Chapter Text
“I got guns in my head and they won’t go, spirits in my head and they won’t go” -Spirits- The Strumbellas
It all started with the bells.
One week after the events of PittFest- Friday Morning Shift Handoff
The night had been busier than usual and Jack was more than ready to hand things over to Robby and the day shift. All he wanted was to go home and get some sleep before he had to come back for the next round. Robby stood next to him, looking over the board.
“Looks like you left some good ones for us to follow up on.” he said, one hand on the back of his head.
“Didn’t want you to think I wasn’t thinking of you.” Jack said with a smirk.
“Yhea well, don’t think of me so much…” Robby said, slipping his glasses on to look over a chart.
Jack just slapped him on the shoulder as he headed towards the door, his backpack slung over one shoulder.
After a hot shower, and changing into a pair of gym shorts, he sat down on the edge of the bed and propped his crutches next to his leg, between the nightstand and the bed. Picking up the TV remote from the nightstand, he turned it on with the volume low. After checking his phone to make sure there weren’t any texts from the hospital, and that his alarm clock was set he finally laid down, staring at the ceiling for a little bit, hands behind his head, before the low murmuring from the TV and the coolness of the air conditioning in the dimly lit room finally carried him off to sleep.
*ting*
His eyes snapped open at the sound, and the first thing he noticed was that it was too quiet.
*ting* A soft, delicate sound.
Frowning, he rolled over and reached for his phone, thinking it was a message alert. He slid his thumb over the screen, unlocking it and did his best to focus on it to see if there was a text, but there wasn’t. The time on it showed he’d only been asleep a few hours, and he dropped it back onto its wireless charger. He noticed the TV was off, explaining the silence, but it shouldn’t be because he’d disabled the auto shut off feature for that very reason, to have the background noise.
“Must have been a dream” he muttered to himself, before grabbing the remote to turn the TV back on.
*ting* a pause, then another *ting* It was coming from downstairs.
“What the hell…”
He didn’t have any bells in the house, and yet, that’s what he was clearly hearing right now. Maybe it was some kid outside playing with one, and since the TV was off, it’d woken him up. He ran a hand over his face and started to press the power button on the remote.
*ting,,,,ting ting ting…ting ting ting ting* The ringing was more urgent this time.
Grabbing his prosthetic instead of the crutches, he fastened it on and got up, making his way across the room and opening the bedroom door. As he headed down the short flight of stairs, he tried to think of what could be causing the noise. Pausing at the bottom riser, he listened for the sound, head tilted to one side. The only thing he heard was the quiet hum of the fridge in the kitchen.
*ting* Just a single chime, softer this time.
He jerked his head towards it, pinpointing it to the living room. The open floor plan allowed him to look around both it and the dining room from where he stood, but there was nothing there. He stood there for a few more minutes, waiting for the noise to happen again. When it didn’t, he walked through the living room to the window, and peeked through the blinds to see outside, making sure it wasn’t some kid, or maybe an ice cream truck that his tired brain was making out to be more than it was. It was late Friday morning, but there didn’t seem to be anyone out and about in his neighborhood. Letting the blind fall back in place, he turned and made his way to the kitchen to make some coffee. He doubted he could go back to sleep now, as the unexplained noise had put him on alert, and best not to try and force it or he’d screw up his sleep schedule. While the coffee brewed and filled the kitchen with its aroma, he wondered if he was finally starting to have that breakdown that always seemed to be on the horizon.