Triangle. |Stray Kids

Twenty-Three.

The sobs were now soft sniffles. His messy damp face was wiped by the back of his hand. He was still standing by her bed, not knowing what to say or where to start. Chris was broken when he left Lilly's house and started drawing lines between them, but it was nothing compared to how he was when he almost lost her. When she almost lost her life while trying to protect him.

"C-can," Lilly panted as she tried to talk, making Chris finally lifts his head to look at her. "Can you-u.. help.. me up?"

Chris quickly leaned towards her. He slipped his right hand underneath her back and held her waist with his left to sit her upright. Before he pulls away completely, he adjusted the pillows behind her to make sure she was nestled and safe to be sitting like that.

When he was sure she was okay and was about to step back, Lilly's weak hands held onto his shoulders, stopping him from going any farther. Weakly, Lilly pulled him into her arms, forcing him to sit down on her bed and by her side to make her task easier since she was still terribly fragile.

Chris was taken aback when she pulled him even closer. He stopped breathing when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and tightened her grip as strongly as her arms allowed. He almost gasped when he felt her bury her face into the crook of his neck. And then his heart clenched when he heard her start to sniffle.

"God!" She gasped, sending shivers to his skin with her breath that brushed his neck. "I thought-t.. I was.. going.. to lose.. y-you." She panted. "I t-thought that.. evil-l thing.. was going to take.. yo-u." Her body started shaking against his. "I th-hought.. you .. I.." By then Lilly was the one crying.

Without looking, Chris knew she was wetting his shirt with her tears. And he was still in shock. Lilly was hugging him and he felt paralyzed. Lilly was hugging him! Lilly was crying for him. He was the one who almost lost her but she was the crying one now. Chris immediately remembered the words she said when he was possessed. When he was trapped inside himself and was trying to fight to get control over his body again.

She was determined to save him. She said she would die for him. She said she would allow that evil spirit to take her but never to hurt him. She said he was.. her other half!

Chris's senses sprang back to life. He felt his body shoots up with energy again and his breath comes back as blood started to circulate properly, finally making it to his stupid brain cells.

Lilly was hugging him while crying on his shoulder and he wasn't hugging back!

Immediately, Chris wrapped his arms around her smaller figure, pulling her closer to his body until they were flushed against each other. He wanted to hold her tighter. He wanted to hug her with all of his might but she was still hurt and weak. One hand rested on the small of her back while the other went to the back of her head to caress her hair.

"Shhh." He shushed her as he gently, very gently, started to rock their bodies from right to left. "Quit crying. You're still unwell. You can't endanger yourself for more." He said in his softest voice.

"I-I can't." She mumbled into his soaked shirt. "J-Just thinking that I.. might've .. l-lost you.."

Much to Chris's dismay, he felt like he needed to pull away. So, softly he moved his hands to her arms and unwrapped them from around his body. He held her two hands in his and dropped them to his lap. "I'm the one who's supposed to say that." He looked down at their hands. "I'm the one who was almost losing you. That night-" He grimaced at the memory of that night. "If it wasn't for Lino being there with us, you could've been.. gone."

"What?" Lilly sniffled while looking at his face.

Chris lifted his head to look at her. He moved one hand to wipe the tears off her face. "You had a cardiac arrest. Lino was fast to apply CPR and call the ambulance." Pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear, Chris sighed in relief and looked at her face. "I can't believe you are finally back. I've been in a living hell since that night. I thought you were hibernated but the doctor said it was a coma an-"