Strigoi (Part 4)
Justin opened his eyes to see the morning light filtering in through the blinds. For a brief second he was completely unaware of where he was, only knowing that he was not in his own bed, and he panicked until the events of the previous night came rushing back to him. He was in Chris's guest room and he was here because he had been
extremely worried about his friend.
Chris.
Justin sat up in bed quickly. Chris hadn't called for him at all last night and he wondered if that was a good sign or not. He got out of bed and threw on some clothes from his overnight bag then, running his fingers through his curls, he walked out of the room to check on his friend.
He stood in front of Chris' room and knocked softly on the closed door. "Chris, it's me Justin. Can I come in?"
He listened intently for a response but none came. This time he knocked louder and raised his voice when he called out. "Chris, it's me man. I just wanted to check and see how you were feeling."
Again he listened for a response and again he heard nothing but silence from the opposite end of the door. Visions of yesterday morning and how difficult it had been to wake Chris popped into his head and he began to feel a slight apprehension.
This time he pounded on the door and all but shouted. "Chris, come on, answer me! It's Justin!"
His apprehension turned into worry as he still got no response from Chris. He placed his hand on the doorknob and turned it, opening the door slowly.
"Chris, I'm coming in," he yelled as a warning, hoping desperately that his friend was merely in the bathroom and just hadn't heard him.
With those words he stepped fully into the room and looked around.
The first sign that something was terribly wrong hit him right away. The room was cold, ice cold. He shivered and looked around in confusion. Why in the world did it feel like a meat locker in here? His eyes widened when he saw that the french doors leading to the balcony were slightly ajar. Wrapping his arms around himself against the frigid temperature, he hurried to them and shut them quickly. He then turned his attention to the bed and gasped when he saw Chris lying huddled on it, his blankets covering him so completely that only his hair poked out from underneath them.
"Shit," he said as he ran to the bed.
'Something is wrong, something is wrong!' his instincts screamed at him.
He sat down on the bed and pulled the blankets down so that he could see his friend's face, then stood up and yanked the blinds open when the lighting failed to afford him a clear look.
"Oh shit," he said again, this time whispering the words as his eyes took in his friend's appearance. Chris was shivering uncontrollably, his body curled up in a fetal
position in an unconscious effort to keep warm. His skin was alarmingly pale, the dark circles under his eyes appearing black against its
translucence. What frightened Justin the most however, was Chris' breathing. It was ragged and fast as if he couldn't get air into his body quickly enough.
Justin gripped Chris' shoulders and began to shake him, his sense of urgency rising with every uneven breath that Chris managed to take.
"Chris, wake up! Please wake up!" he yelled at the still figure lying in the bed.
Nothing.
"Chris please!" he shouted as he shook even harder, his hands lifting Chris slightly off the bed.
Nothing.
"Dammit, dammit!" Justin cursed to himself. He realized that he was now very close to panicking but he couldn't bother to care. He looked at the phone on the nightstand and told himself that if this didn't work he was going to call 911. He pulled his hands away from his friend and laid him down gently as one would a child, then he pulled back and slapped his face with as much strength as he dared.
Chris' head rocked with the blow and he moaned, opening his eyes briefly and then letting them close again.
'Thank God,' thought Justin. He grabbed Chris' face in both his hands and yelled, "No you don't Chris! You have to stay awake. Open your eyes back up or I swear I'll smack you again!"
Justin was elated to see his friend struggle to comply. As soon as he had his eyes halfway open however, he brought his hand to his face and said weakly, "Hurts."
"What hurts?" Justin asked worriedly.
"Too bright. Please," Chris rasped softly.
Justin looked at the sunlight that was directly on his friend's face . He immediately stood up and brought the blinds back down, bringing soothing darkness into the room.
"Better?"
Chris only nodded, but he let his hand drop away from his face in relief. He looked at Justin through his half-lidded eyes and forced himself to speak. "Don't feel so good J."
The simple task of uttering those five words left him completely exhausted and he found his eyes closing again against his will. A very hard shake from Justin stopped him from slipping into oblivion.
"I know buddy, I know. Look, I need to know if you think we can make it to the emergency room or if I need to call an ambulance, ok? Can you just tell me that?"
Chris opened his eyes again and struggled with the words.
"Don't...need...ambulance," he managed to say. The effort required to speak sapped all his remaining energy from him and his breaths started to come even quicker.
Justin looked at him and cursed to himself some more. He knew he was never going to get him out of the room and into the car if the simple act of talking was causing this reaction. He was about to pick up the phone and call 911 when he had an idea. He told Chris that he would be right back and hurried downstairs. When he came back up he held a glass of orange juice in his hand.
He sat back down on the bed and lifted Chris' head up gently with one hand while the other hand held the glass to Chris' lips.
"Here, drink some of this," he said.
He tilted the glass and felt immeasurable relief when he saw that Chris was actually able to drink some of the liquid. As he pulled away, Chris coughed lightly and opened his eyes another fraction.
Justin let out a silent "yeah!" and set his friend's head back down on the pillow. He then ran to the dresser on the opposite side of the room and rummaged through it until he found a pair of sweats that Chris could wear to leave the house. With a great deal of effort on his part, he managed to get his friend dressed and standing. At this point Chris was much more awake and his breathing had begun to even out although he could not stand or walk without Justin's help. Justin put an arm around Chris' waist and began the task of getting him out of the house.
After what seemed an eternity to Justin, he and Chris reached his car. He placed Chris in the passenger seat and watched as his head immediately fell back against the headrest. He then hurried to the driver's seat and started the car.
Justin drove like a bat out of hell and made it to the hospital in record time. He cast a worried glance at his friend as he parked the car. He knew that the brief boost of energy he had gotten from the orange juice was long gone. Chris was curled up in the seat shivering and breathing like a marathon runner, his hand protectively against his eyes despite the sunglasses on his face.
Justin got out of the car and pulled Chris' almost dead-weight out of the passenger side. He half-carried and half-dragged him through the emergency room doors and was about to place him into a chair when Chris's head lifted slightly.
"Justin, I don't feel so..." Chris managed to say before his world spun and turned black and he passed out.
**********************
Chris fought his way to consciousness slowly. The first thing he noticed was that there was something covering his face and blowing some kind of air at him. His hand instinctually rose to remove it, but another hand grasped his gently and brought it back down.
"Oh no you don't. You need that," a low soothing voice admonished.
Chris opened his eyes despite the fact that his eyelids felt as heavy as bricks and turned his head slightly to find the owner of the voice. He was greeted by the sight of a very familiar blond haired young man.
"Lance?" he asked. His voice sounded rough to his ears and he winced.
"Yeah buddy it's me," Lance answered as he continued to hold his hand.
"Where am I?" Chris asked in confusion.
"You're in the hospital. They decided to admit you after you passed out in the emergency room."
Chris remembered something like that happening but the memories themselves were hazy and vague as if from a dream.
"Where's Justin?" he asked.
"Joey and JC took him downstairs to get some much needed caffeine into his system. He'll be back soon."
Chris blinked instead of nodding. Nodding took too much effort and he was starting to feel incredibly tired again. Lance saw this and said, "Why don't you go back to sleep? The doctor said you needed it."
Chris opened his mouth to say "ok" but found he couldn't get the word out. Instead he squeezed Lance's hand as hard as he could. Then he fell back into the dark oblivion of sleep.