Chapter Twenty-Three
Evie
I’ve spent an eternity floating in a black void. It’s peaceful here, even if I am surrounded by emptiness.
“Can you hear me?”
No one has ever spoken here before. What’s happening?
“I need you to open your eyes for me, Evalynn.”
Evalynn?
I don’t remember who Evalynn is. The name feels strange. Foreign. Like it belongs to someone else. I think I’ve heard it before, but... nothing seems to connect. My thoughts are cloudy, swirling around in this vast emptiness. I try to focus, but it’s hard. So hard. I feel like I’m fighting against something invisible, something heavier than I can understand.
“Evalynn... Open your eyes.”
The voice again. It’s softer now, almost coaxing, but it has an urgency to it. A kind of quiet desperation. It’s pulling at me, and I don’t know why, but it’s like I should listen. Like I’m supposed to wake up.
But why?
I try to do what the voice is asking. I don’t know how long it’s been since I last moved, but everything feels stiff as if my body has forgotten how to work. The weight of my eyelids is too much. I can’t seem to lift them. The darkness is easier. I want to stay here, where it’s safe and peaceful.
“Come on, Evie. Please, baby,” The new voice cracks, and the sound of it... it feels like it’s reaching into me, pulling at something deep inside. It’s like it’s calling me home.
I try again. I fight through the fog that has settled over me, the thick layers of confusion and exhaustion.
Finally, the darkness begins to thin just a little, and I feel the cool press of air on my skin, faint but present. A sudden, sharp light invades my vision. It’s blinding at first, and I blink, trying to adjust. My eyes burn as I struggle to focus. The edges of the light blur, and then I see... faces.
They’re blurry, like the world is still in motion, spinning too fast for me to catch up. But they’re there. There’s a man, his features sharp and familiar in a way I can’t quite place. A woman beside him, her face lined with worry, her eyes wide and searching. The words they speak fade in and out, muffled like I’m underwater.
“Her eyes are responding. Just a little more. Evie, can you hear me?”
The name again. Evie. That one feels more like mine. I try to say something, but my throat is dry as if it has been weeks since I last spoke. My lips don’t seem to want to move. I want to scream, to demand answers, but nothing comes out.
There’s a rush of motion around me. Someone is moving quickly, the beeping of machines getting faster, more frantic. It’s hard to focus on anything. The world keeps shifting like sand beneath me.
I’m not sure what’s happening. My heart is pounding. The air tastes sharp, almost bitter. I try to breathe, but every inhale feels like it’s too shallow, too strained.
“Evie, Princess, come on. Please. Open your eyes.”
His voice again, but it’s not just the words that affect me. It’s the way he says it. Like he’s holding on to something. Like he needs me to come back.
I want to, so badly. I want to remember, want to know who this person is, what I’ve forgotten. Why I’m here.
But something’s wrong. Something’s off. There’s a pull in my chest, an ache that’s not physical, something deeper that I can’t explain.
I try again, forcing my eyes to open wider. The world around me is still blurry, but I can see them more clearly now. His face is the closest, and I know I should recognize him, but I don’t. I feel the tears begin to prick at the edges of my eyes, and I don’t know why.
“Evie... Sweetheart, you’re okay. You’re safe. Just breathe for me.”
His hand touches mine, and I can feel the warmth of it, strong and steady. He squeezes gently like he’s waiting for me to respond. Like he’s holding on, praying that I’ll wake up.
I want to tell him that I’m okay. That I’m trying. But the words are trapped somewhere I can’t reach.
I try to hold on to him, to the feeling of his hand in mine. But it’s like I’m slipping. Like I might lose this moment. I focus on his voice, on the gentle pressure of his hand, and I let that be enough for now.
I don’t know who he is. Not yet.
But I feel something shift deep inside me like a part of me is coming back to life, piece by piece. And it’s enough to make me try again.
And this time, when I open my eyes, I hold on to the light.
The world feels like it’s starting to come together, but everything is still so fragmented. I don’t know where I am, or what’s happened, or even who I am, really. My body feels... heavy. My chest rises and falls too slowly like I’ve forgotten how to breathe properly. I want to move, to speak, to make sense of this overwhelming feeling of waking up from something that feels like a lifetime of darkness.
But then… He speaks.
“There you are, Princess,” he smiles, the words smooth and comforting, like they’ve been waiting for me all along. “Stay with me.”
It’s the way he says it, so steady, so full of calm. I try to focus on his face, but it’s still blurry, his features indistinct. My vision flickers, like my eyes can’t decide if they should adjust or not.
