"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.
My mouth was agape when he finished his story.
Tristan's eyes narrowed. "What happened to the car? Did you see who was driving? How many people?"
"Huh?" Hunter asked, momentarily confused. "Oh, I don't know who was in there – I think only one saw one person. He stopped when Eric jumped out, though, but I think because there was a crowd already starting to gather by then so he just kind of left." Hunter said seriously. "People are crazy nowadays. The doctor said he was actually ran over a few times judging from his injuries."
I spied Tristan's suddenly pensive demeanour but before I could question it further the urge to vomit suddenly overtook my body. I sat down to let that sickly feeling pass and took many deep breaths. I was not sure how long I stayed in that position but concentrating on my breathing was definitely helping the nausea to ebb away.
Finally, I looked back at the two boys, determination in my eyes. "We need to go and see him."
Both of them merely stared silently back at me.
"Guys, we need to go see him," I repeated.
"I'll drive you there," Tristan offered after a few seconds of silence. "Give me your keys," he held his hand out to Hunter.
"What? Heck, no, you are not driving my car," Hunter clutched his left pocket possessively.
"Okay, you drive then," I said to Hunter as I went to get my cardigan from my room. "Start the car, I'll meet you downstairs at the drop-off area."
"Wait. Are we seriously doing this?" Hunter questioned me. "You're really going to go out – for real?"
I paused as I gripped the red cardigan which I had just grabbed out of my closet. "Yes." I mustered the conviction in my voice. "Eric's our friend and I can't just keep staying in here when something bad happens to the people I care about - not again," I reasoned, remembering all the goodbyes I never got to give because of my gilded cage.
I went out whilst putting on my cardigan only to see the two of them lounging in the living area. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and throw my arms up exasperatedly into the air. "Guys, let's go!" I proceeded hurriedly to the main door to lead the way lest we never made any move but was circumvented by Hunter halfway.
"What?"
Hunter put his hands up defensively as if afraid I was going to whack him again. "Okay... I just want to make sure that you understand what you are saying. You want to go out to the public area. You will be walking amongst people. People will be walking amongst you. You will see people. People will see you. You will –"
"Hunter, I get it," I cut the blonde off from his ramblings. I smiled at his concern. "Honestly, I'm not too sure if this is okay or not but the past month I've lived in terror only for it to turn out to be one huge pile of ridiculous misunderstanding. I literally wasted a month of my life being terrified over nothing and I kind of feel stupid. Maybe it's the post-anxiety talking or I've just decided to throw caution to the wind but I really don't want to let somebody I care about die without at least seeing him when I have the chance to do so." I paused to also turn my eyes to Tristan to make sure he heard me. "Okay?"
Tristan shrugged as if he had been on board from the beginning and my big speech was just redundant. So I turned my eyes to Hunter in the hopes that we could just finally make our move.
"Well, okay, then. Lets go, I guess," Hunter spoke after a pregnant silence.
All three of us quietly alighted Hunter's obnoxious red car. The mood was sombre. I didn't know what was going on in the other two boys' heads but I definitely knew mine was filled with lots of thoughts. And questions.
For example. "Why would anyone want to hurt Eric? Was he involved with some bad people?" I directed my gaze to Hunter. Of the three of us, he knew Hunter the longest.
"I really don't know, Ari," Hunter shrugged, his eyes unmoving from the road. "But the way I saw everything played out, it sort of looked like it. He legit looked like he was beaten up really bad," Hunter shivered at his thought.
Tristan, who had been sitting at the back quietly this whole time, suddenly voiced out. "How did you know him?"
Hunter eyed him incredulously through his rearview mirror. "... He casted me for his movie. He's my boss. You know this already."
"So you approached him to audition for this part?" Tristan pressed on.
"No, he approached me when I was at the airport coming back from Cape Town for a different audition," Hunter explained. "Remember? The one when you were supposed to be watching out for Arianna?"
"But you came back early, right? That was not planned?" Tristan continued with his clear cut questioning.
"No. I flunked the audition. So I bought another ticket to go back earlier." Hunter answered exasperatedly. "What's with all these questions?"
I wanted to ask the same thing. I did not know how all these questions on Eric's and Hunter's first meeting were relevant but I kept quiet to allow them to continue.
"So he was at the airport purposely waiting to scout you when you yourself did not even know you were arriving back home on that day?"
