Chaotic Descent
Arriving at the hospital after just 15 minutes on the car, Phesx Caolia went into the building almost alone. He waited after going in, where his mother walked before him to a counter at the side before moving a few floors up. Then, after being told to wait by another receptionist/secretary, Phesx Caolia went to a random chair near the door he needed to pay attention to.
The others sat a little near him, but a few chairs away still. Phesx Caolia didn’t bring his phone, so he just stared at the ceiling and the sides, avoiding looking at anyone or anything in particular. The latter was because he felt he shouldn’t let others see him stare at one sole point for long, making him feel bothered.
Minutes later, when Phesx grew bored and more people arrived at the hospital, as if a convention was underway, he ‘received’ visitors. They were one of the Caolia family branches in the same neighborhood, or near it.
The uncle and aunt who immediately saw him wrong that day, and his female cousin of just a few days younger than him, walked to his mother. Phesx Caolia looked at them for some moments before going back to his stuff.
However, after a minute or so of talking and catching up with Rubena and Cansa, and even Jord at the side, Phesx Caolia’s female cousin looked at him. She walked to him after saying a few things to her parents.
Phesx Caolia seemed to know it as he looked at them, whereas he saw his mother all contented to receive his uncle and aunt’s support through this ‘event’. He could already tell they were talking about him and of how to ‘guide’ him, or something. Then, he looked at his cousin.
“Wow, you’re the farthest away from everyone.” She said. Phesx Caolia looked behind him, as he was in the anti-shy utmost front row of seats in the area. Behind him, a few rows were empty before the lots of people who have already arrived before him.
“…” Phesx Caolia said nothing but positioned his butt to receive his cousin. She sat beside him with her legs crossed before looking backwards. Then, she looked at him and asked, “How are you?”
“It’s all fine,” Phesx said. His cousin, Solas, nodded and maintained quiet. This made Phesx Caolia feel more relaxed minute after minute, not needing to put up with a conversation.
After a few more minutes, Phesx Caolia’s name was called upon by the receptionist. The entire family around stood up and accompanied him into the door that corresponded to him. He limped up of his seat, when his cousin extended her left hand below his right arm, which he had pushed up to lift himself easier.
His eyes shot at the hand, and where it touched him, before lifting his gaze to his cousin’s face. He stared for a second before nodding a little. Then, Solas helped the limping Phesx Caolia to walk forward faster, and without needing to exert much effort.
A nurse guided them to another hallway, much smaller, but still packing with people sitting on both sides of the halls. At last, he arrived at a corridor, where the nurse brought them to the respective door, and instructed them to wait until the doctor called his name.
This time, his family sat further away from him, even though most seats were empty around the room he needed to wait for. Only his cousin remained with him, helping him sit down while casually saying, “How did you hurt yourself up anyway?”
“Uh… I think it was because of the way I walked around my desk, something like that.” Phesx Caolia said before becoming quiet. Solas grinned a little before sitting on his right again. Then, she tapped his shoulder. Phesx Caolia didn’t react this time and just looked back at her. Solas smiled thinly before voicing, “And what have you been up to lately? Many asked me about you in my first year after transferring there.”
“…” Phesx Caolia didn’t respond, at least not immediately. His lips twitched and slightly opened, trying to think of something. She added after waiting for 3 seconds, “Ah, right. I saw from some of the guys in the specialized course you were at, and they all seem to sweat even when just listening to their teacher. They said you were always a prodigy when it came to crafting. The professor even showed me some of your works, in case I wanted one. Family privileges, I suppose. I left them there, though. In case you wanted to take them back one day.”
“You could’ve taken them and then give them to me, no?” Phesx Caolia called out, looking at Solas with an ‘obvious’ expression. She lifted her left leg, hugged it to her chest with her foot atop her chair, and nodded, “Aha. But that would’ve left it too easy for you.”
“Urgh,” Phesx Caolia humorously groaned. “It’s not like-… Ah, forget it.”
“Mm? What?” Solas asked, looking at him, relaxed. Phesx Caolia merely shook his head, a little low. Solas smiled a little, thinly, before playfully speaking. “Maybe you’re too shy cuz’ you’re too ugly? I mean, you’re actually not bad looking, that hair and that serious, cold face. Mhm. But you don’t see that, do ya?”
“Hm,” Phesx Caolia snorted a little, humorously still. Afterwards, they chatted a little, with Solas mainly asking a few things to him about their surroundings, and making some casual, random questions. At last, Phesx Caolia’s turn came as a family of beautiful, decently dressed mother and daughter duo exited the door he was corresponded to.
“Caolia, Phesx? And his mother!” A male voice sounded from the room.
