Page 54 of Burn Like An Angel

“It’s complicated,” I throw his words back at him. “She made it clear we were just casual for a long time. Then everything happened… Now I’m not so sure what we are.”

“And the fact that Xander’s got some fucked up claim on the woman you apparently love doesn’t bother you?”

“Does it bother you?” I counter.

Teeth grinding. A sharp breath. More grinding.

“Who Ripley chooses to spread her legs for is none of my concern,” Lennox replies flatly. “And frankly, she can do whatever the fuck she wants.”

“Right. Because you don’t care.”

“Right,” he repeats.

For all his fierce loyalty and commitment to his family, Lennox can be a thick-skulled bastard. This ridiculous denial phase is doing none of us any favours.

“I have no idea what your problem is, but you need to figure it out. Fast.” I take another drink from the plastic water bottle. “I won’t stand for you hurting Ripley ever again.”

“If I wanted her dead, she would be,” he says ominously. “We made it out of that wing together.”

“Then fucking get over yourself!”

I want to get up and storm far away from him, but even if I could see to navigate the destruction we’re hiding in, I doubt my shaking legs would hold me. The pills haven’t kicked in yet.

Instead, I rest against the wall, focusing on anything but the pain fracturing my skull in two. I’d kill for a line right now. Even a single hit. Enough to take the edge off.

The awkward silence wraps around me like a blanket as Lennox stews. I have no concept of what time it is. The sharp hunger pains intermingling with my constant nausea are the only indications that several hours have passed.

Slipping into a trance-like state of deep concentration in an effort to manage my sickness, I startle back to reality when a loud bang permeates the building. Lennox curses, disturbing something as he moves.

“We’ve got company,” he announces.

“Nobody knows about this place but us.”

“Maybe that asshole Langley has given up searching?”

“Doesn’t seem likely,” I reply worriedly. “He was determined.”

Bracing myself on the floor, I try to push myself up. I feel a little stronger though still shaky and weak. My spine doesn’t leave the wall as I slide upright, trembling like a leaf.

Distinct footsteps are growing closer. Multiple pairs. Hope flares in my chest, but the very real possibility that more unruly patients looking to pick a fight have found us is acute.

“Just give them what they want,” I whisper-shout. “You can’t fight anyone off with one working hand, Nox.”

“No one is stealing our shit. I’ll crack their spines first.”

“It doesn’t matter!”

Between the two of us, one injured and one barely able to stand, we can’t put up much of a fight if people are here searching for supplies. That’s precisely why we abandoned the safety of the medical wing.

A resounding voice ends our bickering.

“You could’ve left a damn note!”

“A note? Seriously?”

“Well, I don’t know! Anything but vanishing!”

The voices quickly burst the fearful balloon that’s expanded inside me. Part of me was terrified I’d never hear her razor-sharp tongue chewing someone out ever again.

---