Chapter 49
Forty-Nine
Emory
I hadn’t given much thought to what it would feel like to be dead, other than what I had longed for—blissful oblivion.
That wasn’t what I felt as my body was floating, freefalling through nothing.
Except…
There.
I heard something.
A voice.
I couldn’t understand it, but it calmed me. Forced me to focus on finding my limbs, wiggling my fingers and toes.
A sudden heaviness tugged at my hand, pulling me towards a blinding light that was bleeding into the darkness surrounding me.
“Can you hear me, baby?”
My heartbeat was loud in my ears. Fast. Strong. Still beating.
Alive.
“You’re safe. I’m here.”
Enoch.
His hand gently squeezed mine and I pushed with the last of my effort to force my eyelids open. It took me a moment to get my vision to focus, the lights too bright above my head, but I realized I was staring at a whiteboard. A clock on the wall above it.
I couldn’t read the whiteboard from this distance; everything was blurry still. What I thought had been my heartbeat in my ears, was actually an electronic beeping coming from my left.
“Baby?” A hand cradled my face, and I slowly turned my head.
Enoch.
His facial hair was the longest I’d ever seen it. It covered up the dimple on his cheek as he smiled at me.
“Hi,” he breathed.
His browns eyes turned glassy with unshed tears, and his thumb stroked my cheekbone.
Why is he crying?
I opened my mouth to talk but there was something in my throat. My hand went to my face, but Enoch grabbed it.
“It’s okay. It’s just a tube.”
An overwhelming nausea had sweat breaking out on the back of my neck and I tried to swallow, but I could feel the tube, and it only increased the nausea.
I gagged.
“Shit,” Enoch abruptly pulled something from the wall and a bag was under my chin.
The action of vomiting sent a dull throb across my back and shoulders. I spit out of the bitter taste in my mouth and leaned back into my pillow, trying to breathe slowly but I could still feel the tube in my nose, and it hurt.
“Can we get a nurse in here?”
I watched as Enoch held some sort of remote looking thing to his face as he spoke.
“What’s the problem,” a staticky voice replied.
“She’s awake and just threw-up.”
“Okay. Nurse is on her way.”
It should have been obvious already, but I suddenly realized that I was in a hospital and as I questioned my reasons for being here, reality sunk in like an anchor around my ankle, dragging me to the bottom of the ocean.
Theo.
Eden.
Thirty-six. Thirty-seven. Thirty-eight. Thirty-nine.
Adrian.
Mother.
Javier.
Carlos.
My chest ached and I studied Enoch, wishing this wasn’t another hallucination.
“Ar—” my throat was raw, voice hoarse, but I pushed through the pain as his hand landing on my cheek, eyes on mine with rapt attention. “Are you real?”
Enoch nodded, “Yeah, baby.” He leaned forward, his lips on my forehead, leaving a tingling sensation as he pulled back. “I’m real. You’re safe.”
I didn’t want to cry, didn’t want my vision to be blocked by the reaction my body would have, didn’t want to lose sight of Enoch, of the safety and comfort he provided. And I needed it like a drug.
But the tears started falling, and I couldn’t get my breath to calm down.
“Shh, I’m here. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
I could hear it in his voice, that he was crying too, and I blindly reached out for him, my hand gripping on the front of his shirt as I forced him towards me. He caught himself before he crushed me, but I just needed to feel him. I needed him to drag me back to the surface.
I was drowning.
“I love you,” I rushed out. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I l-love you.”
Why hadn’t I said it sooner?
What if I’d never gotten the chance?
What if this wasn’t real?
What if I was actually dead?
What if all of this was just a hallucination?
What if I was still trapped in that brick cell with Mother?
“Shh,” his voice hushed, the warmth of his breath fanning my ear as his hand held the back of my head. “I know. I know. I love you.”
He started to pull away, and I clutched him tighter, “No, don’t leave.”
“He’s not leaving,” a female voice spoke. “I just need to get this mask on your face.”
Enoch pried my hands off his shirt and held them in his own. “I’m not leaving. I’m right here.”
The nurse sucked in a sharp breath. “What happened?”
“She’s got an eye condition. Happens when she cries.”
“What condition? I didn’t see it in her chart. I can’t give her anything for it without the doctor’s approval.”
“Byrd-Adkins Syndrome,” Enoch answered as a mask was pressed over my nose and mouth, the air it was pushing into my lungs cold and uncomfortable.
“I’ll page the doctor. Are you having trouble breathing?”
I sucked in the air and shook my head.
“It doesn’t impact her airways. Just her eyes.”
I focused on breathing, on the feel of Enoch’s hands in mine as he squeezed them just as hard as I was squeezing his.
“I’ll see about getting you some anti-nausea medication as well. How’s your pain level?”
