Hollow

The hospital never slept. It was a deep, creaking, mechanical, unstoppable breath, and Noah felt it the moment he crossed the sliding glass door of Detroit Medical Center. The antiseptic odor struck him first, it was clean and suffocating at the same time, and then there was the low hum of the fluorescent lights, and the incessant and rhythmic beeping of some monitors somewhere deeper within. It was not a new sound to him, a sound which had been troubling his days and nights for months.

The soles of his sneakers skidded softly on the polished floor, and he ran as fast as he could towards the elevators, his chest tight, his exhaustion buried under pure adrenaline. He didn’t need to check the room number. He was familiar with it. Knew every twist, every passage, every vending machine which never functioned correctly. This place had become a second home and he detested it with all his heart.

The elevator seemed to be moving too slowly, and with every floor he had to pass it seemed to him that it was a test of his patience. His fingers were tapped his thigh with impatience, and his thoughts were flying wildly along the worst-case scenario that he could not put out of his mind. What if he was too late? What if “stabilized” didn’t mean safe? What if…

The doors opened with a soft chime, cutting off the course of his thoughts. He moved fast,, his steps gaining momentum as he strode along the well-known hall, his head darting till he came to the door. The same door. The same room Eli had been in for months. His hand hesitated for just a fraction of a second before he pushed it open.

The room was dim, illumunated only by the soft glow of machines and the dull glow of the hallway peeking through behind him. Eli lay in the bed, small and too still, wires and tubes framing his fragile body like a cage. The silence was interrupted by the steady beep of the heart monitor, each sound a reminder that he was still alive. Still breathing. Noah sighed, his shoulders falling as relief washed through him so suddenly it almost hurt.

“You’re here.” The voice came from the corner of the room, and Noah turned to see a nurse standing by the monitor, her expression calm but tired. “He’s stable for now,” she continued gently. “The attack was severe, but we were able to get it under control.”

Noah nodded, and his throat tightened as he approached the bed. “Can I…?”

“Of course.” The nurse gave him a small, understanding smile before quietly stepping out of the room, leaving him alone.

Noah moved to Eli’s side, his movements slower now, more careful, like he was afraid even the air might break him. He reached out, his hand hovering for a moment before gently closing around Eli’s. It was warm, but too light, too fragile.

“Hey, kid,” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper. “You always gotta make things difficult, huh?”

Eli didn’t respond. He was asleep, his breathing shallow but steady, his face pale against the stark white of the pillow. Noah swallowed hard, blinking rapidly as emotion threatened to rise up and choke him. There was relief, all right, but it was tangled with something heavier. Something darker. Because this wasn’t over. It was never over.

After a couple of minutes, the door opened once more, but this time it was not a nurse. A man in a neatly pressed shirt stepped inside, holding a tablet, his expression was professional but not unkind. Noah knew that look too. He stiffened and his hand tightened nearly involuntarily on Eli’s.

“Mr. Hayes,” the man said. “I’m with the hospital’s financial services department. I was hoping we could talk.”

And just like that, the relief cracked. Noah nodded his head once, breathing out slowly. “Yeah. Okay.”

The man stepped further into the room, and in order to be considerate of Eli, he lowered his voice. “First, I want to assure you that your brother is under the best care he can possibly have, but, we do need to address the outstanding balance on his account.”

Noah gave a hesitating, humorless laugh, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. I figured.”

The man glanced down at his tablet briefly before continuing. “As it stands, the total comes to just over one hundred thousand dollars.” The number hit like a physical blow. Even though Noah already knew it, hearing it out loud made it real in a way that made his chest tighten painfully.

“We understand that’s a significant amount,” the man added, his tone measured. “We can discuss payment plans, financial assistance programs…”

“I don’t have anything,” Noah cut in, his voice sharper than he intended. He exhaled, he had to get himself together, yet the panic was already creeping in. “No insurance. No savings. Nothing.”

The man nodded as though he had guessed it. “In that case, we might have to think of other possibilities. If payment cannot be arranged, we may have to consider discharge once he’s stable enough.”

Noah’s head snapped up. “Discharge?”

“Only as a last resort,” the man said quickly. “But continued care without payment isn’t sustainable.”

Noah stared at him, disbelief and anger twisting together in his chest. “He can’t just be discharged,” he said, his voice low but shaking. “He needs this. You know he needs this.”

“I understand your concern,” the man replied, calm but firm. “But we do have policies…”

“He’s not a policy,” Noah snapped, his composure finally cracking. He waved his hand toward the bed, toward Eli. “He’s a person. He’s my brother.”

Silence stretched between them, heavy and suffocating. The man didn’t argue. He just stood there, waiting for Noah to come up with something he didn’t have. Slowly, the anger drained out of him, leaving behind something worse. Helplessness.

Noah turned back to Eli, his grip on his hand tightening as his shoulders slumped. “What am I supposed to do?” he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. The man didn’t answer. There wasn’t an answer. After a moment, he quietly excused himself, leaving Noah alone again.

The room felt smaller now, the air heavier. Noah sat down in the chair beside the bed, leaning forward, his head dropping as he pressed his free hand against his forehead. One hundred thousand dollars. It might as well have been a million. There was no way out of this. No safe option. He looked at Eli again, at the rise and fall of his chest, at the fragile thread holding him here.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered, even though he had no idea how he was supposed to keep that promise. “I’m not letting anything happen to you. I swear.” But the words were empty. Because for the first time, Noah didn’t know if he could keep them.

Hours later, the city felt colder and darker and Noah stood in front of a door, his hand hovering just inches away from it, his exhaustion finally catching up to him now that the adrenaline had worn off. His mind was still racing, still trying to find a solution where none existed.

He knocked before he could second-guess himself and the door opened a few seconds later. Justin stood there, his expression shifting instantly from confusion to surprise.

“Noah?” he said, a smile breaking across his face. “Hey, I wasn’t expecting…”

Noah didn’t let him finish. The moment he saw him, something inside him snapped, the pressure, the fear, the helplessness all crashing together at once. He stepped forward, grabbing Justin and pulling him into a fierce kiss as he pushed inside, kicking the door shut behind him. Justin stumbled back slightly, caught off guard.

“Whoa… hey…” he tried, his hands coming up instinctively, but Noah didn’t stop.

“Shut up,” he breathed against his mouth, his voice rough and desperate. He kept moving, pushing Justin backward until his back hit the wall. His hands were already working, tugging at his shirt, his belt, like he needed something… anything… to ground him.

Justin stilled then, his surprise fading as he felt it, the tension, the way Noah’s hands trembled, the way his breathing was uneven.

“Noah,” he said more softly, his hands settling on his shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Noah paused, just for a second, his forehead pressing against Justin’s shoulder as he tried to steady himself. “I just need you right now, Justin,” he whispered, the words raw and unfiltered.

There was a brief silence, then Justin’s expression softened, understanding flickering in his eyes. “Okay,” he said quietly.

He reached up, brushing his fingers lightly against Noah’s jaw before leaning in again, his touch gentler this time, grounding instead of urgent. Noah let himself fall into it, into the warmth, into the distraction, into anything that could pull him away from the crushing reality waiting for him outside this room and for a while, it worked, for a while, he could pretend.

But even as he held onto Justin, even as he tried to lose himself in something that felt real and immediate, the weight of everything else lingered in the back of his mind, impossible to escape. And somewhere deep down, Noah knew this moment, this fragile escape, wasn’t going to last. Because problems like his didn’t disappear. They waited. And they always came back worse.