BEAUTIFUL FLOWER | MATTHEO RIDDLE

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

+++

MATTHEO RIDDLE IS YASMINE AMAROS. CALANTHA, ERISED, NICCOLÓ, KASSANDRA, AND EPIPHANY ARE MINE. ALL OTHERS UNLESS MENTIONED ARE JK R*WLINGS.

TW: LANGUAGE, MINOR ABUSE

+++

I woke up in the hospital bed again, still trapped in the same place I had been for the last so many days, and I could tell that nothing much had changed. Beside me, Mattheo slept, his head held up by one of his hands propped on the arm of the chair, and the other dangling loosely at his slumped side.

I was careful not to wake him knowing that he wasn't getting a lot of sleep with the amount of strenuous time he spent waiting with me, and even though I knew he was doing it for me, I wished he wasn't.

It wasn't that I was losing whatever feelings I had for him, it was that I needed time.

Sure, I'd been asleep for the past however many days, but what people didn't know was that I could hear them--every single word. It was never quiet, but more like a nonstop relay of running from my own mind, and there I was, completely trapped inside of it.

"You're overthinking it all,"

My eyes darted to the corner of the hospital wing where the familiar girl stood once again, her arms crossed as she leaned against the wall, grinning at me. I shrugged wearily, narrowing my eyes, slightly pressing my hands against the bed sheets so that I leaned closer in her direction, and then I whispered, "Who are you?"

Her eyes widened and she grew eager, putting her hands behind her back, and beamed. She acted as though she had been waiting for me to ask this. "Don't you want to know how I know you're overthinking?" she giggled, pushing herself off of the wall, then walked gallantly around the room, not bothering to keep quiet.

My eyes widened as I looked from her to Mattheo, and then again, then for a third time, and she finally noticed, stopping her steps.

"Don't worry about Theo, I won't wake him up." she smiled, playfully shaking her hand near him. My expression turned from annoyance to confusion in a matter of seconds, and she took this on as she laughed to herself, once again shaking her stretch of reddish hair as she sat beside me on the bed.

This was the fourth time she'd appeared in the hospital wing. This time, I finally knew that it was real. That I wasn't dreaming or hallucinating.

"He can't hear or see me, only you can." she reassured me.

I laughed, trying to quiet down, remembering that I wasn't alone. What could that even mean? I cleared my throat, then, and whispered. "What are you talking about?"

"When Mattheo used the Tenebris Curse, it woke you up from your magic sleep or whatever it was that the fall put you in--it awakened your mind." she shrugged her shoulders, beginning to play with a string of the blanket I was covering myself with.

"What're you--," I shook my head, confused by all that she was saying. I shut my eyes and brought a hand to my forehead, trying to clear my head, and took in a deep breath. "What are you talking about? What curse?"

"Listen, I'll explain it more to you later, once you've talked to more of us, but for right now, you need to try and rest."

"More of you? What do you mean? Who are you?" I stared eagerly at the young girl, looking at her small freckles dotting her perfect nose. She was younger, probably around Epiphany's age or a year or so older, but she was beautiful.