Page 37 of Fighting Shadows

“Brenn’s fine. Can the guys come in after?” I ask because I need them to help calm everything that’s currently swirling around in my brain.

“How about I send them in at the same time with orders to stay calm? It will do no use to stress you out since you still need to recover, but you need to know what’s been happening.” Pops says, his voice softer than usual.

“Sure. Will you be here too? I feel like you are always in the room for my big reveal.” I laugh, but his smile doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

"You couldn't stop me," he says, patting my hand softly, careful to avoid the IV line currently embedded in my skin. I'll be right back, and then we can talk about everything, okay?"

"Ok, sounds good."

My room quickly becomes overcrowded. Everyone talks over the other as they fling question after question after me, and it all blurs into one noise.

A sharp ear-splitting whistle comes from Pop's face, his eyes crinkling at the side when I glare at him. How is it that whenever I end up in a hospital room, he looks older?

“Sit down,” Pops barks at the others. All seven rush to do as they're told, shooting him a questioning look. He winks at me, “I threatened to kick them out of the room if they didn’t listen.”

“Thank you,” I say gratefully, knowing fine well that if they weren’t kept in check, I would have let them overwhelm me, and my head hurts just thinking about it.

“How are you feeling Princess?” Zander asks me, but his voice is different, tired.

“I feel sore, tired, and like I’ve been hit by a truck, but apart from that, I’m fine. I want to go home,” I tell them.

I hate being here, and not knowing how I ended up in this room is setting my nerves on edge.

I watch in confusion as everyone's eyebrows furrow at my response.

“She doesn’t remember?” Atlas questions Pops.

“She has post-sepsis syndrome. Her memory is erased from the entire time she was gone,” Pops tells them.

“How long was I gone?” I ask, “I don’t remember anything other than being in Ellie’s car on our way to go shopping. Is she okay?”

“Oh, she’s perfectly fine. The question is for how long,” Dominic mutters the last part under his breath, but I still catch it.

“What does that mean?”

“Well done, idiot,” Sebastian scolds, “What he means is, yourfriendEllie is a backstabbing bitch who should watch her back if she tries to come back. Brenn is the one who is supposed to explain.”

Brenn scoots closer, clasping my left hand in his much larger one.

“Ellie tricked you, tricked all of us. She drugged you and took you to Charlie because he had been threatening Shan; she thought she would be able to follow him and get you back before we ever found out,” he tells me, breaking my heart with every word that comes out of his mouth.

I was missing for two weeks, in the hands of my monster for the entire time, and I have no memory of any of it. The fact that someone I considered my best friend did this makes me feel numb.

A part of me understands why she did it, but I’m hurt that she didn’t talk to me about it. We could have come up with a plan to finally end all of this for good together.

Instead, she got cocky, thought she could do it all on her own and be the hero of the story, and left me in the clutches of Charlie for fourteen days.

“How did I get away?” I ask the question that’s plaguing me.

Charlie wouldn’t have given up without a fight.

“We came for you just like we promised,” Dominic says, “We will always come for you, Cupcake.”

“That’s rude,” an unknown person complains from the doorway, “I was in the process of rescuing Strange Girl before you all came barging in.”

The newcomer steps further into my room, a cocky grin on his face as he looks at me.

“Hi, I’m Noah. I'm not sure if you remember me, but I’m the one who was shackle besties for a few days,” he says happily, stepping forward towards the bed with his hand outstretched for me to shake. He’s stopped by Zander's large hand on his chest.

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