The Evermore Dissociate(Creek)

0053

The air he breathed was suffocating. The skies were a mixture of the darkest of colours he'd ever seen, though the sparks of electricity pouring through the broken clouds lit the area enough to barely recognise where he was. He was at school. A school with no roof and barely recognisable throughout the destruction in its path. Harsh winds tore through the hallways, scattering paper whilst violently knocking the lockers open and closed. Tweek swallowed thickly. His eyes widened in fear as he searched for an escape, but there was non. He tried to flee, tried to run in the opposite direction but the ground gave way beneath his feet. And as he stumbled backwards, knocking into the lockers behind him, all he could do was stare as the final parts of the ground caved in, taking him with it.

Tweek flinched awake with his nightmare fading into the back of his mind. His body hurt, though mostly it was his head that ached. The steady beep of the monitor unsettled him, along with the sleeping presence in the room along side him. He daren't speak, for his throat felt as though he'd swallowed a handful of needles. As his anxiety picked up its pace, along with his heartbeat, so did the monitor. Barely able to move his neck, Tweek only caught sight of the figures beside him from the corner of his eye. One was resting their head against the wall, presumably sleeping - the other slowly moving towards him.

His fists clenched the sheets as a blonde haired woman's face appeared above his own, before she violated his personal space by scooping up his non bandaged hand to press desperate kisses on the back of. "Oh Tweek, honey, I'm so glad you're awake." She smiled with wet eyes. "How do you feel?"

He didn't know this woman, though after pulling his hand away from her grasp, he didn't miss the hurt expression she wore. "Where am I?" He asked with a shaky voice. "What's going on?"

"You're in the hospital, Tweek. You were in a car accident." The woman tried to make her voice sound as gentle as possible, not wanting to scare the boy any further, though that seemed unlikely. Again her soft hand found his, trying to make contact again but he only moved it away.

"Don't touch me." He breathed, trying to move as much as he could to get out of this situation.

"I..." the woman began but she didn't know what to say or do. She stepped back with Tweek cautiously watching her. "I'll go fetch the doctors okay, hon?"

He watched her leave, watched as she almost collided with the door before she disappeared out of sight, much to his relief. But now the person beside him was stirring awake, and Tweek wasn't sure he could handle another stranger hassling him. He felt relief as a man in a white coat entered the room. He guessed this man to be his doctor, a person he could somewhat trust, though with the same woman from before following behind, Tweek was still weary.

"Ah, hello Tweek. You're looking good today." The doctor greeted, but as Tweek tried to examine himself under his restricted movements, he really didn't feel as though he looked good in the slightest. He watched as the doctor flipped a page over on his clipboard before coming to stand beside the bed, again, a little too close for his liking. "So I don't know if you remember this, Tweek, but two nights ago, you were in a car accident with a couple of your buddies. Your injuries aren't too serious, just a few fractures on your left wrist, which if you care for correctly will heal in, mmm, I'd say two to three weeks. You did however hit your head pretty badly, gave yourself a slight concussion and a bit of whiplash, but now you're awake we can do some more tests, just to make sure everything's working properly. Sound okay to you?"

Craig yawned into his hand as his eyes opened. His neck was sore but all of that was forgotten once he realised Tweek was awake and struggling to converse with the doctor. His hat had fallen off during his short nap, and after picking it up and lazily putting it on, Craig looked to Tweek's mom who was nervously chewing her nails beside him. She moved forward, interrupting the doctor from having a one sided conversation with her son. "He doesn't recognise me," she worried, her statement catching Craig's interest. "Why doesn't he recognise me?"

The doctor frowned, looking between the two blondes before humming to himself. "Okay, Tweek? Do you know this woman?" He asked. Tweek shook his head, bunching more of the covers up with his hand. "Right, not to worry. And what about this young man." The doctor gestured for Craig to come over so that Tweek could see him. "Do you recognise him?"

"Nn-no." Tweek again shook his head while avoiding any eye contact. At this new development, Craig frowned. He hadn't crammed himself in that uncomfortable chair for hours on end, just to be forgotten.

"It seems you're suffering from post-traumatic amnesia, Tweek, though not worry. Nine times out of ten, for cases such as yourself, the recovery period maybe weeks, rarely months."

"And what about the one times out of ten? Are you saying there's a chance my son may never remember me?"

"It's extremely unlikely, mam. I'd say the worse case scenario for your son is that his memories take slightly longer to recover. I have full faith he'll be back to his usual self in no time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to prepare Tweek for some tests." As the doctor left the room, Tweek's mom followed close behind, leaving Craig and Tweek in an awkward silence.

Craig's eyes wandered the room, everywhere but his friend as he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He was distracting himself from the tension he felt, not only that, but the bewildered look his friend was wearing.

"Stop that." Tweek snapped from the bed, his eyebrows furrowed with annoyance when Craig turned to regard him.

"What?"

"That noise. Don't.. don't do it."

"Sorry..." Craig shrugged as he tucked his hands into his pockets to avoid wringing them. "So uh, you really don't remember me?"

Lowering his frown, Tweek sighed. "No, and it bothers me."

"Why does it bother you?"

"What kind of dumb question is that?" Tweek laughed incredulously. "You try having your memories erased and be told who you do and don't know. Like, how do I know that you're all not just lying to me? What if I wasn't in a car crash at all, and instead you guys drugged me."

"Nobody drugged you." Craig rolled his eyes. "Well, the doctors gave you something for the pain, but that's about it."

"What's your name?" Tweek asked accusingly.

"Craig."

"Well Craig, how am I supposed to trust you?"

And as Craig thought about it, which he really did have to think about it for a moment, he realised that with Tweek's amnesia, he was in fact going to have to find a way to make Tweek trust him once again.