Status: slow updates

Clueless

n i n e

*Ben's p.o.v.*

"You've gone completely mad, mate," Cameron stated, leaning against the door frame. He stuck his toothbrush back into his mouth and, well, brushed his teeth, but he was staring at me the entire time, which I found a bit creepy.

I shook my head. "I have proof," I muttered, eyeing him angrily. "He is alive. Come with me to my room."

My friend shrugged and disappeared for a second, then reappeared without the toothbrush.
"I'm going to Ben's room, Sam," he yelled obnoxiously before shutting the door.

We walked silently to my room. Danny kept licking my face and I couldn't help but smile.

"I didn't know you had a dog," Cam said as we arrived at my room. I stepped in and he followed, kicking it shut behind us.

"Yeah. I do," I said blankly, setting Danny gently onto Daniel's bed before grabbing the notebook from off the floor.
I flipped through the pages and Cam came up next to me.

"What is it you're showing me, exactly?" he asked.

I stopped at the last page that had been written on and nearly shoved it in his face.
"Look. It's his handwriting, even if it's messy," I said, pointing to the barely legible scribble across the page. "This is his notebook."

"'I'm in the mad house'?" Cam read aloud, casting me a strange glance.

I nodded eagerly and cradled the book.
"It's him. I know it. I just don't know how I'm gonna get him out."
I started pacing to the door and back to my bed, staring intently at the words written on the page.

Cameron sighed and sat next to Danny on Daniel's bed. I almost snapped at him, but resisted the urge and sat down next to him gingerly.
"And what if it's not him?" he asked seriously.

I shrugged, certain with my decision. "It was him, Cam. Trust me."

"How did he get in here? And how do you know that he wrote it recently? He could have written it at any time. Maybe when he got here?" He said dubiously. "Look, Ben. I don't want to make you angry, I just don't want you to get your hopes up just to have this turn into nothing. And 'I'm in the mad house' doesn't necessarily mean anything."

As I processed his words, my shoulders slumped. Of course Danny wasn't alive. I'm such an idiot.
"Oh."
I nodded numbly.
How stupid could I be? I just miss him...

"Ben I'm not saying that you're wrong... Don't look at me like that, come on, mate..." Cameron said awkwardly.

I shrugged and smiled absently. "No, you're right. Just forget about this, alright? I'm stupid."

"You're not stupid, Ben," he replied quickly, shifting so he was sitting cross-legged facing me. "You're not even close to being stupid. You just miss him."
I shrugged again, feeling completely crushed.
"Ben look at me. Please," Cam whispered.

I ignored him completely and shut my eyes, trying to block everything out.
Maybe it was good that Danny was gone.
No. That's not true. Nothing good is coming out of it. I just miss him.
My eyes popped open when I felt Cameron's hands reach out to mine. He held them in his, and I looked over to him.

He was looking away from me, biting his lip slightly. When he looked up, I looked down to our hands
He cleared his throat nervously.
"Ben... You should... move on from him," Cameron said quietly.

I laughed humourlessly and jerked my hands free from his. I stood up and crossed my arms.
"No one could love me," I hissed. I jerked my thumb toward the door. "You should leave."

My friend's face crumpled and he sighed. "Ben I didn't mean-"

"Get out," I whispered. My lip started to tremble and I looked to the floor, afraid that Cameron might see me cry.

"Ben- hey, are you okay?" He said, his voice becoming softer. The springs from the mattress squeaked as he got up and inched toward me.
I backed up until my back met the wall. I kept my head down, my face barely hidden by my mop of messy hair.
I didn't want Cameron to see me cry. I wanted to keep everything inside because I didn't want to be weak.
What would happen to me if everyone saw me as weak? I couldn't go back to when I was younger. I couldn't let anyone beat me again. I had to keep my demeanor, no matter how hard it was.
"Ben talk to me."

