Chapter 9
Brody
The beeping of the hospital machines drilled slowly but steadily into my head. I would be hearing that rhythmic high-pitched noise in my dreams for months after this. The clean smell of antiseptic stung my nose, and the temperature was somehow too hot and too cold at the same time.
The only thing worse than the sounds and smells of a hospital was the furniture. Hospital furniture wasn’t even comfortable for an average person. For a man my size, sitting on that little plastic chair was akin to one of the punishments of hell.
I deserved it. No matter how uncomfortable I was, and the fact that it wasn’t that long of a drive back to Emberwood from Rynkirk, I stayed. Ellis was only in that hospital because of me. I had to stay by his side until he woke up.
It had been nearly twenty-four hours since his attempted kidnapping.
Deputy Hillard had been by a few times to tell me about the investigation into the kidnappers and assure me that I wouldn’t be brought up on charges.
Most of the kidnappers had been killed in the crash, and the few that I had killed myself were clearly self-defense.
I was pretty sure he’d doctored his report about the events. The man I’d killed after the crash had not been a matter of defense. He was already injured and clearly not a threat.
No, I’d killed him out of revenge, but there was no talk about bringing me up on charges for it.
I probably should have asked more questions about the investigation, but I was too focused on Ellis to care.
Why wasn’t he waking up?
The doctors had assured me that he had no major injury. The chair that his kidnappers had strapped him to had done an ironically good job of protecting him. He did have a minor concussion, but it shouldn’t have kept him unconscious for so long.
The doctors didn’t say anything, but I could tell they were worried. Someone not waking up after a head injury, even a minor one, could be a sign of a more serious brain injury.
If only I’d brought him into the diner with me, then all of this could have been avoided. I’d promised to take care of him and keep him safe, and I failed.
How stupid could I be?
No, not stupid.
Selfish.
I’d slept with him, and then out of shame, I’d pushed him away. Now, he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed.
What if he never woke up?
From what I knew about concussions, it was possible.
If that happened, I’d…
I’d…
The ring of my cell phone interrupted me before I could finish that thought.
For a moment, I stared uncomprehendingly at Magnus’s name on the screen before my brain snapped back online and I answered it.
“Mag? What is it?”
“Hey, Brody,” Magnus said, sounding too casual for the situation. “How… um, how’s Ellis?”
My gaze flickered toward the monitoring machines again, showing the steady rhythm of Ellis’s pulse. “Nothing’s changed since the last time you asked me an hour ago. Now, get to the point. You wouldn’t have called just for that.”
“Okay. Rude. But you’re right. I’ve… I’ve found out some information about Creed.”
I hadn’t forgotten about the situation with Creed, but in all the chaos happening with Ellis it had been pushed to the back of my mind.
It seemed I was failing all of my relationships.
“Did they find him?” I asked, hopeful but not optimistic. If Creed had been found, Magnus would have led with that information rather than asking about Ellis again when he knew nothing had changed.
“No, but…” Again, Magnus hesitated, making me more anxious with each silent moment that passed. “They’re pretty sure he’s POW.”
POW.
Prisoner of War.
Every solider had heard this term at least once and spent no small amount of time contemplating the possibility. But it never truly felt real. It was like a boogieman story. It kept us up at night, but under the light of the sun it disappeared to the back of our minds.
Now, the nightmare had caught up to us, and we found that the boogieman was very real.
“Is there—” My voice cracked, and I tried again. “Is there any news about him?”
I could hear Magnus sigh through the phone. “Well, that’s the weird part. I was able to find out that Creed was captured, but no one can tell me by who, or even where he is. Hell, they can’t even tell me why he was captured, but his captors haven’t made any demands.”
No demands?
My heart sank.
People often said that “no news is good news.” Whoever came up with that saying had clearly never had someone they cared about go missing.
If Creed was captured for the sake of a ransom, that wouldn’t be so bad.
A ransom could be solved, and it would mean that his kidnappers would had a vested interest in keeping him unharmed.
However, if there was no ransom, then there were only a few reasons why someone would take Creed, and none of those reasons were good.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Magnus said, just as my thoughts started to spiral into a dark place. “I thought the same thing, but… I don’t know. Something about this just isn’t adding up. I can’t place my finger on why, but this whole situation just feels odd.”
