Blue Hour

14.

Chris's POV

I drove off right when the door closed. I was expecting Kayden to yell at me to go faster but all he did was hold Haley's curled up body in his hands. She's gotten skinnier for the past few days, so is he.

Kayden's shirt and jeans were soaked in blood but he didn't even seem to notice, not even the blood on the car seat. He just pulled her even closer.

All that was in my head was Haley's words asking me if I'll forgive him. After everything that happened today she's already forgiven him, even now I know the whole point of what she did was to make sure she didn't have to live a life without him. She's always been brave, prettier that most girls her age, kind hearted to everyone else but she treats herself like crap.

I stopped only when we finally got the the entrance. I opened the door as a couple of doctors and nurses took her straight inside. Kayden tried to follow them but couldn't. Sofia was already inside, shocked at what happened cause this was nothing we expected.

Kayden started pacing around, he walked up and down the hallway, breathing heavily, there was blood and mud on his shoes, he was practically creating a mess.

"Kayden calm down you're making a mess!" I grabbed him by the shoulder. He seemed to have been completely lost in his thoughts he got startled by my voice and took a second to process what I said.

"Calm down?" He raised his voice. There wasn't a single person on the corridor this late. "How do you expect me to calm down Chris? She's in there and I have no idea what happened to her! How am I going to-" At this point, I felt guilty for asking him to calm down. She took the bullet for me.

"YOU THINK I'M NOT SCARED?" I yelled even louder. It felt like I was saying the words to myself. "That's my sister Kayden! I've seen her grown up since the moment she was born! I've protected her since the day our mother died! She was once a mother to me too! You thinking I'm not scared of losing her? I don't want the world to loose someone like her because of a worthless piece of shit like me!"

Kayden went silent, staring at the floor. His shoulders dropped. "I'm sorry!" He murmured and his voice cracked. "This is all my fault." It's not his fault. And "I'm sorry" can't fix what's happening right now. He wasn't crying, he never did. Maybe that's cause he was the oldest out of all of us and he always did take the responsibility of our safety, specially Haley's. I could say he wanted to cry but he just didn't, like there were simply no tears to fall out.

"It's not." I whispered. "It's definitely not your fault."

"It is! If I just let him kill me that day, or maybe even if I did what he wanted earlier this wouldn't have happened."

"Kayden." I practically shook him right now. "Do you know what she asked me while we were walking out of that building?" He just kept looking at my eyes. I could no longer tell if he was focused on my words or simply spaced out into the void. "She asked me if I was gonna forgive you. One thing I know is that she doesn't want you to blame yourself. Trust me of all the people here tonight she was the first to forgive you for everything you have ever done. I'm not planning on blaming you either, so please for her sake just sit down till Sofia comes out."

Several hours went by. Kayden just sat back vigorously shaking his legs out of anxiousness. Every single second that ticked by just kept creating knots in my chest suffocating me. That's my sister. My sister I was trying to protect my whole life. But she was their fighting my battle, almost dieing.

Kayden's POV

Guilt. Sitting next to Chris knowing he already told me he did forgive me, but still I felt the guilt eating me up from the inside. It was as if my skin was burning with fear of what Sofia would say the moment she walk out of that room.

Chris was sitting next to me with his hands in his hair completely lost in thought. I looked at the mess I had made, a trail of mud and drops of blood. The doors flung open, me and Chris both stood up with great impulse.

It was Sofia after so many hours, she looked exhausted. She let out a deep breath with her eyes shut tight, her fingers massaging her temples.

"Babe?" Chris spoke softly.

Her attention snapped on to him, her eyes looked tired. For a second she looked at me, maybe hoping I'de ask how Haley was, I wanted to, but then again I have no right to question.

"Sofia?" Chris took her hand. "What happened?"

"Into my office." She led the way. We sat across from each other and she started talking. "Time. She doesn't have enough time."

"What do you mean?" I finally asked.

"She's in a coma." I don't know what my reaction was suppose to be. "Her time is running out."

"Babe what exactly do you-"

"She's dieing!" The room filled with silence. "Too much bleeding, broken ribs and to top it all off the bullet did too much damage."

"But when she wakes up, you can try something right?" I asked, there was too much hope in my words.

She let out a sigh before she spoke again. "I don't know..." There was a pause. "Even if she wakes up, there's nothing we can do. Her brain's not receiving enough blood which makes it hard for her body to function. It's too much for her body to handle, it's shutting down. It just can't produce the strength she needs. Main reason why she's unconscious."

"Can I see her?"

"She's been moved to a different room. You'll have to wait till then."

I stood up. "Kayden-" Sofia began.

"I need some air." With that I stormed out of the room, dragged my feet down the hall. There was no one outside probably cause it was almost dawn.

I took off in a run. A few cars passed by as I kept running down the side of road. The air brushed against my face and was slowing me down when it dragged my coat back, just like my life always dragged me down, not even letting me feel what happiness is. I threw it away and continued to run.

I don't know how far I ran or how long I've been running but I stumbled into a bar which I was not exactly familiar with.

"Can I get you a drink?" I nod at the man not paying attention to who he was. My hands were covering my face. Why can't I just cry? At least to get some of this weight off my chest, where are the tears? Why am I still trying to bottle things up.

I gulped down the glass of alcohol he placed in front of me. I haven't been drinking recently, mostly cause I considered drinking to be a method to forgetting the shit I'm going through and when Haley was around I didn't need to hold so much weight on my own. She willingly shared it with me.  Life was hard and I'm already exhausted without her by my side.

The bar tender guy kept his eyes on me as I continued to ask for more. I took another glass, then another. One after the other, I drank till I wasn't even able to see what was infront of me.

When I raised up the next glass I was almost hallucinating. I could see Haley right in front of my asking me to stop drinking. I smiled, it was a memory. We were both drunk that night, me more than her. She asked me to stop drinking cause we can't risk driving like that. But in the end I couldn't even get up and she was drunk too so we ended up dragging ourselves to a hotel. It was one of those memories we both look back at knowing we grew up too fast. I could see her face, laughing even for the most boring jokes I blurted out out of our minds.

I don't know how many more glasses I finished or how long I was at that bar. But I woke up in the backseat of a car that was moving.