Both Hunter and I became quiet.
I had known Hunter for a while and while he was dramatic and occasionally whiny, he did not get angry. At least, it was very rare for that to happen but I knew the telltale signs of when he was crossing the threshold of annoyance to snapping in anger. For instance, the taut clench in his jaw, and the way his fingernails were digging into his leather steering wheel.
"Eric was probably also travelling home or going elsewhere that time and happened to see Hunter," I explained a probability that they all seemed to be glossing over rather too quickly. Oddly enough, I was becoming the source of reason in this current situation. "He may have recognised Hunter from one of Hunter's shows." I could see the uneasy look settling on Hunter's face. "And Hunter has, on many occassions, been scouted because of his good looks alone – cuz that's as far as it usually goes, if you get my drift," I joked, trying to lighten up the mood.
But if we were both honest, I could sense the conflicting thoughts running through his head – I didn't know the contents. But I was sure it was uneasy if the escaped backhanded compliment was of any indication.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked the boy sitting beside me.
Hunter continued staring out to the road.
"Hunter," I called out, a little more loudly this time.
He snapped out of his daze.
"Huh?" he turned briefly to acknowledge my call.
"Look, I'm sure it's fine, okay? You were convinced he was a good guy and I trust your judgment of people." I patted him lightly on his shoulder.
Between us, I actually did not trust his judgment on people. He was the worst at gauging people. However, that was not what he needed to hear at the moment.
But God knows who Eric was. Was he part of a street gang? A thug? Was he trying to swindle Hunter out of his fortune? I turned to ask him if Eric had asked Hunter for any money but decided to backtrack last minute – that would just negate all the assurance I was trying to give to this cousin of mine.
I took a deep breath and told myself that we were all just overreacting – Eric could be an upstanding guy and all that happened was he was robbed.
But he did say somebody was going to "fucking kill him" – what was that all about?
Damn it, brain. Not the time.
I told myself to have a little faith in our friend who was fighting for his life in the hospital.
Everything was going to be all right.
________________________________
Except everything was not all right.
My mouth hung open as I stared at the heavily bandaged man through the glass pane of the door. He was really in a bad shape. Not one inch of his body was spared from bandages, not even his face. Even his hair had been shaved off.
"We had to do that because we needed to remove some clot in his skull," the doctor explained when Hunter asked why they had to cut off Eric's hair. "But, really, that's not the main point I think we should focus on," the doctor explained slowly.
"Of couse," I quickly quipped, covering up for Hunter's inappropriate priorities. "Do you know what happened, though?" I frowned at the thought of something so atrocious being afflicted to anyone ever.
"Truthfully, it alludes me," the doctor shook his head. "We usually see these kind of things when gangs are involved. But even then, it's usually not this bad. They get shot and left to die."
We both briefly looked at Eric. This was more severe than that.
"The police had come by earlier – and this is what I can't seem to grasp – they seem to think that one person did all of this," he continued.
"One person?" I parroted in disbelief.
"Is that even humanly possible?" Hunter piped in.
"With enough hatred and motivation, yes," Tristan contributed. We all turned to look at the boy leaning against the wall, whose eyes were unmoving from his phone in his hand as he typed away on his gadget.
As if he could feel all our gazes on him, he looked up to meet our eyes. He shrugged. "I know a little bit about these things."
Okay, man. Way to not sound like a gangster's son.
"Anyways," I looked at the doctor to change the subject, "He'll be okay, though, right?"
The doctor smiled at me kindly, perhaps to placate the worry and anxiety I could feel plastered on my face. "He's stable now so that's good. He should regain consciousness in a few days but he'll be under a lot of painkillers."
I breathed a little easier hearing that.
"Since only the three of you seem to know anything about this man right now, I'm going to refer you to the police, if that's alright? We could not get hold of anyone so far to notify on his condition. It was a good thing you came and told us what you saw," the Doctor smiled appreciatively at Hunter.
But by then all three of us had stiffened at the mention of police earlier.
"Hold on just one second, I think they should still be around..." he trailed off as he went to look for what I hoped was not the police. But let's be honest here – what were my chances, really.
I could see Hunter and Tristan discussing logistics but I tuned them out. I needed to get out of here. Fast. I turned around to make a dash for it, maybe intending to ditch the two guys to take the fall but my steps fell dead.
"Well, well, well... Look who we have here."
