Accolade

chapitre trente sept

auden's pov

Every tick of the clock felt like an eternity. 

She had made the decision to go under and although it may have been the best decision, I hadn't been able to stop the tears yet. The moment her eyes slipped closed and they declared her stable in the coma, River covered his face as he crumbled into the chair beside her bed. His grief came immediately. Warren was so silent I worried about him. 

Truthfully, I didn't know what I was going to do if she didn't wake up. She had been my inspiration for getting into fashion. I only ever wanted to design pieces for her to wear so she could feel like royalty. I had been so focused on honing my skills and building my reputation, I shouldn't have been so selfish. I should have visited New York City more often, made it a priority for us to get dinner or have a movie night. 

There were so many regrets now. 

I just expected there to be more time and now there wasn't. 

As I stared at her in that hospital bed, my heart hurt. 

Every beat felt more painful than the last. My ribcage seemed to rattle with my breath. My lungs refused to expand and made my throat burn. I couldn't even more from her side, I'd promised.

She had been put under for almost twenty-four hours. 

Dr. Welch and a whole bunch of other people I didn't even bother acknowledging came into her room like clockwork. They seemed surprised at the eight hour mark, then the twelve. So far, his theory was proven true. Perhaps being unconscious was helping her fight harder because if she had been awake, the swelling would have killed her by now. 

When the eighteen hour mark came, I wasn't sure I was blinking. My eyes were dry and probably red. None of us were functioning in the slightest. I didn't know the last time I had water. Eventually, the nurses tried to fuss over us as if we were their patients and Warren snapped at them. They left.

River sat on her other side, honoring his promise to stay awake, but he had since retracted into his own mind. His emotions were reigned back, I didn't know if he would ever recover. Warren was silent. The three of us took turns holding her hands, she was never without support.

We waited. 

Countless hours, countless rotations of people. 

Until one of us finally lost our mind. 

My eyes trailed the numerous wires and lines connected to her, they crisscrossed and stretched over every inch of her body. They had intubated her, the tube sticking out of her mouth as the machine made sure she got the oxygen she needed. Her skin had lost its color completely, her eyelids never fluttered anymore... she looked...

Suddenly, I wanted to rip all those lines away from her.

My Little Aida couldn't dance with it tying her down.

I didn't know what came over me but the rush of hot emotion brought action. I stood and my hands fell to the lines forcing her to stay in this bed. I began pulling.

"Auden---Auden, stop!" River was alarmed as he shot out of the chair across from me. In the next breath, his hands immediately prevented me from causing any further damage. Warren tried to fix what I had done as River dragged me away. The machine began screaming. Nurses rushed in as River backed me into the corner of the room."What are you doing?"