Page 10 of Freeing Souls

When I get up to Ryker’s floor, I walk up to the counter where some nurses are and hear something about security and disgusting, but I disregard them as I smile at the one who notices me.

“Can I help you?” she asks with a friendly smile.

“Yeah, which room is Ryker Anderson in? The ER told me to come up to this floor but not what room he was in.”

“Let me check, hun.” She glances down at the computer screen and clicks a few times before the pleasant smile on her face drops, and my stomach drops with it. Is something wrong with Ryker?

“Ah–um, his room is 303. He is currently in surgery, but, uh–” She glances behind her.“I’m assuming you probably know his other visitors?” Furrowing my brows, I nod, knowing it’s probably Harley and Cade. I don’t think anyone else is here yet.

“Well, you may want to go in and tell them it’s time to go. We’ve called security due to the um—noise, but we haven’t gone in.” She grimaces.

“W–what?” I stutter.

I can feel the burn of my cheeks turning impossibly red as everything clicks. Giving a quick nod, I head straight towards the room. The second the door hits the wall, I think my eyes literally bulge out of my head.

Blinking a few times to clear my mind, I finally step inside and shut the door behind me. Harley is cursing under her breath as she stumbles around, trying to pull her pants back on, while Cade takes his sweet time pulling his jeans up. “What were you guys thinking?” I hiss quietly as I walk closer to Cade. “Holy–what happened to you?” I gasp. Cade has a split lip, his cheek beet red, a bite mark on neck and another bite mark on his hand.

Approaching Harley, I take her chin in my grasp and tilt her head back, looking at her neck; she has blood drying on her skin and dripping down to her shirt. “I–I have so many questions,” I start as I release Harley, and she winces before glancing away as her cheeks turn pink. “But we need to go. Harley, use the bathroom in here and wipe the blood off your neck. Cade–just, um, maybe keep your head down? We need to go. Security will be in here any minute, and I’d prefer to avoid any more embarrassment.”

As Harley disappears into the bathroom, I scowl at Cade. “Don’t look at me like that. We forgot where we were. It's not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal?” My voice rises and I exhale through my nose to calm myself down. How can he think this isn’t a big deal? “Ryker is in surgery, Sugar is down in the ER, and we don’t even know about Atlas yet! And you are up here doing… I don’t even think I want to know what you two were doing but it wasn’t the time or place! What if they had kicked us out completely? That could’ve happened! Then we wouldn't have been able to be with Ryker!”

“Grayson–” Harley starts having walked back out during my rant. Her eyes are wide as she stares at me in shock, I don’t know if she has ever seen me not put together but right now I feel like I am being held up by strings and the fact that they were just in here fucking around while everything else is a mess– it makes me furious.

Shaking my head I walk over to the door and grab the handle. “Let’s go. We need to head down and wait for Noah to show up. That’s the only way we can see Ryker now,” I tell them before heading out. My anger has topped any embarrassment I may have felt, so it makes it easier to give the nurses a small apology as I walk past their station, Cade and Harley behind me.

When we get to the elevators, I press the down arrow and wait, but the longer I stand here with them, the angrier I become. It was reckless and stupid what they did. They should’ve been thinking about Ryker or the others, not themselves.

I don’t even know why this is bothering me so much, but I feel ready to explode on them. That’s the last thing we need, though, so I turn away and mumble about taking the stairs before following the signs to the stairwell. I faintly hear Harley call out to me, but she thankfully doesn’t follow.

Harley

Waiting in the main lobby of the hospital feels like torture. There is nothing to do right now, but none of us want to leave. Not even Grayson, who is currently sitting as far away from us in the waiting room as he can get. I want to go to him, talk with him, but Cade told me to give him some time. Cade said he’s not truly mad at us, he’s just overwhelmed.

That I can understand, but there is still this little bug under my skin not letting me let go of Grayson’s disappointed and angry face in Ryker’s room. Since making it official with the guys, we have always felt like a team, like everything hits the outside of our bubble but it never gets through to us. But this feels different, like we have a wedge between us. Besides Cade, surprisingly. He seems the most content, like he is the one holding us all together. I want to be mad at him, but I can’t be.

I feel like I can breathe a little easier and my head isn’t so fuzzy. Everything is chaotic right now, and I know this is going to hit all of us hard eventually, but at least now, I can realize I let my demons get the best of me. I’m stronger than them, and I can handle anything. Especially with my people by my side even if some of them are hurt.

Five steps forward, ten steps back is a stupid train of thought. Instead, it should be ten steps forward, five steps in place, because no matter what happens, you never fully lose theprogress you’ve made. You become a new person who learns new ways to face things. Every once in a while, you find yourself stuck, but that doesn’t mean you went backwards.

Blinking as I stare straight ahead at the wall, I let out a big breath realizing the amount of progress I’ve made. That progress wouldn’t have happened without these people. I was wrong for how I felt when Ryker got hurt. Assuming that I just couldn’t do this. I could do it, I was just scared. Which is normal.

All of these thoughts make me wonder what the terrified fifteen year old girl locked in a basement would think if she saw us now.

“Harley,” someone says as a hand lands on my thigh and squeezes gently. Jolting slightly, I turn my head towards the voice to find Cade leaning over the arm of his chair towards me, his forehead creased with worry as he scans my face. “You good? Rage texted. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

Nodding, I sigh and lay my hand on top of his. “Did he say anything about Atlas?”

“No, just that he was here with some others and asked where we were.” Cade replies.

Leaning my head against his shoulder I let my eyes fall shut and remind myself I have people to lean on. I just need to be hopeful Atlas is okay.

I feel someone approach, and I crack an eye open as Grayson takes a seat next to me and looks between us. “What are you guys planning on telling Rage?” he asks quietly.

“Nothing,” Cade answers.

“You don’t think he will question your face? Or neck? Or why we are all out here and not waiting in Ryker’s room? Or why we can’t go back and see Ryker without Noah?” Grayson seethes, staring down Cade.

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