the boy she cares about.
“Aiden?!” When she received no answer, she went to the one other place in the room he could be. Around the corner, in the shower space, she found him. Thankfully, he was fully dressed. Yet at that moment, clothes were the least of her concerns. Aiden was seizing on the floor, his head banging against the cold tile, foam attempting to leak out the sides of his mouth, his eyes were rolled up into his head. The sight made Ashlyn sick. It reminded her too much of the last few days. A muffled sob from Taylor snapped her out of her trance.
“Taylor, hold his head up so he doesn’t hurt himself more. Logan, start counting.” Ashlyn ordered. Logan was still frozen in shock so the red-head grabbed his shoulders and shook him.
“Logan! We need to get a general idea of how long this is. Go around the corner if you need to, but start counting!” she yelled. Logan nodded shakily and rounded around the small room, as Ashlyn turned back to look at Aiden. Taylor was gently cradling his head, as he continued to convulse violently.
“Hey Taylor, can you help me roll him onto his side please?” Ashlyn asked, trying to keep calm while inside she felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest.
“Okay.” Taylor says. They slowly roll Aiden onto his side, being careful as to not hurt him any further. After what felt like hours, Aiden’s body tensed, before going completely limp against the floor.
“Logan! Time?!” Ashlyn yelled once it ended. Logan rounds the corner again, seeing the current situation.
“Uh- two minutes, thirty-one seconds.” He answers. Ashlyn takes a deep breath to suppress a sigh.
“Ok, so he was seizing when he came in, but he wasn’t choking. So we can probably round it up to three minutes.” she explains.
“T-that isn’t great, is it?” Taylor asks hesitantly.
“It is definitely not ideal.” Ashlyn says. After a few minutes, they decided that they should return to Ben & Tyler. Taylor gently lifted the still unconscious Aiden up into her arms.
“Okay, let’s get a bunch of supplies. We will need some blankets for Aiden and Tyler. Not to mention the Tyler’s are covered in blood.” Ashlyn says.
“Well, lucky Aiden has a bunch of blankets!” Taylor adds, motioning towards the giant pile in the corner.
“Why does he have so many?” Logan asks.
“Who knows?” Taylor laughs. The mood weakened again and they stepped out of the room, and silently shut the door.
After a long trip, they made it back to Tyler’s room. They set down what felt like hundreds of blankets, two wheelchairs, and a surgical-grade medkit. As soon as Ben set eyes on the sickly Aiden in Taylor’s arms, he shot up and rushed over. Taylor gently handed him over to Ben, and went over to sit with her brother. The worried cousin matched eyes with Ashlyn, giving her a look that could only say ‘What the hell happened to him?!’. Ashlyn sighed before looking over at Logan.
“Hey Logan, while I talk to Ben, can you make Aiden a comfortable spot on the floor?” she asked.
“On it.” he answered. She then led Ben over to another corner of the room and sat down with him. As Ben shifted Aiden in his lap, he noticed bruising and blood on his cheek, forehead and neck. Clearly from the ceiling falling on him.
“Here, pass him to me.” Ashlyn said. As Aiden laid limp in Ashlyn’s arms, Ben moved to fix him up with the medkit.
“What happened?” the text-to-speech app on his phone asked.
“When we entered his room, he was seizing on the floor. We believe it lasted around three minutes, but we weren’t there when it started. He hasn’t so much as stirred since.” she explained. Ben nodded as he finished bandaging his younger cousin’s pale face. Aiden’s already white face seemed to get six shades lighter, beads of sweat were running down his face and he looked so, so tired.
“Hey! I finished setting the bed up!” Logan exclaimed. Ashlyn slowly stood up with Aiden in her arms, and Ben helped her gently lower him onto the blankets. As they tucked him in, Tyler finally spoke up.
“So what the hell happened to him?”
“Tyler!” his sister yells at him.
“What? I’m just saying what everyone is thinking?” he exclaims.
“Tyler, calm down. It’s probably left over trauma from his death.” Ashlyn assures. They all settled down for a while, sitting tensely around each other. Through the chatter about what they know about their situation, a pained groan echoed throughout the room. They all gazed at the spot where Aiden was now blinking open his eyes.
“Aiden?” Taylor said as she rushed to his side. Ben slowly helped sit him up, as Taylor whispered reassuring words into his ears.
“Shh.. you’re okay Aiden… everything is okay.” she assured him. Aiden’s eyes sluggishly opened. He just stared blankly ahead.
“Aiden? Can you hear me?” Ashlyn asked. Aiden just blinked. He swallowed repeatedly and Ben’s eyes went wide as he realised what was happening. Ben just barely was able to reach for the trash can before his cousin vomited his stomach’s contents into the bin.
“Blegh.” Aiden continued to spit up bile as Ashlyn rubbed his back. After he seemed as if he had finished, Ben slowly moved the bin away, and wiped Aiden’s face. The poor boy just sat there breathing deeply and staring down.
“Hey Aiden? Do you know where we are?” Taylor asked softly. He let out a groan and his head shook slightly.
“That’s okay, can you say something?” Taylor asked.
“Uu-agh.” He mumbled, clearly unable to come up with coherent words. Ben just squeezed his hand, and at the contact, Aiden leaned into him. Everyone knew that they weren't going to get anything else from their resident cheerful friend.
They all got settled on the floor, Tyler yelling at Logan while playing Monopoly, Taylor chatting to Ben about something, and Aiden leaning heavily against Ashlyn. His eyes were hazy and half-lidded. Ashlyn was waiting for her turn in the game, when she heard Aiden mumble something.
“Aiden? Did you say something?” she asked. She tilted her head slightly to look at the boy laying on her shoulder.
“Ash..?..” he slurred quietly. She smiled gently.
“Yeah. Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?” she asked gently.
“M’tired.” he slurred. Ashlyn just pulled him onto her lap, laying his head at her neck. He let out a quiet gasp before his limbs went heavy. Everyone was staring by now, smiling at the sight. Ashlyn could have sworn that she saw Taylor take a picture.
“Hey…Ash?” he mumbled.
“Hmm?” she said.
“Love you…” he whispered as his head lolled forward, letting the events of the day catch up to him. As he drifted to sleep, Ashlyn whispered,
“Love you too, Aiden.” She placed a soft kiss on his head. When she turned to look forward, everyone was staring at her, so she just glared at them. Yet inside, she was happy. He died in her arms once, but she would never let that happen again. He was with her, and she would keep him safe.