Phesx Caolia stood up with his cousin’s help, feeling suddenly like hiding most of his face with his slightly grown hair, which he cuts himself. Meanwhile, Rubena Caolia also stood up and walked to the door, yelling in a friendly tone, “Here! It’s him! We’re going!”
“Good luck then, get better soon.” Solas said, helping him down a chair that the doctor instructed them briefly with before keyboarding and looking at his screen. Phesx Caolia nodded and watched his cousin wave at him before turning around in half a spin before heading out.
He heard her and his mother exchange a few nice words before his mother entered the room. Rubena didn’t notice, but her son’s eyes became indifferent and vacant again once his eyes saw her getting in.
“Alright, shall we begin?” The doctor looked at the old mother enter the room and asked, looking at Phesx seemingly strictly, but that expression made him feel more at ease.
“Yes, please. Um… We don’t know exactly what he has, but, can you make specified tests? We don’t have much money, so…” Phesx Caolia looked down with only his light black eyes moving lower as his mother commenced the talks with the doctor. The noise around his head became like a bubble, and he just followed instructions from then on.
… After a little more than half an hour, in the same room, with the door open. Phesx Caolia and Rubena were waiting there for a few minutes already, with only the former calm and feeling peaceful. On the other hand, Rubena seemed somewhat distressed.
Step, step. Footsteps sounded before the doctor finally showed up. He showed them some documents in his hands before walking around his desk and sitting in front of them. He immediately stared at Phesx Caolia before lifting a radiography and poking it with his other hand’s index finger. It was easy for Phesx Caolia to know where to look at. He followed the doctor’s words with ease.
“Okay, this is your knee, Phesx. As you can see, it seems mostly fine. You do present a fracture’s painful symptoms, but it doesn’t really seem to be the case. See these chain-like objects at the sides, around these perimeters? Well… I don’t even have enough confidence to explain it, but it seems to be why you have some impairment despite being able to walk.”
The radiography showed like a pair of thin chains, as if made of bone, at the sides of his knee, fragile yet unbecoming. Phesx Caolia frowned looking at it, feeling as if it was just right, but the hot-fresh pain from his knee kept him from that train of thought remaining for longer in his head.
“You told me you can limp around, and though it hurts, it doesn’t seem to harm your body, correct? There are no cracks around here, but those thin chains are concerning. They seem like bones, but when I examined you, your body had no problem or abnormality.” The doctor said, “However, I will medicate you with some things, and you should stay over the night. I took 5 different shots at your knee, but I’d like to do more testing, this is something I never head of before.”
The doctor’s calm excitement helped Phesx Caolia remain at ease. He nodded, hiding his own excitement about staying over a night in the hospital. The doctor nodded in return and looked at Rubena, “Ma’am, if you don’t mind, I’d like to invite Phesx to the Centralized Parliament hospital. His condition is unknown, and I won’t be able to achieve any accurate reading on his body with this hospital’s technology or expertise.”
“The Centralized Parliament?!” Rubena was shocked. Phesx Caolia lowered his indifferent eyes’ eyelids. That was the same expression, exactly the same, as when his craftsmanship was found out.
“I want to go to the bathroom,” Phesx Caolia said. He pushed himself up from his chair, when the doctor attentively elaborated, “It’s upstairs. As soon as you come up the stairs, go 2 halls to your right, and you’ll find the bathrooms. They should be mostly empty at this hour, even with many people coming here.”
“Aha,” Phesx Caolia nodded before limping away. When he exited the room, and thought of asking Solas to help him up there, he noticed only his sister and Jord remained, unfortunately.
He passed by them, even though he felt his sister’s eyes on him from the moment he exited the room to when he turned around the corner. She so much wanted to tell him what happened, and in whichever way she wanted, but he was too damn tired and fed up with her.
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Phesx Caolia returned to the same area from before. As he limped outside the door, and further to the stairs at the center of this hospital’s wing, everyone looked at him. He was just jolting forward with his right leg slightly up, and no contraption or at least some crutches to support him. It kinda made the hospital look bad, as if they didn’t care for their patients, but they kinda did not attend Phesx Caolia with any care.
Phesx Caolia felt strange, as he should’ve felt too sensitive in moments like this. He also spotted good-looking people here and there, near or about his age. However, right now, he felt completely unperturbed. Furthermore, he felt a quirky hotness emerge from his belly.
‘Shit.’ Phesx Caolia thought, and he believed he was right. He credited the sensation to the need to suddenly take a shit. Phesx Caolia limped more concisely like his life depended on it. He only wanted to piss, but now, he had to hurry!
Hurrying up the small elevator beside the stairs at the center, Phesx Caolia began sweating as he was lucky enough to get in alone. A few seconds later, the elevator’s door opened to the upper floor. He immediately barged out, not knowing the doctor’s pathing instructions were meant to be followed by coming up the stairs only…
For 3 minutes, Phesx Caolia went here and there, semi-lost, until he decided to look for the stairs after endless pondering. He followed the instructions and finally saw the bathrooms. They weren’t like he imagined, as they were clean, with a cold air, and empty. Contented, he hurried to the male bathroom.
