Come Back to Me

13

Reality had yet to fully sink in as Vanessa sat in the waiting room of the hospital, fighting back the sobs that she desperately wanted to let out. She had nearly doubled over in pain, tightly gripping her stomach with the hope it would stop the pain. Nothing helped. The cramps completely crippled her. She tried to move into different positions, trying to take some of the weight off her lower body, but the movement had her crying out.

Dead was quick to react to the sound, his head snapping in her direction as his hand tightened on her leg.

"Is there something I can do?" he asked. "Do you want some water?"

Vanessa could only shake her head, her lips pursed tightly so she wouldn't let out another sound. She knew Dead was worried, the bleeding had slowed but hadn't really stopped, the doctors were doing their best to move things along, but with all the people who had been there before them it seemed as though it would be a while.

"Miss Stevens?"

Vanessa looked up to meet the eyes of a female doctor, close to Dead's age if she had to guess.

She nodded. "That's me."

The woman smiled sadly. "We're gonna get you into a wheelchair and moved into one of the rooms to get you looked over. I can see you're already in a lot of pain so we're going to try and make it as painless as possible, alright?"

Vanessa nodded. "Okay. Can he come with me?"

The woman shook her head. "Not right now, sweetheart. We need to get you looked at and there's some officers here that need to talk to him first. When he's cleared he can come back and stay with you."

Her eyes snapped shut as she shook her head. "Please can't you just tell them to wait? I don't want to go back there by myself."

"I'm afraid I can't do that. I promise you'll be alright and we'll try to make it as quick as possible, but we need to get you seen now."

Dead moved his arm from around her, noticing the two police officers in the doorway just out of her sight.

"Go," he whispered, kissing her head softly. "I won't be long."

Liar.

The chances of him being allowed to see her after what had happened were slim to none. He would most likely be arrested and charged with Varg's murder and locked up for the rest of his life. Their time together had once again been cut short all because of her.

None of this would have happened if I had just kept my mouth shut around Euronymous or told Dead what I wanted to do.

Even if things had gone the way she wanted, the chances of Varg still coming after one of them was high. She would have still taken away his chances of being in Mayhem, any fame he would have gotten from it was gone one way or the other. Only letting them both die would have stopped this.

Squeezing her eyes shut tight, her face turned to a grimace. Swallowing the pain and ignoring it the best she could as the nurse pushed her away from Dead.

~

Dead let out a low growl as his head dropped to look at the white tiled floor. He didn't want to talk to the police now, not when she needed him most; but even he knew there really wasn't anything he could do at this point. He had killed Varg mercilessly, blood now stained his hands just as bad as it did their bedroom floor. Yet the thought of him murdering someone didn't phase him in the slightest.

The bastard deserved it for what he did to her.

His lip twitched upward at the thought.

Yes.

Varg had deserved death and whatever hell came after death for hurting her. He didn't know the full extent of her injuries, but based on the amount of blood that kept coming and the pain she was in, he could safely assume that Varg had without a doubt done irreparable damage to her both physically and mentally.

Let's hope I never see you in Hell.

"Sir," a voice came from in front of him.

Lifting his head, Dead met the gaze of the two police officers. One of them was an older man with graying hair, most likely in his late forties. His eyes were soft just like the rest of his facial expressions and he looked at Dead like a father would a son who had just been through hell. The woman beside him looked younger, maybe late thirties. She kept her gaze mostly on her partner or the floor, never looking at him directly.

"Yes?" Dead managed.

The man sighed. "I'm Officer Christian Samurais, this is Officer Krista Davis. We just need to ask you about what happened. From the looks of things it seems like a pretty open and shut matter, but we need the full story so we can help the both of you. Can you do that?"

Dead nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Now, you and I are gonna head into the cafeteria to talk while officer Davis goes to talk to Miss Stevens to get her side of the story. We've already talked to your friends and they've pretty much said that this guy was a real piece of work, but we still gotta follow through with questioning."

"I understand," Dead's eyes moved toward Officer Davis. "Please make sure she's not stressed anymore than she already is."

Her brows furrowed at the statement, eyes meeting his. "I'm here to do my job, Mr. Ohlin, not to be told how to do it."

"Krista," snapped Samurais. "That's not how we're going to talk. I don't think Mr. Ohlin was trying to tell you how to do your job, the man is clearly just worried about her state of mind."

Her eyes moved back down to the floor. "My apologies. I'll head to her room and talk to her."

Once out of the room, Samurais turned to Dead. "I'd like to apologize for her behavior. She's still fairly new to all this."

Dead shook his head. "It's fine. What do you want to know?"

Sitting at one of the tables, Dead watched as the man took out his notepad.

"Why don't we start at the beginning."