Page 7 of Quasim III: King Inferno

Hassan rushed down the hall. “What is going on, Hassan?” I hollered behind him.

He paused and double backed. “Shit... Queen and Lady Inferno… give me a sec?—”

“Is it Quasim? Blair nearly screamed while the tears continued to fall down her face, as I held her hand tightly.

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The other doctor rushed past us and Hassan looked at both of us. “Dr. King, scrub in now…” It was like the doctors had some kind of secret language that only they understood.

“He’s coding… take her back upstairs, Capri. She doesn’t need to see any of this.”

“Dr. King!” We heard someone yell for him, and we followed behind him past the area that was restricted from us. There was so much blood all over the floor leading to one room. I gasped when I saw it was a full operating room.

Quasim was in the middle of the bed with his shirt cut open and his cross still around his neck. One nurse tried to remove it, and Blair screamed. “Noooo, leave it. You leave his fucking cross around his neck. Never fucking remove it,” she tried to run into the operating room, and I held her back while she screamed and collapsed into my arms. “Simmy, please, baby, wake up! You promised me, Simmy!”

“I’m bringing him up out of this, Queen.” Hassan promised her.

“Dr. King, you know making prom?—”

“Nah, I’m making sure the King rises again… ain’t no doubt about that.” I watched as he went to another room and proceeded to scrub in with this look of determination in his eyes.

I held her as she screamed into my chest. We both were sitting in the pool of his blood as I prayed for him. My best friend was not only pregnant, but she had just married the love of her life. God wouldn’t have been that cruel to take him away from her.

I rocked her as she screamed into my chest while we heard them on the other side working on him. My heart hurt seeing Quasim that way because he was never down. He was the strength that we all needed, always one call away. Nothing ever got him down and now he was fighting for his life.

“Mrs. Inferno, your husband wants to see you before we put him under.” How could I choose where I needed to be?

I needed to be with my husband, but my best friend was in no shape to be alone. As if she knew my dilemma, Syn came running down the hall. “Your brothers just arrived.”

“Bring her upstairs, I will be right behind you. I need to make sure that my husband is alright before going under.”

I kissed Blair’s head as Syn helped her to her feet, and they headed upstairs. The doctor showed me the room that Meer was in, and he was on the bed looking at me. He was scared and had always told me he had a fear of being put under.

It was the reason that I needed to see him before he went under. “My brother, Sug?”

I couldn’t tell him what I knew because it would only set him off further. “He’s in the room down the hall… get this bullet removed so you can wake up and see him.”

I prayed that my words didn’t come back to bite me in the ass. Quasim had to be alright because without him, Meer would never be alright. They were a package deal and had been for most of their lives, even when they didn’t see eye to eye.

There was no Quasim without Quameer, and vice versa. Tears pricked my eyes as I looked down into my baby’s eyes. “I don’t like this shit, Sug.”

“I know, baby, I know. I’m right here… never going anywhere. Forever, right?”

He kissed my hand and held it to his chest, and I felt his heart beating out of control. “Forever and even after that, Cappin ass Capri.”

I kissed his lips and removed the stray hairs and curls from his eyes as my tears fell onto his face. “Never cappin when it comes to you… you owe me a date night, Meer… a nice and expensive one.”

“I got you.”

The doctor allowed me to watch as he administered the anesthesia to him. He counted back from ten and made it seven before he was out. I closed my eyes and kissed my fingers while I backed myself into the hallway. I stood right in the middle of both rooms, between my brother and my husband.

Both Infernos were out of commission, and it was up to me to make sure our family was good. When I looked up from my hands, I saw Papa on the steps on the other side of the door. When we locked eyes, I removed myself from the restricted area and he pulled me into his arms.

“My boys are strong… they get through everything they are put through and come out stronger.” He assured me and himself, because he needed to believe and hold onto that as much as I needed to.

The restricted door opened, and Papa kissed my head before walking through the door. He slid onto the floor and sat between both doors of his sons’ rooms. I slowly walked up the steps, feeling like I couldn’t breathe.

My heart felt like it was on fire, and someone was pushing the air out of my body slowly but surely. As I made it up the steps and rounded the corner, I ran into Cappadonna.

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