"Easy" Won't Be Part of the Equation

[SOTF_Help]

((Teddie Boyd continued from Friar's Club ))

Teddie dragged himself as far as his weak body would take him from the dining area. His heavy, plodding footsteps felt like he had bricks for shoes as he made the short trip up the stairs to the sleeping quarters. He pushed open the door and collapsed into the bed. It smelled and it was probably full of mold, but it was soft at least. And it was a bed, designed to comfort.

He lost consciousness and woke up sometime later, maybe the next day, still alone.

Teddie bear…. that’s me.

He looked down at himself. The gash that Juanita had cut into him all those days ago hadn’t been properly dressed. He also noticed a smaller cut on his ankle that he hadn’t seen before. He must have been cut accidentally in transit to this horrible place. Both wounds looked infected: a gift of the misfortune of his birth. Teddie always had a compromised immune system due to being born prematurely. That’s why during the pandemic, in the loneliest time in his life, his mom couldn’t stay with the family out of fear of bringing something home from the hospital and infecting him.

He wished she had just stayed. Then if she’d brought home the virus, he could have at least died with her and everyone he loved around him.

The blood poisoning must have affected him, made him disoriented, and caused him to come up with a weird character, which only got hastened in his decline with the second, worse wound.

I just… hate being alone that much.

Tears leaked down the sides of his face and cut a path on his feverish skin. He felt strange aches and stabs as his organs shut down and died inside his rotting body. But as the sepsis progressed, he eventually stopped shivering and stopped being able to think clearly.

I’m sorry for lashing out. I’m sorry. I just didn’t react well because… I’m anxious and want people to like me.

More hours passed. He lost consciousness and the blood poisoning finished its work when he could no longer feel or think. The last half-conscious thought he had before falling asleep for the last time was

Everyone in the world is my friend.

S042 Teddie Boyd - DECEASED