Lucas' wrists were now wrapped in gauze and he was scared, true and honestly terrified. He was good at pretending this was nothing, but he knew enough to understand how bad a seizure could be, let alone a series of them. When he felt himself drift, he called a nurse in and asked her to please tie his down so he wouldn't hurt anyone, she looked at him with such sad eyes, wanting to take it all away from him, and he appreciated it, but put on a brave face, like he did with everyone else. He'd been thinking about Austin, about their short conversation, Lucas had wanted to be cold, to tell him he could stay at the hotel and leave but then...he'd been told about Austin's aunt picking him up and Lucas fell in a hole of desperation, needing to save him, to help him. Austin's words swam in his head, "I like you...a lot" and their kiss...such a tender thing, the nurse left Lucas began to tear up, Austin was as good as dead in the hands of that woman, and Lucas couldn't save him. Eventually, sleep took hold and slipped into that world he didn't want to be in.
It looked...like the hospital. There was nothing odd about this setting, nothing new, it was the exact room where he was staying, his body was not bound to the bed so he stood up and walked to Austin's room.
"Aus?" Lucas asked looking around the room, but it was made up, clean, ready for a new body. Lucas turned away, walking down the hall for no reason he could understand and stopped at the open door of a dark room. He stepped in, the light switch didn't work and the floor was sticky. The scent of blood filling his nostrils, and he kept walking in, waiting for his eyes to adjust, when they did, he ran towards the black figure on all fours, chained arms and legs to the floor with heavy metal links. Lucas pulled, he didn't care who it was, he had to help. He pulled and he pulled but the chains didn't give.
In the room, Lucas' body seized, his arms moving so violently that the restraints are through the gauze and his skin again. He felt no pain.
"You have to help me. I'll get you out! Where's the key? Who's got the key?" He asked the figure, it was only then that he looked at a face- his face, beaten and bloody, weak and entering the room was a woman he'd never seen before and Austin. Austin was wearing a bright white t-shirt, not a single stain on it, he looked...neutral. Lucas looked from his other self to Aus to the woman and understood. She raised a whip and prepared to crack it against Austin, but Lucas, even as weak as he was, moved between them and blocked the hit with his own body. The Lucas that wasn't chained watched, seeing a welt form on each part of his own body where his other self was hit. He walked slowly, angry towards the woman and took the whip from her, wrapping it around her neck and breaking it with ease. His other self felt limp on a blood drenched floor, Austin, didn't even look at him. This time, nobody asked him to do it, but out of pity at the pain his other self must be in, Lucas wrapped the whip around his neck, too and broke it. He walked towards Austin, face blank. "I want to save you." He said. There was a sharp pain on his hand, on the half heart and he looked down, Austin had stabbed him with the syringe. "You can't save me anymore."
Lucas kissed him and fell limp, thinking that if he had to die for someone, this wasn't so bad.
