Yours Truly

Chapter Fifty One: Waiting

Flynn POV

When I returned to my dressing room and saw that she wasn’t there, I knew something was wrong. I had only seen her for a matter of minutes in two months, and she had already disappeared. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect that of Iris; she had probably waited around for me for hours cooped up somewhere and wanted to explore, and I didn’t blame her. But I didn’t think she would’ve gone farther than two hallways.

Now, as I ran through the many winding halls, the boys following me, I didn’t feel at ease about the situation. I had waited for her to come back once I was done autographing and taking pictures, but after five minutes and no word from Iris, I panicked. With every passing minute, the knot in my stomach tightened.

I had been at fault for practically all the accidents Iris had managed to get herself into. But for some reason, this felt like the worst of all. I didn’t know how to describe the feeling; it was like intuition, I just knew something was wrong. And that it was worse than usual.

My pace quickened as we rounded another corner. My heart beat fast in anticipation, but once again, this hallway was empty. “Iris?” I shouted, my voice echoing. I was met with silence. Caleb cursed from behind me. He had started running down a hallway in the opposite direction o the one I had started walking down. “What is it?” I called back to him.

“I-just get over here.” He said back. My blood froze and my legs became heavy as lead. But I picked myself up and ran down the hallway until I spotted her.

She was on the ground, a crumbled mess. As I drew closer, I could see a pool of blood underneath her, spreading down from her stomach. Her pretty white shirt was stained red with blood. She had grown pale and her breathing had grown ragged and shallow. Her eyes were slowly drooping shut. “Iris!” I screamed, scooping her up into my arms with all the gentleness I could muster at the moment.

She didn’t say anything, just let out a small puff of air and her eyes closed.

If my heart wasn’t beating out of my chest before, it was now. I tried to keep her pressed as tightly to me as possible as I took off in a sprint toward the entrance of the stadium. I called behind me for one of the boys to call an ambulance, and all four of them were already on it, pulling out each of their cell phones.

The answer was all the same: they would be here as soon as possible, probably in the next fifteen minutes. For now, we were instructed to close the wound and try to keep her awake. As stupid as it sounded, I had seen enough films in my lifetime to have somewhat of an idea of what to do while we waited.

“Put her on the couch and someone get a stagehand.” I ordered. Caleb ran out of the room, leaving four of us. With Mason’s help, we gently placed her down on the couch. Iris stirred, wincing and gritting her teeth. As much as it pained me to see her hurting, I’d prefer that than no response at all. It was a good sign. There was hope.

“We need a cloth to apply pressure to the wound.” Landon announced. I nodded and pulled Iris’ shirt over her head. Her stomach didn’t look good. She had a somewhat deep cut in her lower area, adjacent to her bellybutton. Most of her stomach was covered in blood. I next ripped my shirt off of my back and pressed it against the wound, trying to add enough pressure to stop the bleeding but hopefully not hurting her too much. She hissed in pain.