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“I don’t understand.” I frown, turning to Zie. “He beats him?”
“Yeah…and other stuff,” he hesitates.
“Like what?”
“It’s not important.” Axel interrupts. “You just need to know that this time his father used a knife. Kaiden’s in a bad way.”
“How bad?”
“Technically, he died. Again.”
I suck in a sharp breath. I remember Kaiden teasing me when we were younger, claiming that he was called The Spirit because he died and was brought back to life by doctors. I thought he was joking, but as we became closer, I discovered it was true.
I guess I should have known what his father was doing. Kaiden sneaks into my room most nights now to escape his shitty life at home. I stupidly didn’t think to push him for answers whenever he refused to talk about it. Maybe if I had, he wouldn’t be in this situation now.
“And now?”
“Now they’re working on bringing him back to us, Peony. So we wait. We wait and we pray.”
“Peony,” my voice comes out way scratchier than I expected. My eyes feel so heavy…sticky…that it takes a tremendous effort to prise them open.
When I do, all I see is too much beige. Well, beige and a disgustingly dark brown suspicious looking stain on the speckled ceiling tiles above my head.
I’m no stranger to dirt and stains, but I don’t recognise that one.
“Where am I?” I rasp out.
“Hospital, mate,” comes Zie’s falsely cheery voice from somewhere on my right. “Children’s ward.”
Like a strong magnet is pulling my eyes closed, I fight to keep them open and turn my head to face Zie. He looks fucking terrible.
There’s a laugh. “You don’t look shit hot yourself, dude.”
My brain slowly catches up to what my ears are hearing. “I’m not a fucking child,” I say, my words coming out like cotton wool dipped in treacle. “Children’s ward.”
“You’re under sixteen, so you can’t be on a main ward because—” Axel explains on my right.
“Too many paedos,” I finish helpfully.
They both chuckle.
“Why are we in hospital then?”
“You mate, we’re fine.”
Gee, thanks, way to make a guy feel better.
“What happened? Where’s Peony?”
For a horrible moment I worry that something has happened to her. That I arrived too late to save her from…something.
I shake my head. I have no idea what happened.
“She’s fine, don’t worry. She’s actually just getting a drink from the shop. She’ll be back any minute. And she’ll be so happy you’re awake. It’s been a while.”
I feel everything getting heavy once more, the need to sleep overwhelmingly strong, but I desperately want to see for myself that Peony is okay.
I turn slowly to look at Axel, but he’s always had an excellent poker face. Since we were little kids he could commit a crime right in front of an adult and deny it to the point he’d have the grown-ups questioning their sanity and booking an eye test.
I don’t feel like he's bullshitting me though. Maybe she really is just at the shop.
I fight a yawn and blink. It’s a long blink, like someone just put weights on my eyelids. I don’t have the energy to fight. I don’t want to fight. I want to sleep.
“Sleep, mate. We’ll be here when you wake up. All three of us.”
I’m already gone.
