Burn My Paranoia One Last Time

36. Cold Dark Heart

The week of suspension trudged on as the girls remained idle in their respective houses. Amber was still barred from attending her volunteering events, and this made her coil up in guilt. She'd logged into Ultimate Online to get her mind off of it with the hope of seeing Hayden until she remembered his hospitalization and the awful words she'd said to him. Amber couldn't forget the hurt look on his face when she'd called him a coward.

Now that she'd had time to think about the situation, she wasn't sure if lashing out at him was called for. If it weren't for him calling a janitor, who knows what would have happened to them in that dark room?

Amber sighed as she laid back in her bed that night, her heart heavy with regret. Hayden had put himself in danger for Amber's sake, and it wasn't fair to scream at him the way she did. This is why she decided to sneak out again and visit him the next morning.

***

Amber knocked on the hospital door before making her way in. She was not prepared to see Elias there, with his chin resting on a clenched fist and teary red eyes.

Amber's heart skipped a beat when she saw his troubled stance.

"Elias—"

"Amber, what are you doing here?" He said in a tight voice. His piercing blue eyes held something back.. anger?

"I'm checking up on Hayden," she said. The steady beeping of the heart monitor made her anxious as she drew closer. "I actually wanted to talk to him alone, but I can come back later if you two are busy."

"You can talk to him, but he's not going to respond," Elias' voice cracked.

Amber's thin eyebrows raised in concern at his strange statement. It finally dawned on her when she caught sight of Hayden on the bed. His eyes were closed, and a clear oxygen mask was strapped to his still face. His body showed no sign of movement.

"The doctors say he fell into a coma as a result of the head injury," Elias said, keeping his arms crossed.

Amber gulped down the knot in her throat, trying just as hard as Hayden's cousin to keep her composure. "How long will he stay like this?"

"They're estimating four weeks at most, but they couldn't say for sure."

Amber shook her head in disbelief. Her nails dig into her arms as she silently guilted herself once more for leaving him alone that day.

"You have to tell me what happened down there in that basement, Amber."

Amber kept her gaze locked on Hayden as if her attention were enough to keep him alive. Could she trust Elias?

"There were two men.. the power went out and they came downstairs," Amber answered.

"Men?"

Amber nodded, glancing up at him nervously. "They were wearing police uniforms, it seemed."

She decided to leave out the fact that they were specifically looking for Rain's file, just in case. "We overheard them arguing about a file they didn't want us to find, and we felt scared so we hid. That's when one of them found Hayden, and they both... they both beat him," Amber closed her eyes, urging the memory to hurry away. "They almost caught me too, but I escaped. I know, I shouldn't have left him alone but I was scared. I shouldn't have left him alone."