Chapter Seventeen
The sound of his heartbeat was torture to her ears.
Rannia lounged in the chair by the uncle's bedside, cheek on one hand as she waited, mood sour, face turned, for Carter to leave the room.
The old man had been put on intensive care—hah, almost dead, but not quite. Her lips quirked into the fakest of all smiles as she pretended to be happy that he was alive. Carter was on his knees by his uncle's bed, teary eyes staring at the man's ghostly face. He was alive, but barely. A limp body could barely be considered alive. One snap, one tube removed, and he was dead. That wasn't truly alive. That was dependent.
Rannia sneered.
That was pathetic.
"I'm so glad you found him," Carter confessed softly. "I know he's just my uncle...but he's family. I can't help but love and care about him."
Rannia's brow rose the slightest bit. Her head quirked. "I didn't find him. I was with him when he...um, dropped."
"Still." Carter rose and turned to face Rannia, cheeks red from all his tears. He walked up to her and held her hands in his, clasping them together in a begging position. "I really, really love you."
Rannia forced her lips to loosen into a smile. "You're all tired." She slipped her hands out of his and brushed a strand of his hair away from his face. "He'll be fine. I'm here. Go get some rest on a couch or something."
Carter faltered. "I-I do love you, you know?" He swallowed nervously.
Rannia pressed a finger to his lips. She was grinning a little. She'd done it. She'd made an Amir fall blindly in love with her.
"I know. I love you too." She leaned up and placed a peck on his cheek. "Now go."
Carter bobbed his head obediently and rushed out of the room. Rannia paused, glanced around the room, smiled. Alone. She was alone. Standing, she calmly walked towards the hospital room's door and shut it softly, eyes falling to the ground as the final click on the lock was made.
"I know you're awake, you bastard."
She turned to face the slanted eyes of Uncle Amir. His mind was groggy, a puddle within a pond. He tried to part his lips only to be stopped by the machine around his jaw.
He wasn't in a coma. A miracle, the doctor's had said. Rannia found it a little bothersome, but perhaps having him awake during his final moments would make the extra effort worth it.
She slowly paced towards him, eyes dawning with sick mirth.
You deserve this, she thought to him.
Through his confusion, fear started to seep into his heart. He tried to struggle but his body wasn't moving. His legs shook a little, casting ripples along the white sheets. He did not know who she was. All he knew was fear, and that she was the source of it.
"I'll be gentle," she cooed, crouching by his beside. She stroked one finger along his cheek, finger running across the dried bloodstains of his skin. "You don't need to worry."
His heart rate monitor mourned in her ear.
Preparation dotted along his skin, the only clear sign of his stress. Well, Rannia thought to herself, the only sign besides his eyes.
His eyes were petrified.
"Do you remember a year ago? When you went out with your brother and set fire to a gas tank?" Rannia stroked under his chin, feeling along his pulse to conclude that yes, the heart rate monitor was not lying.
"Well, I remember." Her fingers laid under the bottom of his breathing tube, curling around it.
"You can't breathe in flames, right?" Her voice was soft and gentle, but they both heard the chilling flames behind it. "And you can't breathe without this?" Her fingers tugged a little. It didn't move. She pulled her lips down in a pout. "Pity if you...lost it?"
She wrenched it from his throat, eyes narrowing a little as blood dripped from his mouth. He tried hacking and coughing but nothing seemed to work. He didn't work, and without machinery he was nothing but a joke.
"Whoops." She placed the respirator into his hands, curling his fingers carefully around the bloody tube. Why was it bloody? She ran her eyes over his shuttering frame, trying to find the source. She might've torn his esophagus.
No matter.
She pressed the red button by his side, calling the nearest doctor. She willed tears back to her eyes and quickly unlocked the door, rushing out to meet two nurses in the hallway.
"He...he pulled the plug," Rannia whispered numbly, fingers shaking from the high coursing through her body.
Dead. He was dead.
The heart rate monitor went from racing to a one-line note. Nurses came with defriliborators, anything, really. Nothing worked. It it not matter how much they zapped his limp body full of electricity, it did not matter how many times they tried, because the man was dead. And dead men did not come back.
"I-I'm sorry," Rannia whispered to a heartbroken Carter, rubbing his back as he cried into her shoulder. "I don't know why he did it. But he loved you, alright? He lived a good life." Until the end. The end was quite unpleasant.
He sobbed into her shirt some more, wailing more than Ranna thought the boy could. Mykel appeared at the entrance of the hallway, stoney eyes falling onto the pair. Rannia's eyes met his and her heart froze.
His eyes were a little more narrowed than usual. He nodded towards the hospital room the uncle's body was in and looked at her in question.
Rannia nodded, motioning towards the sobbing Carter in her hands.
Mykel nodded in understanding, walking towards them. He patted Carter's shoulder and spoke quietly.
"Come on, boy. You've got bags to pack."
"I d-don't want to leave," Carter sobbed. "Mom and dad, Amelia, Toto..."
"You come now or you don't at all," Mykel replied stubbornly. "I'm giving up my privacy for you." He sent a glare Rannia's way. The 'you' was clearly not directed towards her. He was doing it for Carter. "Now get up."
Rannia helped the boy stand, arms around his shoulders as they slowly made their way out of the hospital.
"He's not doing well," Rannia whispered to Mykel once the boy was put in a car and a door shut between them. "You shouldn't be so...harsh on him."
Mykel glared down at her, jaw ticking as he stared right back into her eyes with a fierceness that had her legs shivering. "Listen, girlfriend. I'll say this once and only once." He stepped forward, causing Rannia to step back into the car's side. "I have rules at my place. You don't touch things that don't belong to you. You don't go places I don't want you to. And you obey me when I tell you to do things."
"We're not talking about—"
His hand shot forward and grasped her waist, fingers curling into her skin harshly. Rannia's core heated as pain spread from his grasp.
"I'm letting you stay because Carter asked me to do it. Don't let it get to your head."
"I wasn't going to do anything anyways," Rannia returned, nostrils flaring. "Now get off of me. Your brother could see."
He paused, options weighing behind his dark, dark eyes. At last, he leaned back, marking her skin with the red tint of his grip.
"Get in the backseat with Carter." He turned and stormed over to the other side of the car. Rannia rolled her eyes and got in as told.
Carter immediately attached himself to her.
"Can you drop me off a few streets down? I've got to get something at my parent's first."
Mykel tapped his ringed finger against the steering wheel angrily.
"Which street?"
"Melbourn," Rannia said. A full three blocks and a half from the bus stop she'd be taking to her actual house.
Mykel's scowl deepened and he didn't reply. But she still saw him switch on the turning signal and do a full u-ey towards the street she'd mentioned.
He was much more pleasant when he obeyed.
(a/n: I'm still on break. this was pre-written shshshshshsh. *i don't know how to take breaks*)