The Untold Truth

Chapter 6

I nodded, a little embarrassed that he had to come save me...again. Him constantly saving me was a habit I needed to quickly break.

He said after a second of silence, "I am needed elsewhere. If you need anything, just hit that red button on the monitor and that will alert Benjamin to come help."

I looked over and saw a distinct call light on one of the monitors and mentally face palmed at how rash I had been earlier. I could have had help this whole time instead of being unsure the entire time. My cheeks flamed red at my inobservance and I heard Shadow exit the room.

I settled more into the bed and drowsiness overcame me. I fell alseep and didn't have any nightmares, which I was thankful for. When I woke up, a clock on my bedside table showed that I had slept for only a couple of hours. I looked around my room and noticed that the windows were dark.

I put my hand on my wound and gently ran my hands over the bandages. A small part of me wondered what it looked like and my curious side wanted to take the bandage off to see, but I realized that it probably didn't look the best and it might have made me throw up.

When the idea of throwing up hit my mind, I immediately took my hand away from the bandage, afraid that if I touched it anymore the bandage would instantly fall off and reveal the gruesome sight of my damaged skin.

Since it was night out, I figured that getting as much sleep during the night as I could was probably a good idea. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but it was as if my body wasn't tired. I couldn't get comfortable, or I would become too hot, then too cold. I let out an exasperated sigh and threw my hands down on the bed roughly.

I knew that I wasn't going to be falling back to sleep any time soon. I sat up in my bed and was surprised that the movement didn't hurt my side as much. I tried twisting a little each ways, which made it aggravated, but nowhere near as much as when I was walking around earlier.

As I was moving, I noticed that a cord was attached to my wrist and a needle was inserted in the bottom of my wrist. I looked up and saw that the other end of the cord was attached to the bottom of a bag that was filled with a clear liquid.

I sighed heavily when I realized that because of this IV, I wasn't able to move around again like I wanted to. I laid back down in bed and looked up at the ceiling. At some point in the night, exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep. When I woke up, it was because Benjamin had closed the door loudly while walking into the room.

When he saw that I was awake, he smiled sheepishly and said, "Sorry. I meant to close that a little more quietly."

I shrugged my shoulders and asked him, "Can I move around yet?"

He looked shocked at the fact that I wanted to move and he asked, "Are you feeling like you can move?"

I nodded my head frantically and said, "I want to move around. I'm bored here."

He laughed and said, "Okay. After you eat your breakfast, we can see if you can move around."

"I have to wait until after breakfast?"

Benjamin laughed at my complaint and said, "Well, we can see if you can make it down to the kitchen if you would like to. It does involve stairs though..."

I slowly sat up and said, "I wouldn't care if it involved jumping through a hoop, I just want to move."

Benjamin laughed and said, "Sadly, we just remodeled and took the hoops down. You'll just have to settle for walking. Now let me take your IV out and we can get going."

He undid the tape around the needle and slowly pulled the needle out from my wrist. There was a little sting from him pulling it out, but it was over so quick that I could barely feel it. He set the needle and cord to hang on the stand that was holding the bag of liquid up.

I moved my legs so they were hanging over the side of the bed and slowly slid down off of the bed. The initial hit from the ground made pain appear in my side, but not enough to discourage me. I took a slow step and gained confidence as the pain in my side didn't increase.

Benjamin offered his hand to steady me when I started to lose my balance a little and I gladly took it. He patiently walked with me as I slowly walked towards the door and he opened the door for me. The door opened to a hallway that had very elaborate decorations and wall hangings.

The carpet was a dark red color and the walls were the same color. There was a gold trim on the wall and the lights that were hanging from the ceiling were also gold. There were artifacts hanging on the walls from what looked like every different culture in the world.

As we were slowly walking down the hallway, I asked Benjamin, "What are all these things on the walls?"

He explained, "Shadow loves learning different ways to fight from different cultures. He has connections so he's able to get these weapons from all over the world. He says he works with a weapon until it seems like it's just natural and a part of his own body."

I silently 'wowed' and gaped at everything hung on the walls in the hallway. At the end of the hall, we turned left and there were stairs that led to a lower floor.

Benjamin said, "I'll go ahead of you in case you fall."

I nodded and he walked a few steps down before turning back to face me. He reached his free hand out to me and I took both of his hands in mine. I breathed in a shaky breath and slowly set my foot on the first stair. I quickly set my other foot down on the same stair and smiled when the pain from my side was still a dull ache.

I took a confident step onto the next step and the result of pain was the same. We made it down the stairs in half the time that I was expecting and I could tell that Benjamin was impressed at how fast we had gotten down the stairs.

I turned the corner to the left and saw that we were in a kitchen, and I also saw that Shadow looked surprised that I was out of bed again. We locked eyes, but when his eyes flickered to my hands in Benjamin's, his eyes narrowed slightly. I quickly let go of Benjamin's hand, not wanting Shadow to get the wrong idea.

I liked Benjamin, but only as a friend. A deep part of me wanted to say that out loud so that Shadow would know that I had no romantic feelings for Benjamin. Why I wanted to clarify that, I had no idea.

Or maybe you do said a voice in my head, but I only tuned myself out. I was not going to delve into deep emotions right in the same room as the person who was making me think about deep emotions. Shadow quickly turned around and averted his full attention to what he was cooking on the stove.

Benjamin pointed to a table that was against the wall opposite of the stove and said, "You can sit there Aleksandria."

I nodded and sat down quietly.

Benjamin said to Shadow, "Can you believe it? She's a pro at those stairs."

Shadow nodded absentmindedly and said as he turned off the stove, "Benjamin today I'm going to be out so, if she's up to it, you can show her around but not where we talked about."

Benjamin nodded and my curiosity instantly peaked. What area wasn't I allowed to see? I gave Benjamin a questioning glance, but he shook his head nonchalantly. Shadow emptied the pan of scrambled eggs into three plates. He gave Benjamin two plates, but kept one for himself. Benjamin walked over towards me, but Shadow instantly went back up the stairs, not even looking at me as he left.