Chapter Nine
BLAINE’S neck burned like fire.
Mom had smeared it with some stuff she’d made up, but it hadn’t helped a bit. It just made the burn deeper, now running all the way to his elbow.
Christ.
He stood in front of the mirror over the dresser, poking at the swollen skin, pushing on it.
There was something there—a hard mass right under the skin.
Flynn came in from the bathroom and stopped short. “Jesus, Blaine. That thing’s grown, like, three times its size.” Flynn started putting on clothes. “In, like, a day. Get dressed—I’m going to take you to the hospital.” Flynn sounded worried, honestly worried.
“I’m fine, seriously. I just….” He pressed again, frowning. “Is there something in there?”
Flynn stood behind him and studied the wound. Then he touched it, pressed against the hard spot. “Jesus. I think it’s loaded with pus. I’m serious; we need to get to the hospital and get this dealt with.”
He grabbed Blaine’s clothes and began handing them over.
Blaine pulled his pants on and then froze as something moved, pulled inside him, inside the bump. “Wait.”
“What?” Flynn stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I just….” Blaine pressed again, and his swollen skin split, a foul-smelling goo pouring down his arm. There was something in there. Something… moving. “Flynn! Get it out!”
“Oh fuck.” Flynn grabbed his good arm and dragged him into the bathroom. Flynn turned on the hot water in the sink, soaked a washcloth, and dragged it over Blaine’s arm, cleaning away the gunk before rinsing it and then pressing it against the split in Blaine’s skin to draw out more pus. “Grab me the tweezers, man. Fuck.”
“Get it out!” Blaine could feel it. In him.
In me. Oh God. Please.
Flynn reached past him and grabbed the tweezers out of the medicine cabinet. “Fuck. Gross. Shit. Just stay still.” He snagged a clean washcloth and ran it under the hot water, then did the same with the tweezers.
When Flynn pressed the cloth against his shoulder, the ache made Blaine cry out. Then Flynn gave a cry of triumph, and Blaine swore he could feel whatever it was being pulled out, slithering and twitching inside him until it was gone.
Flynn threw the thing on the counter, grabbed a water glass, and slammed it onto the—oh my God, it was a worm. Jesus Christ, Blaine was going to throw up.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Please. Please, is that it?” Blaine tore at his shoulder, the pus turning bloody.
“Stop. Just stop.” Flynn pushed his hands away. “Wash them. And I mean a lot.”
Flynn soaked the cloth again and wiped away the blood and more pus. Then he grabbed the peroxide and poured it over the area once more and blotted the excess liquid with a towel.
“You have to make sure they’re all out!” What if there were more? Dozens? Eggs? What if they were squirming inside him and then trying to eat their way out?
Flynn took him by both arms and shook him until his hair flew. “Stop it!” He went silent until Blaine met his eyes in the medicine-cabinet mirror. “It’s going to be okay. You are going to put a clean T-shirt on, and I’m going to grab that thing, and then we’re going to the hospital. They’ll be able to make sure it’s cleaned out properly, okay?”
“I-I—it was in me. Fuck.” Blaine was going to lose it. He caught sight of the worm, smashed and bloody under his glass. His bathroom glass. “Hurry.”
Numb, Blaine obeyed Flynn’s instructions, grateful to have someone else taking charge. Flynn seized another cloth and wrapped the bug in it, a visible shudder moving through him. Then he hurried Blaine out to Flynn’s car and parked him in the passenger seat.
In seconds they were on the road, Flynn driving way too fast. “You’re going to have to tell me how to get to the hospital.”
“I…. David. I’m going to be sick.” He didn’t want to go back. He’d been to the hospital so much, so many times.
Too many times.
“Not in the car, man.” Flynn reached in the back and came up with a bag. He dumped out the contents and passed it over. “Here. Here. And who the heck is David?”
“David who? I don’t know any Davids.”
“You called me David.” Flynn shook his head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. Left or right up here? Left or right?”
