Haunted by the Past (Original)

Chapter 76

We waited with bated breath in the Emergency Room for news of Cameron's delicate situation. When the paramedics reached him, he barely had any pulse. He was defibrillated twice on his way to the hospital. I knew because I rode in the ambulance with him, refusing to leave his side. Both the paramedics and the ER staff refused to make eye contact with me though, which I took as a sign to mean his situation was grim.

A cop I didn't recognize came to take my statement while the medical staff worked on Cameron in the ICU. I told it how it was. I received the message on my phone to 'Come alone' along with the photo of Cameron, so I did. I went alone. I found Cameron in a terrible state. Meredith approached in a crazed state, swung her knife at me a few times, mocking me and threatening to kill me. Out of fear of both my life and Cameron's, I defended myself. I was then asked what happened to the gun, to which I explained that I had dropped it out of shock and lost track of it. Mysteriously I also happened to lose my gun license while traveling through the woods.

The officer wasn't very convinced by those last claims.

At some point, Naomi and the others showed up, but they steered clear of me in the ER. I could hear them whispering amongst themselves though.

"It was all just a misunderstanding," Dillon insisted. "I know Meredith can ruffle a few feathers, but to imply she was responsible for all of this? No."

"Did you hear how she tried to blame it on Brodie's dad earlier?" Wayne butted in.

"What?" Vic exclaimed a little too loudly so the others hushed her to keep her voice down.

"Exactly," Wayne nodded. "She wasn't seeing straight because of the whole Triple-6 thing and Meredith ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all. You'll see, Meredith did nothing wrong."

"How could she accuse Brodie's dad?" Vic questioned.

"I'm telling you, Dani's gone cray-cray!" Wayne emphasized.

I could've set them all right. I could have told them how Meredith played a selfish hand in Heather's death. How she manipulated the events to take over as the apprentice in place of Brodie. How she embraced killing for the enjoyment and thrill. However, I couldn't even stomach the words in my head, never mind speaking them out loud.

Naomi stood to the side against the wall, not interacting with the others, just staring at me expressionlessly. Not that I could blame her – I did just kill her sister. She was probably still in the denial stage of grieving.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw Eli's cold glare. There was no question, he hated me now. He would never want to see me again, and honestly, if he couldn't accept that I did it to save his life, I didn't want to see him either. All that talk before meant nothing now. We were through. Even then, looking back and knowing what I knew after, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I still would've taken the shot to save his life. I hoped he had managed to get his wound stitched up and he didn't lose too much blood from it, but I don't think I would ever know.

When the doctor stepped out in the waiting room, we all stood up straight in anticipation.

"He's still stabilized for now," he announced and there was a very audible, universal sigh of relief from everyone.

It was the only good news of the day, but it was the best news possible. While everyone else was chatting amongst themselves, Naomi took the chance to approach me.

"I want to thank you," she said solemnly. "For saving Eli."

"Naomi, I killed your-" I began before she cut me off.

"You saved Eli and Meredith. She was never the same after what happened. Everyone tried to pretend she was, they'd tell me she'd get better with time, but she didn't. What she did today and over the past few weeks was unforgiveable," Naomi reasoned.