Taken In

Stay Awake

*Keanu POV*

I'd been walking this route for nearly 13 years.
Out of my apartment, 8 minutes until the underground, 20 minutes until I changed lines, and then another 20 minutes uninterrupted. The rest was a 15 minute walk above ground, which was where I usually got my coffee and sometimes breakfast if I was having a good day. On the way home I would stop in at either The Heights bar or Kelly's, an Irish pub I'd become quite fond of.
I didn't usually drink, but the 0% stuff was good, and they served food. I hadn't cooked a dish for myself since... I couldn't even remember when. Something about cooking alone in our kitchen, my kitchen now, made my heart drop.
I didn't like eating in restaurants either, it was too uptight, eating at a table staring at an empty place setting put me off my food. Cheap, dirty food served around loud environments where I could dissappear, that was my conditions now.
And they all knew me, I'd been a regular there for so long that against my better efforts, I was on a first name basis with most of the staff in both establishments. I didn't really mind, I just liked to keep my head down.
Which is why I wasn't stopping by on my way home tonight, and why I hadn't stopped at my usual place for a coffee this morning either.
I'd woken up hungover, feeling like crap when my alarm went off at 5:30. A couple of hours to myself before I started my usual commuting routine, and landed at the hospital.
I'd been a physican there for 8 years before they promoted me, and then a few years after that they promoted me again. I was set to head my own department before next Christmas, which meant most of my work now was purely admin based.
I liked my work, I was good at it. It kept my hands busy and my soul clean, it felt like giving back, and I didn't know what else I had to do on this planet.
But walking back through the snow, the last fog of a hangover beginning to disperse, I was still thinking.
Cheri. Cherub.
She hadn't told me her stage name, but one of the other girls had said it before I went in.
"You'll be tended to by our little Cherub tonight, and don't be afraid to clip her wings if you need to, she can be a devil in disguise!" The girl had said with a cheeky smile.
I knew it had been a mistake going there. And now, every second thought I had was of those eyes. Those tired, sunken eyes and fake smile that she'd had on all night.
And I'd cried to her. I'd cried in her lap. This girl, who had seen and experienced horrors that I would never know, had let me, a grown man, cry in her lap. I cursed myself internally.
I think she might've found it easier if I'd just fucked her, by the distraught look on her face when I left, pressing money into her hand as if that made any difference.
I hadn't cried to anyone about Lauren since the funeral. Hadn't even spoken in depth to anyone about her, and then I'd offloaded years of suppressed grief onto a 19 year old prostitute.
What kind of a man are you? I cursed myself again.
What would Lauren think?
I stopped myself from thinking the rest of that thought, before it sent me spiralling again. I felt like I needed a drink, but I knew that was a slippery slope for me, so I forced myself to walk past The Heights, and Kelly's. I'd get a takeaway, pop some sleeping pills, and be fine.
I just had to get that girl out of my head. I couldn't help but think about the fact that I'd left her there, to go back to her "ordinary" life. A life of old men and ....
Don't think about it.
I decided to walk home a little way. It was half an hour walk to the next underground I could take, and snow was beginning to fall for the second time that day.
It was beautiful, 9pm in the city and the lights caught the snowflakes as they twirled through the air, adding to snowdrifts that hadn't yet been plowed away yet. We'd had alot of snow this year, early November, and already the ground felt frozen solid and the air sharp with ice.
It would be a long winter.
I tugged my coat tighter, flipped up the collar as a wind buffer, and dug my hands in my pockets. It was an expensive felt wool coat Lauren had bought me, that was long and navy blue, and I treasured it.
The wind was beginning to pick up, and I was beginning to regret my decision to walk.
But I needed to clear my mind away from people, and away from that huge, empty apartment, and...
I nearly walked straight past, but something made me focus on that pile of rubbish half covered in a snow drift. Then I saw that it wasn't a rubbish heap at all, it was a person.
There was a foot, hanging limp, and hair the was soaked through and exposed.
They weren't breathing.
My heart stopped as I stepped near, calling out,
"Hey, you okay there?"
They must've been lying there for a while, the snow was a few centimetres thick over their still body. They were breathing, if barely, but definitely unconscious and had been for some time. I stepped closer, knelt down and tried to find their face.
And then, it was her face.
It was Cheri.
My blood ran cold and I fell ontop of her, brushing the snow aside and trying to dig her out of the drift. She was ice cold, and stiff. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her hands were balled into fists, they were nearly purple. The same shade as the end of her nose, and those sunken, tired eyes were nearly black in their sockets.
"Cheri? Cheri can you hear me? You need to wake up!" I called, putting my hands to her face.
Her head fell back, her lips were cracked and she convulsed ever so slightly.
That was a good sign, movement of any sort was a good sign. I couldn't think past getting her to a hospital, and quick.
I knew with this traffic, this late on a weekend that an ambulance could be an hour, and she didn't have time.
I removed my coat and lay it down on the snow. Then I dug my hands under Cheri and lifted her into the coat, wrapping her in its silk lining like a cocoon. I lifted her into my arms.
She was light, so light I nearly dropped her from the shock of it. I heard her throat croak slightly, she was trying to speak, her eyes still shut with ice crystallising in her eyelashes.
"It's okay, Cheri, you need to stay awake. Don't fall asleep on me okay? We're going to a hospital."
Her mouth opened and closed, and I could feel her small body shifting in my arms, but she wasn't strong enough to open her eyes, let alone move her body.
"That's it, keep moving around. You have to stay awake, Cheri."
I didn't feel cold, I didn't feel tired even after I'd ran back down street I'd just walked up.
The only thing I felt was Cheri's ice cold form through the coat, as if she was barely more than one of the snowflakes that fell from the sky above.
"We're nearly there, Cheri, please, stay awake. You have to stay awake, okay?"
I held her close, trying to give her some of the heat that was now coursing through my veins.
"You're going to be okay, please, Cheri,  stay awake."

*A/N: ahh its gonna get angsty! Hope you guys are enjoying, and please do leave feedback! Thanks for reading!*