I would have never bet that paradise was that dire. So much noise and commotions... So much movements and smells... Why did we ever wish dead people to rest in peace if Paradise was like that ? I tried to open my eyes to see if everything was made of white clouds like the rumours said but it was near impossible. My eyelids were so heavy, so stuck together that I wondered if I hadn't gone blind. I who thought that when we died, we were healthy...
"Call a doctor, he's waking up !" A voice, closer than the other ones, yelled. Suddenly, as I keep trying to see, my eyes opened and a burst of light made me blink and cry. Was it always so luminous in Paradise ? And why should there be any need of some doctors ? I opened my eyes once more, still blinking heavily, and saw that it wasn't that luminous. Actually, it was more gloomy that anything and after looking outside the window, I saw it was night.
Since when did Paradise had twenty four hours before going to another day ? Unless it was another mind trick, I couldn't understand what was happening around me except that it seemed very much like earth. But was it even possible after what happened ? I thought that the prefects would either kill me or inject me enough solution for me to become their doll. So if I wasn't in paradise and that I could still think freely, did that meant I was... alive ?
"Hi kid." A hoarse voice suddenly said and I turned my head to see an old woman dressed all in white, the same blouse that Via doctors were wearing... So I truly was alive. " Can you hear me ?" She inquired, getting even closer to the hospital bed I was in. I nodded to her question, still confused and unsettled by what was happening.
The prefects hadn't killed me in the end...
"I'm doctor Quinn." She presented herself with a genuine smile. I smiled back to her, for the first time in a long time feeling safe from all the danger the boarding school was representing. "How are you feeling ?"
I coughed a little and said in a croaked voice : " Feeling dizzy a little..."
The doctor chuckled lightly at my answer and another nurse quickly gave me a glass of water I gladly took before drinking it in one gulp. Never had I felt so relieved to feel water flooding down my sore throat. "What happened ?" I asked in a voice that seemed a little more than mine. "I mean, how am I not dead ?"
The smile that the doctor was wearing suddenly fade away and the nurse backed away until reaching the door and leaving. The atmosphere of the room was tense and I felt scared of the answer to my question. What if somebody died for me ? What if I only survived in exchange to another life ? Had I been truly saved ? Or was it another trick from the prefects ?
"Breath kid." Suddenly said the doctor and I took a gasp, doing as I was told, before turning back my look to the old woman next to me. "You don't need to worry as much, everyone survived, even if I don't know all the details." She smiled and I tried to do so but something was disturbing me. If no one died this day, then how come was I alive ?
"Why am I alive ?" I asked, anxious.
"A friend of yours told some adults and then, after you were found, they called an ambulance. Now kid —"
"Ethan. My name's Ethan." I cut her, annoyed to be called a kid when I was sixteen.
"Now Ethan, how are you feeling now ?" She continued as if I said nothing, emphasizing therefore my name.
"I beg your pardon ?"
" Those kids at this mad school, they injected inside your veins something very strong. Do you feel any need to ask for some more ? To take some more ?" She asked in a professional voice and I slightly understood her worries.
How many junkies did she have to save before it was too late ? How many teenagers did she have to see before they weren't capable to stop themselves anymore ?
Doctor Quinn knew what she was talking about, it was easily guessable, and I could sense that I was another problematic kid that could fall - if not treated quickly - back into this vicious circle.
" I was too scared to remember anything actually." I respond after a minute of silence.
"It's better that way actually kid - sorry, Ethan. Now, you should rest before tomorrow. Your parents will come to visit so try not to move too much to not rewind the pain, okay ?" She told me with a smile before turning off the light as she walked towards the door and with a last goodnight, I was back alone in the room.
The darkness, the vulnerability, my defenseless position... How could I fight back or even try to run if ever the prefects came back to finish me ? Doctor Quinn said that teachers saw what they did but who said that they didn't have any other allies ? People just as mad, working outside the school... Or even doctors or nurses who kill any witnesses ?
I was a prey, them the predators.
My breathing was going faster, the beeps on my side going faster as I continued thinking of all that could happen to me now that I was alone. Maybe they were hiding under my bed or in the darkness, maybe they were there, above me, ready to kill me. Maybe it was already the end. I touched my head, I touched my hands and toes just to make sure that I wasn't a ghost but that wasn't enough. Maybe I was going to die now, or in three seconds or maybe five minutes. I had to run, run far, but to go where ? I had nowhere safe ! I was alone, without anyone to help me if someone was here and maybe even the doctors were asleep by now.
"Ethan, calm down." A voice shushed me and I immediately recognise the warmth of the hand on my shoulder or the deepness inside the voice. " I'm here."
Archie was here.
I took him in my arms and felt safer than I have ever been in my life since my childhood. I felt at home, I felt invincible now that my shield was there. Archie was my shield protecting me from anyone.
The calm of the room came back and I simply hugged him even harder, my breathing the only thing considered noisy in this silence.
"You are here..." I murmured as invisible tears fell down my cheeks. Invisible like Archie... Like the ghost he were...
"I promise I would never leave Ethan." He answered in reply, his voice just as low as mine. "I'm sorry for not being there when they forced you to take these things." He excused himself and I simply chuckled while backing away, my hands still on his back.
"What could you even do Archie ? You know, you helped me survive through all these weeks..." I truthly said and I saw in his eyes that he understood me.
And as I looked into his eyes, smiling and crying still, I started believing that Via's soul was in this body. Because how could two people so pure exist in the same generation ?
It was impossible... And yet, the impossible had just been done after what happened with the prefects.
Then maybe Via and Archie were too totally different people who just had a golden heart.
Yes, that must be it...