Once he rushed into a booth and, ignoring the pain of slapping his right foot on the floor, suddenly pausing, Phesx Caolia supported himself with his forearms pushing at the sides. His head began trembling. The sensation seemed to spread down his neck to his spine. Then, he began feeling movement in his abdomen like never before.
Without caring about his right knee injury, Phesx Caolia struggled to move forward, but the pain coming from his intestines, with something moving within, as something he had never felt before, was too much.
“…!” Phesx Caolia screamed silently, letting his jaw and teeth feel the contraction from his forceful endurance. His body trembled whole, while his clothes became wetted by his sweat. He stumbled left and right, nearly falling forehead first onto the toilet’s edge more than twice.
Pam… pom- pong!
Phesx Caolia bashed his arms around, hitting his elbows. On one occasion, within just a few seconds, he hit the spot to paralyze anyone momentarily. Phesx Caolia felt his whole body relax and breathe. He utilized this moment to hurry and sit on the toilet.
Ignoring the pain of slapping his right leg against the shiny white porcelain, pants down, Phesx Caolia breathed heavily as he accommodated his parts and began his necessities.
“Huh?!” However, when he finished pissing, and he thought the horrendously painful sensation was over, his abdomen throbbed. He looked down and lifted his shirt, but there was no cinematic monstrous sight moving beneath his skin. Whatever was inside his stomach, it wasn’t just a particular case of not taking care of one’s body.
Phesx Caolia tried to relax his lower body, but his fists tightened to levels he didn’t even know his somewhat weak body could. Nevertheless, he felt his pelvis struggle with pain every time that something touched and grazed inside his body. He began tearing up, whimpering a little before silencing anything coming out of his throat or nostrils, even harshly blowing out.
‘What’s happening to me? What is this?! Let it be over already!’ Phesx Caolia’s senses made him believe he was bleeding from anywhere, as if he could see from within, that something was touching him. His light black eyes began moving to and fro at any possible angle, while his head bobbed aimlessly a little in the same way.
Phesx Caolia started thinking of what it would be like dying by bleeding out from his body, coming out of his ass. Thoughts and sudden emotions of determination made him last until he felt his sensitive area expand and break apart. He nearly screamed to the top of his lungs, feeling it ‘trying’ to get stuck and kill him right away, or so he thought.
He closed his eyes, not wanting to keep crying, but then, he suddenly opened them! His light black eyes’ contents seemed to unnaturally expand, like a dilatation after a person’s death, but they went past his irises and even covered ⅓ of his sclera.
Phesx Caolia’s eyes slowly returned to normal as he felt his body releasing the horrendous ‘thing’ inside his body. He immediately felt much better, as if that was just his misconception. But he did not hear it falling into the toilet’s water.
Phesx Caolia checked he wasn’t bleeding, and as a matter of fact, he was completely clean after a few wipes. The amazed young boy stood up and quickly turned around to look at his mess. His eyes trembled and widened in shock.
In the toilet, there was a mass of dark, verdant matter that pretty much wasn’t fecal matter. Phesx Caolia frowned intensely as he looked at it, like watching a ghost creep up to oneself in a long corridor with only darkness around them.
Out of consideration, he flushed it, but it didn’t move away, only crumbling after enough water touched it. Only then did Phesx Caolia smell a toxic, simply gaseous, detrimental smell from it. It still wasn’t from fecal matter, but it made him feel it was, so he stepped out of the booth after confirming with another 2 wipes.
‘… what in the fuck?’ Phesx Caolia stood in front of ‘his’ booth for a few moments, his eyes trembling like mad, before weakly walking to the mirror. He filled the sink with water before diving inside it with his face. Afterwards, he thoroughly washed his hands. Dropping water on the floor from his face, he walked towards the exit.
He felt his body like never before, and he even pondered if he had ever felt like this before his mind and body started showing their troubles, back when he was just a tiny punk.
At last, feeling a bit weak still, but better, Phesx stepped out of the bathroom. But… just as he was about to step with his right foot on the hallway floor…
Ka-Chaaaaaaaa~~!!! BOOM- TRTR- TRA~! RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLEEE~~!!
“!?” Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened. His neck ducked, and his body bent really low. His arms folded backwards, he felt his body falling, just like when he came up with the elevator. It seemed to last an eternity, but it lasted less than a second.
PITTER-PATTER, PITTER-PATTER, PITTER-PATTER~~!
