Here With Me by mersey
Here With Me by mersey
Author's Notes:
This is written for August Challenge over at AC Board.

Since the story of the month is a sequel, your challenge is to write a short story as a prequel or sequel to any of your stories you have out there now.

So I've picked a sequel for Stay With Me

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The newspaper didn’t hold his interest. It was missing the sports section and someone spilled black coffee all over the comics’.

Dog-eared, weathered copy of National Geography issue 47. White sharks. Predators. Nick would be interested just from the pictures alone, though it was usually Kevin’s choice of reading material. Neither of them available to have a go at it and he didn’t need reminding of the reason why that was.

Vineyard. A copy of Chateau. A Gregory Ford on the cover - rich white suit holding a glass of champagne-like drink in his hand. He licked his dried lips subconsciously and gave it a pass.

Batman. Huh. This would do then.

It was only thirty pages thick and there were more pictures than words. It wouldn’t be enough to hold him until…until…

Sigh.

One step at a time, then. Just like AA. He'd read Batman first, he figured he’d worry about after when he reached there.

---

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The Straits Times. Brokers’ Journal. Business Times. National Geography. Spiderman. Cars. Batman. Properties & You. Chateau. The Human Body.

Browsed them all.

Then he tried for resting his eyes, only they landed on the different posters plastered against the walls of the waiting room. Information after information, all aimed to bring awareness to anyone who were probably going insane from just waiting, like he was.

Wondered for a second if his son was protected from MMR.

Didn’t think he’d ever read that much in the space of…

“Feels like forever,” he muttered under his breath.

“Five hours.” Howie supplied.

“Forever,” he sighed.

Howie smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Yeah.”

---

---

What the hell is electrolyte concentrations?

Red, colour of life, wasn’t it?

“Tell me this isn’t blood.”

The scientific terms were giving him a major headache. He felt feverish all of a sudden and he was pretty sure he had burst a blood vessel in his right eye.

There has got to be a medical dictionary lying around here somewhere. Adipose tissues. What.The.Hell.

“Howie, listen.”

“No, you listen!” He had a mind to loosen his grip a little, didn’t want to break the fragile vile (how much blood is in this thing!) and have the blood all over himself. Didn’t think he could handle that. “How many of these did you receive and not tell us Johnny, how many!”

“The police said-”

“I don’t give a damn what the police said!” He yelled. “Did they leave a note? A ransom? Anything?”

What does an average-sized adult look like? Is it Howie sized or Kevin sized?

“Five million,” Johnny Wright said. “They’re asking for five million.”

Head nodded, eyes closed. There was an alarming tightness in his chest but he ignored it completely. “How many package have you received so far?”

“Five.” Conveniently avoiding his gaze. “Every time a box is delivered, they raised it by a million.”

“Five litres is like, about 5 large bottles of Coke, right?”

“That’s kind of random, even for you, D.” AJ said. “What’s The Human Body’s got anything to do with Coke anyway?”

“Is it true? Could it corrode your insides?” Brian asked.

It was the longest conversation they’ve had all day.

He opted for shrugging his shoulder. “I’m thirsty.”

“And you want five litres of Coke?” Brian asked.

“Not really.”

“You’re weird D.”

Faint smiles on their lips. It was a start, he guessed.

---

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Eight hours, tons of reading materials browsed, countless empty paper cups, worried thoughts and cold hands later, came.

“I was told you gentlemen are here for Mr. Richardson and Mr. Carter?”

“Yes.” Brian gulped. “How are they?”

“I believe it’d be easier to tell you all the details if we talk in my office,” Hope said with a tired, sympathetic smile. “But to ease your mind, I’ll tell you now that both Mr. Richardson and Mr. Carter are in stable condition and we expect full recovery for them.”

They weren’t disillusioned at all. They knew it’d be a hard upward hill to climb; for both Nick and Kevin and for them as a family. But there were no doubts in their mind that they’d make it through, together.



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