The Lost Quest

“Yannic! Yannic!”

Yannic opened his eyes as this familiar voice fell upon his ear. He saw a blur image of a person in front of him. “C’mon! Wakeup Yannic. You’ve been asleep for days.” It sounded lovable. The tiered eyes, as if they had been waiting for someone, for so long. He saw the wrinkles on the cheeks and lines on his forehead. Yet, the generous smile like it wanted to hide the ocean of melancholy inside. This familiar face appeared in front of Yannic, sitting on his bed, as his vision grew distinct.

“Grand Pa!!” said Yannic. The 10 year old woke up in a bed of a hospital, looked around, kids were playing in their bed in a pink blue room. Pictures of Mickey and Donald painted on the wall, a typical children’s ward.

“Where are we? My heads hurting.”

Yannic felt some weird heaviness in his head, he felt a bandage wrapped around when he held his head. “Rest Yannic! You’re not completely fine.” “We’re in hospital. You had been feeling unwell lately.”

Grandfather laid him down as he was trying to get up.

“How did I get in here?” Yannic laid down, stared at the celling. He was trying to remember what had happened.

“I was in the car.. We went fishing.. Aiden was asleep beside me….”

“Yannic! We’ll talk about it later, child!”

“Dad was driving…. Mom and dad were at the front seat. It was all dark. We had to reach early in the morning,” continued Yannic. He remembered traces of the night.

“Yannic! Look! What I’ve got for you?” Grandfather handed him his plastic superman, trying to deviate his thoughts.

“I was poking dad from behind. I wanted that pocket watch you had given to him.”

Yannic started sobbing.

“Dad! Dad had told he’ll give it to me later, but I was insisting. He turned around. Huge truck! Huge truck was coming and everything went dark. My head’s hurting!” Yannic started holding and squeezing his head tight.

“Don’t over think.”

“Where’s mom? Where’s dad?” Yannic realized something very bad had happened with them, that night.

“Grand pa! Where’s mom? Where’s dad?” The screaming voice of the kid, shunned all other kids in room. Everyone started staring at Yannic. He looked at Grand pa, he had teary eyes. He reached the pocket and pulled something out. It was his father’s pocket watch.

“Mom? Dad?” Yannic lowered his voice, raised his head and asked his Grandfather. Grandfather nodded in disappointment. Tears came rolling through his eyes.

Yannic looked at the watch “Mom and dad died because of me. Because I was insisting. I killed them.” looked at grandfather and screamed. “I killed them!” shouted aloud. He got off the bed ran through the passage of the hospital, crying and screaming.

“Mom! … Dad!”

Grandpa ran after him. He pulled him near and hugged him tight. Both of them were in tears. “I killed my own parents, grandpa!”

“No child! It’s not your fault.”

Yannic cried aloud.

After a moment, Yannic stopped. He remembered his little brother who was asleep beside him in the car.

“Aiden! Where’s Aiden? Did he too??” said Yannic, in terrified voice.

“No! No! Aiden’s okay. He has been taken into another ward for the treatment,” Grand pa consoled.

“Take me to him. I want to see him right now.”

“Okay!”

Yannic got relived. Grandfather carried him on his waist and walked to the door of an emergency ward. Yannic could see the little three year old through a small window on the door. He was breathing heavily, lying on a bed.

“He’s going to be okay!”

Both boy and the old man waited outside the door of the ward on a wooden bench. Suddenly, they saw the door of the ward open. A nurse came out pushing a white stretcher with a little body covered by a blue cloth and stopped beside them. Yannic got up and stepped ahead.

“Who’s in there?” He looked at the nurse. She didn’t reply. He reached closer and pulled the cloth, he realized it was Aiden.

“Aiden!”

“Wake up Aiden!” he shook the body, but it won’t answer. His little one was gone. Yannic started crying. He felt like his entire world smashed in front of him. He saw that pale lifeless face of little Aiden, his motionless fingers had turned cold. He felt a tight grip of his grandfather’s hand on his back as he shouted “AIDEN!!”

Suddenly he felt like he was losing his voice. He was trying to shout out loud but he felt like the air was rushing into his lungs. Yannic started shivering .It was cold! Very cold! He looked down, he could feel the water dripping through his pants. The sounds and images of Aiden, Grandpa and the hospital slowly started getting blur and everything was fading away. He felt like his eyes were stretching out with cold. As he opened his eyes, he realized that the car had missed the track and plunged into a river.

The old man on the back seat was grabbing to his shoulder .The rear window of the car was broken with the fall and the water was rushing into the car. Yannic was drowning. In the dark, with a stranger behind him, he was drowning deep into the cold water.