Page 212 of Creep

I didn’t fucking know anymore.

I was just too tired.

Too fucking tired.

Black touched the edge of my vision before everything faded away, and I lost consciousness once more.

* * *

The second timeI woke up wasn’t as dramatic.

It was dark.

I could see the moon from outside the window.

And I was in the hospital. I knew that much.

Lia was fast asleep on the chair next to my bed, her head on the mattress, her hand holding mine.

I reached over with my free hand and ran it gently down the side of her cheek.

Someone shifted on my other side, and I turned to see Theo sitting on the other chair.

He didn’t react when our eyes connected, not that I had expected him to.

“How long was I out for?”

I had expected him to say days. Hell, I would even be okay with weeks, but he surprised me when he said, “One month and four days.”

I blinked, trying to process everything. Over one month.

I lost one month of my time.

“Lia?”

“Holding on by a thin thread,” he answered.

My fist clenched. Fuck, of course that had been the case.

“Tell me everything that happened after I went down. Was she hurt?” I asked, the memory of that day coming back to me, of when Luckas pushed her off the railing. The absolute horror I had felt seeing her go down and knowing there wasn’t anything I could do about it… to when I hit the ground, and all I felt was this unimaginable pain, as if my entire body was on fire, right before I passed out completely.

“She wasn’t hurt too badly, thanks to you. You took most of the impact from the fall. I managed to tie Luckas to the railing while I waited for Keller to show up, which the fucker did. The FBI questioned us. I think Keller suspected we were the ones working with him, though he had no proof. Luckas is currently sitting in prison, awaiting trial.”

He gave it to me monotonously, as if he were reciting the weather.

I hadn’t expected anything different, but something haunting about how he looked as he said it gave me pause. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Theo…”

“You could have been taken from me.”

I blinked. “But I’m still here.”

“Not fucking good enough. This past month has been hell. I didn’t know if you were going to wake up or not. And it wasn’t just me. Lia hadn’t been sleeping or eating. I had to force her to eat. Do you fucking know that she?—”

He shut his mouth suddenly.

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