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Simon opened his eyes to the cold obscenely bright sterile room that was the med-bay. Pain spiked through his body as the fog in his consciousness slowly faded. The first question rushing through his head- 'How the actual fuck am I alive?' Somehow nobody was in his room, surprising for what he was convicted of… or falsely anyways.
Every part of Simon's body burned, burned in a way that one could only describe as being flayed alive then dunked in salt and lemon juice… Well at least that was somewhat true for Simon. Tears began running down what little was left of Simon's face, the blood had been everywhere, there should have been no way he had survived… Simon breathed in and out slowly, this probably wasn't real…
This must be hell, the anglerfish, or God, or wherever the fuck that thing was killed him. Maybe his fate was to suffer in this room alone for forever. His body certainly felt like hell, so there was not a non-zero he was there. If Simon somehow went to heaven, heaven was a weird place. Wait if that weird fish thing was god, then did that make the blood ocean heaven? Didn't Simon see multiple skeletons like it? Wait did that mean that god died like seventeen times? Isn't that like impossible somehow?
Simon groaned as his head hurt from all the questions that swarmed around in it. Was it even a headache or was it just the pain of what Simon assumed were bandages irritating his skin. Maybe it was more blood and he was back in- Simon decided to quit the train of thoughts and look around the room,
it was empty.
Like the iron lung was
Simon noted a table with a small vase and arrangement of flowers in it sitting on his bedside table, a card too. If Simon felt like he could move his hands, (hand?) or really his body at all, he would go and read it.
But instead he just sat there, taking in the new feeling of now being constantly covered in sticky liquid blood, and overheating. It was nice to say the least, but Simon for some reason could still feel the blood dripping down his face. Simon could still hear and see the monster piercing through the ship. The creaking of iron and rust as it gave way-
The screaming of everybody on the filament ship as they stared at him in horror of what he'd done- the screaming of his brothers as he told them to stop- the banging and srapping of the iron lung as it just barely kept him alive- The blood rushing to his ears and filing his lugs- Speaking with-
"SIMON" Simon jolted up, which he instantly regretted due to the white hot pain that sparked across his nerves and wounds. The hospitalized man looked over to see who had called his name, maybe it was a nurse or doctor… (did Hell have those?)
It was Ava…
Simon just stared at her.
She didn't move any closer, but gave him a guilty look.
"Stop freaking out, Con- you'll just make your injuries worse…" Ava said walking up to his bedside, and taking a seat next to him in a chair he didn't notice. Convict… it sat on the tip of her tongue, Simon cringed knowing that's always what he would be known as. Convict…
Something he was falsely blamed for… well at least in Filament station's regards,
He deserved it for all the death he caused, even if it was the cult controlling him…
He deserved to be sent down there…
He deserved to be sent down there to see that thing.
Maybe it was judgement.
Some kind of punishment for the sins he committed.
There was probably some verse in the bible that he forgot about that went like that.
Judged seems like the rigth word for it though.
So then why was he here?
In a hospital.
Did it judge him worthy of heaven,
Or is this just part of his continued stay in hell.
"SIMON-"
Ava looked like she was about to shake him, but restrained herself. There was something she said that he didn't catch before she began walking to the door."'-va?" Simon groaned as his throated burned like it was just set on fire. "…v-va?" Simon mumbled as he watched her turn back, before leaving the room.
And he was alone. The growing darkness began closing in around him… wait wasn't the room bright just a few seconds ago? The lights seemed to flick on and off to Simon, the darkness only illuminated by a light above his hospital bed.
The lights flickered one last time before they were submerged. He breathed one last time-
"-Take these." Ava commanded, standing over him with a glass of water and two painkillers in her hand. It occurred to Simon that he didn't get a good luck at her before being dropped into… the blood… but now that he knew what she looked like… well it actually wasn't that far from what he assumed the rest of her looked like.
She was wearing different clothes from when they last saw each other… -Given it was through a bloodied window, so he could just be misremembering it. He did get dunked in blood not even a week later to be fair Simon thought the clothes suited her. The pale desaturated blue turtle neck and white baggy paints stained with wear from work looked… oddly nice paired together… Simon assumed Ava was off duty… so why was she watching over him?
"… Don't give me that look, I'm… We're short on medical staff and they needed somebody to watch over you…" Simon could tell there was some degree of lie to her tone as she looked away from him. Simon began to open his mouth to rebuttal, temporarily forgetting the previous pain. "Don't." Ava grumbled and pressed a button on his bed to fully sit him up so he could take the meds. "You'll make the wounds worse, god knows how much hell we had to go through removing those weird teeth growing our of your jaw." Ava snapped, before sighing and holding up the water.
"Drink, then swallow the pills… it'll make the pain go away… eventually." Simon drank the water first before somehow dry swallowing the pills, despite the burning pulsing through his body. Simon groaned, and turned to face Ava again.
"Well… I'm going to be leaving, I have… things to be doing…." Ava mumbled as she turned to leave…. Leave.
Simon realized quickly he couldn't be alone again, if he was… Well last time they tried to leave him alone he subjected a guy to radiation poisoning, and went basically insane….
Ava was also one of the few things that gave him the small hope that this wasn't hell and that he was alive… He- he needed to ask, about the black box- about the moon- about jack- about everything… If only his stupid lungs would get the sound out of his diaphragm. "v-v…va- waIT-" Simon yelled weakly, as his body burned from the exhale. "S-stay?" He could barely make out the words, but somehow they were loud enough to get Ava's attention.
Loud enough to make her return his bed to it's original position, (she had forgo ten) to take a seat next to him, and promise to stay…
why did she,
Simon couldn't tell…
He was just happy to not be alone…