ELBINA 3

Chapter 28

(Elbina POV)
My eyes are blurry, it takes me a second to see clearly till I run my hands over them. Looking over the room, I can see that Lucas still isn't back.
It only makes me wary, thinking about how long I might have been asleep.
But it couldn't have been long.
The doctor is still here, pulling me up now that he sees I'm awake.
"How are you doing?" He says, a hand at my back keeping me up. He pulls a small torch from his pocket, turning it on swiftly and flicking it over my eyes.
I moved away from him, "Where's Lucas?"
"I'm not sure, you don't need to worry about that though."
"Too late for that." I mumble, grabbing his wrist and pulling his hand away so he can stop flashing that stupid torchlight in my eyes.
"Do you feel any better?"
"Where's Riley?" His grimace tells me he's a little frustrated with my lack of answers. I didn't particularly care, he didn't understand my fear.
"She'll be back any second now, you just hold on." I keep an eye behind him, as he keeps explaining about checking for normal reflexes. Checking I don't have a concussion, he seems satisfied enough so I think I'm good for now.
As he moves away, switching to the other side of the bed to check my leg again. I freeze, my skin flashs hot red and I can't keep my eyes off the open section of curtain.
Watching her walk past like nothing mattered, like she hadn't even done those things to us not an hour ago. I tried to speak, for anything to come out but my throat closed up too terrified to do anything.
It was her, no doubt about it.
And she was heading in the same direction that Lucas went in before, the last I'd seen of him as he went to find Nero. So I knew, that's exactly where she would have been heading.
"That friend of yours is going to make a full recovery, he was damn lucky from what I read on the notes." My ears perk up at this, he looks satisfied now that he found something to keep my attention.
Because now she's gone from view, and my voice can work again and I can move.
"Where is he?" I stutter out, he looks back at me funny. Seeing I'm panicking and unsure how to respond having seen my mood change.
"Oh, I'm not sure about the exact room but somewhere in the north wing of the hospital?"
"Same floor?" I press, he stands up from the side. Nodding just slightly so I have my answer.
I start getting up and it's just as I see Riley heading my way too.
"What's happening?"  She says, stepping in once she notices me sitting up and moving. Her eyebrows rose in confusion as she looked at the doctor beside me.
"I don't know, I think she saw something." It comes out quickly, his head flicking back to me because I don't say anything.
Instead I push myself up completely and try swinging my legs off the bed and onto the ground. Which is when Riley runs up to me and pushes me back down till my shoulders hit the mattress below me.
"Ella! What are you doing!?" I didn't have time for this, she hadn't looked like she was hanging around. I didn't have time to be slowed down.
My limbs feel like they're flailing, unsure what to do with myself in the panic of the moment. I just know I can't still be here, sitting on this bed and not chasing after Arden before she got to that room.
"Sit back down Ella." She says again, forcing down on my shoulders whilst my legs flick up and kick her in the stomach.
I push against her again but this time she lets up a little from the winding I just gave her. But then the doctor steps in too, tackling me down to the bed and counteracting any of my efforts from escaping.
"I need to find him!" I scratch at her arms, leaving red marks on her pale skin.
"You're in no shape to be finding anyone."
"I'm fine, just let me go!" They didn't understand, and the more I'm still on this bed the more stressed and fearful I become.
It was her, she didn't look the same but it was definitely her.
Arden.
The woman who knew I'd fire an empty, who manipulated me into everything. The women that thought she'd succeeded in killing Lucas and I.
But she was about to find out that that wasn't true.
She hadn't seen me, walked straight past without a care in the world. Long confident strides that didn't scream to me that she felt at all nervous.
She was here to finish the job and that was it.
So I was right.
And now Lucas was in the room with Nero at this precise moment, not knowing that she was already in the building.
"He isn't safe!" I'm desperate now, and she sees it. Her eyes locked on mine.
"He is, and he told me to keep you here. You're both okay now, you're safe." I shake my head, frustrated tears brimming in my eyes.
"He's not, he's not safe." She isn't listening, no one's listening to me.
"Ella. You need to calm down, I'm not letting you leave this bed."
"I'm not going to stop until you let me go!" I pinch her skin under my hands, fighting against the doctor on my other shoulder who pushes down even harder.
But then her head flicks over to the doctor and he nods, moving away so she can strongarm me down.
"RILEY!" I shout, my voice cracks and I kick out even more but she's manoeuvred herself in a way to stop me catching her again.
In the corner of my eye, I see the doctor rushing around with a needle. Drawing up a clear liquid before coming over towards me, forcing me to fight even harder.
"No!" I don't know what it is.
I don't want it.
I catch Riley's eye again, hoping that just the look on my face will force her to let me go.
