THOSE EYES

CHAPTER 25 - Hospital

"Mr Salvatore, do you know why your fiance did what she did?"

"Doctor, are you implying that she tried to commit suicide?"

"No, no, Mr Salvatore. Let me rephrase myself: Did you have any problems lately with your relationship that would lead to her cutting herself?"

"Do I look stupid to you? You asked me the same question again. Doctor, please leave till I have my nerves in check."

I heard the door closing while a pair of footsteps approached me. After a loud and worried sigh, something touched my hand. I collected all my strength and lifted my eyelids. I looked down at my wrapped arms. I sure look like someone who got through hell.

"Thank god you woke up," a male voice said.

I moved my eyes up to the owner of the hand to meet Peter's eyes.

"Here, drink some water," he said as he placed the plastic cup next to my lips. I took a sip of the warm water before speaking: "Where am I?"

"In a hospital. How do you feel?" Peter said while carefully scanning my moves.

I slowly sat up with his help before I spoke: "I'm fine, or at least I think I am. My head hurts a little."

"I'm glad that it's not worse. Can I see your wounds?" Peter said as he looked away from me.

I nodded in approval. Peter slowly took my arm in his and started unwrapping it.

He started turning the bandages around and around my arms as I was getting ready to see enormous cuts. But before we got to that part, he covered my eyes with his warm hand.

"Don't look at it," he said gently with a hint of nervousness.

I laid back and waited for him to completely, slowly and gently unwrapped my hands to reveal, in my imagination, ugly cuts.

"I'm going to heal them. It will sting a little. I'm sorry," Peter said.

"It can't be that-Oh, you motherfucker that hurts!"

Peter chuckled a little at my reaction. It was agonizingly hurting, stinging, and it was not pretty to bear. I don't know what he was saying while he did his magic that hurt more than it felt pleasant.

"I finished," he said.

I unclenched my jaw and opened my squeezed eyes.

"Really?" I asked unsurely.

He gave me a silly smile before saying: "Yes, you can look."

I looked at my spotless and healed forearms. There was not any scar or marking. I was impressed by Peter's healing abilities, which I didn't know he has.

"Thank you," I said as I looked up at him with sparkles in my eyes.

He gave me another silly smile before saying: "No problem."

After he sat back down, a dreadful and agonizing silence fell over us as we both looked away from each other.

"He didn't come," Peter said, cutting my hesitation to ask in half.

My hopes keep getting beaten down every time I accept something. Maybe it's time that I stop doing that. I should stop doing that. As I took a deep breath, Peter spoke: "Give him time-"

"I didn't expect him to come," I said, cutting his words off. He stayed silent for a moment before he spoke: "Are you sure of that?"

"Yes!" I said without a second taught.

"If you say it, then I'll believe it," he said before taking a deep breath and cautiously speaking again: "The council of the five wise men asked for your presence at your Decisive ceremony."

"What is that, and who are they?" I asked as I laid back down.

Peter gently pinned the hospital sheet between his fingers and covered me while speaking: "They are the ones in charge of deciding if the bride is fit to be the next queen. The decisive ceremony will be in three days at my palace. The goal of it's to accept you or reject you from the light breed. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

I snug into the uncomfortable hospital bed that felt like it was made of thorns while speaking: "I'll come. If I want my normal life back, then I have to get through that. It looks pretty simple to me."

"The thing is that you just won't come there, and they'll say yes or no," he said as if he didn't want to let out too much.

I looked up at him from under my lashes and asked: "Do you mind telling me what's the problem?"

He made himself comfortable in the wooden seat and spoke: "In their eyes, you are my future bride, so you would have to look like it. If you don't come, we can skip all those complications."

"What complications?" I asked as I butted into his monologue.

Peter let out an enormous agonizing sigh before speaking: "A week after I marked you, I should have organized the Marking ball, and I didn't. Then we should have started living together, so you would have changed with the influence of my pheromones. After you had changed, we should have attended the Decisive ceremony, but we didn't. And if I calculated everything right, we should have got married yesterday, and we didn't do that either."

"Aren't you the king? Can't you make your own rules?" I asked him as I sat back up.

He sighed again before speaking: "Yes, I am the king, but I can't just change traditions how I want. Those traditional procedures should be respected equally by me and my subjects. And my subjects are my priority."

"Bullshit!" I shouted at him.

His chin fell on the floor as he opened his mouth in shock. When he composed himself, he spoke angrily: "Excuse me?"

"What are you trying to sell me right now is complete bullshit! You and Tom are no different! You keep telling me that everything is for your people. In reality, you only use them as a sick excuse to do nothing. You two keep on acting as the perfect victims that can't do anything. In reality, you don't want to do anything. You love to be called victims," I angrily said.

I heard the sound of the chair that hit the floor as Peter quickly stood up. "Don't you dare put me in the same trash bag as that pitiful excuse of a divine creature! I only once broke those traditions, for her, for Clara. And do you know where it got her?" he angrily said. His wings were out, his claws and canine teeth started getting longer and longer as he paused for a moment before speaking again: "It got her dead! It's why I'm not going to break any more traditions. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do it even for you."

I studied his air-gasping posture as he was angrily looking down at me. Before I could say anything, he took his ripped suit off, tossed it into the garbage and spoke calmly: "I'm sorry that I shouted at you, but you touched a subject that shouldn't have been. Call me if you want to go to the Decisive ceremony. If not, call me anyway, so I can come to pick you up." Peter walked out of my hospital room before I could even say a word.

I laid back down on the bed made of thorns and sighed. "How did I get myself mixed in this unnatural shit? I just wanted a quiet life. Is it too much to ask?" I said to myself.

It's time I put an end to this. I slowly extended my hand and pressed the button to call the nurse. The nurse came in, asking what's wrong. I asked her for a phone, and after a while, she brought me one. I dialled his number, and after a few beeps he picked up.

"Hey, Casper. Can you come to pick me up at the hospital?