Page 45 of Faded Rhythm
Julian
Day six.
I’m in my usual spot, my back against the wall, eyes locked on Sable’s door.
But I’m not alone this time. AJ sits beside me, slouched low in his chair, legs spread out, black duffle bag resting between his boots. He uses a foot to slide it over to me.
“It’s all there,” he says, his voice low.
I nod, using my boot to nudge the bag under my chair. It’s much heavier than I expected, but the weight of it grounds me. It reminds me I still have options.
“You sure about this?” he asks, watching me closely.
“As sure as I can be,” I say. “It’s my best course of action right now.”
He eyes me a moment longer, then leans back again. “How you holdin’ up, man?”
“Honestly?” I scrub a hand down my face. “I feel like I’m deteriorating. But I still have hope,” I add. “Just a little.”
“You love her.”
I side-eye the fuck out of my closest friend. “I doubt that.”
AJ shakes his head. “You a stubborn motherfucker, you know that?”
“Easy for you to say. You know what it feels like. I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
I raise a brow.
“ I love you,” he says, straight-faced.
That gets a genuine laugh out of me. First one in a while. “You know I’m talking about a different kind of love.”
AJ smirks. “Still counts.”
We go quiet for a moment. Then, in a low voice, I ask, “Any word on the police?”
He gets serious fast. “From what I could dig up, they don’t have much. No weapon, obviously, no prints, no known motive. But—“
“But?”
“One of the nurses saw you. They have a sketch.”
I shrug. “Does it look like me?”
AJ grins. “Yeah, but a more handsome version of you that gets hoes.”
I laugh again, the sound breaking through the tightness that’s been lingering in my chest all week.
“You want me to take care of it?”
“No,” I say with no hesitation.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’ve been thinking about it.” I pause and scrub a hand down my face. “I’m done killing.”
His brows lift as he studies me for a beat. “You’re really moving on?”
“Yeah. To something more human.”
AJ nods, then glances towards Sable’s room. “She really turned you out, huh?”
I laugh again. “You got one more of them jokes, bruh. One more, and we’re going outside.”
Before he can answer, there’s movement at the nurse’s station. Frantic movement. It’s fast and urgent.
I stand as a doctor rushes across the corridor, pulling gloves on as he runs. Mila and her husband are rushing toward Sable’s room. The rest of the family all stand at once.
My whole body goes cold.
I’m already moving. AJ is right on my heels.
“Please,” I whisper under my breath. “Please, God, just let her be okay.”
My boots pound against the tile. My pulse roars in my ears. I push past nurses and come to a halt outside the room. I’m just in time to see Ebony standing there with tears streaming down her cheeks.
I drop to my knees.
Hard.
No, no, no, no!
“She’s awake!”
I lift my head, stunned and unsure if I really heard that.
AJ yanks me up and into the tightest hug I’ve ever had in my life. My arms hang limp for a second before I hug him back, gripping the back of his hoodie like it’s a lifeline.
“She’s okay,” he says in my ear. “She’s still with you.”
Maybe in the sense that she’s still alive, but with me? I’m not sure.
Regardless, the air comes rushing back into my lungs. My pulse slows to baseline. I’m okay. And she’s okay.
I look past AJ through the small window in the door.
There she is.
Eyes open.
Blinking slowly.
And I feel like we both just came back from the dead.