I gaped at the person who stood with her arms crossed, as if she had been standing there this whole time to make her dramatic confrontation. "How've you been, Coke Cane?"
Gosh, aren't you still as sour as ever.
"Heyyyy, Lisa," I drawled. "I've been great! I've cleaned up a little bit since I last saw you, haven't I?" I laughed nervously, twirling my cardigan into a tight knot. "How about you? How've you been?"
Nurse Lisa's faux smile made a 180 into a genuine scowl. "How have I been?" She spat back so vadiply, I had to hold my ground to not take a step back. "Do you realise how much trouble I had to go through because of you? Giving a stupid fake name and making me say that that fake name to other people," she muttered in disbelief. "You're going to come with me now and explain yourself to my matron. She thought I was making up the whole thing to get out of my shift early so I had to do the worst hours for the whole week."
Oh,my God. That was like, what? One month ago?
She stepped forward with fury in her eyes, possibly to grab me by my hand and drag me to see her matron.
My breath hitched and I hastily took a step back in slight fear of this slightly crazed woman.
My hasty retreat was cut short by an arm slinging over my shoulders, which immediately pulled my body closer to the owner's.
"Actually, we're going to leave now."
Nurse Lisa's steps stopped halfway.
"Tristan," she exclaimed in surprise. Was that dread I see in her eyes?
"Hey, Lisa," Tristan eyed her coolly. I watched this exchange with lots of suspicion, suddenly forgetting that five seconds ago, I was ready to pee in my pants.
Lisa, however, was not as calm. "D-do you want me to call for Liam?" she shifted her gaze to anywhere but his.
That name sounded familiar. Where did I hear that name before?
"Nah, he is probably in a surgery or something. I'll see you around." He waved her off before leading me down the hallway towards the exit.
"Wait – Hunter," I called out behind me.
"It's alright, he said he'll be the one to meet the police- one of us has to. So we need to go before they see us and decide to question us as well."
'So why not you?' I bit my tongue to prevent that question from escaping my mouth. For one thing, he'd probably just ignore my question. But worse, he might actually answer it and it would not be something I'd like to hear. So instead I let him lead me out of the hospital.
Anything to not have to deal with Lisa. And the police. But at this moment, more so Lisa.
Speaking of which.
"How come Lisa knew you?" I looked at Tristan as we exited through the front door. "And wasn't Liam that guy you asked for when I sent you over to this hospital?" My epiphany came all of a sudden. "That's right! Oh, my God. What is he? Is he like the doctor the mobs go to when they get injured? Is that why Lisa is so scared of you? Because you're also part of the mob and she's privy to that information?" Before I knew it the questions just poured out like a leaky pipe.
God, so many questions I had been holding onto and I did not even realise it.
"You go out for 30 minutes and you're suddenly so talkative," Tristan smiled amusedly down at me. I was suddenly very aware of the fact that I was still in his arm, being dragged out of the automatic double doors of the hospital.
"You're just really suspcious and I have lots of questions, okay?" I said defensively. We stopped walking as we reached the external vestibule of the hospital. "And you can let go of me now, you know," I looked up to him, trying hard not to look bothered.
He stared blankly at his arm which had been slinging over my shoulder for the past five minutes before breaking into a playful smirk. "Damn it, I was hoping you'd take a longer time to notice," he pretended to look disappointed as he extracted himself from me.
If I was being honest, my heart did race a little.
"So what now?" I looked around the street trying to distract myself.
"Well, I thought since you have decided to emancipate yourself from your tall dungeon, I figured we could go out and enjoy this beautiful day while we wait for Hunter to finish being questioned by the police." As if to prove his point, a gentle breeze blew past, cooling us off from the sunny rays that were gracing our skin.
Sunshine aside, I scoffed at him. "I never said that!" I denied.
"Yes, you did," he insisted, his stupid lopsided smirk never left his face. "In the car. 30 minutes ago."
I rolled my eyes. "I said I was okay with going out to see a dying friend. Not for a joyride."
He shrugged. "Same difference. Come on." Tristan took my hand in his and led me down the bustling street.
"What?" I sputtered as I was dragged away by him. "Where are you taking me?"
He turned to look at me, and instead of his trademark smirk, he flashed that rare, heartbreaking smile of his which I was starting to grow fond of. "You'll see."
If I was being honest, I didn't exactly resist.