Page 80 of Ravaged From Fate

ELSA

As a nurse, I help people for a living. I mean, duh, it’s pretty obvious that’s what I’m supposed to do. I try to help everyone, regardless of who they are or what they might’ve done. I’ve been in a lot of bad scenarios in my time as a nurse, situations where people are really hurt, where there’s blood and pain and sorrow, but nothing prepares me for this moment in a barn in the middle of nowhere.

Nothing prepares you to not be able to help someone.

When I sit in that chair opposite Caspian as he bleeds out from the gunshot, I can’t even help him. My hands remain tied behind my chair. I cannot even move.

I can’t even do my job.

If people ever ask me what has been the worst experience of being a nurse, I will say sitting across from your lover as he dies is not only the worst experience of being a nurse, but the worst moment of my life.

You’re not like the rest

No, you’re not

You’re a spark, a fire

That lights up my world

And when you smile, girl,

I can’t help

But smile along with you

40

CASPIAN

I wake slowly…

I’m not in heaven.

Or even in hell.

This time I’m not even in East Springs’ clinic.

I blink open my eyes and glance around at my surroundings.

I’m in a white hospital room. A proper hospital and definitely not a small medical clinic next to a bar in some small town. The way I can tell is the ugly, piercing fluorescent lighting and the smell of old men.

There’s a sound coming from somewhere. Something I recognize. Really recognize.

Yeah, of course I would be drawn to that music anywhere.

It’s Ravaged.

I turn my head to the side to see the source of the music. The room’s TV. It’s blasting out one of Ravaged’s songs. Right in front of me is Elsa; her back to me as she watches the TV, enraptured.

She hasn’t noticed I’m awake yet.

My eyes flick upwards.

All of us boys are up there on the screen, performing a show we did in London a few years ago. I remember that night. It was fun.

And I also remember what happened at the barn. Fighting those guys. A blur of fists and speed.

I remember the punches I landed. What I was thinking…