“Left. Left.” Right? He felt so wigged, like he had a brain fog. Like he was lost.
“Okay. Oh, there’s signs now. We’ve got to be almost there.” Flynn’s hand landed on his leg and squeezed. “We’re almost there, and you’re going to be fine. I swear, okay?”
“Room 204.”
He looked at Flynn. “What?”
“I said we’re almost there, and you’re going to be fine. Say something, though, eh? Talk to me? Tell me how it’s feeling.”
“Better.” No. No, Flynn had said 204. Hadn’t he? “A little numb.”
“They’ll clean it out and shoot you full of antibiotics, and you’ll be right as rain in no time. It’ll be fine.” Flynn kept saying that like if he repeated it enough times, it would be true.
“Yeah. Except for the whole worm thing, huh? It was alive. What if…?”
“Shh. They’ll clean it.”
“But—”
“No. Just don’t. You’ll drive yourself crazy with ‘what-ifs.’ We don’t speculate. Penicillin kills shit like this. We can talk about what the fuck that was after everything’s smelling like roses again.”
“I swear I can feel them, moving inside me.” He swatted at his shoulder, tugging at his shirt.
“Blaine. Lover. You have to stop. Hold on to your hands or something. Just no touching.” They turned into the hospital, and Flynn parked as close to the emergency entrance as he could. Then he almost ran Blaine into the ER and over to the nurse at reception.
The fact that they were in the ER of a hospital, albeit a different hospital, and that was where this had all started, did not escape Blaine.
“My friend had this in him.” Flynn thrust out the cloth with the squished bug. “And it’s all infected, and we’re worried there are eggs in there or even other bugs.”
“In him?”
“Yes. Here!” Blaine snapped to get the nurse’s attention. “Listen to me!” What if they were already in his brain? Floating in his eyeballs?
“Please. You have to look at him right away, make sure they aren’t, uh, multiplying in there.” Flynn grabbed Blaine, turned him around, and raised his T-shirt. “Look. It’s awfully infected.”
The nurse’s nose wrinkled, and she took a half step back. “Okay. Follow the green line on the floor, and when you get to the nurse there, tell her you’re to go into isolation three.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you. Come on. Come on, Blaine. I’ll get hold of your folks. Come on.”
Blaine held on to his head, the pounding suddenly huge, damn near unbearable. He let Flynn walk them through the red tape and sank down with a sigh of relief when he was finally able to sit on a bed. Flynn grabbed his phone and made that call to Blaine’s folks.
“Someone will be in to clean the infection and start an IV for antibiotics and something for pain,” the nurse who’d met them said. “Just sit tight.”
Flynn hung up, then came and sat next to him as soon as she left. “Are you feeling worse?”
“My head hurts. I swear, this was…. It was in me.”
“I know. It was pretty gross. I didn’t think we had bugs like that here.”
“I’ve worked on the farm my whole life. My whole life, man!” He’d never even heard of this shit.
“I think it was the hospital.” Flynn peeked at his back and winced.
Before either of them could add anything, another nurse came in and introduced herself as Rose. She put an IV in Blaine’s arm, and about two minutes after that, the analgesics kicked in and the pain eased.
Then she began to clean the wound, and Flynn looked away. Blaine didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t have wanted to watch it either. Especially as she put on gloves and a facemask to do it.
Another nurse popped her head in. “Your parents are here.”
“I’ll switch with them,” Flynn offered. “No problem.”
“Don’t leave, though. Don’t just leave.”
“Why would I do that?”
That was a great question. Why would Flynn do that? Why would Blaine worry about it? Why would he even say it?
“I’ll be in the waiting room. Is that okay? I mean… I don’t have to go, but I don’t think they’re going to let us all be in here.”
Rose nodded. “He’s right. One at a time, though we’ll make an exception for your parents. For a short time.”
“Okay. Okay, thanks. God.” He leaned forward, the scent of blood and antiseptic making him want to die. Or barf.
