Demons |¤| Lashton

The Demon Finds A Way To Make Me Sick To My Stomach

Ashton's PoV

"You look pale. Are you okay?" Calum said.

"I'm fine," I told him nonchalantly. "It's probably just the lighting." That wasn't true. My stomach was hurting and I felt off. Calum went back to scrolling on his phone.

Luke's terrifying activity had calmed down a lot. It had been two weeks since I've had any problems with him. Now, all the problems I'm talking about were not obviously caused by Luke, but I knew he was behind it. He always showed up at the scene, or gave me a knowing look. It was kinda like Paranormal Activity, except it was going on 24/7.

I hadn't told anyone about Luke's black eyes and instead convinced myself I was imagining things.

I'm Christian, and while I am not exactly close with God, I realized that demons aren't complete bullshit. When I was little, the priest gave a homily that stuck in my mind. Fr. Dan said that ghosts, demons and evil spirits were very real and should not be mocked. Exorcisms are dangerous and frightening things. I'd seen an episode of The Haunted and I though that the priests just went with it. Boy, was I wrong.

My thoughts were disturbed when I noticed a sharp metallic taste in my mouth. The dull stomachache suddenly came alive like a beating from the inside. I clutched my stomach, gasping.

"Ashton! What's wrong?" Calum had jumped up from his spot on the couch and rushed to my aid. He rubbed my back, hoping to soothe me. "Come on, Ashton. It's okay. Breathe."

I realized with slight horror that he thought I was having a panic attack. I've had a few in the early years of the band, but this was definitely not a panic attack.

The coughing started, the kind that rattles your whole body and burns your throat. I hadn't felt this in so long.

Dry retching followed. By then, I made a decision to run to the bathroom. I couldn't breathe and it hurt really badly.

Scrambling up, I clutched my stomach as if I'd been shot and managed to get myself to the bathroom. I was in full panic mode by now, so I didn't care that tears were now falling from my eyes.

Someone walked into the bathroom, so I looked up, thinking it was Calum.

It was Luke.

"What did I ever do to you, Luke?" I yelled. "It was just a stupid crush and I'm over it now!" I just openly admitted to Luke that I was crushing on him. I'm pretty sure he knows about it though.

I ignored the taunting voice in my head. I didn't care if I was lying, I needed this to stop.

His right hand curled into a fist and a new round of retching began. The disgusting bile rose up my throat and I vomited into the toilet.

"I'm sorry!" I screamed, gasping for breath. Where the hell was Calum? I needed someone to get me out of here.

"Ashton?" I heard Michael call timidly from the hallway.

"Help me!" I shrieked in pure hysteria, before losing my stomach contents again. It was getting hard to keep my eyes open.

"Holy shit," I heard Michael gasp. "Is that blood?" He hurried over and grabbed my arm. Sure enough, I had been coughing up blood. Goosebumps raced across my skin.

I pulled away from him and collasped to the floor. "Keep...Luke...away from me," I told him. My vision went spotted right after that and I blacked out.

~~~

"Appendicitis," I heard someone say. Their voice was foggy and rather muted. I couldn't feel anything. I had no idea what was happening. Were they talking about me?

"Are you sure?" A soft voice questioned.

"Positive," the first voice answered promptly. "All the symptoms point to it, and the scan revealed abnormalities. Looks like a bad rupture."

"This guy got it real bad, huh?"

"Yeah, and it looks like his appendix just about exploded. Whatever it was, it happened faster than anything I've ever seen. He could die at this point."

I could die.

~~~

I've read those books where it's like, "The first thing so and so noticed was the annoying beeping of a heart monitor. Am I in a hospital? So and so thought. What happened?"

It might be like that for some people, but it wasn't noise that woke me up. I'm sure my ears adjusted to the noise in my forced sleep, so that defintely wasn't it.

The hospital lights are not "abnormally bright." In fact, I was in what I believed was the ICU, and they have windows and tiny televisions dangling from the ceiling. Again, it's not so loud and out of place the it wakes the hospitalized.

I've been in a hospital before. My grandpa got really sick when I was little and we'd visit him every Sunday after church. He passed away of a sudden heart attack in the hospital.

I didn't cry until the funeral.

But I'm reminiscing old memories of hospitals and getting off track.

I'm in here because I got appendicitis and I woke up because the anaesthesia wore off.

"Ash! You're awake!" Calum rushed toward me with a big smile on his face. He had a muffin in his hand.

"Yeah," I answered weakly. I wanted to know why he hadn't followed me straight into the bathroom. He could have prevented Luke from getting involved. "Where'd you go after I ran to the bathroom?"

"I ran into Luke and he was blubbering about how he didn't mean to do it and he couldn't stop it. He wouldn't let me by. I honestly had no idea what he was apologizing for. And then I heard Michael say something about blood so I pushed by him."

"Wait, so you're saying that Luke was in two places at once?"

"What?"

"Luke was standing by the bathroom sink the entire time, watching me, and I was telling him to--ugh, well, it's complicated. But you wanna know something, Cal?" I didn't let him answer. "He caused it. Everything that's happening to me is his doing. Luke is trying to kill me."

"Ashton...I think that that's really stupid. How could he give you appendicitis?"

"It's not him, it's what possesses him. I can't explain things beyond my understanding. Regardless, I'm going to die."

And then the rest of Calum's words clicked.

Luke was apologizing.