Summary: Roger gets particularly violent during his withdrawal with some devastating repercussions for Mark. A companion piece to my story, The Curtain of Silence That Surrounds Me.
Notes: Written for Challenge 13 at Rentfic Challenge. The prompt was to write a fic in which a character cannot communicate with anyone around him or her. Sorry, this is not the sequal, but more of a prequal.
Warning: violence
Disclaimer: Rent does not belong to me.
The light is too bright. It hurts my eyes, so I close them. After a few minutes I try opening them again. Where am I? My head hurts.
It takes a long time for my eyes to adjust to the brightness and when they do, everything is kind of blurry. I'm not wearing my glasses. There are people dressed in green and blue doing something near me. I'm on a bed. Is this a hospital? It smells like a hospital.
I must have gotten hurt. The images flash back to me as I remember. Roger grabbing me. The fists flying. Maureen screaming. Collins catching Rogers fists before he could hit me again. Maureen wrapping my body over hers and dragging me to her van. Collapsing when we get into the waiting area. The pain in my head starts throbbing harder..
Why is everything so quiet? Hospitals are noisy places. There are doctors barking orders and nurses following them and the hum of machinery coupled with the sounds of pain and fear from the patients. Where are the sounds of the hustle and bustle?
A women dressed in green leans towards me. She moves her mouth, why is there no sound? Is she trying to ask me something? She frowns and turns to the side and moves her mouth again. What's going on?
Another man joins her. He waves and points to his mouth and starts moving his lips. He stops moves his mouth some more. Fewer words this time. I'm certain he's speaking, but why isn't he making any noise.
I open my mouth to ask him to repeat himself and then I realize I can't hear myself speak either. What's going on here? I repeat my question louder but still can't make out my words. I try again and again adding more air behind my voice. Why isn't my voice working?
I move my hand to my throat and experiment, saying my name a couple of times. I feel the vibrations. My vocal cords are moving, why won't my voice work. A silent scream escapes my throat.
The woman in green jumps and the man tries to talk again. I still can't hear them. I take a deep breath and listen for a minute. It's then I realize I can't hear anything. I start breathing quickly. My palms get sweaty. I feel like I need to get away, but the pain in my head won't let me move it above the pillow.
What's going on? Why can't I hear? Why is my head hurting so much? What's going to happen to me? I start to tremble and lose control of myself. Just when I'm about to jump from the bed, I feel a prick in my skin and a calming sensation surrounds me. I relax and sink into the bed.
The man comes back with a clipboard and a pen and scrawls a note to me.
Mr. Cohen,
We've done everything medically possible, but unfortunately the trauma to your head has left you permanently deaf. We need to admit you to ensure that your skull is healing properly. At the same time we will start you on a course of speech reading and other communication strategies. I'm sorry.
With those few lines, my life is changed forever.