The Impossible is Possible (Ryden)

Chapter 27

"Hello?"

"Hello, is that Mrs. Urie?"

"Yes, it is. How can I help you?"

"Are you Brendon Urie's mother?"

"Yes."

"I'm calling from Conview Hospital. Your son is being treated for fairly severe head injuries, and he's unconscious. Would it be possible for you to come down to the hospital as soon as you can?"

"Fuck! Really? Jesus Christ. Of course, I'll be there as quickly as possible. Do you know what happened to him?"

"We're not sure, Mrs. Urie. All we know is that another boy came in with him, with a gunshot wound, who --"

"Was he skinny and brown haired?"

"Yes."

"Oh God. Ryan. Ryan Ross, his name is. I'm his guardian."

There's a beat of silence.

"You're Ryan Ross's guardian?"

"Yes."

Another few seconds of silence.

"In that case, Mrs. Urie, I think you had better get here right now."

*

He feels like he's trapped. Trapped and lost and alone. He struggles to open his eyes, but the agony and the pain and the loss hits him, and he stops trying. He just goes back to the darkness of nothingness.

*

"Jon?"

"Mmm? Spencer? I've just woken up, you know, and I dreamt that --"

"Fuck, Jon. Brendon's in a coma in fucking hospital."

"What? Fuck, what? What's happened?"

"I don't know, I don't know. I just got a call from his dad, though, and he and his mom are at the hospital now, and he's had his head smashed in by someone, and Ryan was shot and he's --"

"Ryan was shot? Fuck. Fuck. Right, don't move. I'm coming over right now, and we'll go to the hospital."

*

He can hear voices, he swears.

He tries to reply to them, but his tongue is heavy and feels swollen, and he nearly chokes.

*

"Oh God, oh God, what are we going to do?"

"Monica, please, calm down, everything will be --"

"What will we tell him when he wakes up?"

"You heard the nurse, we won't tell him anything about Ryan for the first few hours. It will only cause further stress."

"But - but he deserves to know, they --"

"I know, but we don't want to make things worse for him. We'll tell him, but we need to wait for him to be in a stable condition."

"O-okay. I guess you're right, but God, I can't believe this."

*

The first thing that Brendon notices when he regains consciousness is the huge, stinging pain in the side of his head. He lets out a groan, gently moving his limbs, and he realises that his whole body is aching and sore. It feels as though somebody has dropped him down the stairs, a million times, over and over.

He manages, somehow, to open his eyes, and immediately winces. The light is almost blinding.

He finds himself gazing up at a blurred white ceiling. He frowns. He can't remember looking up at one before. He's kind of certain the ceiling above his usual bed is light blue, but he's not sure. It could be red, now he thinks about it. Or maybe even green. He can't really remember.