“I’ll be in the waiting room if you need me,” Flynn said. He glanced at Blaine’s back where the nurse was still working. “It’s looking better. You’re going to be fine.”
God, he hoped so. But he wasn’t sure. What if they were still in him? What if the bugs were still inside him?
Flynn disappeared, and Blaine’s folks came in moments later, his father appearing concerned, his mother fussing hard.
“What the fuck is it, son? When did you notice it?”
“When did I get you to doctor it, Mom?” he asked, the room spinning around him.
“Day before yesterday.”
“That morning, Pop. Flynn saw it.”
“It wasn’t nearly this bad then, though. I would have insisted you go to the hospital if it had looked like this.” His mother fussed some more, wincing every time she looked at his shoulder.
“We’ve cleaned it out,” the nurse explained, “and the doctor is coming to lavage it again and suggest some meds to make sure everything’s cleared out.”
“You can’t see any more in there, can you?” Blaine needed to know they were gone.
“The doctor will make sure everything is kosher. And the antibiotics are doing their job.”
“Please, just make sure.”
“I’m going to see if we can’t get you something for anxiety. Does he have anxiety issues, normally?”
“Blaine? Our Blaine?” Mom looked panicked. “God no.”
“Okay, Anna, just take a few breaths. He doesn’t need you having an anxiety attack over this.”
“My poor baby…. Your poor shoulder….”
“He’s going to be just fine, aren’t you, son?”
Blaine looked at his pop, nodded. “Yeah. I mean, I’m here now, right? They know about this stuff?”
“Of course they do. You’re going to be fine, son. And we’ll get the barn fumigated. Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“Yes, sir.” What if it was the hospital, though? Not this one, the other.
He didn’t want to go back if it was the hospital. Shit, he didn’t want to go back anyway. He needed to keep David safe.
“Room 204.”
“Where’s Flynn? Is he okay? Where is he?”
“He went to the waiting room so your mother and I could be here.” His father patted his hand. “I’ll go take a turn in the waiting room and send him back, shall I?”
“They’ll send me home soon, right?”
“The nurse said the doctor would be in shortly. I’m sure it won’t be much longer. I’ll go get your friend, son.”
“Thanks, Pop. I’m sorry.”
His dad shot him a quicksilver grin. “For what? This will buy me a few cups of joe tomorrow morning, huh?”
That startled a laugh out of Blaine, and his father gave him a wink before heading out.
“Does it hurt, sweetie?” his mom asked, looking at his shoulder and tsking. “It wasn’t nearly this bad yesterday.”
“Not now. It’s so creepy. What if it’s inside me? More of them, I mean?”
“Then the doctor worms you and gets rid of them.”
“Mom!”
“What? It works for the dogs….” She gave him a sweet laugh, and he shook his head. She’d always been a proponent of laughter being the best medicine, and it seemed to have worked for her with the cancer, so he couldn’t knock it.
“Laughter—that’s a good sign,” Flynn noted as he walked in. He smiled at Blaine. “You’re looking less green around the gills.”
“They gave me some stuff.” He had the feeling more was coming too. “I was freaked out. That was….”
Just thinking about it made his balls crawl up into his body.
Flynn made a face. “It was the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. If I never have to pull a worm—uh, do that again, it’ll be too soon.”
“Yeah.” Blaine shivered and rolled his eyes, worried again that it was all going to repeat. That itch and then the bug…. God.
“Hey. Hey, guys!” Mom patted his foot, shook it a little. “Let’s not relive it, shall we?”
“I just wish we knew how it happened.” Flynn leaned over to look at it. “It looks clean, Blaine. It totally does.”
“Uh-huh. Gross. I want the doctor to guarantee me it’s over.”
“Room 204.”
He shook his head. What the fuck?
“Blaine?” Flynn was watching him closely. “Feeling okay?”
“My head is just….”
“They gave him pain meds, huh?” Mom asked. “They always make him a little crazy.”