Something tugs at me, though. The way he looks at me. The way his voice wraps around me like a protective cloak. There’s something in his eyes, something so familiar but so far out of reach. A warmth. A connection. It doesn’t make sense, but I feel it.
He’s real. He’s here.
But I can’t remember his name. Or how I know him. I don’t even know how I got here, but his presence is the only thing grounding me right now.
“Can you hear me, Evie?” he asks, his voice lowering, more urgent this time. I can feel his gaze moving over me, checking for signs that I’m really with him, really back. His hand is still holding mine, and it feels like the only thing keeping me tethered to this moment, this reality.
I nod, slowly, so slowly, but it feels like the world tilts with the motion. My head is heavy, and I can’t quite control it. I want to speak, to answer him, but my throat is dry, too dry. My lips feel cracked, and when I try to part them, they barely move. I feel the pressure of his hand tightening around mine, and I so desperately want to squeeze back, but my fingers don’t move.
“Princess…” He leans closer, his voice soft but commanding. “Stay with me. You’re safe now. Just breathe, okay?”
His words don’t make all the confusion go away, but they bring me something I didn’t know I needed. They bring me a thread of peace in the middle of this storm of uncertainty. Safe. I hear that word, and I want to believe it. I want to trust that I am safe, that I’m not alone in this fog.
I try to focus again, to pull myself from the edge of the abyss that still feels like it’s right there, threatening to swallow me whole. I finally manage to squeeze his hand weakly, a flicker of something familiar stirring inside me.
“Who are you?” The words are cracked and fragile, but they feel so important. “I don’t remember...”
His face shifts just the slightest like the question hit him in a place I wasn’t supposed to reach. The muscles in his jaw tense for a second, and then he exhales a shaky breath. His gaze softens, and his hand rubs gently across mine, soothing me with the simple touch.
“It’s okay, Princess,” he whispers, his voice full of warmth, but there’s an undercurrent of something I can’t quite place. It’s not fear. It sounds more like desperation. “We’ll get you through this. One step at a time.”
I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet. One step feels like a thousand right now. But his words... they settle in me.
I try to smile, but my lips don’t quite cooperate. It’s a half-frown, but it feels like a start. A small victory.
He’s here. And somehow, that makes all the difference.
“Just stay with me, Evie.” His voice is steady. Reassuring. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And for the first time in what feels like forever, I relax.
Exhaustion overtakes me, and I let go and fall back into the void. The last thing I see is the worried eyes of my comforting stranger.
***
“We’ll know more when she wakes up. Until then, just be there for her.”
“What if she can’t remember?”
“Then she’ll need your support. She’ll need familiar things around her even if she doesn’t realize that they’re familiar. In most dissociative amnesia cases, it will reverse itself. You just need to give it time.”
“Who has amnesia?” I ask. Or I think I ask. From what I heard, it didn’t sound very clear.
“Welcome back, Ms. Winters,” A friendly-looking woman asks from above me. “I’m Doctor Stevens. How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” I croak. “I think my body is broken.”
“It pretty much is,” she smiles. “But you’re healing up quite nicely. I’m going to need to ask you a few questions. Are you up for it?”
“Yeah,” I answer.
“Can you tell me your name?”
I don’t answer because, in that moment, everything comes rushing back. My missing leg. My mother who doesn’t remember me. Pain. Mitchell. Sara. Viktor. The storm. The clubhouse collapsing.
“Where’s Ollie?” I ask suddenly. “Did you get him out?”
“Princess?”
I turn to Mitchell’s voice. He sounds worried. Unsure.
“Oh no,” I say, tears clouding my eyes. “Did he not make it?”
“Baby, do you know who I am?” he asks.
“Of course,” I say.
“Drink,” the doctor says, shoving a straw against my lips. “You haven’t spoken in a week. Your throat isn’t used to so much work.”
Taking a drink, I look back over at Mitchell and wonder why he looks both sad and hopeful.
“Are you okay?” I ask. “What’s wrong? Did Ollie get out?”
Nothing. He simply takes a step forward.
“Mitchell, if you don’t answer me right this instant, I swear to all things…”
Mitchell rushes forward and places his lips against mine…effectively shutting me up.
“Oh, baby,” he says against my mouth. “You didn’t remember me. The last time you woke up, you didn’t remember who I was.”
“He was making plans on how to get you to fall in love with him all over again,” someone says.
I glance around Mitchell and see Steel standing in the corner.
“Glad you’re okay, kid,” he says, his eyes clouded over with what I can only assume is guilt. “Ollie’s fine. He’s already home.”
