𝐒𝐲𝐧 ┃𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

134. 𝐵𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠

Queen

I took a shower in the restroom. The more I looked around, the more I realized that he truly had been here all week. His body wash was in the shower and his duffel bag lay on top of the vanity.

None of my clothes were in there, which wasn't a surprise to me. I'd been sporting hospital gowns and granny panties. I slipped into the clothes he did have in the bag- navy blue sweats and a long black shirt. I put on a pair of his socks, rolling them around my ankles before giving myself a once-over in the mirror.

It'd have to do for now.

Syn didn't carry make-up in his things, unfortunately.

I walked back into the room and the hospital bed was completely re-made. New sheets lined the mattress and if it wasn't for the ache between my legs and all the vivid memories, there would've been no sign that the bed was used for anything other than its intended purpose. I smiled at the memory.

I heard a commotion outside of the door and turned toward it curiously. It wasn't until I heard Syn's angry voice that I rushed to the door and flung it open. Standing there were my brothers- Cain's hands balled into fists and Syn's lip bleeding as he flexed his jaw a bit. He looked enraged, freshly dressed in a black dress shirt and navy slacks.

Damn-

Focus.

"What the hell is going on?" They all turned to me and shock struck both of my brothers' features. A look of disbelief passed over Cain's as he turned to me and his eyes immediately watered as he took me in.

Abel immediately wrapped his arms around me- crushing my head to his chest as he sobbed. They wracked his body and my instincts told me to push him away. He was my annoying older brother, but when I realized why he was reacting the way that he was, I softened.

Cain joined the embrace and wrapped his arms around the both of us. His cries were a lot more contained than Abel's, but they were both a complete wreck.

I hugged them back, knowing that they must've been distraught at the news. Syn hadn't exactly told me the details of everything that happened, but I knew it couldn't be pretty. Especially since he was alone when I woke up.

I didn't forget about the fight I just walked into moments ago either.

"You're alive," I heard Cain say, a bit from relief and the other intruder in his voice being apprehension. "How?"

"We saw you, Queen," Abel said. "You were gone."

I didn't have the answers they were looking for. It was something that I wondered about too, but I didn't have the heart nor energy to ask Syn yet. I was running on blind trust for now.

"Let's worry about that later," I told them, giving them one last embrace before walking past them to Syn. Anger rippled through me at the sight of his blood, but I bit it back. I didn't want to fight my brothers. "Are you okay?" I asked Syn, gently grabbing his cheeks to look closer at his busted lip.

He laid a hand over mine and the smell of food emanated from a bag he carried in his other hand. "I'm fine, it's just blood." His tongue flicked over the bloody spot and when it was gone, the wound had already vanished. All that remained was a bit of redness from the punch.

"It's just blood," I repeated to myself with a huff. Where a wound on him was nothing but a minor inconvenience, worry would wrack my body. He was fine being a punching bag for the cruelest things. He hardly felt pain anymore but that broke my heart.

He had grown up through so much...became desensitized to so many things because the people who were supposed to take care of him treated him as something less than a being deserving of basic rights. Less than human when he was so much more than that. He may have been born where evil resided, but there were monsters everywhere.