Barely Alive - Josh Washington x Reader

Chapter 23

You stared up at the ceiling. The annoying machine connected to you beeping loudly. Every breath you took hurt your lungs, and the fractured ribs didn't help much either.

"Y-You guys left him..." Your question was followed by silence. Your friends just stared at you, too embarrassed to answer your question. 

Sam, Mike, Chris, Ashley, Emily and Matt were surrounding your hospital bed. You avoided any kind of eye contact and kept staring up towards the ceiling.

You had woken up a few days ago, and the doctors told you that you had been unconscious  for 3 days. Chris and the rest had waited until you woke up, and luckily it was only after 3 days you regained consciousness. 

You could barely recall what happened, and only faint memories continued to linger in your mind. Hannah's name was called... something that had to do with wendigo's? There was a voice, deep, panicked and full of regret.

You remembered falling to the ground. There was a pounding in your head, and your vision had been blurry. There had been loud screeches and yells of your name. But overall it was just one big blur.

Now you were laying in the uncomfortable hospital bed, surrounded by your friends. 

They explained about Josh, how they found him crying in the mines, a few days after they brought you to the hospital. His teeth ripped through his cheek, and his nails grew into long sharp claws. One of his eyes was fading into a dull white shade. He had sobbed about how much it hurt, how he was sorry and how hungry he felt.

They didn't know what to do. He seemed way too unstable to approach, but eventually somebody went up to him. Josh bit the guy, in his arm, like some kind of wild animal biting into its prey. They had panicked as he attacked the group, but eventually they managed to drag him into a cage. 3 injured, 1 deceased.

They apparently took him to the hospital as well, but instead of a normal room, he was kept in the research department at the first floor of the building. They used to keep mentally challenged criminals in there, and Mike explained it to be some kind of isolation.

"So... he's here?" You asked, a slight hint of happiness audible in your voice. Sam nodded slowly, almost unsure about telling you. A relieved sigh fell from your lips and you sat up in your hospital bed at the fact.

"I wanna see him!" You threw the sheets off yourself and wanted to jump on the ground, when suddenly Chris pushed you back onto the bed. You stared up at him confused.

"You need your rest, Y/n. You almost died back there." He explained, but you scoffed with a chuckle.

"I'm fine! Only a few fractured ribs, nothing major." You pushed his hand away and got out of bed, placing your feet on the ground. Chris sighed and grabbed your wrist.

"Y/n, for once, just listen to me..." Chris said, and you eyed him with confusion, nodding for him to continue.

"Josh is too dangerous, right now... they're still looking for a cure." 

You shrugged and hopped off the bed, grabbing a jacket, which belonged to Chris, from a chair and wrapping it around your shoulders.

"I know you want to protect me and all that, but Josh is my friend and I wanna see him."

 You heard your step-brother groan.

"Could you please listen to me for once?  Josh is my friend too!"

 You stopped walking and glanced over your shoulder at the blonde. A glare was sent in his direction, and he turned silent at the look. You stared back ahead, responding before walking out the room.

"If he's your friend, why did you leave him?" 

You closed the door behind you, leaving your friends and brother feeling guilty by themselves.

-----

His body ached under the desire for food. They had given him plenty, but none of it seemed to cease his ever growing need for food. He had been thrown fruit, vegetables, even meat, but there had been nothing that stopped the rumbling in his stomach.

They locked him into a dark room, not a single light source in the little space he was given. He did discover a metal door in one of the rooms, but no matter how many times he knocked onto it or asked them to let him go, he was only met by silence. He only got food after he woke up from sleeping, and he hadn't seen anybody coming in since they brought him here.

"Let me out! Please..." Josh called out, not understanding what he had done that made them lock him up like some kind of animal. Whatever Josh did, they wouldn't even show him a ray of daylight. He was sick of the darkness. It reminded him of the mines. He didn't even remember how he got out, but his wrists were full of bruises, and his throat was extremely sore.

What he didn't know was that all his begging and calls for help only sounded like screeching from behind the door. His vocal cords had transformed completely,, and while he thought to be speaking like a normal human being, the scientists behind the door tensed at the sounds of his screeches.

Josh sat in one of the corners again, knees to his chest and claws tracing lines over the surface of the floor.

"Josh... Missed me?"  A sudden voice called out and Josh tensed at the familiar voice. His hand stopped moving, and his body tensed.

"Y-You left..." Josh spoke, which was met by a whispered chuckle in his here, so close it felt like it was sitting right behind him.

"No, I never did, Joshua." The voice  was taunting and intimidating, making a shiver crawl up his spine. He held his head in his claws and shook his head.

"You're not real!" He snapped at himself, and the voice answered in a chuckle. On the other side of the door, the scientists curiously looked up from their papers, as they heard Josh' silent whines.

"I'm just as real as you are, Josh... but what exactly are you?" Josh tried to calm down, but in the position he was currently in, it was rather hard. He needed the voice to leave, but there was nowhere it could go. It was just Josh and his voices, locked into a dark room. He heard them laugh at him, and call him names.

"What happened to your friends, Josh? Where are they?" 

"P-Please..."

A knock on the door.

Josh' head shot up, the voices disappeared for an instant. He stared in the direction of the sound, and listened carefully. Another knock. Josh screeched at the door, and another knock was heard. He crawled towards the sound and scratched at the surface. 

His eyes widened as the door opened. He was blinded by a bright light, making him unable to see what was past the door. He could hear something. Voices talking, and not the ones in his head this time. They were faint and distant, but they were real. 

As he blinked his eyes back into a clear view, he finally managed to see who it was that had opened the door. 

"Y/n..."