Sickness

Chapter One; Sickness.

Jake Turner lay on the sofa. He was watching TV. He’d been sent home from school after complaining for two solid periods that his sides hurt. His light green eyes flickered between the door and the TV screen. He was waiting for his mother to come home from work. She’d no doubt fuss over him. 

He thought about school and his friends. Maybe a few of them were having fun in Science. Or maybe not, the teacher wasn’t fun. She was loud and annoying. 

He lay back and watched the characters go about their supposedly normal lives. Who’s life was normally full of drugs, murders and kidnapping? If he’d lived in this soap, Jake decided, he’d move away. 

“Jake?” Jake heard his mother calling from the front door. 

“Living room Mum.” He called back.

The door crept open. In walked Jake’s mother, a tall skinny woman. She could have been a beautiful woman well into her old age, if she didn’t have such large bags under her eyes. Or so many stress lines around her mouth and on her forehead. 

“What was it this time?” She asked, gently perching on the end of the sofa.

“My side. I was feeling sick… And on the way home I tried to eat.” 

“Jake.” She sighed. “What was it?” 

“A bacon roll from the shop…” 

Jake’s mother sighed and stood up. She walked out of the room. Her heels made a clicking sound on the bare wooden floor. Jake noticed a tiredness about her that he’d never seen before. She was tired of work, that he knew for sure. But maybe tired of home… Tired of him. 

He turned back to the TV, trying not to move his side too much. He cringed as his arm brushed it.

“F**k.” He muttered to himself.

He heard his mother on the phone. She was calling the doctor. Maybe he could come over? Jake certainly couldn’t go anywhere. 

Jake turned the TV up. He didn’t want to hear his health being discussed. He knew that he was ill, he knew that it was something in his blood. But he didn’t know what it was, no one did. It was a ‘unique’ situation for the doctors. Sadly, all it did was cause Jake a lot of pain. 

He unbuttoned his school shirt. Trying to move as little as he could he slipped it off. He muffled a curse as the shirt brushed the skin on his hip, although sore it was nowhere near as bad as the skin on his chest or on the right side of his rib cage. He looked down at himself.

“Oh…” 

It was so much worse than this morning. Then it had only been a small rash above his hip, with red skin running across his chest. 

“Mum!” He called. She walked in, phone in hand. She took one look at him and lifted the phone to her ear. 

“Doctor, we need you here now.”  

“Jake. What did you eat today?” Doctor Ship asked. 

“Um… Three bowls of cornflakes, a chocolate muffin and a bacon roll.”

“And?”

“And a packet of crisps.”

“What flavour?”

“I can’t remember.” Jake said softly. 

His mother sighed, she stood in the doorway. Jake was getting worse, no way she could deny that. But he wasn’t meant to be this sick, he was only a little boy still. Doctor Ship stood up. His balding head caught the light. He turned around and gestured to Jake’s mother to talk outside. 

Doctor Ship looked Miss Turner in the eyes. ”Iris, I’m afraid that Jake is sick. Very sick. I think we may have to keep him in hospital.”

“…Fine.”

“I’m sorry, but without immediate attention he could die. That rash is only a surface effect of something that’s been eating away in him for his whole life.”

Jake pushed his face into the musty smell of the earth. The cold dirt clung to his body. He winced as he moved, his right side was bleeding. He jumped to his feet and ran quickly, crouched low to the ground, towards a shed. He pulled the rusted screws out of the door. 

The rain beat down on the city. No one could see anything, let alone a young boy. The squads were pulled off the streets, their guns were taken away from them and paper work was filed. Phone calls where made and conversations where had.

Jake lay on a burlap sack, it had once held a lot of wood. Probably firewood. He sat up and wrapped the sack around him. He shivered as stay water droplets dripped down his back from his hair. Jake looked out of the cracks in the wood, it was still raining. No one would find him any time soon. He looked down at his bleeding side. The skin was cracked, it wasn’t a clean cut. He brushed it softly with his fingertips. A sudden rush of red hot pain shot up his spine. He whimpered. He lay back against a lawn mower. Unable to dress his wound because of the pain, and unable to continue because of the pain. He was stuck. 

“I’ll wait the rain out.” He whispered to himself. His eyes drifted shut.

Jake’s eyes snapped open. The door to the shed was open and light was streaming in. A silhouette stood in the door. Jake looked closely at the silhouette. 

It was a young girl. She was about Jake’s age, 15 or 16. She didn’t seem surprised to find a sleeping boy in the shed. She stepped inside the shed and shut the door as best she could. 

“Hey. Who are you?” She asked, dropping to her haunches. 

“I’m Jake… Jacob. Wh-who are you?” Jake stammered. He could still fight if he needed to. 

“I’m Raven. I’m like you.” She said, leaning in closer to Jake. He looked into her eyes, they were grey. She blinked. Suddenly they were an amber gold colour. He jumped. She was like him. 

“So, you can do a trick.” He said. Jake was well aware that if she was like him she could hurt him quite a lot, she could possibly even kill him. “Why should I trust you?” 

“Jake.” She said slowly, as though he were an idiot. “If you couldn’t trust me, you’d be dead by now. But, luckily for you, I only help those of my kind.” She offered him a hand. Jake took it and they clambered to their feet. Jake clutched at his side, the pain was blocking out his senses. He was going to black out. Raven slipped under his other arm.

“Look Jake, I’ve got to get you out of here. You’ve got to come with me. Can you use your wings?” 

Jake shook his head. “The pain… I can’t.” 

“That’s okay, I’ll do it. We’re going outside and I’ll fly us both away.” She said while tightening her grip on him, avoiding the bloody gash in his side. 

Jake stumbled out of the shed. Raven looked up at the sky, it was still raining but it was only a drizzle. Raven’s back arched. She strangled a cry. Two large bat like wings ripped out of her back. She shook her head and gripped Jake tighter. Jake shut his eyes and concentrated on not passing out. Raven streched her wings out and jumped.

Suddenly they were gaining height.

She was relaxed now they were away from the ground. She looked at Jake. He was deathly pale. The skin around the gash looked a light ash grey it was probably infected. He moaned as she shifted her grip on him. His eyes were red and bagged. He was sick, no doubt.