Gone

“Adrian?” Ethan says, concerned that Adrian had suddenly stopped talking. When he fell to the floor and started shaking, Ethan knew something was wrong. He picked up his brother and rushed him to his car, speeding to the hospital. As soon as Adrian was in the hands of the doctors, he called his mom, telling her where they were and what had happened.

           

            After a moment of feeling nothing but pure horror at the thought of something like this happening again, she called her sister, nearly dropping her phone because of the panic she felt.

            “Hello?” she heard on the other line.

            “Emma?!” she shouted, “Emma, it’s Adrian....” she trailed off, not able to continue.

            “What happened?”

            “He had a seizure.” she said, her crying was evident in her voice. “He’s in a comma.”

            “Rach? You need to be calm, alright?” she said, trying to comfort her older sister. “I’m on my way.” She hangs up and heads straight for the door.

            “What’s going on?” Nathan asks, coming in from the living room when he heard his mom running from the kitchen to the door.

            “Aid’s in the hospital.” Without having to say another thing, they both took off for the car.

 

            When they arrived, everyone was sitting outside his room, doing nothing but waiting to hear from the doctors. Emma doesn’t hesitate, she runs right up to her sister and hugs her. “Honey, I am so sorry.” Everyone looks on edge, and they are, because the last time something like this happened, he nearly didn’t make it.

            “Is he gonna be okay?” Nate asks Ethan, feeling the tension radiating from the rest of the family. There’s silence. No one speaks, no one makes a sound.

            Ethan finally breaks the silence. “We don’t know. They haven’t come out of there since I got him here.” There’s no more. No one tries because they all know it won’t help.

            A nurse comes up to the family, telling them that only one person can stay and that the rest of them had to go. To make sure Rachel was with family and not alone to deal with this, Joseph volunteered, not letting her object. So everyone else headed over to their house, to make sure that everyone was together during this, and to make sure Rachel wasn’t by herself.

           

            “Ethan, can you come with me?” Nate asks, heading upstairs to Adrian’s room.

            “What are you doing?” he asks as Nate starts rummaging around the room.

            “Trying to find something.”

            “Find what?” asked Ethan, still confused as to the why. Nate pulls something out of the top drawer of the desk. He turns around, holding up a ring of flash drives.

            “The last time something like this happened, Adrian was told he might not survive it the next time.” says Nate, his face uncharacteristically serious. “After he’d heard that, he pulled me aside and told me that, if it were to happen again, that I needed to find this and we, as a family, needed to know what it said.”

            “What’s on those drives?” asked Ethan, looking at them like they were an injection with a long needle.

            “I don’t know.” he says, “He wouldn’t tell me.” The phone downstairs starts to ring and they both get an uneasy feeling in their guts. Nate goes to the balcony to listen to what Rachel was saying when she picked up the phone. Everyone’s listening.

            “Hello?” she said into the receiver. There’s a pause. “What?” pause. “no.... NO!” she slams the phone now and everyone understands. She sinks to the floor, crying, “My baby.”

            “Oh my God...” Nate whispers, shaking. Ethan stands from his spot on the floor and starts walking to his room, but then he stops and slams against the walls, screaming, only stopping when he drops to his knees and cries, just like everyone under that roof that night.

            Nate sits against the banister, staring off at the wall, shifting his gaze to the ring of flash drives, clutched tightly in his hand.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think.
This is NOT the end of the book, so don't worry.

Reviews

[Jonathan Biswell]

very good keep up the great work