doomed [h.s]

eighteen: the other side

"If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark."
»I'll follow you into the dark, DCFC

✞︎

Harry didn't wake up until the next day.

When Rory showed up at her house with an unconscious Harry in her arms, her dad was sitting on the living room couch swinging his leg nervously with the letter Rory had left him. He jumped up at the sight of them, on his face a mixture of worry and relief, his dad had thought, after what he read in the letter, that his daughter would not be coming back through that door. But Steven seeing Rory's friend unconscious, demanded to know what had happened and if they were okay.

Rory promised to tell him everything but her attention was focused on Harry with anxiety, nerves and worry because she just wanted him to wake up, she didn't understand why he was still passed out. With her dad's help they carried him to Rory's room. Harry was still breathing slowly and his heart was beating at a normal rate but he still looked pale, with some bruises on his body. Rory didn't know what to do or how to wake him up, it was as if he was in a coma.

Her father suggested taking him to the hospital but they would have to explain what had happened to him and even if that wasn't the case, they would probably keep him there for days or until he woke up. And the reason for his coma wasn't due to some disease, but because of a demon that had possessed him and the clinic would not believe that. However, it was necessary to check on him so Rory asked if they could call a doctor to come to the house to check his vital signs and give him some intravenous fluids, he looked dehydrated and that was dangerous. Steven left the room to call one he trusted.

But Rory had a feeling that Harry wouldn't wake up if she didn't help him. She remembered a conversation she had with Harry about ghosts, exorcisms and such things, he told her that sometimes when a demon possessed a body or stole the spiritual form of the subject and that person was asleep but alive, it was because their soul was lost on the other side and they had to help it return. Either through hypnosis, spells or something more risky, that another person would cross to the other side as well and help the unconscious being to return.

Rory had clearly never done that before but she had to try, she would just wait for the doctor to come and check Harry first. Her dad informed her that one would arrive in 30 minutes and while they waited, Rory told her father everything. Steven clearly knew what'd happened in that house before because Rory's mom was certainly involved in breaking the curse as well, but Steven didn't know that for that reason she had died. After so many years, knowing what had happened actually opened up the wound again but it also helped them to feel some more peace knowing that his daughter had broken the curse. They both cried a little, especially Rory because everything that had happened had been too much. She just wished Harry would wake up, that he would be okay, that he would come back to her.

When the doctor came in and hooked Harry up to a few wires and took his blood pressure, it was low which was dangerous but his vitals were stable. The doctor put a mask on him to help him breathe better and gave him IV fluids to raise his blood pressure and keep him from getting dehydrated, leaving another treatment for the next day in the morning. Rory's dad paid the doctor but before he left, Rory cast a spell on him into forgetting everything and the doctor left the house with no idea that he treated Harry in the first place.

Rory spent the whole night studying the book to find a spell, sitting in her window seat, her room surrounded by soothing scented candles, looking at Harry and begging him to wake up. She wondered then where Simpkin was and why he didn't show up, she hadn't seen him since he came out of the forest after those children. Had something happened to him? She really needed his help at that moment, maybe he would know what to advise her to bring Harry back.