I thought about it for a moment. “Two.”
I shuddered at the memory of the pain I had been in before. This dull ache is nothing. I can handle this for seven lifetimes.
I heard the sound of the nurse leaving, the door closing shut behind her. Enoch brought my hands up, kissing my knuckles.
It took several minutes for me to stop crying, all the while Enoch held my hands, his head beside mine as he whispered into my ear that I was safe.
That he loved me. That it was over. That he was sorry it took so long for him to find me.
That he was sorry he’d broken his promise.
That he hadn’t been there to protect me.
When I finally caught my breath, I decided to ask the questions that were on my mind.
“Where are we?”
“Pennsylvania.”
I pulled the mask off my face, “What?!”
“I had you transferred here as soon as you were stable. I didn’t want you to wake up in Texas.”
I nodded slowly.
“How did you find me?”
Enoch sighed, turning his head slightly to kiss my cheek.
“It was a group effort.”
I waited for him to elaborate.
“I called Bradley the second I realized you were taken. Then I went to my dad. He found some ex-special forces contacts and with Bradley’s help we got a team together.
Only, the house had been burned down before we had the chance to try and get you out.
It was Bradley who decided to then get the FBI involved.
And with their help we were able to locate where Los Siete had taken you. And then get you out.”
“What happened to them? To…Carlos.”
“Dead.”
No. He was supposed to be dead before, the FBI had told me so, and yet he wasn’t.
“Were you there? Did you see it?”
“I wasn’t there, but, yes. I saw it.”
“You saw him die? Did they check his pulse? Are you sure it was him? What about the rest of them? The other leaders? Was it just Carlos in the compound? There was another man that I saw…I…um…he was…fuck, I think I recognized him—”
Enoch cut me off, “You’re safe here. You’ve got a guard outside the door. No one is getting in but me and the medical staff.”
“A guard?”
“Yeah. I trust him. He was part of the team that helped get you out.”
It was too much to take in. I was struggling to comprehend the fact that I had been saved at all.
“Wait. Your parents. You told them about me?”
Nonono. Now they’re all in danger.
“Shh,” Enoch stroked my cheek. “It’s okay. I needed their help.”
“No, how could you do that? They’re not safe now!”
“Shiloh!” Enoch’s hands held my face, his forehead against mine. “Shiloh, stop. Listen to me. We are all safe right now. No one is in danger.”
“You don’t know that!” My voice hurt from the force at which I was trying to scream with an already hoarse voice.
“I do,” Enoch said firmly. “Everyone is safe. You’re safe,” he reiterated. “I know you don’t have a reason to believe me right now. Do you want to meet the guy outside when you can see again? Would that make you feel better?”
Safe.
“No. They know about me, they know you tried to kill Carlos and whoever else was there. They know now. They know about you. They’re going to hurt you because of me.”
“Baby,” Enoch’s fingertips pressed into my skull. “They killed everyone there. They’re all dead. There’s no one left who can hurt you.”
I threw the mask away from my face. “No! Carlos was there! He’s not dead! They’re lying! They’re lying!”
I blindly shoved at Enoch, my back protesting as I sat up.
They’re going to find us all.
They’re going to make me watch as they’re all killed.
You were a fun, fiery little thing.
Bile surged up my throat as his words echoed in my head. I heard footsteps and suddenly voices were in the room.
No! They’re here!
Fuck!
They’re going to hurt my Enoch. He’s going to make me watch him.
A vivid nightmare flashed in my mind of Enoch locked in that cell with me, of Carlos forcing me to watch as he aimed his gun at him.
I reached for the tube in my nose and yanked, a fire erupting in my throat as it moved upwards. Hands landed on mine, prying the tube from my fingers, and I screamed.
“ENOCH!” I panted.
“I’m here. I’m here. You’re okay. Just calm—Stop, please. You’re scaring her.”
“ENOCH!” Oh, hell. They have him!
“You’re okay, baby. You’re okay. Just breathe. You’re safe.”
“ENOCH!”
“Fuck, you’re scaring her. Don’t! She doesn’t like being restrained.”
I fought as hard as I could against the hands pinning my arms to my sides, kicking out, but that only made them pin my legs too.
“ENOCH!”
I couldn’t hear him anymore. I couldn’t hear his voice.
Was he dead? Was he gone? Did they hurt him?
A mask was over my face, hands and feet tied down, and I couldn’t do anything but scream and scream until I could no longer breath and my lungs gave out.
August 26, Wednesday
Enoch
I scrubbed my hands through my hair, foot tapping erratically as I stared in through the small window on her hospital room door.
“Fuck! They’re just making it worse!” I shouted at the male nurse who had forcibly removed me from Shiloh’s room.