Children of Redemption (Children of Vice 3)

“Two.”

“ETHAN!”

“One!”

BANG!

His eyes snapped open as if he were awakening from the dead…no, that’s exactly what he was doing. His eyes wide. Staring at me in panic and fear.

“Wyatt!” My Grandma screamed, rushing over to him.

He just kept staring at me.

“Can you hear me?” I asked him.

It looked like it took all his fucking might, but he blinked.

And the gun slipped from my hand, my body hunched over, and I put my forehead on his. “Thank God, you motherfucking bastard. Thank God.”

TWENTY-TWO

“I didn't want the easy kind of love,

I wanted the crazy love,

the kind of love that

created

and

destroyed

all at the same time.”

~ Julie Murphy

ETHAN

We all stood hovering around his bed, and a new doctor checked him over. Standing close, I couldn’t help but pinch my fingers, watching to the point that I was annoyed.

“Well?”

“He’s not brain dead.”

“I figured that part out myself. What the hell is going on?” I was one quack doctor away from losing my damn patience with them all.

“It’s called locked-in syndrome, or pseudocoma. Your brother is aware of everything that is going on around him. The trauma from the accident must have left his brain unable to connect to the rest of his body. We call it locked-in syndrome because it’s as if he is trapped inside his own body.”

How long has he been like this?

“How do you fix him?”

“There are no known treatments or cures—”

“Let me get this straight, so I know whether or not to kill you.” Inhaling sharply, I was trying to get my head around what he was telling me. “First I’m told that my brother is brain dead, and there is nothing that can be done. So my family and I are losing our minds with grief while my brother listens, helplessly trapped inside his own body. Which none of you highly trained medical professionals caught. I’m willing to bet my brother has been cursing you and this damn hospital to every damn level of hell. Instead, by God’s good grace, I’m pig-headed enough to hope and watch him despite what everyone else is telling me…and therefore able to catch the fact that he is not dead. I once again call all you highly educated, over-paid motherfuckers…and once again, you all tell me there is nothing that can be done. Am I just supposed to leave him like this?”

I caught Wyatt’s eyes move, and I smirked. “Right now he’s cursing me for even suggesting that.”