“Guys, we need to get to the hospital,” he said. My mother appeared just then, the same shell-shocked look on her face. I began to get truly concerned, a strange foreboding winding up my body like a deadly serpent.
“What happened, Matt?” Logan grabbed his crutches and slowly got up, staring at a visibly distressed Matt and Mia. Then, in a broken voice, Matt spoke.
“It’s Selene. She never made it to the airport. There was an accident; the car went off the road and…” He kept explaining, but I stopped listening to him because the words were just bouncing around inside my head:accident,car,Selene…
I stumbled back a few paces, suddenly catapulted into the deepest part of my nightmares. I felt breath scraping at my lungs, my heart pumping faster and faster, and the familiar surge of adrenaline coursing through every inch of my body.
A bomb had just detonated in my brain and blew it into a thousand pieces. I was incensed, and if anything serious had happened to her, I was going to be insane. And I had no doubts about who was behind it all: Player 2511.
“Go. I’ll stay here with Chloe. I’d just be in the way right now.” Logan gestured to his crutches and pasted on a reassuring smile. I immediately dug the car keys out of my jeans. I followed Matt’s Range Rover to the hospital where Selene had been taken.
I drove like a maniac while guilt began to bubble up in my brain. If I hadn’t encouraged Babygirl to run away, the accident never would have happened. If I hadn’t acted the way I did at that fuckingHalloweenparty, she probably would have stayed here with us. With me. And she would still be the Tinkerbell that the Boy liked so much.
I passed a hand over my face and then put it back on the steering wheel. I was trembling because, for the second time in my adult life, I was afraid.
I was truly afraid that the consequences of the accident would be grave. All at once, anxiety had insinuated itself into every part of me, digging a trench where all my other thoughts were firmly buried.
Is she okay?
Is she alive?
Of course she is.
She has to be.
I caught a glimpse of the enormous hospital complex in the distance, and memories of my brother’s stay in one of those sterile rooms echoed in my mind.
And now that nightmare seemed set to repeat itself.
I pulled over abruptly, not even bothering to park the car correctly. I grabbed the keys and got out, heading for the entrance. My nerves only increased with each step, and I knew I wouldn’t have any peace until I had learned the particulars of Selene’s condition.
I hurried through the automatic doors, followed by Matt and my mother. Once inside, I wrinkled my nose at the strong scent of disinfectant and looked around.
Matt gave me a forced smile, and we checked in at the front desk. A few minutes later, we were finally able to head for Selene’s room.
I was anxious and on edge; my breath caught in my throat at the idea of something really serious happening to her. The idea that I might never see her again.
Shit, I had never cared so much about another person, other than Logan and Chloe.
I must have really looked like a psycho as I followed Matt and my mother down the hospital corridor. I could feel my skin burning underneath my clothes, my hands were shaking, my forehead was blazing and sheened with sweat, my breathing had gone erratic, and my brain was foggy.
When a stocky and bald nurse stepped in front of us with a stern expression on his face, I just scowled at him. I was pretty sure that before the day was over, I was going to beat the shit out of someone here.
Matt immediately stepped up to explain the situation to him, and the guy showed us to the ICU waiting area. Selene was in room number three.
Number three.
The number three symbolized destiny and the strength to face it. I had learned that years before when I was looking for a tattoo to get on my left hip. Before I chose the pikorua, I’d researched various symbols and their associated meanings.
I clung to the hope that Selene’s room number was a good sign, trying to ease the desperation that threatened to swallow me. As I followed behind Matt, I gazed into the rooms that we passed. They were all sterile beds, suffering people, and white walls that made the air around me feel thinner somehow, almost suffocating.
I saw nothing and heard no voices. The only thing in my head was the gleam of her blue eyes and the need I had to see them again…immediately. I had to make sure that she was okay, or I would run the risk of truly going crazy and having a total meltdown. I felt this bizarre sensation inside my body, as though a little bit of my heart had been torn away and the remaining organ felt no need to beat without that small but crucial piece.
It was then that I understand just how right Logan had been earlier: I wanted to see her ocean again. The one I’d been pulled into since that very first day, the one from which I’d stolen much more than just a drop. I’d onlymeant to play there, unaware that in such a short amount of time, I would have gathered in my hands the most beautiful pearl.
“Judith.” Matt’s voice brought me back to reality as he wrapped his arms around a beautiful woman who looked exactly like Selene.
The woman, who had been curled up on one of the chairs that lined the bare, white wall, dissolved into tears in her ex-husband’s arms. Then she turned her sky-blue eyes first to my mother and then to me.
