SOLACE

twenty-seven

      It was already 2 AM when I got the call and after that, I asked Cali to help me go to the hospital. I would've asked Henry since he's the closest but I didn't want to bother him with my problems again just after we celebrated. I couldn't even speak when Cali picked me up from our house. 

She was driving her car and she would glance at me from time to time. She was driving as fast as she could because she already felt how worried I was. When she parks the car, I immediately went inside the main entrance and headed to the front desk.

"I'm looking for a patient, Kaiden Williams? What room is he in?" I asked the woman in front of me.

"Are you his relative or an immediate family?" She asks in return.

"Yes, I'm Adeline. He's my brother," I answered in an instant.

"Ah, yes. You're his emergency contact. Proceed to the east wing, Room 405. Dr. Crest will be waiting for you," She replies and I thanked her before I proceeded to Kai's room.

"Go ahead, I'll just wait here," Cali says with a reassuring smile when I looked back to her.

I was in a hurry when I chose to walk up the stairs than cramp myself in the elevator. Cali stayed behind and waited for me in the waiting area. When I reached the floor, I looked left and right until I found a doctor coming out of his room.

It was a tall, middle-aged man who had his coat on that had 'Dr. Crest' on the side of his chest.

"Is he awake?" I asked him.

He shakes his head to me as he released a sigh, "You're his relative?" I replied with a nod.

"We just did a final check on him after we stitched his wound. He was admitted to the ER at 12 AM. A civilian saw him at the back of an old apartment, unconscious." He continues. 

I stared at him as I zoned out, my mind was flying to different things. I took a gulp before I looked down at my feet. It was too much to take in that my brother was unconscious when he was found. It was that worse.

"He was stabbed but in his case, luckily, no vital organs were hit. It's a shallow stab wound but it penetrated the abdomen that caused him to lose a lot of blood. He also has a hematoma in his right eye and a minor rib fracture. We saw that he seemed to have a bad fall that caused him to have a mild concussion. All in all, he can be discharged after a few days but he still needs to rest for two weeks minimum for all his injuries to heal. He will be awake in a few, he just needs to rest." The doctor concluded as he gave me an apologetic smile before he left. 

I stood outside for a minute before I went inside the room. I leaned my back against the door as I started to sob quietly when I saw his state. I put the back of my hand on my eyes as I sat down on the floor. He looked bad and I wish I could take his pain away.

I could hear the continuous beep from the monitor and the people murmuring outside the room. I slowly stood up before I sat on the chair on the left side of his bed. He had a neck brace, his right eye had a dark bruise with swelling and a busted lip. Other than that, it was his only visible injury.

He was only wearing a pale blue hospital gown and I could also hear his soft breath, it relieved me that he was at least alive and breathing. His chest was moving as he breathed.

"What happened to you, Kai?" I whispered as I released another sob.

I badly wanted to hear from him all the answers to the questions he always avoided. For God's sake, he almost died. He could've died if no one saw him and that scared me a lot.

After I told Cali she can go home, I fell asleep from too much crying, my head was on the side of Kai's bed and I just woke up when the nurse came inside the room and Kai was already awake. My eyes widened from seeing him awake.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," He jokes.

His voice was a bit hoarse and I just blinked at him. I was still unable to respond and I didn't even realize tears started to pass my cheeks. I smiled at him as I wiped my tears.

"I hate you," I hissed. 

After a few minutes, the nurse left and it became silent again in the room. I looked at him as he stared back at me with his one eye that was still open. 

"You owe me answers," I reminded as I crossed my arms to my chest.

"You should probably take a shower first," He countered.

"What? I haven't even been here for more than ten hours," I scoffed. He's still rude.

"You look like you slept here longer than me," He says as he looked at me up and down.

"You're just dodging my questions, asshole," I rolled my eyes at him.

"You don't even know how I worried I was. You could've died! You know that?" I argued, my voice started to crack and his jaw clenched when he knew I was serious already. His lips remained in a thin line.

"I hope you didn't tell her," He mutters without looking at me. Instead, his eyes were trained to the door. 

He couldn't look into my eyes. I immediately knew who he was referring to without even saying her name.

"No, she doesn't need to know about this," I answered. I surely know she doesn't even care if his own son was lying in the hospital. She hated Kai and I didn't know why or how it started.