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Tony shifted against the thin mattress, shivering as the facility’s AC kicked in for the millionth time that night — though he knew that was not the only reason.
“Tony… Tony, you need to get up.”
He turned from the voice, his limbs trembling as he tried to curl further in on himself. The doctors were right, he was gone.. they were both gone — Gregory, Ellis, and it was because of him. Because he couldn’t control himself without help.
The boy that stood above his bed let out an irritated sigh through his nose, something that struck Tony as odd given his lack of need to breathe — but that only served to prove his point. His doctors were right — he’d never really seen the dead because that wasn’t possible. They were only manifestations of his guilt combined with his condition.
“Tony, I swear to God if you don’t get up,” the boy grumbled, a cold chill spreading across Tony’s arm where Gregory had grabbed him.
The action made him recoil, something that immediately flooded him with anxiety. He wasn’t supposed to acknowledge the hallucinations, he needed to breathe and call a doctor. That would help.
“Don’t you dare,” Gregory warned, sitting on the bed beside him as he glared down at Tony, cupping his cheek gently, “You and I both know what you saw back there was real. You know that I’m real.”
With a scowl, the boy shook his head, “Do you really want to be reduced to staring at the ceiling all night and being unable to move? I won’t go away from the medicine. I never have and you never sleep.”
That was true, Tony thought to himself, carefully getting up from the bed with no noise. He’d learned to keep himself quiet, lest he get caught being awake by staff.
Not after the first time he’d seen Gregory and been too hasty in his attempt to chase after him.
He shivered at the memory of being medicated, the long, numb night that had been ahead of him far more terrifying than any ghost he’d ever seen.
Gregory’s hand slid down his arm to linger over Tony’s own before he turned his head toward the door, “That girl really does want to hurt you. I don’t think I can stop her if she does, but…”
He tightened his fingers over Tony’s hand, barely phasing through it as his grip became too tight in his lack of control over himself before loosening it ever so slightly to maintain the illusion, “You can. And seeing how you’re leaving yourself open to it…”
Tony’s heart raced as he looked away in shame, unable to meet Gregory’s eyes. He didn’t care if she did. Twenty years was a long time… and maybe if it was cut short he could be with-
“Is that really what you want? To just be dead and unable to move on? You were supposed to help us so that we could finally pass on, even if it took some time — and now you just want to give up, to give in to the same thing that took everything from me and Ellis?!”
Tony’s gaze clouded as he tried to tune out what Gregory was saying to him, his breathing picking up as the only indication that he was truly present at all.
“Were our deaths for nothing — was my death for nothing?”
He flinched as Gregory snapped at him, his shame growing as he pulled his hand from the apparition’s to turn away from him. Warm tears streamed down his cheeks as he shook his head wordlessly, wiping roughly at his skin to brush them away.
A chill ran down his spine as cold hands wrapped around his shoulders from behind, the boy’s head against his as Gregory trembled, “Please, Tony.”
When he shook his head, staying silent, the boy’s hold tightened before Tony’s skin burned where his scar was, Gregory’s too-cold fingers running over the slightly raised imperfection that ran along the left side of his throat, “Was me saving you from this for nothing?”
Tony’s breath caught at the memory from that night — how Gregory had pried the blade from his hand after he’d tried to finish what Greg had started, how despite the apparition’s obvious lack of energy from staying materialized enough to manipulate his hold away from the switchblade, the boy had still managed to fling the knife across the room so that he couldn’t get to it before laying down beside Tony and his own body while they waited for morning to come.
“I-…” the word died in Tony’s throat as he spoke aloud for the first time in the days since his confrontation with the girl who’d threatened him, raising his voice a little to force them out, “I-I’m sorry…”
Gregory pressed a kiss to the back of his head, his fingers slipping from his throat to hold his shoulders instead, “Then you know what you need to do. Don’t give up because you’re afraid.”
Tony took a deep breath, giving him a nod before he heard the door open, the familiar sight of nurses no longer unusual to him.
Giving Gregory one last smile, he gasped a bit as he felt the needle prick his skin, the sickening feeling of his medicine being administered filling his veins as he was laid back again.