Six Year Old Luke.

I'd looked into so many possibilities with these entire case: still, I found nothing even slightly close to making anything make sense. Instead, I only found as I read into many illnesses that things were only making even less sense. It was as though this was an illness the world has never heard of: as if some kind of existing illness evolved into whatever this one was.

After Mr. and Mrs. Johnson told me all about their son's hallucinations, I thought maybe it could've been some kind of mental illness, but that was quickly disregarded when I remembered that there was pure sickness involved. I don't think there's a mental illness that comes with vomiting, fevers, aches, hallucinations, seizures and death.

So my next step was to watch brain activity during the period between when the fever advances and the time the seizure would start, because the medicines I was using to reduce and stop seizures wasn't working. This was like febrile seizures which occurs in children, but this was adults we were talking about, and it wasn't febrile seizures. What I was thinking at the time is that the seizures must have been due to the fever, but i couldn't seem to reduce the fever or stop the seizure.

I was ordering all kinds of different medicines from labs everywhere and finally, most arrived on this day. I went out to grab one of the boxes when I ran right into Ruth.

"Hey," she said with a sympathetic look. "I took a look at everything in here." She handed me my handbook and  pushed some hair behind her ear.

"And?" I questioned, expecting her to continue.

"Well, I can confirm that this isn't being caused by any type of animal or insect bite, but I did find something pretty interesting," she explained and inhaled a deep breath before going on. "There could be something in the water. Study shows that contaminated water could cause weird and unknown symptoms that could lead to death."

"Except for one thing; I'm not sick, and neither are you," I said matter of factly. "If there was contamination in the water, I think far more people would be sick by now because everybody is drinking the same water."

"Good point, but there's not many other possibilities, and I think it's safe to say that we're running out of options." She looked away from me, clearly distraught by everything, and let out a sigh of frustrations.

"Ruth, maybe you should look after one of my patients." At my words, her eyes locked on mine and she let out an exasperated chuckle.

"Me? You think it's a good idea for me to look after a sick person? Okay, I get that I'm a scientist, and I'm flattered that you give me this much credit, but that's insane. I can't care for a-" Cutting in before she could finish, I explained.

"No, not taking care of them, just keeping an eye on them complete with your equipment but right from the clinic, where I'll also be here." She seemed to think for a minute, which actually seemed much longer that that.

"Okay, I'll do it."

This would've helped the situation because I'd have a scientist working right from the inside.

Before I would introduce her to my best staff, I carried in a few boxes from the delivery and put them into my office. I left the room and met my sister in the hallway where I guided her to the small board room.

"Here's the board room where all meetings are held. This room is always locked for employee purposes." Next we went to my lab where I put all the important notes and patient documents. "I refer to this room as my lab; this is where I research anything I need to. It's completely off limits, locked 24/7 and only I have the key," I said firmly. I didn't think she was going to snoop or even try to open it, but I tell everybody the same thing. There were no exceptions.

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," she said. "So, where will I be then?"

"Right." I took her into a room with 3 patients and 2 empty beds. "Here's a room of a few patients who just came in this morning with the same symptoms, and the two empty beds are reserved for future patients," I said. "I want you to work with these three patients and keep me updated. Try your hardest to figure this out, because I trust you more than myself." She nodded and took a seat between two of the beds and started to converse with the ill patients.

Leaving the room, I went into the room next door and smiled at my favorite patient, Luke. He was a small six year old boy who'd been sick with the same illness as everybody else. Luke was such a sweet kid with the biggest heart any six year old could ever have. He had a bright smile and a genuine giggle. He wore these big square specs on his eyes over freckled cheeks. His soft blond hair was short and sticking up in random angles. Luke was a really small kid for his age, and his case was the hardest.

I had Luke separated from all of the other patients and alone in his own room. In case this sickness was even close to being contagious I didn't want him around any of the patients who were more sick than him; Luke having been the least sick of all the patients.

Luke was brought in by his mother, Esther Edison, who'd been in shambles over the whole thing, saying that she had known he was easily able to succumb to the sickness due to his small immune system. But at this rate this could happen to anybody, slowly but surely.

Luke had been there for two weeks and still all he had was a fever. He was the only patient making this much of a recovery, even if his fevers hadn't subsided; the good thing was that that's all it was and it had been better for him than anybody else.

"How's my favorite six year old?" I asked him with a smile. He sat up in the bed, his legs the only part of him covered by the blanket, and he held a green crayon in his left hand with a child's color book sitting in his lap.

"I miss school," he said with an adorable mispronunciation six year old accent and a tiny frown. His big brown eyes looked a little darker today as he looked up at me.

"I know, bud." Sitting beside him on the bed, I picked up a red crayon and began to help him color. "But how are you feeling today?"

"Cold." The word came out in a shattered whisper, and I felt the sadness in that kid's heart. He sure had a way with tearing me apart. I looked at Luke like a son; that's just the relationship we developed in those two weeks.

"I'm trying to help you feel better. I will help you feel better." He was sure not to look up at me, his head low as he continued to color with forced emotion. I put my index finger under his chin and my thumb on the front of it and made him look up at me. "I will," I said.

"Promise?" he asked.

"I promise."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is a first draft that hasn't been edited. If there's any errors, please point them out <3

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