Heartless || •OG• ✔️

Chapter 30 - June

June kicked open the door and didn't wait for Jericho and Charlotte. He didn't care about how loud the kick was. He didn't care if Jimin or Kayden or whoever the fuck decided to shoot him first, ask questions later. Part of him didn't even care if they took Ivan and shot June on spot just for daring to show his face. But none of those options came true.

Jimin was sitting at the bar, drowning out his misery by drinking. However, he snapped to attention when June came bursting in. Before he could ask any questions, June's voice ripped into the air.

"Get Theo and a flat surface! Ivan's hurt! It's bad!" Jimin directed June to the kitchen, and thanks to Jimin's quick thinking, they cleared a counter inside the area and placed Ivan down on it. He ran to get Theo, instructing June to keep Ivan on the table and do his best to stop the bleeding.

June fumbled over his own two feet as he struggled to find anything that could help. There were rags, that was all. A sink was there, and he considered wetting a rag and dabbing Ivan's face, but he was terrified of making it worse. That was all he seemed to do. He made everything worse due to his own faults. Now Ivan was suffering for it.

Back when June was beaten for his crimes that were actually the fault of Ivan, he prayed that Ivan would endure a beating as brutal as June's. On his lowest nights, he dreamed of Ivan dying. June thought his life fell apart because of him. In a way, it did. But that didn't excuse the wishing and the praying. It didn't excuse how his wishes came true.

Theo made it down in less than a minute, Jimin behind him and a kid rushing in. "Kid, get the fuck out of here!" Jimin shouted, the little girl cowering away. Charlotte took her despite how badly injured she was. Charlotte would need medical attention too. As would June and Jericho. Ivan came first, though. He had to.

Jericho's right hand came over, Jimin covering his mouth now that he had a chance to understand what had happened. All of them were doing their best to hold their composure. Their best was enough to get Theo through the procedure, him holding a kit in his hands that surely would have the solution to Ivan's situation.

"Jimin, get Kayden and circle around the area. Make sure they weren't followed. Bring me Asa and have him help me with this, him and I work the best together," Theo said while June watched, powerless to do anything but stare.

Jimin agreed without a word, rushing out. Theo plopped the kit down and opened it, an array of bandages and medical tools inside. He took out a scalpel, gazing at the eye dangling out of its socket.

"Jesus Christ, how deep did he get stabbed to cause his eye to pop out like that?" Theo asked, but it wasn't a question he actually wanted an answer to as far as June could tell. Not like June had the strength to answer it.

"Will he make it?" June said, although he feared the answer. Ivan's face was brutalized beyond reasonable repair. Scars were all over his cheeks and forehead, hair snipped off, his nose possessing a gash that needed stitches. June tore his eyes away, meeting Theo's unwavering stare.

