Royal Obligations

Chapter 43: You Can Call Me Lila

"A little help here?" Romeo says as he struggles to break free from the rubber band that held his arm to the bed.

The nurse jerked back up with the needle raised and ready to stab Romeo but Taylor hit her with another shoe. Taylor stalked over toward the nurse and knees her in the face and she passes out on the ground. "You really should have seen the other one coming," Taylor says.

I run over to Romeo and jerk his arm free of the rubber band. I can't help but throw my arms around him and squeeze tightly. "HA! You're alive!" I sob with relief.

Romeo grunts and awkwardly pats my back. "Uh... Yeah. So uh, one question, what the hell just happened?!"

I pull back and I can't help but laugh at little. He was alive.

"I don't even know." I say honestly then look up at Taylor, who was looking around the room, basically anywhere but us. "So I guess you two are..." She trails off.

I scrunch up my nose and pull back. "Um, no."

"Cordelia here is one out of two of my best friends." Romeo says. "Wow. That's weird to say. I don't think I've ever just been friends with a girl before. But it's true. I need to get myself some new friends."

Taylor glances at both of us then quickly at the unconscious nurse on the ground. "So.. Uh.. What do we do with her?"

I shake my head and try to formulate a plan in my mind as quickly as I can. "Well, first things first, we need to go tell Hero who the leader of The Mercenaries is."

Taylor's eyes grow wide as she looks at the fake nurse once again. "Was she..."

"No." I shake my head. "My maid, Daisy, is. But we need to-"

Blaring alarms rack the hospital wing as several loud gun shots follow. And just like they started the alarms abruptly stop and the lights go out. Considering the hospital wing was in the back of the palace where hardly any sunlight was let in, we were caught in the pitch black dark. "What's going on?" Taylor asks in a slight voice of panic.

"I don't know..." I trail off. "It doesn't matter. We need to get Romeo somewhere safe." I glance down at Romeo and try to see him as much as I can through the darkness. I can see the outline of Romeo slightly shift around until he pulls something out of his pocket. Light suddenly flashes in my eyes and I squint.

"Cellphones are great." Romeo teases.

"Come on," I say and start untangling Romeo from the supports holding his broken limbs. "Can you walk?"

"If you're asking if I would rather endure the slight pain of walking than being killed? Yes. I can walk." He says as I help pull him to sit up in bed.

"But you're forgetting one thing, Cordelia." Romeo says and I look up at him with confusion. What had I forgotten?

"I'm missing a leg." He elaborates further and I nod. Dammit. I did forget about that.

I think fast as I leave his room and search around the hospital in the dark. I grab Romeo's cell phone and try to use the light to find crutches or something that might help him walk. No luck. I was about to go back in the room and tell Romeo he would have to hop when I see an old wooden chair sitting lonely in a corner. An idea flashes through my mind as I run over to the chair and pick it up. I throw it to the ground as hard as I am capable of and watch as it shatters against the ground. One of the legs fall off and I grab it quickly and race back to Romeo's room.

Romeo swings around on the bed so I see his stump. It's a little sad but also empowering. Romeo survived when most people would have died. That's an accomplishment and I wasn't letting that sacrifice go to waste.