Young Writers Society

Three

Hero jolted awake.

Why do I feel this way?

His chest burnt with agonising pain, when he coughed he could taste iron and feel droplets of blood landing on his fingers. He turned away from Jayce so he wouldn’t get anything on him. Hero clamped his hand over his mouth as his shoulders shook and his body convulsed from the excruciating pain that tore through him.

He managed to reach for his phone on the side table and check the time.

3:17am

Hero’s phone dropped from his hand. He trembled uncontrollably and coughed more, spraying blood onto the carpet. Rivulets trickled down his chin but his hands could not wipe them away. “Help” he croaked, his eyes rolled back into his head as more pain hit him like a freight train.

JiJi heard whimpering.

At first he thought it was part of his dream

Then, as his mind struggled to pull itself from slumber, he saw something that made him shriek. A face with blood dripping from its mouth and nothing but the whites of its eyes showing. “Whagoinon?” Tay sat up at JiJi’s cry and saw for himself what was going on. “What the bloody hell!” he stumbled over to the wall and fumbled for the light switch, the room suddenly blazed with white. The other boys woke up, some of them yelling angrily and all of them groggily opening their eyes. JiJi squinted to try to see in the brightness that attacked his retina, he finally made out the crumpled form of Hero, sobbing at the commotion and the pain. “Oh my god!” JiJi ran over to his younger friend “Hero you’re bleeding!”

That stirred the boys into action, Baby rushed to the en suite to get a wet flannel and Ju grabbed Hero’s medication out of his toiletry bag. “It’s okay Hero” JiJi rocked the distraught boy in his arms “I’m sorry I screamed, I got a fright, I should have woken up quicker. I’m sorry” JiJi was kicking himself for his reaction earlier. He should have been calm and comforted Hero rather than screaming at the sight of him.

“Here, let’s get you cleaned up” Baby wiped Hero’s face and mouth, treating him as though if he was too rough Hero would shatter. Ju sat next to his three friends, “I have his tranexamic acid tablets,” he said as he handed a water bottle to Hero. JiJi unscrewed it and held the bottle up to Hero’s mouth along with his tablets. After a pained grimace and swallow, Hero slumped into JiJi. Gael had found cleaning supplies and had managed to get the bloodstains out of the floor before they dried too much. Baby and JiJi helped Hero to the bathroom so he could clean the rest of the drying blood off of himself.

“I’m sorry guys” Hero sniffled as he dabbed at his lips with a cotton pad. Baby gave a contemptuous snort, “you didn’t make that happen Hero,” he said firmly. JiJi nodded in agreement.

Ju had turned off the main light much to the relief of everyone’s eyes and had the bedside lamps on a dim setting.

“I’m not tired anymore!” Jayce bounced onto the pullout couch where Gael was curled in a tight ball. Jayce poked him. The ball made a grumbling sound, then went silent. “Gael” Jayce bapped him with a pillow.

“Gael!”

Bap

“Gaaaeeeelll!”

Bap

“Ga- Ahhhhhh!”

Jayce screeched as he had been attacked by the Gael-ball and was now being suffocated in the blanket. No one assisted him, in order to avoid injury it was best to let Gael do what he pleased.

“I surrender!”

“Gael I can’t breathe!”

“Eeeeeep!”

Gael reluctantly got off of Jayce, and curled back into a ball with a murmured threat.

“Shut up” Jayce huffed at the other boys who were laughing hysterically “you all could have helped me” he grouched and retreated to his and Hero’s bed. Hero giggled at his friends' antics but quickly dissolved into a coughing fit, luckily the presence of blood was absent this time.

“Time to sleep I think,” Ju filled up Hero’s water bottle and put it within reach in case he woke up thirsty and didn’t have the strength to get up. Jayce snuggled him closer and one by one the rest of the group clambered into Hero and Jayce’s bed, bar one.

“Gael, come cuddle with Hero”

The blanket ball rose and shuffled the few steps to the bed before falling with a muffled flump into the only available space next to Hero. “Hey Gael” Hero smiled and buried his face into the juncture between Gael’s shoulder and neck. “Mm” Gael replied, and, two seconds later gave a tiny snore that was uncharacteristically adorable. Hero let his eyes droop, it was a good idea to sleep while his painkillers were working, he let the warm bodies of the others calm him and pushed the rest of his numerous worries out of his mind.

Live in the moment, and you shall always be free.