Seven Cuts

“My brother, where is he!” Matt is screaming at the nursing staff but they won’t let him see me. Somehow, he makes it through the frantic orderlies and reaches the emergency room where my body is lying flat on a table. The doctors and nurses are standing around it, and it’s a wonder Matt can even make out my features because I can barely recognize them. The fall must have really done a number on my face. The sight is ugly and gruesome but Matt doesn’t seem to care. He pushes through the throng of people and reaches me.
“Andy,” he says, gently.
He holds my hand.
They’re cold.
But not colder than mine.
My vision is getting blurry.
I can feel something wet spilling from my eyes and rolling down my cheeks.
Before I know it, my face is soaking wet and when some of the tears land on my upturned palms, they’re a dark shade of blood red.
“Andy,” Matt says and then he turns to the doctor on duty. “Look, he can’t be dead! He’s crying. My brother’s crying, he can’t be dead if he’s crying!! You have to check his vitals again! You have to!!!”
The doctors don’t respond and Matt looks betrayed.
He slowly turns back to me. “Andy, please you have to wake up,” he says. “These doctors don’t know shit. I know you can’t…you can’t leave me…you…you can’t do this to me.”
His tears break my heart.
All I want is for him to stay with me forever.
To never leave me.
I’m scared of being alone.
But the doctors won’t let him.
They start talking about insurance and other stuff that seems more important to them than me or my brother crying over my dead body.
A man wearing a priest’s collar stands with a thick book in his hand and places a hand on Matt’s shoulder. Matt shoves his hand away and forces his way back to me.
I feel a familiar choking sensation as I realize I’m never going to see my big brother again. It fills me with dread.
I wish that things hadn’t come to this.
I wish that things were different.
The darkness has done its job.
The bloody tears are really starting to flow.

Notes