The Ice Prince

Chapter 52

White haze. Curling tendrils of mist. Silence.

I could feel the medicine working its way into my system. It offered only momentary release. It isolated me from the outer world, and for a while, I was at peace with myself, with what could happen and with what I had done. But only, for a while. Soon, my numb fingers could feel the chill around me. My ears could detect voices, but my mind couldn't make them out. My eyes were closed as ever, and I was stuck inside my body, unable to move, unable to speak. But I was able to think now, and that tormented me. A thousand scenarios went through my head, and not all of them ended well. Each time I heard the voices talking, like an unsteady buzzing by my ear, some things began to get clearer.

Ash!

Definitely, my name was being called. But no, this wasn't someone calling me. It was someone mentioning me. The voice lacked the power to pull me out of my state of trance. Slowly, I could make out some names.

Kellner. Ash.

Okay, so Hayley was back. I was positive that the voice calling Kellner's name had been hers. More words. More names. More questions.

Stellan. They discovered it. Yes, safe.

I didn't know what to make of that. And I still wasn't quite sure whether Stellan and Slader were safe. I didn't know whether the real secret of the gangs was out yet or not. But by and by, I could make out Reynold Beauchamp's voice. But Hayley's was the one I could now hear clearly.

He handled it well. Only, we still haven't got to Arnold Wood. No, Marc told me, he likes fieldwork too much.

And then there was that musical sound that jolted me to a confused state of consciousness. Hayley was laughing. I could just die right away. But no, I was alive. She was fine, and happy. Which meant that things were finally looking up. She wouldn't be laughing in that carefree manner that stopped my heart, unless everyone we loved was safe and sound.

"Oh look, he's awake!" Hayley squealed and bounced over in a Leia-like manner to put her arms around me. I was so stunned, so disoriented, and just so relieved, that the happiness surged over me and washed away my exhaustion and pain. This was where I wanted to be. This was my forever. Our forever.

I felt the tears I'd held back slowly slipping away, and I didn't have the control it took to hold them back anymore. It was time to let go, and to let it all flow away. It was time to put it all back, and to move on, for once. It was time for happiness, a time to live, a time to love.

"Hayley... Hayley..." I whispered, and I felt the chant strengthening me, as she stared into my eyes.

"Oh Ash! Stellan and Slader, they're safe, but..."

"We still haven't got Arnold, I heard." I completed. She gave a sad smile.

"Is Marc here? Or Kellner?" I managed. I had to talk to one of them, I just had to.

"Kellner's here. And Marc's reporting to him." She grinned.

"They really are a couple of amazing guys, aren't they?" I smiled. She nodded to me, still holding me in her arms. I wasn't quite ready to let her go either. She turned away to call Marc over, but I held her wrist, stopping her, and I pulled her towards me.

"Kiss her, already!" this time, Hayley didn't turn towards the voice. She leaned right in, and her lips crashed onto mine. The déjà vu passed into a passionate kiss, and the two of us knew that it was a promise. A promise of trust that we knew we would keep till our last breath. It was a promise that we'd never let go, no matter what. When we both had to pause for breath, Hayley's hand was still in mine, and I wouldn't let it go for anything in the world.

Slowly, we turned to look at Marc, who stood there with Kellner, and they had identical grins on their faces. Those two uncurable romantics under their masks of sternness and their strength.

I could feel the corners of my lips turning up, as I called out to Marc.

"You're safe." I gasped, finally letting my other hand roam over to his firm grip.

"And smirking." He smirked. That was the Marc I knew.

Soon, we were exchanging stories, and then Kellner came in, looking all official, to take my statement. My official statement on the matters of the previous week. Finally, he came to the sensitive part which we were yet to discuss when Rey had stuck me with the anaesthesia.

"So what lead you to believe that the drug racket, too, was just another layer, as you put it?" he asked, the expressionlessness back on his face.

"The crates in the garage. They contained what I'd feared. Guns, and bazookas and grenades. Mortar launchers and other equipment, I believe, to assemble larger weapons on the spot." I replied.

Hayley looked at me apologetically, and I gave her a reassuring nod. Squeezing her hand in mine, I let her know that all was forgiven and forgotten. The secret she'd not told me. Even the drugs were just another cover. The gangs were nothing, so to say. It was all Arnold's plan and it had been an effort at terrorism, to build a large bomb to go off someplace right here, in our city.

Slowly, the story was pieced together, as Hayley, Marc, and Slader gave their own statements. Then Kellner told us that there were a couple more gangsters who'd agreed to be witnesses.

Reynold came in, smiling at Hayley. "It is done." And she thanked him. The exchange didn't go unnoticed by me. But I shrugged it off, as I noticed Carver and Alyna trooping in behind Dr. Beauchamp. I was almost sure that Reynold meant something about Carver, who looked slightly confused and disoriented, as I'd been moments ago.

My vision tunnelled, as I saw her coming in, almost shyly. She looked concerned, and I could only imagine how I must've looked to her. Alyna. My sweet little princess.