External (Book 1&2)

25|Sorry For Him

(WARNING FOR SUICIDE AND DEATH- a small summary will be at the end written in bold if you wish not to read.)

My father is sick.

I listen as he lays in bed coughing up his lungs like he's eighty and a chain smoker. We have a local doctor who visited just an hour before, but we were left with no luck. The doctor had told me and Danny that he has never seen anything like what my father had. Though, I'm not sure that doctor has seen any sickness at all. He is in his early twenties and had to prematurely take over for the last doctor who, in fact, died himself.

I turn to my father as he erupts in another fit of coughs into a tissue. He still thinks I haven't noticed the bright red blood that so evidently contrasts with the bright white tissue, but I have. Over these past two weeks my father's health has declined so rapidly I feel as if I have whiplash. He has lost so much weight his clothes hang from his bony figure. He complains daily about aches across his body and I don't miss him clutching his chest every time he coughs. I give him pain medication constantly, but nothing seems to seize his misery.

It's as if I'm watching my father slowly die and I don't know if I can handle that.

I walk outside to escape my father's coughs and my eyes meet Danny's since he is already sitting outside. I sit next to him on the ground in front of the house. We don't say anything, but instead just wallow in our sadness. My father is just as much of a father to Danny as he is to me. I look over at Danny with my head laying on my knees.

"It'll be okay." I whisper to him, feeling as if I need to comfort him.

"I should be saying that to you." He whispers back with the ghost of a smile planted on his lips, but still his eyes don't produce that same smile.

"I'll be okay. I have you." I say back with a small smile. "I'll be alright as long as I have you."

"Grab his arms while I grab his legs. We need to move him carefully, but quickly so we can get him to Sabrina." William yells out. The memory escapes my grasp as I am pulled back into reality. That specific memory resurfacing feels like a punch in the gut. I watch as they lift Jacob's limp body, trying to move him slowly.

"This won't work." I yell out as I see the blood beginning to seep back out of his wound. They seem to notice the blood dripping onto the concrete.

"What else are we going to do?" Marcus yells back as he set Jacob back on the ground.

"We need to get your doctor here." Cayden suddenly says. I watch as the two men turn towards him glaring profusely.

"You do not get to speak again." Marcus yells again, obviously seeing him as the enemy.

"No he's right." I speak up up to agree with him. "We need to get Sabrina over here because Jacob cannot lose anymore blood."

"I'll go. I can get there the quickest." Cayden says with a certain urgency that I've never heard his voice produce before. He always seems too blank and monotone, not even William stays that emotionless.

"I don't trust you running off alone." Marcus is fired up. I don't even know if he's ever really talked to Jacob, but it must be a guard thing. Perhaps they have some sort of 'never leave a man behind' rule.

"I'll go with him. I can run fast." I don't actually think I can run very fast, but I need to do something for Jacob.

"Okay, go. Go!" William yells and instantly Cayden begins running off. I try to stay on his tail, but once he begins jumping over fallen metal pieces and tress, I quickly fall behind. I watch as he turns around to look at me and then slows down slightly. I catch up to him quickly.