Kevin Died

Kevin Died (Epilogue)

Kevin Died (Epilogue)

ONE WEEK LATER

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"You're doing great," I said.

"This is kinda hard," Jory said as we went along corridor of the hospital, trying to get the hang of his crutches.

"We're almost there," Sayora said. "His room is just down this hall."

We were going at a relatively slow pace so as to not put too much Strain on Jory's body. He was still recovering from his blood transfusion, so his body was not at full strength.

I looked over at Downing, who was escorting us to the room. "Thanks."

He glanced at me. "For what?"

"For giving a damn, even after I refused to tell you anything."

"No sweat," Downing said. "You're here. You're alive. And we get it."

I smiled and we all kept walking. We eventually made it to a door at the end of the hall to our left.

"This is it," Downing presented. "You guys can head on in when you're ready."

With that, he gave us a parting smile and went back in the direction we had come from.

"Is he awake?" Jory asked.

"Don't know," I replied before taking the liberty of just knocking on the door.

A man's voice on the other side told us to come in and we did so, with me taking hold of the knob and twisting it to open the door.

Mr. Pihlstrom was in a seat next to the hospital bed and he smiled upon seeing us.

"About time," he said. "You guys are all this boy talks about."

"Shut up, Dad," Luke said from the bed, chuckling a little before wincing at the pain. "It hurts to laugh."

"Been there," I said, approaching the bed with Sayora and Jory trailing behind.

"I'll give you guys a moment," Pihlstrom said, getting up from his seat and making his leave from the room.

"I take it you and your dad are making an effort to have a better relationship," Sayora said.

"You have no idea," Luke said, with a smile. "The guy practically smothers me with love and affection now."

"Don't tell me you hate it," I said, amused.

He shook his head. "No. I'm enjoying it actually... so much."

"Well, let's be glad that Raymond was wrong in assuming you were dead," I said.

"Right," Luke said. "How's your hand?"

I lifted up the severely wounded hand to show him that gauze had been wrapped around it to cover the wound.

"It'll be scarred forever," I said with a sigh. "I mean, there was a hole in it, so I'd expected nothing less."

"That sucks," Luke said.