Page 98 of King of Clubs

Oh my god – he was in danger. Did she still have the knife?

I needed to warn him, panic bubbling just below the surface but my mind was still too sluggish to react.

Sebastian

I ran back over to Marlee, Cooper crouched next to her, my shirt firmly pressed to her forehead.

I took over, lifting her head into my lap and whispering to her tenderly while Coop went to flag the ambulance.

“Seb,” she rasped, the sound of my name nearly breaking me.

“I’m here, baby. Help is on its way, be strong,” I pleaded as the sound of paramedics grew louder, the blue and red lights bouncing off the otherwise darkened road.

“Th-think she drugged me,” she wheezed, something I already assumed based on how groggy she was. How she was barely able to open her eyes.

“It’s okay, baby,” I reassured, “you’re safe now,” I whispered, cradling the woman I loved as help finally arrived.

Marlee

Chapter Forty-One

Was it possible to be woken by an ambush inside your head? An unbearable weight pressing against the sides of my skull as nausea curled in my stomach.A monotonous symphony of machines, both a lifeline and a torment, amplified in the foggy depths of my mind.

My lips felt chapped. How long had it been since I’d had water? Was that why my head felt as though it were in a vice? I tried to open my eyes, to gauge my surroundings, to ask for a drink, but I couldn’t muster the energy.

The murmur of foreign voices were just above the surface, a sharp reminder the world was just outside my periphery, a light cascaded over my face, lingering over my eyes. Replaced by a feather light touch of my wrists and a squeezing of my hands.

Sebastian.

He was close, his words echoing in my ear, so close yet so far. Always there.

He spoke of colours, of light and love. He whispered my name repeatedly telling me it was okay. Telling me he wouldn’t leave and he loved me.

I wanted to tell him I loved him too, beg him to stay with me always but I didn’t have the strength to muster a response, the darkness again swallowing me until I could no longer hear his comforting words drifting over me like my favourite song.

The intermittent beeping forced itself through the edges of my hazy mind as I lazily blinked. My eyes were tired, still heavy as if my alarm had gone off hours too soon. My limbs aching as if I’d run a marathon.

Slowly gazing around the sterile room I took in the beige walls and the window showcasing an overcast sky. The natural grey light pouring through in direct competition with the artificial fluorescents overhead providing a bleak ambience.

The news played through a television high above, the volume muted.

The familiar medical equipment placed next to me, a clear fluid running through a tube, disappearing behind the sheet above me where I lay in a hospital bed. It was all fairly obvious – something wasn’t right.

Why was I in the hospital?

I rolled my still heavy head to the left where Sebastian was asleep in a chair. His hands were clasped resting on his stomach, firm even in sleep, a subconscious gesture of rigidity. His eyes were scrunched tight, as though he was unable to fully relax, but was too drained to remain awake any longer. I wanted to reach for him, to straighten the creases in his shirt, to run my fingers up and down his forearms.

He was here and even as he slept, he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. I painted his features while he rested, careful not to rustle against the sheets for fear of waking him. I wondered how long I’d been asleep, how long he had remained in those clothes.

I’d dreamt of him, of that I was certain. His voice, his strength and his comfort. An overwhelming sense of love shifted over me and the urge to tell him pressed against my skin. I’d known for a while but I was suddenly desperate to say it aloud.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed as I lay studying him, when he eventually twitched, his hand falling to cup the armrest and I noticed the scratches on his skin.

A distant memory knocked at the precipice of my mind, begging me to allow it entrance. Begging it to invade where it would surely provide answers for why I was currently laying in this bed, why he was cased with vicious red marks.

Why couldn’t I remember anything? I pondered, closing my eyes in an attempt to wade through the depths of my mind.

When I heard Sebastian stir again, I opened my eyes and watched as realisation dawned across his features and he lunged for my bed.

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