HIS WILDFIRE

Heart Throbs

Everything happened so quickly. I was covered in blood. Ted wouldn't move or even open his eye.

I kept on helplessly shouting out his name.

I had given up. Ted was definitely gone.

Before I snapped into consciousness, the ambulance had arrived.
They separated us.

Ted's voice started repeating in my ear as I stood there like a statue, unable to process fully all that was happening.

"Nothing can separate us."

By the time I got to the hospital, my hands were shaking. My lips felt dry, and my knees nearly buckled under me. The lobby was busy, blurs of nurses in white, echoes of beeping machines, the soft hum of suffering people trying to hold it together. I didn't know where to start, who to ask until a nurse at the front desk noticed my frantic expression.

"Who are you here for?" she asked, her voice professional but not unkind.

"Ted... Ted Sinclair," I replied quickly. "He-he was just brought in. Car accident."

She squinted at the computer screen, tapped a few keys, and then looked back up. "Are you family?"

The question struck me harder than I expected. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

I swallowed, my voice almost cracking. "...Roommate."

She nodded, not questioning it, and asked for my details before gesturing for me to sit. I did, but my mind didn't. I kept replaying everything. Our last conversation, the way he held me a few hours ago, the look in his eyes when he said he just wanted me to be safe. I should've known something was off. I should've known.

Time lost meaning in that sterile waiting area. I mumbled prayer multiple times, in tears. Eventually, a tall man in blue scrubs appeared at the edge of my vision. His face was unreadable as he looked around before calling out, "Who's here for Ted Sinclair?"

I was on my feet before he finished the sentence. "I am. Please-how is he? Tell me he's alive."

The doctor looked at me for a moment, then nodded. "He's alive."

The relief that hit me nearly dropped me to my knees. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath until it came out in one shaky gasp.

"He's alive," I whispered to myself again. I needed to hear it more than once.

"But," the doctor continued, "he's sedated. We're monitoring him closely. No visitors just yet."

I nodded numbly, not daring to ask more. I was just grateful he was still breathing.

—

By the time lunch approached, I noticed the missed calls. Three from Suzzy, two from Leo, and a message from Jaime asking if I wanted us to meet and catch up before dark.

I texted Suzzy to meet me at the ice cream spot we'd planned earlier. I didn't want to explain anything over the phone. I wasn't even sure I had the words for it yet. After a quick shower and change of clothes, I headed out, my body moving automatically, my mind a blur of exhaustion and worry.

When I arrived, Suzzy and Leo were already seated, chatting idly, but their faces lit with worry the second they saw me. I must've looked awful.

"You okay?" Leo asked, already leaning in.

"Something's wrong," Suzzy added, eyes narrowing.

I sat down slowly. The ice cream in front of them suddenly looked out of place—too colorful, too cheerful in this moment.

"I need to tell you something," I said, voice low.

They leaned in, sensing the weight in my tone.

"Ted had a car accident. This morning."

Suzzy gasped. Leo's eyes widened.

"He's in the hospital. Unconscious, but alive," I added quickly, trying to hold myself together.

The questions came immediately—where? how? I answered them the best I could, and even though I told them they didn't have to come, they both insisted.

"We're not letting you do this alone," Suzzy said.

—

Later that evening, Jaime called. His tone was unusually soft, like a man who had finally found peace. It didn't end well last time we were together. "I was thinking... before you leave for your hometown, we could meet up. Just us."

"I'm not leaving yet," I said, caught off guard.

He paused. "Why not?"

I hesitated. "...Something came up."

There was silence on the line. Then, he simply said, "Okay. Let's meet tomorrow, then." He added; "I have a surprise."

—

Back at the hospital, the hallway near the emergency room felt colder than the rest of the building. The fluorescent lights buzzed faintly above as doctors and nurses passed through the doors again and again. I tried not to panic every time they did. Tried not to wonder if the next time someone came out, it would be to tell me something I wasn't ready for.

Then, a new presence swept into the corridor. She wore her elegance like a crown, heels clicking against the tiled floor, her perfume rich and sharp in the air. Her face was tight with worry, but her outfit screamed class. That's when I knew. This had to be Ted's mother.

I stood up immediately and approached her. "Ma'am... are you Ted's mum?"

She nodded, her eyes narrowing slightly, unsure of who I was.

"I'm his roommate," I said quickly. "I was the one who brought him in... or, at least, followed him here. I thought you should know what happened."

She looked at me carefully, then nodded. I told her everything—where I was, what I heard, how I rushed over. She listened in silence, not interrupting once. When I finished, she simply sighed, long and heavy, then turned to look at the emergency room door like it could give her back her son.

"Thank you," she said, quietly. "For being there."

—

Not long after, another storm arrived in the form of Rosette.

She didn't knock. She didn't pause. She just marched into the hallway, her voice sharp as glass as she demanded answers from every nurse and staff member she saw. Her eyes were wild with fear, but her tone was all entitlement.

When she saw me sitting there, she didn't even flinch. She didn't greet me. Didn't ask what I knew. She just paced back and forth like I was invisible.

I didn't move. I didn't speak. I couldn't.

There was no place for me here. Not beside his mother. Not beside his girlfriend. I was just... the roommate. The one who stayed up late with him, who held him when he couldn't sleep. The one who knew the version of him none of them probably did.

But in this hallway full of sterile lights, bleeding tension, and roles everyone knew but me, I didn't belong.

I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to see him.

But all I could do was wait. Wait in silence, while everything around me spun out of control.

Just as I began to think the worst, a nurse stepped out of the emergency room, her eyes scanning the hallway before landing on me. "You," she said, motioning with a quick flick of her hand. "Grandee right? He's asking for you." My heart stuttered. Everyone around me faded into silence. Rosette's pacing, his mother's quiet prayers, her expression urging me to go ahead. I stood slowly, legs trembling, chest tightening. After all this waiting, he wanted me. But as I followed the nurse toward the room, something deep inside me shifted. I didn't know what I was about to walk into, or what Ted might say... but somehow, I knew nothing was going to be the same after this.