Chapter Ten

Ry slams his hands down on the front counter causing the nurse behind it to jump.
“Hi, my name is Ry Starling, and I would like to request a CT scan, an MRI maybe even a lobotomy which actually might be more accurate and called for cause I am pretty sure I’m losing my god damn mind right now.”
“E-Excuse me?” She asked a little frightened and looking very confused.
Leaning in closer like a maniac he whispers loudly, “I am giving you permission and the authority to split my brain open.”
“I apologize. He’s a bit rattled and loves to joke around. Please excuse us.” Nasia takes his arm and pulls him away from the counter where the nurse was staring at him like he lost his mind.
Which he was one hundred percent sure that he had. Quickly removing her hand from his person he steps back indicating her not to get near him. “What the hell was that and how the hell did that happen?” He demands.
“I told you; I’m not hum-” She starts to say but he quickly cuts her off.
“Somehow that makes it worse.” His tone high pitched at the end. “Wait a minute. Everything you said before…you weren’t lying were you?”
“I have only been speaking the truth.”
He felt like he was going to be sick all over again. His world turning upside down that he needed to quickly get to the nearest seat and sit down before he passed out. Hands on his knees he takes big deep breaths while closing his eyes.
She slowly walks over to him and was about to speak but he raises his hand to stop her, shaking his head in warning. Shutting her mouth closed she sits in the seat across from him and waits patiently until he was ready to talk again.
After long moments he finally says, “I just want to go visit Kevin and just not think for a little while. I’m having a difficult time processing all this.”
He gets up and starts walking down the large open hall. Hitting the elevator button to go to the sixth floor she stands next to him and becomes completely fascinated when the doors open to a small, enclosed room. Following him in she watches the doors close wondering why they were even in here or why such a room was even created until is suddenly lurches upward and she slightly loses her balance.
“What is this? What’s going on?” she asks with wide eyes.
“Have you never been on an elevator before?” He didn’t know whether to be shocked by that fact or not.
Apparently he wasn’t sure on anything anymore. Not after that unwelcome little trip they just took that he had no idea was even possible in real life.
“No. This is the first for me.”
“It’s a compartment that moves to different floors, so we don’t have to take the stairs. It’s convenient for those who are not able to move around very much and saves time.”
“I see.” Was all she says as she watches the numbers at the top of the doors change with each floor they go up to.
Once it stops the doors open to reveal a whole new hallway. She scans around the area looking a bit amazed. “It’s like teleporting.” She whispers.
That actually got him to smile a little. “Not exactly.”
He turns to the right and starts heading down the hall, past some of the receptionists desks every twenty feet or so until he comes to the correct one. The man who was sitting behind the desk staring at a computer looks up to him. Recognizing Ry right away he smiles and grabs the visitors pad.
“Hey Ry, here for another visit?” he asks as he starts writing down his name.
“Yep. I brought a guest with me this time.”
“Oh nice. Kevin loves meeting new people. Especially those who aren’t doctors and nurses.” He chuckles.
“Right.” He slightly chuckles back. “Name is Nasia. Um, N-A-S-I-A. I think.”
He looks to her for confirmation but she just shrugs. “Never wrote it in human, I mean in the English language before.”
“We’ll just assume it’s spelt that way then.” The man writes on another visitors label and hands them both to him. “I think he’s already awake. Baseball game is on right now.”
“Got it, thanks.” He hands Nasia hers.
She takes it and watches how he pulls it apart and puts his on his chest. Looking down at hers she stares at the letters that were written there. Blinking she looks back up at him and states, “I’ve never seen my name written down before.”
“First time for everything.” He mumbles, taking it back and putting it on her chest for her.
He couldn’t help looking at what she was wearing. “Is this something you wear every single day, or do you just love wearing the same type of outfit?”
She looks down at her clothes. The same clothes she wore yesterday and the day before that and the day before that one. She didn’t see the issue with wearing to what she was accustomed to but realized that today he wasn’t wearing the same thing. She never saw the same human being twice while being on this planet, her mind too busy and focused on the mission at hand. Once she found what she was looking for in a certain area she moved on for the next location.
