Tao Sleeping

This is Tao. I drew him on 14x17" paper with a black ink pen. Here's a random story I wrote for the picture.

"I hate this." Tao's fingers curled into his sleeves, bunching the fabric of his shirt as he buried his face into his arms. His voice sounded pathetic, broken, like a man who had just lost everything. "The other children are getting better. Why is it only you?"

"Considering the state in which he came to me, this is an improvement."

Tao bit his lip, using that small amount of pain to fight back the tears, and he pushed himself up onto his elbows. The heart monitor beeped at a pace too slow and irregular to sustain consciousness, and the boy attached to them looked as though he was already in the grave. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." Frankenstein frowned as he adjusted the oxygen level. "The other children are faring well. It will turn around for him, too."

"I know you're lying."

Frankenstein took the chart from the foot of the bed and jotted down the current status of his patient. "What makes you say that?"

"Every time we come down to the lab, I watch you. I read the charts, try to figure out what you're doing." Tao glanced over at the oxygen tank then closed his eyes. "You're worried about his breathing. It's too shallow, and he needs oxygen. If he doesn't start breathing better soon, he'll probably develop phenomena. His heart's even worse. His pulse is so weak that it can't pump blood properly, and his organs are in system failure. Even if he did recover, he'd probably have brain damage. The poison has already broken down his cells beyond the point that a human can survive. Right now you're just hoping that he stays in a coma long enough for you to think of something, but you know that unless you enhance him, he's going to die."

"So you know." Frankenstein gently set chart down on the bed, and his voice was softer than he had ever used with any of them before. "Are you asking me to enhance him?"

"I... Ikhan was the start for me. If it wasn't for him..." Tao crossed his arms over the side of the bed again and sank down into them. "It's so horrifying to be enhanced. I never want him to experience that, but if he doesn't, he'll die..."

Frankenstein set his hand on his shoulder for a brief moment and immediately pulled it away. "I'll think of something."

"Please," his fingers clawed into his shirt, and he couldn't bring himself to look up. "I'm asking you. Please... don't let him die."



Disclaimer: Tao and Noblesse belongs to their creators.