Stockholm Syndrome? ✔

S.S 33

Every minute that I sat on the plastic chair felt like a decade. I was oblivious to the sounds in the hospital, which was both good and bad. In my bubble state, all I could think of was Felix and all the blood I'd seen in his chest. If I for a second got out of my bubble, I heard doctors and nurses shouting all sorts of color codes and running this way or that way with defibrillators and all sorts of machines. I was becoming familiar with what the colors meant and I didn't like it. People were dying around me.

I turned the earpod agent Marx had given me around in my hand. I took it to my ear slowly. I was hoping to hear something from the OR, but I heard nothing. Felix obviously did not have the wire or whatever he called it on him anymore. The clothes he'd been wearing had obviously been substituted with a hospital gown. I sighed.

I looked up just in time to see Stella and Clark speed-walking towards me along the corridor. I was happy to see them. I'd gone for longer without seeing them, but that time was different. Somewhere in that hospital my heart was dying. I needed to talk to someone or I risked going crazy.

The duo got to me.

Stella engulfed me in a hug despite how filthy I was. Clark hugged us both and I just broke down. All was quiet except my sobs. The hospital wasn't quiet, but for me all that existed was my friends around me and the guy whose heart I'd physically touched.

I sniffed. Stella wasn't letting go. I pushed a bit out of the hug, certain I was getting snort on her jumper. She provided me with a tissue and inspected me like a loving mother. She spotted the blood on my jean.

"Superstar what happened?" she finally asked.

"Can I tell you later? I just...my leg is fine Stella, stop trying to use your x-ray vision to see through my jean. I have a cut. It just needed stitches, that's all", I said.

She looked away sheepishly.

"Archer, you have blood on your face and t-shirt", Clark said, concerned. He was telling me a cut on my leg couldn't explain that.

"It's not mine", I managed to say.

They both looked at me with expectant faces. I didn't have the strength to admit to someone else how scared I was about Felix, but my friends' faces won me over.

"It's Felix's blood. He...um...remember the guy I told you I spent the weekend with?" I said and they both nodded.

"Some people kidnapped me to get him to do something. Things happened. He tried to save me...and got stabbed and now he's...he's fighting for his life", I said. It was the short version of events.

They didn't say anything, obviously shocked by the news.

"I love him", I said to no one in particular. "I love him so much and now he might die because I was stupid and did things he told me not to do".

That only increased my friends' silence. They obviously had no idea what things I was talking about. I could see Stella's eyes had deviated to the left like they always did when she was thinking.

"I don't under..." she started but my focus shifted.

Felix was being wheeled along the corridor. He'd been cleaned up but was still connected to some things. He had an oxygen mask around his mouth and nose.

I ran to the gurney as it passed.

"How's he?" I asked no one in particular.

"Sir, please move!" someone ordered sharply.

"I just want to know how he is", I said.

"Stable", the person said quickly.

A man held me back as the gurney moved along the corridor before entering a room. He let me go shortly and walked away.