Red past | Charles Leclerc

We are left in the dark

Charles POV

Me and Max were both sat in mine and Mila's hotel room, watching a random show that is on the TV while waiting for Anika to either return or call one of us. She had been gone for almost an hour, she should be at her father's by now. Both me and Max thought that the lack of texts was a good thing, that it was actually going well.

Both of our eyes were fixed on the TV only looking away when the other talks and that's how it remained until max received a call, a number he didn't recognise flashed across the screen.

He gave me a concerned look before standing up, pressing answer and bringing it to his ear.

I could hear faint murmurs escaping the phone, it sounded like a woman's voice.

"I am," he scrunched his eyebrows as he made eye contact with me.

The voice continued on the other end the words she was saying was completely unknown to me yet I could see Max's eyes glistening over with tears as he listened to the woman.

"Thank you, I will be there as soon as I can," he rushed out, hanging up the phone and meeting my gaze.

A tear made its way down his cheek as he tried to speak but his voice broke.

I Stood up, knowing that something bad has happened.

"Nika is in the hospital," I could feel my eyes begin to burn as I tried to process, my stomach twisting at the thought of something bad happening to her.

Neither of us were really in a stable condition to drive, so Max asked Kelly who accepted the second Max told her about Mila being in the hospital. I called Arthur and Julia, telling them to meet us there.

I couldn't bear it, I could feel my face hurting from the tears and pain in my eyes but they wouldn't stop, they couldn't stop until I felt her hand in mine and I looked into her eyes to tell her that she will be okay.

Kelly parked right next to the entrance, me and Max both rushed out of the car and headed straight to the front desk.

"Excuse me?" I tried to get the attention of the receptionist and luckily succeeded, she looked up at the two of us, noticing the tears streaming down our face.

She looked at us with a sympathetic expression.

"Anika Verstappen," I stated, her gaze moved back to her computer as she began typing.

"Are you both family?" She questioned, the clicking of her keyboard rang through my ears as the noise drilled into my brain.

I was about to open my mouth when max interrupted, "yes," she didn't question further, she could definitely tell that Max was lying due to him stopping me from talking but she didn't point it out.

"Room 213."

"Thank you," I gave her a gentle smile, it was the best I could do given the circumstance.

Kelly decided to stay in the waiting room to allow the two of us to be alone with her and find out what happened.

When we entered the room, a doctor who was checking her vitals turned to us and smiled politely.

He held out his hand to greet the two of us, we both took it but our gazes were fully on the unconscious blonde laid in the bed.

"Hello, I'm Dr Jansen," we both nodded to show our understanding.

"I'm Max and this is Charles," he turned to me when my mane left him mouth.

"Like I said in the phone call, your sister has been unconscious since being brought in. We were called by a witness to the accident, during the drive over here, that's when I called you as you were listed as her emergency contact,"he looked between us before carrying on, his gaze fell to the clipboard he was holding when the words escaped his lips.

"She has blunt force trauma to the head along with a grade 2 concussion. We still need to do a CT scan to check for any broken or fractured bones but for what we are aware of the only body injury is bruising along the underarm on the right side. She should wake up within the next few hours, I just need to check her vitals every hour but I will leave you with her now," he informed us of her state before leaving the room.

I took the seat next to her bed, Max sitting down at the mirroring side, I placed my hand in hers before placing a light kiss on the back of her hand.

"I should have gone with her," I wiped away the tears that sat on my cheeks, my words instantly getting Max's attention.

"This isn't your fault Charles, you respected her choice, she wanted to go alone," He was right but I couldn't stop blaming myself.

Both of us looked to the door when Arthur barged through, his eyes a sharp crimson, tears streaming down his face. He looked at Mila, his mouth opening as if he didn't want to believe it until he saw her. I rushed over to him, wrapping my arms around my brother, he placed his head into my shoulder, his sobs muffled against me.

I hated that day, seeing the love of my life unconscious, my brother and best friend in pain at the sight as well and I couldn't do anything to help instead all I could think about was how avoidable it could have been if I had just gone with her.