Over the Edge

Ch.31-The Angel to my Demons

"Rhys, you have to go back to school eventually."

I continued stuffing things into the bag on the kitchen table, a piece of toast hanging from my mouth.

"Rhys."

I sighed and wrenched it out. "Like my attendance record was stellar before."

His lips twisted up in a way that implied he was not amused. He pushed off the wall and stepped farther into the kitchen, coffee in one hand. "It's been a week. Technically, your days burned up yesterday. Missing today is all on you."

I shrugged. "Oh, well."

He sat down at the table, watching me as I zipped up the bag and slung it over my shoulder. "What's in there, anyway?"

"Stuff," I replied, taking a bite of my toast.

"You've brought it every other time you've gone to see her, too."

"Important stuff," I amended, backing out of the kitchen. "See you in the afternoon."

He sighed heavily. "Goodbye, Rhys."

I tossed the bag in the passenger side and hopped into the car. It was true that in the week since Emma was pronounced comatose I hadn't been to school once. I just found it kind of low on the List of Importance at the moment. I had visited Emma three times in the duration, each visit hoping she would magically wake up and everything would be okay again.

I rolled into a parking space in front of the hospital, grabbing the bag and walking up to the automatic doors. I found out the lady who had silently kept me company through the early morning hours was named Jodie. She smiled at me as I signed in.

"What do you have for her today?" she asked, gesturing to the bag over my shoulder.

"Hopes and desperation," I answered semi-honestly, sparing her a glance. "She's in her usual room, right?"

Jodie nodded. "Yep. In there just waiting for you."

"Cool." I put the pen back in its holder and shuffled down the hall, every step along the way engrained to my memory. I pushed open the door of room three-forty, quietly stepping inside. I wasn't sure why my first instinct was to be quiet, like I didn't want to wake her. She wasn't waking up.

I made sure the door was shut before striding over to her bedside. I dropped the bag to the ground, ditching the chair. The doctors didn't like it when I sat with her on the bed but I didn't care. I would have nightmares about those metal death contraptions for the rest of my life.

"Hey, Emma," I greeted softly, pushing hair off of her face. There were so many wires connected to her, a tube shoved up her mouth. She was a fragile statue beneath the blankets. I ran my thumb along her chapped lower lip. "I brought you something new today." I reached down into the bag and pulled out a plush teddy bear, setting it on the pillows. It was straight from her room, and her mother had suggested I bring it with me.

It had taken some getting used to, talking to a person who wasn't going to talk back. But it became easier over time, like everything else did. It was like talking to yourself.

Her heart monitor beeped steadily by my head, the only indicator she was alive. That and the miniscule rise and falls of her chest. Someone had patched up her eye, too, where all that bruising had been. It angered me to a point of near insanity that I couldn't do anything about her situation. That all I could do was sit back and hope for the best. It wasn't in my nature to be so passive but I was given no other choice.

"You better wake up soon, Hall," I murmured. "Your parents miss you. Rose misses you. Even my dad misses you." I let my fingers stray to the pulse at her throat, let them rest there. I closed my eyes and drew comfort in the heartbeat beneath my fingertips.