New Dawn

Chapter 24 | Eclipse

Heart monitors beeped in tune with Audrey's footsteps as she walked through the hospital corridor. The whirring of fans replaced one another as she passed them by. It seemed to her that all they did was to push the air around, merely creating a smokescreen of a cooler climate. The only thing they really did was to enhance the from scent of detergent.

Somehow, the way to the elevator seemed longer than before. It was as if the corridor had been stretched out and she was walking in the opposite direction of a moving walkway. Caught in a perpetual loop she watched nurses rush to aid when the steady beat of a heart turned into a racing pace. They appeared like mushrooms on a rainy day, suddenly so many that their green garbs turned into a blur. Like a river they flowed into a room ahead, leaving the corridor in the hands of the alarm.

Unnoticed, she passed them by. Isolated inside the moving bunker that had been blessed with silence, she allowed herself to take a deep breath. Her head spun with thoughts as she closed her eyes. She was right to doubt Owen. A part of her hated that she was drawn to him and as much as she did not want to admit it, he was an addict. And if there is one thing that addicts do well, apart from claiming their high, it is to lie.

But she knew that he was trying to do better. Despite everything, he always tried to do better. It was never black or white. She did not know the whole story, and even if she did, she probably would not understand. She just knew that things were bad between him and his mother. Melrose was a small town and people talked. Owen was a victim of false accusations while his mother was painted as a bipolar hellcat that threw wild parties. Which part of that was true, she had no idea.

She just knew that it had hurt her more than she wanted to admit to see him in that hospital bed. It was time to take the pain and turn it into something useful. Nero destroyed everything in his path, and with his return he would continue to steer the club in the wrong direction. Towards what her father had worked so hard to change. The night of his arrest flashed before her eyes as the doors to the elevator opened, and without knowing it she clenched her fist.

Just as she was about to step out of the metal box a tall man dressed in a black suit traded place with her. With a pair of black, needle eyes he smiled at her and lifted his hat just before the doors closed behind her. Despite the smouldering heat, a cold shiver ran down her arms. When she passed the tapestry in the waiting room she took out her phone from her purse, for she could've sworn that one of the peacocks had blinked at her.

In the heat of the sun she called Bill while anxiously biting her nails. It took three signals before he picked up the phone.

"Do you want me to come pick you up?", she said and headed towards the parking lot. Meanwhile, she dug through her purse in the search for the car keys.

"I'm in school, you do know that, right?"

She sighed. If there was one thing that her brother wasn't very good at, it was lying. "Where are you?"

"How did it go with your meeting?"

"Don't change the subject, Bill."

With the phone pressed between her ear and shoulder, she continued to rummage through her purse. After a lighter, a pocket knife and a pack of gum she finally found the keys to the red Mustang.

"I'll see you at home."

"Don't hang up the phone!", she yelled and tugged at the car door that was unsurprisingly locked. "Bill? Bill!"

She swore quietly when the line went silent. Her boot collided with the front tire in pure frustration before a smile of resentment reached her as a young doctor dressed in a lab coat gave her a judging look. He carried a lunch that might has well have been for a herbivore pet rather than a fully grown man. A flash of recognition struck his eyes as he turned around and engaged in dreadful conversation.