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Chapter Fifty Six

Looking down in the palm of my hand, my eyes glistened. I clenched it, feeling my fingers ball into a fist. A strand of my hair fell over my face, interjecting my spaced-out mind as a breeze swept into the room. I looked past Mom's figure to the open window beside her. The blue sky was only another distraction as my thoughts overwhelmed me.

Why do I keep seeing other people's memories..? First I saw Mom and Papa's memory of Dexter's parents. And just a few minutes ago, I saw Aristi's.

My question was left empty in my head, with no answer to fill in the space. I sat up against the headboard, not daring to look away from the window. My eyes landed on a bird that had perched itself onto the hospital's sign, digging through its feathers. Lucky you. You get to fly freely. You have no legacy to fulfill or a dynasty to account for. I felt my jaw tightening. You don't have any special powers that did shit to you.

The door of the hospital room slammed open, and before I could blink, Papa was in my arms, crying and trembling in his spot. My eyes widened when I felt him embrace me, and my face became hot as tears welled. He really needs to stop using his Time attribute for this. Hugging him tightly, I let him hide his face from me. I looked up to see the nurse from earlier smiling contently, as if he knew we were meant to be family forever. He left before I could say anything else.

"P-Papa, sit down..." I whispered to him, gently pushing him into the chair behind him. He had completely ignored it the moment he arrived, even with his noticeably shaky posture needing it. As he slowly settled into the cushioned chair, I took a good look at his face, my hands wiping away as many tears as I could. There were stressed wrinkles all over, and his eyes were bloodshot red. I couldn't even begin to imagine how he felt through all this. All of this is my fault in the first place. Trying my best to smile at him, I said, "Hey. Don't break your legs on me, Papa."

"Y-You don't... get to s-say that to me..." he stammered out, pausing a few times to inhale sharply as his crying became heavy and ragged. Through the hot tears and sobs, his expression changed to one with a questionable glance, with his hazel eye being rubbed with his hand. "W-Why do you keep... d-doing that?"

"Doing what?"

"Dying..."

The word was wheezed out, as if Papa couldn't even bare to say the word, let alone hear it. I leaned over, feeling the sharp sting in my back as I placed a small kiss on his forehead. "I'm not dying. I'm not dead, dummy." A weak but genuine smile was on my face as I managed to say to him, "I'm alive and thriving."

"Not bedridden like that, miss," I heard someone comment from the doorway. Looking up, I saw the doctor who comforted me from earlier. She smiled brightly to acknowledge my gaze. "Anyway, we're going to be taking your mother to the operation room to start the Blood Assassin Revival procedure that your ancestor has suggested to try. It's been found to be authentic by your father over there."

My eyes widened, and I clasped Papa's head with my hand, letting him continue his breakdown against me. "Y-You're going to start it already?"

"Yes," she nodded. A clipboard was in her hand, and her pen tapped against it, as if gesturing to something written on it. She explained, "The person with the Healing attribute arrived earlier than he expected, and he's a big fan of your parents, so he's determined to bring your mother back." The doctor's eyes seemed to smile as well as she reassured me, "Don't worry, Meredith. He's a trustworthy son of one of the retired doctors here. We're going to bring your mother back no matter what."

My jaw clenched, and tears that were stuck in my eyes fell. I nodded vigorously, shutting my eyes tightly in an attempt to stop the tears streaming down my face. My arms closed around Papa, whose body was only rocking even more after hearing the doctor's words.

"P-Please bring her back to us!" I exclaimed as my hands gripped his sleeves.

"That's a will-do," the doctor said with a thumbs-up.

"U-Um, one more thing!" She looked up at me, a little startled by what else I would ask for. "Can you bring back the Blood Assassin knife after you use it?"

The doctor nodded, spinning her pen on her fingers. "Of course. It's legally the property of your dynasty, after all."

"T-Thank you."

A few other staff members began to flood in, starting to wheel Mom's hospital bed out of the room. The doctor began directing orders to the others as I comforted Papa, reassuring him as stress visibly hit him more than before. After a few minutes of explaining the plan, everyone set out to their finish their tasks. Before she left, the doctor turned to look at me one last time.

"Take a short nap, dear," she suggested, her brows furrowing out of concern. "You look exhausted. Tell your father he can sleep on those chairs over there."

"Yeah, I do need a nap..." I mumbled under my breath. I peered down at Papa, who was hunched over on his chair as he slept peacefully on my lap. Smiling up at her shyly, I said, "Papa's already taking a nap, so we'll just stay here for now."

"Alright." Checking the clipboard for one more moment, she said, "We don't have a clue as to how long the procedure will take, but we have an estimate that we'll be in there for about half an hour to an hour minimum."

"Take as long as you need to," I insisted. "On behalf of Papa and I, we're willing to wait days if it guarantees that she'll be back."

The doctor stood at the doorway silently, stunned by my strong claim. I gave her a determined look, as if to show that I stood by what I said. A smile stretched across her face.

"I like that confidence, Meredith," she said. "Now, I'll definitely promise we'll bring her back."