“Ah. It’s a good thing I’m rooming at the barn, eh?” Flynn grinned, but Blaine could read the concern beneath the smile.
“Yes. Otherwise he’d be sleeping in his old room.”
“Don’t worry, Mrs. King. I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again. Or if it does, I’ll make sure we get back here right away.”
“We’re going to get the barn fumigated,” Mom insisted.
“If that’s where it happened.” Flynn met Blaine’s eyes, and Blaine could see his own doubts in Flynn’s.
“Well, where else? You two haven’t been exploring anywhere freaky, have you?”
Blaine immediately shook his head. “Nope. Nowhere we haven’t been a hundred times.”
“That’s what I figured. I’m having your father call the exterminator today.”
“Are we going to have to go to a hotel for a few days?” Flynn asked.
“Of course not. You boys can both stay at the house with us as long as you need to.”
“Thanks, ma’am.”
“Oh please, call me Anna.” She patted Flynn’s arm. “I’m going to go make sure your father is okay. Maybe get some coffee. You boys okay here?”
“We’re fine. I’ve got him. I promise.”
Mom looked at Blaine, then at Flynn, and her eyes got wide for a second. She smiled. “Well, good deal. I’m glad of that.”
Flynn’s cheeks reddened, and he ducked his head. Once Mom was gone, Flynn met Blaine’s gaze. “Oh man. She knows.”
“She does.” She was cool with Blaine being gay. So was Pop. He knew how lucky he was, and he never let himself forget it.
Flynn grinned. “I guess it’s real, then, huh? No going back now that the folks know.” Flynn moved closer, and the heat from his body seeped into Blaine.
“I’m a little wigged. Promise you’ll stay here.”
God, he was a needy bastard.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Flynn said. “I promise. Especially now that your folks know. I won’t feel like they think I’m being a jerk for sticking close and keeping them from being in here with you.”
“Room 204.”
Seriously, what the fuck?
“Room 204.”
“Did you hear that?”
“Hear what, babe?”
“What if there’s bugs in my brain? Making me hear things?” What if the hospital was inside him now? What if they were in him? His heart rate began to speed up, the beeping of the monitors getting louder.
“Hey, hey, you’re fine. You need to breathe, okay? Take some deep, even breaths. Come on. You gotta relax or you’re going to get the staff here all upset.”
Sure enough, the nurse came back, frowning at the monitors, then at him.
“I have orders to give him an antianxiety med, and we’re going to administer a vermifacient as well.”
“A what?” What the hell?
“It’s just a precaution.”
Flynn had his phone out, but he shrugged. “I’m just seeing mentions of it in medical journal articles.” He turned to the nurse. “Is the vermifacient because of the bug? Because if you’ve got something for that, it would really help set him at ease.”
The nurse had pushed the meds into his IV already, and he could feel quiet fall over him like a blanket.
“Yes, exactly. Just in case, we’re making sure nothing else is in there.”
“There you go. They’re on it.” Flynn had his hand now, holding on tight and stroking Blaine’s knuckles with his free hand.
He found that he didn’t really care. He was floating, wrapped in cotton wool.
“That’s calmed you down nicely.” The nurse’s voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away. “The doctor will get to you as soon a she can. In the meantime, your shoulder has been covered, so you can lie back against the pillows and relax.”
The sensation of moving was huge. Then all he could see was the ceiling tiles. And Flynn’s head. Flynn’s huge, disembodied head.
“You’re okay, Blaine. It’s just the meds.”
“Room 204,” he muttered. “You have to promise me.”
Flynn frowned. “You mean at the hospital? Okay. Okay, I promise. We’ll check it out, man.”
“No. No more. You can’t ever.” Never.
“What are you talking about, Blaine?” The bed dipped as Flynn sat next to him, close and warm. “What happened in room 204? Has that got something to do with what’s going on?”
“Promise me.” He grabbed his lover’s hand. “Please, David. I can’t lose you again.”