HIDDEN PAIN 𐦍 GarrothXReader

56| Revelations

The sound of a steady heart monitor echoes through the empty hospital room. It's a haunting noise, but comforting all the same.

I sit in the corner by the window, staring out at the overcast day. Raindrops patter against the window, creating a soft rhythm that would lull me to sleep if I wasn't so anxious. The last day and a half has been nothing but a mess of hospitals, phone calls, magic, and yelling.

Aaron did end up hearing me (thank the Divine) and called Sierra before he also came rushing to the hospital. Of course, he had questions, but he set them off in such rapid fire that I couldn't answer them all before the doctors had to kick him out, thankfully after I got my phone back.

Later, when I was deemed fine and able to go home, I told Aaron I'd be staying and I'd tell him what happened later. Compelling the doctors into letting me stay with Talia was another story. I never wanted to use my magic to poke around people's brains like that, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

It wasn't like it was hard, just invasive and uncomfortable.

I glance at the hospital bed where Talia lies, asleep since yesterday. There's nothing medically wrong with her, save for a few bruises, but the doctors think the trauma and stress of the situation is what's making her sleep longer.

If they knew the truth they'd know Talia's body has been through hell and back, and even with magic coursing through her veins, there's no telling how she's going to feel when she wakes up. Lower-level angelic transformations are strange because some get their wings, some don't, and some die in the process.

Talia feels too powerful to be an average angel.

I don't dwell on it any longer, plucking my phone from my sweater pocket. There are over a dozen messages from my friends I don't have the energy to answer, three missed phone calls from Aaron, and a strange message from Sierra.

Call me when you can, it reads.

My brows furrow.

Sierra hates phone calls. They make her anxious.

I call her anyway.

    "You said to call–" is the first thing I say after she picks up.

    "Yeah. I found out some stuff about your friend Talia, and I think you need to hear it because, honestly? It's a little strange." She sounds like she's shuffling something around. "Okay, how much do you know about her?"

    "Uh," I squint my eyes, trying to recall. "Meet her in middle school, her mom died when she was young and her dad remarried to some woman she hates—he leads a group called The Hawks. I think they were bikers or something—"

    "Oh, honey," Sierra cuts me off. "There's so much more to that. Natalia Quinn was born to Oscar Quinn and Serah Fyngold, who, at the time, were on the Guardian Forces watchlist for a series of posts Oscar had made regarding a recent Pro-Angelic movement in their area. Serah was raised in an orphanage in Germany until she was eighteen, and Oscar was adopted from Italy by a family in California." Oh? "(Y/N), the Guardian Forces has them labeled as angels," Oh no...

"Her mother died from birth complications soon after she was born, and Talia's dad married Siobhan Fallon two years later. Around the time you moved schools, Talia's dad made it off the watchlist for a total of five days, before being put right back on after he was arrested for gang affiliations..." I clench my fist as her voice catches. "Oscar killed himself a day after you were moved."

What? I look over at Talia with a shocked expression. Killed himself? Oscar loved his family— he worked hard to provide everything for them and his friends! Every time I went over he was the sweetest soul you'd ever meet, and the Divine forbid you crossed him because that act would drop real quick.