|| Inevitable ||

XVI

You're not done yet.

Those were the words that brought me back. The simple sentence that summed up what my life was - unfinished. A story that was to be left untold. And I don't know if it was a hatred for leaving things half done or my raging need for perfection, but I turned away from the heartwarming sounds of my family, and went back willingly into that cool darkness.

"Fuck," I murmur, feeling my tongue roll over the sweet word. My hands reach for my throat, grasping at the skin. A spear of pain is screwed tight into my chest, and someone winds it deeper with each breath I take. My eyes strain and shift to be free of their sockets.

A pair of deep blue eyes hover above me. "Welcome back, dear Kiara." 

Screw you, Rhyne, I curse silently. He sits back on his heels, kneeling just behind my head. "You're looking well," he muses, his lips quirked at the edges.

Something catches in my throat, possibly disdain, and I suck in a sharp, harsh breath, feeling it burn all the way down. Another voice speaks over my hagged breathing. "Try to breathe, please. You need to try."

Through hazy eyes, I catch a glimpse of hazelnut hair. Fuck off, Julian. They speak over me, down to me, yet I hear only slurs. Everything is ever so slightly delayed, like a video with the music just out of time. It's a surreal feeling; watching mouths moves and hands gesture, only to hear the sounds a second later, struggling to catch up. The men whisper things to each other, or maybe they're talking normally and I'm just so far behind that my ears barely catch a word. 

I guess, I'm alive. Again.

My voice is scratchy and coarse when I finally speak, "Stop bringing me back." I roll onto my side, using my folded arm as a support. They chuckle softly to each other. "Ah," I slide my hand down my jaw. "Okay then. So... why is there a needle sticking out of my leg?" Julian glances down at the syringe protruding from my thigh, a sheepish grin crawling onto his face.

"It's a shot of epinephrine. I stabbed you with it."

"I hadn't noticed," I say dryly. "You could have saved yourself the trouble of using it. Really, I was just fine following the light at the end of the tunnel."

Rhyne shakes his head. "You were convulsing on the floor, didn't look too fine to me."

I whip around to face him, my head spinning with the action. "I would have been fine, if you hadn't of left. Instead, you were stalking off to face your crazy son and fix the mess you made." Behind me, Julian rips the needle from my leg; my teeth dig into my bottom lip. "I should never have left that damn clinic room."

"That wasn't my fault," he says, cracking his knuckles softly.

My skull is closing in on my brain. "Then whose fucking fault is it?" Rhyne raises an eyebrow at me. Julian looks away nervously. Frustration is slowly chewing away at my already frayed nerves. "Someone start talking." I cringe as a headache begins to warm my temples. 

The thrum of metal meeting metal pierces my ear, Julian rattles his tools in a bag at his side, avoiding my gaze. I shoot him a puzzled look and he clears his throat. "It's my fault. I'm sorry I left you alone in the clinic, I was meant to be monitoring your vitals and keeping an eye on you but I was called away for personal reasons. I can't really say much else. I should have been watching you. You had a severe allergic reaction to the morphine I administered early. When Rhyne called and said you were spasming and weren't breathing, I knew it had to be the medication." His voice shakes and his eyes fidget as much as his hands; flitting towards the walk-in's doorway.