It took only a moment later for Phesx Caolia to understand what just happened, when the heaviest of rains suddenly sounded everywhere around him. Never had he heard rain as loud as this after such a heart-smashing lightning strike that nearly made him go deaf.
It was an earthquake, a really insane one. Enough to make the floor everywhere around him quake like man-made waves in a long pool. However, while that only happened momentarily, and the floor stood its ground, somehow. The earthquake didn’t stop there.
‘Shit!’ Phesx Caolia cursed again as he found his senses all tumbled down by the sudden storm and the earthquake. Although it wasn’t as bad as it was for half a second just now, he could see everything around him dropping dust and cracking apart.
Phesx Caolia struggled to take a few steps anywhere. The wall before him, leading to a resting room, had fallen down a bit and revealed female nurses putting their makeup and drinking some coffee. They might’ve been feeling at ease and still heavy for the work ahead for the night, but now, they were all terrified.
“Go to your right and straight! There’s an emergency exit there!” A nurse looked at Phesx Caolia and thought of him as a hospitalized young boy. However, before she could continue her words, a cracking sound crushed their and Phesx Caolia’s hearts.
Crrrrrr-AAAAAACCCKKKKSSHHHHH… bum!
Phesx Caolia watched, unable to even breath in and out, as the horrified nurses all threw their arms up and immediately fell down. The rest of the wall revealing them completely crumbled. Phesx Caolia acted by instinct and crab-walked to his right, feeling his heels soft as the floor moved like sand.
Phesx Caolia craned his neck and watched a portion of how the nurses and what remained of that room fall down floor by floor, silently, as if they were all dead, or deadly afraid.
“Eeeeeeh!” Phesx Caolia let out a disoriented sound from his tattering teeth as he rushed to his right for several seconds before looking backwards. He thought he was safe now, but when he turned around, he saw a fragile, cracked gap just half a meter behind his right foot.
Phesx Caolia gulped before staring ahead, wanting to follow the path to the emergency exit. However…
PRRRR- CRASHH- CRASH- CRAASH- CRASH CRASH CRASH!!
The floor before him cracked apart and fell down. The long corridor ahead disappeared second by second, with some sounds insanely louder than others, and too quickly. Just the constant pace and loudness of debris falling somewhere was enough to fill the hospital wing whole in shocking fear.
‘Motherfucking shit!’ Phesx Caolia cursed to his heart’s terror. He dwindled no more and made way to the stairs, but he had to detour. He rapidly moved through the hallways and saw some people rushing in the distance, wanting to flee from this crashing place.
Ignoring them, as they did to him and fled for their dear lives, Phesx Caolia wondered if the destruction also reached the others. He moved with difficulty amidst the earthquake, but the fear of being crushed by debris seemed better than falling down. Thus, he didn’t even glance at some people or corpses under a few debris and simply walked away.
Finally finding the stairs, and finding them mostly intact, Phesx Caolia supported himself from the thick railing at the side and walked down for a minute before realizing something.
’My leg doesn’t hurt anymore?’ After stopping for a few seconds, Phesx Caolia cursed himself for wasting time in an event like this. He smiled and chuckled a little, feeling light-hearted, before hurrying his pace down the stairs.
‘This feels weird, aaah.’ Phesx Caolia thought as he felt his feet slightly numb. It was as if he couldn’t feel them, but was unharmed, and he even moved better than he would’ve in the past. ‘Adrenaline? Can’t be, the rest of my body still feels everything as usual… What is it? Ha-ha.’
Phesx Caolia continued pondering a little as he walked further down the stairs, finally arriving at the main floor. There were people there, but the electricity was failing. It was clearly not because of the hospital’s fees or destruction, but something else, or so thought Phesx Caolia.
He ignored the nurses trying to help, and those crying with blood and/or dirt stains on their bodies struggling to keep themselves conscious while walking. Phesx Caolia suddenly felt at ease… so free…
He exited the hospital and walked forth with leisure. The earthquake had already begun decreasing its degree, the intensity was still a lot, but Phesx Caolia had become used to it, somehow.
Phesx Caolia looked up, feeling comfortable, and breathing really pleasantly for the first time after several years. A strange thought formed in his head. Did he not even remember how to breathe without feeling tensed, pressured, and like he’s done everything wrong in his life?
‘How funn- the fuck?’ Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes suddenly became shocked.
“My heaven!” - “Is that real? It isn’t one of those prototype holograms from the first world countries, right?”
Phesx Caolia heard voices behind him, but he couldn’t care any less. Right now, he was looking at something terrible, creepy, and spirit-consuming. A hurricane so thick and yet far away crashing everything on the ground, still appearing to be nearby, maybe just a few hundred meters away, reflected in the young boy’s eyes.
Just looking at its windy body spread from the skies to the ground from far away was hair-rising.
‘Just… how many hundreds of square kilometers does it have?!’
…