𝐒𝐲𝐧 ┃𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

102. 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑊𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑔

Queen

I lay on my side, staring blankly ahead. My head was throbbing, countless waves of anger, confusion, and pain wreaking havoc on me. Another hit of nausea passed over me and I grabbed the trash can, placing it next to the nightstand. I leaned over the bed as bile rose in my throat again. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I sobbed- trying my hardest to control my breathing.

After a few minutes, the nauseating feeling floated away and I let go of the trash can. I relaxed back into the bed, pulling my knees up to the fetal position as fear tingled through my body. I heard a small noise outside and my head snapped to the window. There were always noises outside— owls, squirrels, the wind pushing tree branches against the window...we were in the fucking woods. My logic knew better and my mind was certain nothing was wrong, but I couldn't shake the feeling.

The only fear that truly paralyzed my mind right now was whether or not Syn was okay. I remembered sitting on the couch earlier, reading a magazine as a cooking show blasted on the television in the background. I was bored, but I was okay.

That was until I went from feeling nothing...to feeling every single negative emotion imaginable.

Crippling fear, guilt, sadness— anger. It came out of nowhere, sending me into a frenzy of screams and sobs. I knew they weren't mine, of course. It had been a long time since I felt him like this, but I recognized the feeling. My mind could still differentiate the foreign pain as one that didn't belong to me, but my heart and body couldn't be rationed with.

I tried calling Syn— I probably tried one hundred times but every call went dead before it even rang. The cell service and Wi-Fi had gone out in the house, leaving me no way of communicating with him or anyone for that matter. I remembered how helpless I felt at that moment— how worried I was. I recalled the panic wrapping its dark claws around my neck— pulling me down a dark hole as I struggled to breathe.

I forced my way through it, taking hoarse breaths to try and calm myself down— but nothing was helping. There was nausea sneaking its way up my body, sending goosebumps up my skin like metallic pins stabbing the inside of my flesh.

I had to run to the bathroom so I didn't throw up everywhere.

I didn't know how long I hovered over the toilet. I just remembered not being able to find the will or the strength to get up. Just like now. I had managed to get myself out of the bathroom, but it was only a switch in placement. I went from the floor to the bed, but nothing changed. I had been laying here just like this for the past hour.

With my cell phone not working, I had only Syn's word to rely on. If something was wrong, he'd let me know. He promised that, and I had to trust that right now. If I didn't—...no, I had to. There was no other alternative.

One more hour, I decided. I'd give him one more hour of trust in his word before I got my ass up and went downstairs to Aiden. I would get Drake's location myself. Knowing I could do that eased the tension in me a bit.

I was alive...there was no physical pain at all—that meant he was safe at least. But when he got home I'd have to grill him about what the hell happened.

Creak.

My eyes snapped to the door from the noise and I stilled, raising my head off the pillow and quietly moving my legs off the bed. My eyes roamed quickly across the room— looking for anything I could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. It was just me. I let the panic and everything I was feeling subside for a moment as I told myself that that was enough to kill whoever the hell this was.