Static and Silence
He lay motionless on the bed. The silence was so deafening that I could even hear the faint beating of his heart mixed with a constant beep... beep... His skin looked paler than usual, perhaps because of the fluorescent light or because of all the blood he had lost. Regardless of the reason, my chest tightened with pain when I saw him like that.
I took another step closer, my legs trembling, and took his hand. it was ice cold, almost lifeless against mine. I squeezed it tightly, as if my own warmth could bring color back to his cheeks or speed up that damned slow beep that was driving me crazy.
“Please,” I whispered, pressing my forehead to his knuckles, “you have to wake up,” I finally choked out through my tears.
I sank into the metal chair beside the bed, surrendering to the exhaustion that was finally taking its toll. As I sat down, the scraping of the metal frame against the floor sounded like a scream in the middle of the silence. With my gaze fixed on his motionless face, the questions I’d been avoiding flooded my mind: How had we ended up like this? And what was I supposed to do if he didn’t wake up?