It doesn't work.
Nothing's working.
"DON'T LET HIM, PLEASE!"
Why am I pleading with someone? I should know by now that it never works.
"GET OFF OF ME!"
"It's just a small dose of diazepam, it'll calm you down, okay?" He tries to soothe me, pulling my hand away from the grip I have on Rileys' arm and bringing it closer to him.
My head shakes quickly pulling my hand out of the man's grip as he threatens to stab the needle into me.
I've got so much adrenaline pumping in my veins now that I don't feel the pain in my leg and I don't feel weak anymore. He tries to grab my arm again but I rip it from his grip.
"That's not fucking okay!" I say with finality before I manage to push her completely, Riley tumbles to the ground beside the bed. Her head knocked against the floor so she's left dazed, and when the doctor tries to tackle me I only kick him away, forcing him to the ground as well.
Before either of them could stop me, I pulled the catheter from the back of my hand and jumped off the bed. Blood spurting from the wound leaves a trail along the floor as I leave them scrambling to get up.
"Ella! Get back here!" She shouts, I glance back only for a second to see her struggling to get up for a moment.
I don't listen, I just start running.
Stumbling over my leg and heading right in the direction of where I last saw her.
"STOP HER!" There's a distant shout from Riley behind, pushing me on faster as if any second she might grab me from behind and force me down
People around me look confused, a pause in their step but I've rounded the corner before I can be stopped.
"North wing."
"North wing." I keep saying it on repeat, as if the thought itself will be enough to automatically find the room. Even if I didn't know the exact one he was in, I couldn't give up. I had to find it.
"Where are you?" I whisper to myself, pausing at a floorplan before pushing on and heading in the direction of the north wing like the doctor had told me.
But what if he didn't really know?
What if he'd made a guess?
What if I'd headed in completely the wrong direction?
But then, as I pass a corridor off to my right. That's when I caught sight of the back of her entering a room.
The door shut quickly behind her.
I freeze for a moment, legs stuck down to the ground unable to move but it's only for a moment that I can't.
The thought of him in there means I quickly race down the hallway, my feet slapping hard against the ground, so it makes that weird echo in the silence around me.
It's disconcerting, foreign and taunting because it's going to be anything but silent once I get in the room.
My heart beats wild in my chest, rattling my lungs so it's hard to breathe and I don't think, I don't think of anything else or how stupid I'm being when I go to open the door and I step inside.
My hand freezes on the door handle, Nero stares at me wide eyed from the bed, surrounded by three soldiers and then there's Arden looking back at me.
But what I wasn't expecting was realising that Lucas wasn't in here.
My eyes fall back on Arden who's closest to me, and I don't know what to do but stare back at her. The women who'd nearly killed me, the women that put that gun in my hand and pushed it against Lucas' head.
I should be brave, angry and make her regret everything she's done. I can't do anything that I want to do, I'm just frozen.
She doesn't do anything for a moment, almost like she's too shocked to do anything and we just end up looking back at each other.
It's all stopped once Nero shouts, "RUN ELBINA!" The second I hear him, it forces me into action.
Arden quickly snaps out of any form of inaction too.
I try to run.
Managing to take a step back but the moment I get a foot out of the door I'm already pulled back and thrown onto the ground beside the bed.
My head hits the boots of the soldiers standing beside Nero.
"How are you still alive!" She sneers down at me, stepping closer once she's locked the door behind her.
Trapping me in the room and deciding my fate.
I remain on the ground, my arms and legs shaking in fear.
She above anyone else terrified me, it's probably because she doesn't act like a human should.
She doesn't have a decent bone in her body and I'd believed growing up that everyone was good. They just did bad things sometimes, no one intends to be evil.
I didn't want to believe someone could just be evil, apathetic from the get go.
Because what kind of a world is that?
What kind of a world would allow this to happen when it doesn't make sense. She doesn't belong here, people who do this kind of thing shouldn't exist.
"How did you make it out!" I don't say anything again, her eyes turn down to my leg stitched up.
A cruel smile forms on her face when she takes another step closer to me, fists clenched before she suddenly lifts her boot and stamps it down on my leg.
My scream echoes loudly, the sharp pain forcing me to squirm below her but she doesn't let up. Twisting it into the wound and breaking apart some of the stitches so they rip through the friable skin edges.
Sucking in a sharp breath when she finally lets her weight go from my leg, blood oozing from the surface all over again and the red stains cover parts of her sole.
"Where's Lucas?" She hisses, leaning down as she glares at me.
I shake my head. "You fucking killed him!" I can't edge any further away from her, my back only pressing into the knees of the soldiers behind me.