Fuck fuck fuck... No...
Just as tears started spilling, I looked up at Cameron, squaring my jaw. I glared at him angrily and I could tell my wolf, that had been at bay for awhile now, was beginning to stir inside me.
"I said leave, Cameron," I growled.
Suddenly, my knees buckled beneath me and I fell to the floor. My insides burst into fiery spasms and the only way I was able to keep breathing was to curl up into a ball and force the air in and out... in and out...

"Ben!"
Long arms lifted me up, but I couldn't fight them off. I barely knew it was Cam. I couldn't even keep my eyes open.
I panted and gasped, trying to fight whatever it was off. It felt vaguely familiar. But then again, it really didn't. I'd never felt something just like it before.
"Ben, wake up!"

My body was going numb. It was like every part of me was falling asleep except my mind, which was forced to bear through it. It registered burst after burst of excruciating pain that sent shock waves through me, threatening to push me into the oblivion of unconsciousness, but pulled me back just in time for the next. A never-ending cycle of misery.

I was vaguely aware of what was going on outside my head. There were voices. Quite a few, actually.
I groaned and tried to roll over, or at least move a bit, but I couldn't. Everything hurt so bad.
My lips finally gave and I could have screamed with happiness had I not been trying with everything in me to form a sentence.
"Whashapeng?" What's happening?
Fucking hell, I couldn't even create a coherent sentence.
I barely opened my eyes before another firework exploded in my abdomen, successfully eliciting a scream from me, my eyes snapping shut.
Suddenly, my ears were able to pick everything up, and I knew that my wolf was awake. He wasn't taking control, but he was lurking beneath the surface, assisting as best as he could.
There were voices... voices that I knew. And they were kids.
I moaned in pain and tried desperately to open my eyes or sit up, but failed.

People were seeing me go through this. Where was I?
I fought to thrash around and get up, but I couldn't move.

What was happening to me?

I slowly started to slip under. The pain was spreading from my stomach throughout my body and wave after wave of fiery pain licked over my insides.
Whatever it was that was keeping me alive was getting tired.

The last thing I remembered before losing consciousness was my wolf taking over.

***

*Third person p.o.v.*

"What's wrong with him?" Cameron screamed. Tears streamed down his distraught face.
He feared for his friend's life. Ben had always been there for him, and now that he was trying to reciprocate, everything was going to hell.
"Is he alright?"

The several doctors that had gathered in the 'depressed' hallway were crowded around the boy in the center of the room.
The boy had stopped shaking. He'd stopped complaining.

"What's going on?" Ronnie asked, coming up behind Cameron. He reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. Cam jumped at the unexpected contact and turned around rigidly.

Their eyes met. Cameron's tear-filled gaze was the only clue that everyone needed to realize what was happening.

The twenty-something young boys that had congregated in the hall, shoving to get a look at whoever it was, now stopped their frenzy. Everyone froze. Even time seemed to slow.

"He's not breathing," one of the nurses said, her voice infuriatingly calm in the situation.

A doctor with a mask obscuring his face dashed down the hallway conviniently, a stretcher being dragged behind him.
Ben was lifted onto the stretcher and bound by a series of complicated leather binds and belts, then he was rolled down toward the dining hall.
The kids that the doctors passed stopped and stared. A doctor pressed a mask to Ben's mouth and nose, but he wasn't breathing.
Was it a panic attack?
Could a panic attack turn a boy's eyes to a glowing blue?
Could a panic attack burn him from the inside?

The small crowd of hospital employees went quickly to the back of the dining hall and unlocked the door that said clearly Employees Only and rolled him in, taking care to shut the door.
The boys stared at the large green doors in shock.
It didn't lead to the normal hospital wing, where the doctors treated ill patients.
Even the boys that had lived there for more than a decade had only seen one other boy get rolled in through those doors, and he hadn't come back.
The only two that had been in that mysterious corridor were Daniel Worsnop, and now Benjamin Bruce.
There were stories about that room.
They'd been taken to the Mental Ward.
♠ ♠ ♠
idk. what's. going. on.