Ry was the first and only human she sought out a second time. And she never gave to much attention to the clothing of people.
“My kind don’t usually take on the human form nor do we even own or create clothes for our bodies. Only the elders wear a cloak to show their status. We tend to stay in our natural forms.”
“So you’re all naked, all the time?” he asks shocked.
Shrugging she states, “More or less.”
As they walk further down the hall he couldn’t help asking, “What is your true form then?”
“I can’t show that.”
He frowns with that answer. “Why not?”
Looking at him with a bored yet serious expression she bluntly says, “Because you’ll disintegrate within seconds.”
He comes to a stop even more shocked. Not sure whether at her statement or the fact that he was beginning to believe that maybe she wasn’t from this world after all. For all he knew she could be a human with special abilities. What did she say about the clinically insane? That they use more of percentage of their brain than average people? Maybe she was one of them or something.
She starts looking around up at the ceiling. “What are you doing?” He couldn’t help asking, pushing his disturbing thoughts aside.
“This place, it’s full of death.”
With his body stiffening he looks up to see nothing there. “It is a hospital. People die here all the time.”
“Yes. But their lights…they linger here.”
Starting to feel creeped out he starts walking again. “Let’s just keep that to ourselves.” He roughly says looking around him once more in uneasiness.
Kevin’s door was wide open, and he could hear the announcer on the television talking about the game. He smiles when he looks through to see the small kid lying back staring up at the tv that was hanging on the wall opposite to him. He was still wearing the sweater he got him. For a moment he stood there watching him, sadness seeping into his bones.
“He’s dying.” Nasia whispers gently next to him.
Instant anger washes over him. “Of course he’s dying. He’s in his last stage of cancer.”
“He’s in pain.” She continues staring at the boy who still hadn’t noticed them in the doorway.
“Cancer isn’t pleasant.” He snaps. “Even medicine doesn’t help much.”
“Then why keep him alive? If he is in so much pain why allow him to continue to suffer?” She sounded confused.
He turns slowly to her not sure whether to rage at what she was saying or if she really was clueless on the situation. “Because no one wants him to die. He’s just a boy. A boy whose life is being cut short because of a disease that’s no fault of his own. Don’t your kind die?”
“Of course we do. But dying is a part of life. Everything eventually dies. Its inevitable and pointless to fight against it. It’s just a natural thing of order. We accept death just as we accept life.”
Her face was expressionless, and her tone was one of no emotion. He stares at her and not for the first time he wondered. “When someone you love dies, don’t you feel heartbreak, grief, sadness?”
Looking away from him and back at Kevin she says, “We don’t harbor emotions. We don’t feel what your kind feels. Love, anger, sadness, joy, happiness, anxiety, nervousness, rage, jealousy, envy, fear…I never understood that part of you during my seven decades on this planet. I observe but I don’t understand.”
Seven decades?! How was that even possible? She looked no older than he did. But what she said sinks in, and he watches her watch the young boy.
“In my world…” He couldn’t believe he was saying this. “Life is more precious to us than death. We love and our biggest fear is death. Everyone fears death, especially when it’s a child who doesn’t get a chance to live.”
Her face was still blank, and he knew he wasn’t fully getting through to her. How can he if her people never feared it in the first place. Never loved in the first place. Somehow that made him even sadder.
“Just don’t…say any of this to Kevin and his mom. He may agree with you, but she won’t. That’s her child who is dying in there and death is even harder to deal with when it’s someone you deeply love.”
She doesn’t say anything as he walks in to announce his presence. Death wasn’t something to be afraid of. Energies linger long after you die. Energy is what gives life. So technically you never truly leave. She can see the death cloaking the boy named Kevin. But as soon as he sees Ry his entire face lights up and the darkness surrounding him fades a little from the small energy he desperately was holding onto.
Ry may not accept death for his friend. The boy’s mother may not accept it either.
But one thing is for sure that she could sense was that Kevin already has accepted it. But for some reason wasn’t allowing it to take him.
Not just yet anyways. There was something holding him back and she wondered exactly what that was.