"There's no point in lying to me, I will scour the entire of this hospital to find him. He's not getting away, neither of you ever again. I'm sick to death of the both of you."
"Likewise." I snip back, and I almost smile at myself because I found some form of courage deep in my gut.
She grabs me, her strong arms holding me up off my legs.
"You came here for me Arden! Leave her be." Nero shouts but not two seconds later he's punched in the side of the head. Barely struggling against them when he's pulled from the bed and dragged onto the floor.
I kick out at her, barely catching her which only makes her press me against the wall. Smacking the back of my head against it with a crack.
"I gave you the chance of a quick end! It wouldn't have been painful, it'd been so quick you wouldn't have even noticed it."
"I'm not ready to die yet." I choked out, digging my nails into her arm.
"No one's ever ready Elbina. It just happens, and now is when it happens for you." She leans closer, her sweet scent strong in my nose. "I'm not letting you get away again."
"How do you plan on not being seen? They'll know you killed us, you've walked straight into a hospital."
She smiles coyly, a knowing look on her expression. "Why do you think it took me so long to get here? It's all in the planning Elbina."
Then before I can say anything more, she knees me in the gut.
Any air forced out of my lungs, and I drop to the ground.
A soldier grabs me, keeping me on the ground and dragging me along the floor until I'm held down beside Nero.
His eye catches mine, it's enough to tighten the knot in my gut because he looks just as scared as me. Mouthing that he's sorry to me, it's too much.
He's held down by two soldiers, struggling against them as one pulls his arm out. His hand with the catheter out in the open in front of him and I watch in horror as she pulls out a needle and syringe. Her hand stable, unshaking as she steps closer.
"What are you doing!?" Nero shouts, grunting against his efforts from trying to escape.
A lump in my throat forms amongst the panic, seeing Nero's arm trembling out in the open space.
His aggressive shouts and jolts do nothing, she still grasps hold of his wrist above the cannula.
"You don't have to do this! I'm useful, I can help you." He says with panic, I shake my head at myself because I thought for a split moment before this that he was a bad person.
That underneath that hard exterior he wanted to hurt me, but that's not true.
He's just scared.
Which is what makes watching this even worse.
Seeing someone who'd been so rock solid fall apart in front of me.
Which isn't a fault on his part, that'd break anyone.
"Please, Arden. Don't!" I plant my legs and I push up, fighting harder against him.
I watch her aim the needle in line with the hub, her eyes glancing up at him.
The soldier holding me stumbles just slightly.
"I thought you'd act differently, Nero. I had you pegged as something else. This display is rather disappointing, so no." She advances it, the needle disappears into the hub and she readjusts her hand to the back of the syringe. Ready to drive in whatever drug that would kill him, then she looks back at him and glares, "You aren't useful."
Then suddenly, a bang sounds on the door.
I use the distraction well, using the last of my energy to push up enough to kick the syringe. It disconnects from the needle and clatters to the floor away from us before settling somewhere under the bed.
Another bang resonates from the door and before I have a chance to look back, I'm left dizzy by the force of her punch.
Blood spills from my mouth having bitten my tongue and the soldier pushes me down to the ground, holding me there. I tilt my head so I can see Arden glancing back at the door before quickly digging a hand beneath the bed, flitting it back and forth trying to locate the syringe.
"ELLA!" My eyes widen, his shouts evident from the other side of the door.
No.
Leave, please.
Just go.
I cough, trying to get rid of the blood in my mouth so I can shout just as loud back.
"RUN LUCAS! GET HELP!"
He doesn't do that of course, and it isn't more than two jolts further till the door slams open and Lucas looks down at the chaos of the room.
Arden pulls out the syringe from under the bed, scrambling only slightly as she reconnects it to the needle.
His eyes flick over the room, seeing me on the ground and then seeing Arden as she hovers in front of Nero on the ground.
"Stop her!" He pulls harder, suddenly ripping his hand a little further away from Arden so she loses her grip on the syringe for a moment.
I spit out more blood, it splatters along the floor in front of my face. Nero shouts at Lucas to help him again, and for the briefest moment I see him pause.
"LUCAS!"
My voice seems to force him to jump into action and just as she goes to push forward on the syringe, she's pulled away.
Her head smacking into the metal bed frame behind her so she can't stop Lucas when he grabs the syringe from the catheter.
Ripping it away and standing up, stepping back out of their reach whilst he dispenses the entire drug onto the ground around him.
Nero breathes heavily in the corner, shaking uncontrollably and I catch Lucas' eye as he sees the soldier holding me down.
And I'd like to think he looks hopeful.
I'd like to think that we stood a chance right now.
Either way, the look on his face tells me that whatever happens, he's not going down without a fight.
Which is perfect, because neither am I.