• Jumper


    Introduction


    I’m in a white room and I can hear people rushing all around me. There’s a slow beeping that fills my ears. It’s strangely familiar but I can’t pin a name to the sound. There’s cries and assertive commands. I can’t tell who’s speaking them or which direction they’re coming from. Everything seems to meld together and I feel sick, nauseous.
    I begin convulsing and someone props me on my side. The bare contents of my stomach take residence in a bucket and the burning of the stomach acid leaves my throat raw.
    Breathing becomes a difficult thing to accomplish and I begin to shake uncontrollably.
    “He’s going through withdraw…!” a distant voice announces. I wonder who he’s talking about. The beeping slows and the edge of my blurred vision begins to black out. Like when you hold a flame to paper and it curls in on itself, burning away to ash, slowly deteriorating.
    “Vasco!” someone calls, “Let me hold his hand! He’ll know who I am!” the voice is high but mature. Like someone who was forced to grow up too early.
    “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we need to ask you to go wait in the waiting room. We’ll send someone out when we have news on his condition.” the same voice that I heard earlier tells the other voice.
    “No! I’m not going! I need to see him! Trust me! He’ll know who I am! Just give me a chance!” the other voice protests and I can hear the early voice try and reason but the other forces her way through the shuffling crowd and I feel warm skin on my cold. “Vasco! Do you remember me?!” I can make out the voice. Young, but not too young. I struggle to remember, but I come up with only blanks. With every passing second, the grip on my hand grows tighter and more worried. I can feel the emotions running through this person.
    “I…” I fight with my body to make words, “…”
    “He’s saying something!” the voice beside me calls out and the shuffling stops abruptly. I feel as if I’m on the spot and my open mouth shuts, refusing to make another sound.
    NO! I shout at myself, You’ll not give up so easily! Give this person what they need! Make it stop! in just a few short seconds, these words become a distant memory and I think someone else has created them. Are they from a movie? A book? Well, not a book since I hardly read.
    “Come on!” the grip tightens even more, “Stay with me! Don’t leave!”
    I feel a drop of water grace my hand and I mutter the words, “It’s raining…”
    The shuffling picks up and this time, the early voice doesn’t try to push my gripping voice away. Instead, it says something else, “He’s going!” in the background, I can hear the beeping begin to slow and so do my thoughts. Everything around me takes years to happen and I suddenly worry that I’ll be stuck in this position forever. Waiting for something to happen, but time only crawls. I go into a fit of hysteria and I feel arms around me, pinning me to the thin mattress I’m occupying.
    “No! Please don’t!” the gripping voice pulls my hand up a bit and I feel wet lips press against the skin of the back of my hand, “I love you, Vasco! I love you!”
    When nothing changes, the gripping voice tries something new, “Do you understand me?! After everything I’ve done for you?! You don’t dare leave me now! I swear to god if you leave me…!”
    My voice speaks the thought before I can think it and by the reaction, I can tell I’ve said something wrong, “I’m sorry, I’m leaving… I’ll tell god you said hi…”
    The gripping voice cries and my entire arm is pressed against it’s body. “I love you…” one last kiss on my hand and the voice leaves.
    “He’s going. There’s nothing we can do.” the early voice assures all the shuffling.
    I mutter one last set of words before I go under, “Come back…” I say a name but go under before I can hear it.