I woke up feeling incredibly stiff... it was like my neck and back were flat as a board.
There was a terrible pain throbbing in multiple areas on my body... but I couldn't say that it was the worse pain in the world. There must be something helping to numb the true pain. I realized where I was when I woke up under a familiar white sheet. The hospital.
I moved my head a little too quickly and tensed up. I remembered what happened... those punks took a stainless steel rod and... well, missed their original target, and I was in the crossfire.
When I looked a little closer at who was by my bedside, it was Kai. He had fallen asleep on the chair. His cheek looked a little red... I wondered why... he seemed to be mumbling something.
I couldn't make out what he was saying. I tried to move again and then winced. So I tried laying still, thinking about what kind of damage had been done. I reached over to touch the back of my neck and I scaled up to the back of my head, where there were some bandages. I must have gotten some stitches... I sighed.
"Charlie!" I shouted. I forgot the most important part. My voice woke up Kai and he was a little dazed.
"What happened to him?! Is he alright?" I tried moving up again but Kai intervened and held onto my arm to keep me in place.
"He's fine. Don't move so much. Doctor's orders..." I stared at him, wondering why he stayed by my side all night... he was the last person I thought would stay behind... perhaps he felt a sense of guilt for what happened to me? Did he talk to Charlie about what happened?
"Where is he?" I looked down at his hand on my arm and he removed it immediately. He coughed a little and then said: "he's at home. He'll be here in..." he looked at his watch while yawning, "probably in the next hour."
"Then, what about those little--"
"Already take care of..."
"Wow... that was efficient..." I wouldn't want to ever become an enemy of a Ravenwolf, that's for sure. Kai sat back down and looked at me more sternly.
"What... what's wrong?"
"Do you realize how reckless you were?"
"That's a little hasty to say. I didn't exactly know this was going to happen."
"Then why didn't you reach out to one of us?"
"As I already explained to James, it was difficult for me to do so, and I was worried about how Charlie would react," I didn't think I was making a good enough case for myself. I could tell that Kai wasn't having any of my justifications.
Deep down I knew I should have just reached out despite it all. But if I had made things worse, then that would put me in a predicament. I wanted to help Charlie unconditionally, anyway. This is just the price I had to pay for acting impulsively... well, I wasn't all to blame, but... when I looked at Kai he stared directly back into my eyes. It felt like he wanted to say more, but there was something stopping him.
"Did you think what you did was like a sacrifice?" he stood up and I stared up at him in disbelief of the route he was taking. "That we would appreciate your selflessness for our family...? But you're wrong. Whether or not it was for Charlie or for this family, at the end of the day... this is the position you put yourself in. You should reflect on it," I couldn't believe what he was saying.
I was a little shocked about the balance this man was striking. Between scolding me for approaching this situation incorrectly and if I had intended to be self-righteous then that was a mistake?
"You... you're honestly saying that I did this to gain something? Or... if not to gain something, I was being... too thoughtless?" in that moment, before more sparks flew between us, his phone rang and he picked it up.
I really didn't want to be in the same room as him right now. No matter what I did, or the way I approached this, at the end of the day I was doing more for that kid than they have ever done.
When he hung up the phone, he grabbed his jacket.
"Have you ever thought about how Charlie would feel?" he stopped, his back turned to me.
"If his family found out about what was happening to him and why?... sure, what I did can be considered impetuous... I can be criticized for my approach... since this is where I ended up –even if I didn't plan on being here in the first place. And it was a coincidence that I ended up being there when he needed someone... but you, his own brother, couldn't even see him crying out for help?" Kai turned around to me my gaze, and the two of us stared at one another briefly before he left the room.