Chapter Text
“Is the family of Tyler Hernandez here?”
Immediately, Taylor and her mother shot up and rushed towards the doctor, the others not far behind. “Yes we’re,” Taylor glanced around the group, swallowing before continuing, “we’re his family. Is he okay? Can we see him?”
“It appears that Mr. Hernandez has suffered from a stroke. Luckily, we were able to restore blood flow to the brain without surgery, but he has yet to wake up and we’re unsure if he will in the next twenty four hours.” The doctor watched as the faces of the group fell and the girl who spoke to him stumbled back into the arms of a tall boy.
Nobody spoke for what seemed like forever until the twins mother stepped forward and asked, “What does that mean? Is he– is he not going to wake up?”
The doctor paused for a moment, “We don’t know if he will, the brain is a tricky organ. We’re going to keep him under observation for the next forty eight hours and then we’ll discuss the next options with you. He’s breathing on his own though and has a lot of brain activity, so those are great signs.”
A collective sigh escaped from the group. The girl spoke up once again, “can we go see him then?”
“Of course, why don’t you and your mother follow me? He can only have two visitors at a time right now,” the doctor said with a small smile.
Taylor looked back to Ben and then Logan. Both boys gave her small nods, telling her it was alright. She tightly clasped her mothers hand before facing the doctor again and saying, “okay, let’s go.”
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Tyler’s eyes shot open. He had no idea how he was still alive, but he was and he needed to get out of there now. He tried lifting his head to assess the damage, but even the smallest movement sent waves of pain throughout his body. He muffled a scream so as to not attract any phantoms.
Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. God, what the hell should he do? Oh man, he was panicking. Tyler tried feeling around with his foot, and then he hit it. A branch. Maybe he could use it to get off? Fuck, oh god, he has no idea how he’s gonna do this. Before Tyler could even start forming a plan, he heard the distinct snap of a twig. He immediately whipped his head in the direction of the noise, chills sweeping through his body as brown eyes met white.
“I need to get down!” Tyler shouted before he forced his torso upwards. He let out a scream in agony as his wound scraped along the jagged wood. He barely managed to get himself off the tree, when the phantom started climbing. His pain began to subside as adrenaline overtook his body. Tyler noticed that by some miracle, his machete bat thing stayed on his person, and began crafting a plan.
He needed to time this perfectly. He waited with bated breath as the phantom climbed closer, and as soon as it was near, Tyler drove the machete into its head, black goo splattering all over him. The phantom’s body fell, and Tyler rushed to follow, not wanting to be in that tree any longer. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he ran further into the woods. That fall made a lot of noise, and where there’s one phantom, there’s more. He decided to move towards the cliff because the others were more likely to find him there.
As the adrenaline wore off, Tyler’s movements became more and more sluggish. He could see the base of the cliff, so he decided to make a small shelter to hide in. He used the machete part of his weapon to quickly cut down branches and arrange them into a tent-like thing around the base of a large tree. With a huff, Tyler plopped down on the ground and shuffled inside. He rested his head on the trunk of the tree and let his eyes slip close, exhaustion taking over.