“What happened to your arm?” I manage to ask. My throat is burning at this point.
“It’s just a scratch,” he smiles. “It’s fine.”
“A piece of metal from the collapsed building caught his arm and sliced it clear down,” Mitchell tells me. “He had to have forty stitches. He didn’t stop digging, baby. He had to be forced away to get stitched up, or he would have died.”
I look back to Steel, but he lowers his head.
Odd. Where’s his confidence?
“I’m so fucking, sorry, Evie,” he says.
“What on earth for?” I ask before coughing. Mitchell helps me drink some more water before I return my glare to the idiot biker.
“I shouldn’t have left you in there,” he says. “I should have taken you with me.”
“Don’t blame yourself, Steel,” I tell him. “What happened wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you, and you shouldn’t blame yourself.”
Walking over, he bends and places a kiss on my forehead. “It doesn’t matter what you say,” he tells me. “It’s my fault you were in that building when it collapsed. I should have just carried you outside and sat your ass in the rain while I got stuff ready.”
I go to respond, but he simply shakes his head.
“He’s gotta work through it on his own, baby,” Mitchell tells me as Steel leaves the room.
“But it wasn’t his fault.”
“No, it wasn’t. But you can’t make him believe what he doesn’t want to.”
“He can’t control the weather, Mitchell,” I whisper. My voice is just about done for.
“It wasn’t the weather,” he tells me, eyeing the doctor who patiently waits for us to finish. “I’ll explain later. Doc, what questions did you have for her?”
“Well, just basic questions to check your memory,” she smiles. “But I can see that it’s not needed.”
“When can I leave?” I ask.
“If your bloodwork and scans come back normal, first thing tomorrow morning.”
With a smile, she leaves the room.
“You remember me,” Mitchell says in the quiet room.
“I could never forget you,” I whisper.
“But you did, Princess,” he says sadly.
“I don’t think I did,” I admit. “I couldn’t remember your name. I couldn’t even remember mine. But every time you talked, I felt like I was home. I felt safe. So, you see, I didn’t forget about you. I just needed to wake up a bit more. Now, tell me what happened.”
For the next thirty minutes, Mitchell catches me up on all things Viktor and about the man named Doodle, who is the real man responsible for the building collapsing.
“I’m sorry you had to kill your uncle,” I say, squeezing his hand.
“He was no uncle of mine, Princess.”
“What about Sandra?” I ask. “Was she found?”
“According to Knox, she was locked in one of the many cages Viktor had beneath the warehouse. She was questioned for a few days, but they let her go. King has her in a safe house until she can get on her feet.”
“What about her baby?” I ask, feeling my eyelids droop.
“Knox found her daughter within a few hours of searching,” he says softly. “She is tucked away safely with Sandra. Now, she’s working with the authorities to help locate the rest of Viktor’s illegal businesses with the help of the files you managed to get from his office computer. Now, I need you to do me a favor and stop doing brave shit.”
“No promises,” I mumble.
“When we get home,” he whispers against my ear. “And I mean our home because you’re moving in with me. We’re going to have a serious talk about you getting hurt. It’s unacceptable, and I won’t have it. No more, do you understand?”
I smile and roll my eyes.
“Don’t give me sass, Princess,” he says. “Speaking of sass, when you’re healed, I want us to take your mom out for dinner. Do you think we could convince the nurses to let us kidnap her for a few hours?”
I look at the man who owns my heart, and I fall in love with him a little deeper.
“Yeah,” I say around the knot in my throat. “I think Mama would like that, too. So long as she can bring her baby.”
“It’s a date then,” he smiles.
I feel the stinging in my leg, indicating some phantom pain, and I smile.
“I’m in pain,” I giggle, causing Mitchell’s eyes to widen. “My leg burns.”
“I’ll get the nurse,” he says, turning toward the door.
“No,” I call out as loud as I can. Which, it turns out, isn’t very loud at the moment. “It’s okay. I’m happy.”
“You’re happy that you’re in pain?” he asks, brows raised.
“Yeah,” I smile. “When I was under the building, I couldn’t feel anything below my waist. For the first time in years, my leg didn’t hurt. But it made me sad because I knew that I was dying. So, yeah, the pain makes me happy. Because it means I’m safe. It means I’m alive.”
“Yeah, baby,” he says, returning to my side. “You’re alive. And you’re mine. Now, get some sleep, Princess. I won’t leave your side.”
Even as I’m drifting off to sleep, I feel the gentle kiss on my temple and I know that everything will be alright.