"I don't know."

~~~

The rain was a comfort June didn't deserve. The droplets waltzed their way down the glass of the window. Kayden's room was now both Kayden and June's room. June already set up his spot on the floor. Kayden argued against it and said June should have it. A bed was another thing June didn't deserve.

Each time he breathed, the wood beneath him creaked. The room appeared as though it was spinning. That was all in June's mind. He hoped it was, anyway. The alternative was that the world was spinning, and he was going with it. Both options sounded horrifying to him.

The door to the room was open, the hallway light the brightest ray hitting the space. It was still night, and the rain made it darker. June couldn't be bothered to turn on the light. The closet was slanted, and although it had its own light, June didn't turn that on either.

Another creak came, but this one was from the door. That alerted him to another presence in the room. It wasn't Kayden. The footsteps were like a feather hitting the ground. They weren't soft enough to be the kid either, so he deduced it was either Jimin or Charlotte.

A shorter figure stopped by his side to watch the rain with him. Through his peripherals, he saw the unmistakable side profile of Charlotte Evermore. He was half-surprised she wasn't cursing him out. Slapping him like she wanted to at the museum. She'd have every right to. He wouldn't have even fought it.

"How is he?" she asked.

Never did June imagine the word 'he' would bring such sorrow. His heart shrank, his gut swarming with emotions that had him choking. Charlotte gave him the time he needed to recover from his emotional shock, and he pressed his hands against the bottom of the window, leaving prints there.

"I don't know. We don't know. He's stable, but there's still possibilities of blood clots and other issues Theo didn't see. Theo's good, but he's not a professional. There's only so much he can do. That's without mentioning the obvious: he's blind in at least one eye. The other? We won't know until he wakes up. It was cut, but Theo said he couldn't tell if it was deep enough to fully blind him. We're hoping that in that eye, it's nothing serious. But Charlotte, we have to prepare for the possibility that it is."

"What happens then?" she asked.

"Then we have to transport a mostly-blind guy around. And I don't know if we can do that." He stared out the window for another beat, then, he shifted his gaze to Charlotte. "I don't know if I can either."

"What do you mean?"

"Ivan will have to completely change his life. Everything he's ever known will be different. I don't know how to feel about that," he said, each syllable breaking him more and more.

"It's not your life."

"Why doesn't it feel that way?"

His voice broke at the end, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth. Charlotte said nothing. It wasn't like there was much to say. June decided to watch the droplets instead. He let them race, and he made a mental bet on which drop would win. The one he chose ended up losing. He didn't mind. He was used to it.

"During my time hunting the Council, I found a lot of leads. The problem is that investigating them meant signing myself up for execution. Now that we're together, maybe we can find something. I have coordinates and possible people who can lead us to another lead, and from there, we can find Madam's location. That's what you want, right?" he asked. June didn't mean to sound so desperate, but he couldn't stop it from seeping into his tone.

"It's the only way we can live a normal life again. Without a leader, no one will worry about us. We can go out in public without having to worry about being shot on sight."

"What if life doesn't go back to normal? What if assassins hold a grudge?" he said, his hands curling into fists.

Charlotte rolled those words around her tongue. The silence carried on. The rain picked up and splashed against the glass, creating art that was more exquisite than any of the pieces inside that puny museum. June trailed his finger down the side of the panes, placing the side of his head against the cool substance. It calmed his skin, his heart slowing.

"They wouldn't dare oppose the new power, would they? One of us would take the throne. In that chaos, how could we not?"

"Who would you appoint?" he asked.

"Ivan. He's been king before, he can do it again. What do you think?"

He paused for a long second. He almost didn't want to say the answer. But almost wasn't good enough. "It's not up to me or you. It's up to him. But if you were to ask me, I'd say no."

"Why?" she said, the single question smashing through the walls he had built.

"Ivan's been through enough. He deserves to settle down on a farm somewhere out in the middle of no where with eight cats, four dogs, and a lover. That's what he deserves, not this bullshit. He's not the hardened killer we are. He thinks he is, but all he wants to do is feel like he has control. Power. The power to save his friends, the ones he loves most. I know him, Charlotte. A little too well. And that's what makes me see the truth."

"What truth is that?" she asked, but not in a judgmental manner. It was curious. Calm, even. He didn't expect that from Charlotte Evermore of all people. He appreciated it nonetheless.

"He's scared," he said, his voice a whisper. They turned to each other as if operating on the same brain. Their eyes locked. June couldn't lie anymore. Not to himself, and not to Charlotte either. "And I am too."

"You're scared?"

"I'm fucking terrified. Every single person that I ever gave a damn about is in this building. The one I care about the most has his eye cut out, and there wasn't a fucking thing I could do about it. I watched. I sat there and watched as Ivan..." He broke off and gave in. Tears flowed down his face to the point where Charlotte embraced him. June hugged her back and wrapped his arms around the woman, his voice cracking and croaking as he formed the words. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. I'm sorry."

The next few minutes brought silence broken by the occasional sob from June. They were more like wails. Bawls. The noises pulled from his throat were the worst he had ever made. Acid from his stomach burned his chest, his eyes blurry from the ache inside his core.

His body shook in her arms. The woman didn't mock him. She didn't leave or tell him to grow up. All she did was hold him while he cried. It was the first time in years June could remember someone doing that for him, and it brought his mind ecstasy to feel like he was cared about. It wasn't true, but the sweet lie got him through the breakdown.

"June, you don't have to be afraid anymore," she said.

They parted, June's lips falling open to form words. The same question she asked him he parroted back at her. "Why?" His voice was softer than it had ever been before. Hers was too. She took his hand and never went too far, always within an arm's reach. Then, she gave him a sad yet soft smile.

"You're not alone anymore."