DERANGED

3

Asha-

A day had passed by and I was sat here in this beautiful home with scary men, I couldn't sleep, not just because I was afraid the masked me would pounce on me as soon my eyes closed but because I was also worried I had made the wrong decision and ended someone's life by transferring my blood to him because ever since he passed out yesterday, he hasn't woken up yet although he had a pulse, it was very faint and it terrified me that he could possibly die at any given point.

"You should get some sleep."

One of the men said as he touched my shoulder, urging me to get up from the floor beside the wounded man but I couldn't find it in me to move until this man opened his eyes and let me know that I didn't kill him.

Shaking my head, I watched the guy slip down to the floor beside me, holding his masked face in his hand, although I couldn't see beneath the mask, I could see the stress rushing through him as he let out a loud painful sigh.

"He'll be ok."

I said as I looked over to him, though I wasn't sure if what I was telling him was true, I did know that we both needed to hear those words, even if they didn't have much worth to them.

"How are you? Are you ok? You've got a lot of road rash and it seems that you're also hurt."

He pointed towards my ankle that was busted, bruised and swollen, I had tried to ignore the pain of my own body but I knew that he was right, I was also hurt but I was no where close to as damaged as the guy who I had crashed with.

"I'm fine."

I lied as I looked over to the wounded guy who was still passed out, wondering if he would ever wake up again or if I had just permanently broken him.

"No you're not."

The guy next time said and I was tired of not knowing their names, so I asked, ignoring his former statement.

"What are your names? Would kind of help knowing the name of the people I'm stuck with."

A chuckle escaped his throat and I was happy to know I was able to make him laugh during this difficult time, even though the reason I was here was because of them altogether.

"I am Emmi, Emanuel is the name but Emmi for short. We have Lawrence over there-"

He pointed towards one of the guys who was sitting on the table eating something on the other side.

"That guy over there is Hugo."

He pointed towards a guy that was sitting on a beam bag beside the glass window with his phone in hand.

"That's Raphael"

He pointed to another.

And then another,

"That's Adam."

"And the guy who's somewhere probably in the bathroom is Sacha."

They all looked the same so I could t quite tell the difference with their black combat clothing and ski masks but from their body type, I could somewhat tell them apart.

"And him?"

I pointed towards the unconscious guy before us.

"That's Xenon. What's your name?"

Emmi said as he leaned back, pressing the palm of his hands on the floor, he seemed tired.

"I'm Asha....

When am I allowed to go back to my life?"

I asked, trying to avoid the thoughts of Rose that were haunting me once more. I wish that I could take her place, I didn't want to be here, not when she was no longer alive, the only reason she was dead was because I had asked her to come to the bank with me and now everything was torn apart and it was my fault, even this guy that was injured, that was my fault too.

"I'm not sure, that's our boss, he'll decide when you can go when he awakens."

He pointed towards Xenon and I wondered that if I could ever leave this place, maybe knowing their names wasn't a good idea, maybe I should've stayed a stranger to them.

Sitting here in silence, it felt like forever before Xenon began to twitch here and there, I sat up next to him making sure that he was ok as his eyes fluttered open and shit and with a low painful groan, he tried to sit up as I pushed down on his chest to get him to lay back down.

"No, no, no."

I chanted to him, making sure that he wasn't moving too much to further injure himself but a huge relief washed over me, knowing that at least, he hadn't died and thankfully he must've been the same blood type as me.

"Xenon is awake!"

Emmi informed the other men as he also rushed to Xenon's side, making sure that he was ok as the other guys began to surround us.

"Hey guys, give him some space."

I said as I ushered for them to go back to what they were doing and it felt as though they saw me as a doctor because within an instance, they all scattered away so that they weren't suffocating the wounded guy, the only one that remained still was Emmi.

"Make sure he doesn't move too quick."

I said to Emmi as I grabbed a bottle of water, holding the back of Xenon's head I pulled him up slightly to let him drink some water and he did just that as his eyes began to open. It was a shame that I couldn't take the ski mask off his face because right now, he needed to breathe and I wasn't sure if the ski mask made it easy for him but I wasn't willing to be killed in order to let this guy breathe and so, I kept his ski mask on.

Once his eyes fell onto me, he began to sit up, causing me to push on his chest again to get him to lay down but he was so stubborn, I just couldn't win against him and so, he finally sat up.

"You saved my life huh."

He said with his deep hoarse voice as he coughed, grabbing his abdomen in pain.

"That's not important right now, please lay back down, you need to rest."

I said gently, trying to usher him back into his laying position but the guy was just not having it, instead of laying down, he tried to get up but he couldn't hold his weight as he was in too much pain and so, he sat back down, looking over to me once more.

"I guess I owe you one."

He said before glancing towards Emmi then back to me.

"Emmi get her a room ready, she'll be our guest for a while."

And as the words left his mouth, my heart sunk down my stomach, he was planning on keeping me here? Even after I saved his life?

Drowning in my reality, I stayed silent, scared that if I spoke, I'd confirm that what I was going through was real.

For now, I needed to feed myself the luxury of believing that...

I was dreaming.