“Odd.” I huffed out a depressing imitation of a laugh. “Yeah. You can say that again.”
Movement on the hospital bed caught my attention. Ellis stirred, his eyelids fluttering as he tried to open his eyes, and he grasped at the thin sheet covering most of his body, fisting it in his hands.
“Hey, Mag. I’ll have to call you back. Let me know if you find anything else out.”
“Yeah. Will do.”
With a quiet beep the line went dead, and I shoved the phone back in my pocket just as Ellis finally opened his eyes.
He turned his head, looking straight at me like he knew I’d be there. His dark eyes were like black holes sucking in all the light. They drew me in until I was sitting forward on the edge of my uncomfortable little chair.
“Beckham,” he said, so quiet I had to ask him to repeat himself. “Ellis Beckham. That’s my name.”
He blinked and light flickered through his eyes. The empty black holes became a night sky filled with stars. All at once, he sat up, dislodging one of the monitors connected to him and causing the machines to start beeping. Yet, he didn’t even notice the noise as he grabbed my hand.
“Ellis Beckham. I’m Ellis Beckham. I remember everything. I remember…”
Just as quickly as he grabbed me, he suddenly froze. The light that had glittered so joyously in his eyes dimmed and was replaced by beautiful but horrifying tears.
“I remember everything. Oh God. Aaron. He… I…”
With each word his voice died a little more until he couldn’t utter a sound.
Yesterday, I’d been convinced that keeping as much distance between Ellis and myself was the best choice. An hour ago, I was questioning that decision, but I still wasn’t convinced that getting involved with him was the right thing to do.
The sound of his sobs broke me.
Seeing him sitting there on that too small hospital bed, body heaving as he cried into the shelter of his own hands, what else could I do?
I squeezed myself onto the edge of the bed, wrapped my arm around his shoulder, and held him close as he cried. I had no idea what he’d remembered that upset him so much, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t need to know the meaning behind his tears to comfort him through them.
Eventually, he managed to calm down enough to talk, though the tears kept trickling from his eyes.
He told me about his older brother, who’d been fighting a losing battle against cancer until a cult seduced him away with fake promises.
Then, in his final days, Aaron had returned, with an antique key in hand and a tall order for Ellis to fulfill.
“He made me promise not to bother with a proper burial,” Ellis said after blowing his nose for the dozenth time.
“There wasn’t time. These—what were they called?
The Tamed Souls ?—These Tamed Soul bastards were coming after me for the key that Aaron stole.
He wanted me to just leave him in the motel for the police to eventually find, but I couldn’t just abandon his body like that.
I wrapped it up in some sheets and found a peaceful spot in the woods to bury him.
He was right. I shouldn’t have taken the time.
That’s why the cult managed to catch up to me.
I managed to escape, but I knew they were right behind me.
So, I hid the key just in case I was caught and headed up into the mountains to hide out as long as I could. ”
“And then I dropped a tree on you,” I concluded.
Even though he’d stopped crying, I kept my arms wrapped around him.
I couldn’t deny how good it felt to hold him close.
“I’m glad you got your memories back, and that your name really is Ellis.
It would be weird to find out I’d been calling you by the wrong name all this time. ”
“I wouldn’t mind any name you wanted to call me.”
It was obvious he spoke without thinking.
His face was half-buried against the hollow of my shoulder, and I could feel the heat from his blush even through my shirt.
My first instinct was to laugh it off and pretend he’d said nothing.
It was so much easier to ignore things and avoid uncomfortable conversations.
But I couldn’t do that to him. I’d already messed up so much with him, it was time to step up and take responsibility.
“Ellis,” I began, not really sure where I was going with this. “Now that you’ve got your memories back, does that… does that change anything?”
He sat up enough to look at me. His hair was mussed up from sleeping for so long and stuck out in all directions.
“Change anything?” he asked. He must have noticed the direction of my gaze, for he started running his hands through his hair to try and tame the wild curls.
He only ended up making them worse, and I had to fight the urge to reach out and fix his hair for him.
“Yeah, like, should I be looking over my shoulder for a jealous husband or boyfriend that might want to take revenge on me?”