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“Mom?”
“Mom?!”
“MOM COME BACK!
“MOMMA PLEASE-”
Tim’s eyes snapped open as a gasp of air plowed through his lungs.
It was dark. He couldn’t see anything. Why had she left him here? Why couldn’t he-
“Tim?”
He let out a shaky exhale, running a hand through his sweat soaked hair. His heart was pounding so hard, his chest began to ache.
Tim wasn’t in a ward anymore. He was in a crappy motel with a camera pointed at his bed to make sure he wasn’t-
“Tim??”
“Go back to sleep, Jay.” He finally managed to croak out between gulps of air.
The taller man bit his lips, eyes anxiously darting around the room as he began to lift himself from his bed. “Is it-”
“No.” He hissed. “Seriously, nothing’s wrong.”
Jay paused, expression shifting in a way that made Tim’s stomach roll uncomfortably.
He stood up from the lumpy motel bed, pulling his jeans back on. “‘M going out for a smoke. Just go back to bed.”
“Bu-“ Tim shut the door before Jay had the chance to say anything.
He stepped out into the dark metal parking lot, the only light being the flickering street lamp a few feet from the old building. The area was silent. Tim was alone, just like he wanted?.
His hand shook as he pulled out his lighter to the point that he almost dropped the thing and burned himself.
He could still hear his younger self screaming for his mom to come back, telling every nurse who would listen how much he missed her until he realized she wasn’t coming back. Until she did, and the cycle began again.
“Tim?” He internally cursed as their room door opened and Jay timidly walked up beside him.
“Jay-“
“You don’t have to say anything.” The nervous man cut him off hastily. “I just want to give you some company.”
Tim sighed. As long as Jay wasn’t talking his ear off… “Okay fine.” He plopped on a nearby bench, patting the spot next to him. “But don’t expect me to spill my guts to you.” He definitely still hadn’t gotten over the betrayal of Jay posting his medical history all over the internet, after all.
So they sat there in the dead of night, Tim steadily smoking his cigarettes and Jay filming the empty parking lot before them. It was almost… peaceful.
After his third smoke, Tim decided he should probably be done. He stuffed the rest of his back back into his jeans, and silently stared into the darkness. He always saw flickers of things in the shadows, his brain trying to get him to run and hide from the apparent danger, no matter where it followed him, but he wasn’t running now.
Tim looked back at Jay, who was watching the footage he was filming with wide eyes that were blinking sluggishly. He snickered as Jay bit back a yawn. “Okay, I think someone needs to go back to bed.”
Jay looked up at the brunet from his slouched posture. “Are you sure?” Are you alright too? Tim heard him imply.
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Thanks for sitting with me, it helped.”
The taller man frowned at him. “But I didn’t do anything?”
“You were here.” Jay would never know how important that really was.