Like Rapunzel, but Not Really ✔

Chapter 12

"Eric is dead."

My grip on the knife suddenly disappeared and had it not been for Tristan's quick reflexes, I would have severed a toe.

"What?" I gasped, horrified. We just saw him this morning.

Hunter suddenly looked sheepish. "Well, okay, he is not exactly dead. He's in a coma but it's pretty bad. They had put him in the ICU and there are tubes all over him, like everywhere, even his you-know-what – it's horrible," his eyes were wide as he described the situation like a child's storybook.

I looked at him, even more horrified than I was earlier.

"Your cavalier attitude on death is very morbid," Tristan stated matter-of-factly.

I could not have said it any better.

"Hunter, this is serious." I tried to make him see that his reaction was not at all appropriate in this situation but then realized that there were other things I probably should concentrate on. Like what happened to Eric.

"Tell me everything," I narrowed my eyes.

"Okay, well, after talking to you guys this morning I had gone out with Eric to fire him and all was just fine and sunny when we got into the car. The plan was for me to break the news once I actually got my stuff from the studio but you know how my mouth works and I just really wanted to tell someone about my good news and before I knew it, it just came out like mouth vomit. I couldn't stop talking. At all. Like projectile, you know?" He tried to gesture vomit coming out of his mouth.

Tristan watched Hunter as if he was an alien from outer space and I did not blame him one bit.

I whacked him in the head. "Focus, Hunter."

Rubbing his head, he continued. "Anyways, where was I before I was interrupted?" He asked while giving me the stink eye. "Oh yeah, so I told him about taking the new project and he just completely flipped his lid. Like, he literally just slammed his brakes in the middle of moving traffic and just exploded. He just kept screaming obscenities at me while everyone around us was honking at us like crazy. 'What the fuck, man. What the fuck do you think you are doing? Fuck, fuck, fuck, I am so fucked because of you. He's going to kill me, fuck you. Fuc-"

"HUNTER. Stop. Swearing," I gritted.

"What? Hey, you were the one who wanted to know everything," he air quoted everything.

I rolled my eyes but at the back of my head something was nagging at me.

"But that seems a bit out of character of Eric. He's so well-mannered and nice," I voiced my train of thought.

"I know, right? And then he kicked me out of the car and just drove off," he said, obviously peeved.

"That doesn't explain how he is in the ICU right now, though," Tristan piped in.

"I'm getting there," Hunter held his hand up. "So obviously I was still faraway from the studio but I still needed to get my stuff and I only had a credit card so I had to walk for hours. When I did get there, though, I saw Eric rushing out of the place so I sneaked in before he could change the locks. But when I came out again, I heard a scream and then a really huge crash. At first I was going to just ignore it because this is legit the sketchy part of the town, we are taking about, okay, do not judge me." Hunter pointed to the both of us and narrowed his eyes to drive home his point.

He then continued. "I walked away thinking it was probably for the best but then I saw Eric's car ramming out of the alleyway and drive pass me. But all of a sudden the door opened and Eric freaking jumped out of the car and it was a mess. He was bleeding everywhere. So I called the ambulance and he's in the hospital now." Hunter breathed in deeply after saying all that in one breath.