Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

85- ᴀɴ ᴇxᴛʀᴀ

200k reads additional scene, I apologise now. ;)

Athena lay on her sofa, haphazardly covered in blankets that she hadn't put there herself. She had been staring at the unmoving television screen since the evening before, when Jake had called to say that Billy had been taken to hospital because he simply could not get air into his lungs.

She had flown to the hospital in a panic, wanting to be there for whatever occurred, but was almost instantaneously turned around by a member of the hospital staff since she wasn't blood related - even though she was practically the only family that he had. In a fit of frustration, she had caused a minor amount of damage to the door of Carlisle's office after he had told her that there was nothing that he could physically do, that part of the hospital just had no relation to him.

Jake, who was undoubtedly in the same state that she was, made the effort to keep her in the loop with hourly phone calls. Once admitted to the hospital, Billy survived through the first hour and teetered on the verge of life and death. But as the hours passed and the moon became the sun, he started to get better. He could breathe somewhat easier and was not infected by the whooping coughs of before that she could hear every shake of even down the rather broken phone that Jake owned.

But through it all, Athena did not move. She did not even think to move or even breathe. And Jasper, of course, understood everything. He covered her with blankets because he knew that brought her a weird sort of comfort, he made sure the fire did not fizzle out since she loved that too, he opened a window so the sounds of the rain and the forest could fill the house and finally, he kept music playing at all times. Of course he was worried for her, given that he could feel mostly everything that she could. He could feel her own impending sense of doom and could sense the only thought that circled in her brain.

Athenea knew deep down, a sixth sense if you will, that this was going to be the final few hours of her friend's life. Her dearest friend in the entire world, who held all these memories and physically kept her alive for so long was going to succumb to his mortality. She honestly couldn't imagine anything worse and her imagination was so extensive it created dozens and dozens of novels.

As her phone rung again, this time not on the hour exactly, Athena stood abruptly from the sofa as she lifted the phone to her ear. She wasn't quite sure why she had stood suddenly, there were no other thoughts in her mind so she didn't leave much time to process anything other than the distinct lack of a voice greeting her as she answered. "Jake?" she prompted, voice a mere whisper. The emotion within it however, was enough to pull Jasper from his shower that was only necessary since his worry for her had caused a rather messy hunt.

"Athena..." Jake's voice was thick, heavy with tears. She had heard enough mortals telling families of death over her years to be able to pick up the dulcet tones of grief at an instant. The fact that he responded slowly, almost warily, just proved her thoughts further. She could, whether it was just in her mind or not she didn't care to process, could already feel the distinct lack of life of Billy Black.

"No," she whispered, hand tightening around the phone. Jasper, who had fled down the stairs in just a towel and was still dripping water onto her floorboards, began to rub her back in the only way he knew how. With the contact he could feel the cacophony of emotions radiating off her even more severely, if he had had wind in his lungs it would have flooded out at the intensity of it all. He didn't quite know how she remained to be so composed and hadn't flung herself into the usual coping mechanisms.

"He got worse in the night," Jake managed to choke out, taking a deep breath to steady the wave his voice now possessed clear as day.

Athena, even knowing that this had occurred before he even said a word, froze. It wasn't like how a mortal would freeze, just in place and still with their breathing. This was an even scarier type of freezing, where the soul left the immortal body and simply floated into the wind - she was completely and utterly void of movement. Jasper, not sensing any form of emotion or life next to him, flew into concern that was so incredibly amplified that even Benji tucked back into his shell. He gently took the phone from her hand, which did not move and still sat next to her ear, and said the words that she simply couldn't. "Jake? What part of the hospital are you in?"