Page 56 of Marked By Shadows
“No. We talk sometimes through Facetime.”
“About events not related to the cosplay group?”
“Sometimes.” Though mostly it was related to crafting. Occasionally something came up about our personal lives. I realized in that moment that I wasn’t as close to Freya as I thought I’d been. She, much like most of the other people I called ‘friends’, had been put in a box set aside for one purpose, crafting comradery. “I guess I never really thought about it before. At least not really in those terms,” I admitted. “I keep them at a distance.” I did that with everyone. Or tried to. Some had gotten through my barriers, like Sky and Lukas, and now Alex.
“Why do you think that is?”
“I don’t know. Guess it’s something I’ll have to bring up with my therapist,” I snapped back, irritated that he was pointing out my flaws. “I’ll call you when she has an answer for me.”
“Your boyfriend seems to know you well, if that’s any consolation,” Manning stated. “He pointed out that you keep parts of your life compartmentalized, including acquaintances.”
“Good to know my boyfriend sees my flaws.”
“He said you didn’t seem as close to the group as you were to him, his brother, and your friend,” he checked his notes, “Skylar. I asked him why that was. He seems to believe it’s part of your healing from past events. Do you agree or think there is something else that separates the groups?”
“Again, I’ll check with my therapist and get back to you.”
Manning sighed and got up. “I may have more questions later.”
I blinked at him. “You know where to find us.”
“You don’t plan on going home?” he asked.
“We are here for an event. You might think we are cold and unfeeling to stay, but I really didn’t know Byrony,” I said. Would Alex want to go home? This trip kept getting weirder and weirder. I had so many questions of my own. “Would you stay if you’d arrived for an event and someone who just happened to be at the same hotel went missing? At a bigger hotel we probably wouldn’t have even known she was gone.”
“I might not stay if I knew someone staying at that hotel had done something to her,” Manning said, offering up the most I’d gotten from him the entire conversation.
I frowned. “Did you find Byrony? Do you think one of the group hurt her?” Alex said he thought he’d seen her ghost, but worried something was tricking him. I’d come to think of the supernatural as bad, though Alex didn’t seem to think so, and thought maybe something otherworldly had gotten Byrony. Hadn’t even thought that anyone in the group could possibly hurt her. “I can’t see anyone in the group doing something like that.”
“But you said you don’t know any of them all that well,” Manning pointed out.
“Well no. I don’t. But I guess I don’t look at everyone I know as though they are a potential danger?”
Manning looked me over. “You’re very lucky then, Mr. Richards. Or naïve.” He shrugged. “We’ll be in touch,” Manning said and left the room. The nurse glanced at me and followed him out. A minute later Alex reappeared. He came around the side of the bed and took my hand before leaning close to kiss my cheek.
“I threw up,” I told him. “Don’t kiss me. I need a toothbrush. BBQ doesn’t taste so good the second time around.”
“That’s why I kissed your cheek,” Alex said. “The nurse will be back in a little bit with release instructions.”
“What about the car? And you can’t drive,” I said. I closed my eyes a moment and startled awake when the nurse came back in, not realizing I’d fallen asleep that fast. The adrenaline was finally wearing off.
“I should be mad at you,” I told Alex.
“Yeah?” He asked.
The nurse removed the IV and blood pressure cuff. I had to work to focus on her. I would not be driving. Alex helped me out of the bed, steadying me with his arm around my waist. He had a handful of papers in his grasp, and led me to an offered wheelchair. I didn’t think I needed it, but the nurse insisted and wheeled us out to the curb where our SUV idled. Was Alex going to drive? He wasn’t supposed to. I frowned as I got out of the seat, but Freya appeared, opened the side passenger door for me, and Alex helped me in. I had a thousand questions, but waited until we were all strapped in and on the road.
“The detective said you told him stuff.” What was it Alex had told him? Oh right, my issues with letting anyone close to me. Was that really a secret? “Never mind. It’s stupid.”
Alex tugged on my seatbelt to make sure it was buckled, then reached for my hand. “It’s not stupid if you want to talk about it. It’s not stupid if it upsets you.”
I didn’t. At least not right now. I had questions. “I’m lost,” I told Alex who was sitting beside me in the seat behind Freya, who was driving. “Catch me up? What happened? Everything is sort of a blur.”
“You have a concussion,” Alex said. “The whole left side of your face is a big bruise. You must have turned your head at the last second else you’d have a busted nose. The concussion is a mild one, and you cut your forehead on the side of the car you found. They updated your tetanus shot, since they couldn’t find one on record for you. If your arm hurts the next few days, it’s because of the shot. Chad dropped Freya off at the hospital. The police drove the SUV to the hospital, and gave me the keys. I gave Freya the keys so she could drive us.”
“Oh,” I said, finally dropping pieces into place. “What time is it?” Only now did I recall dozing a few times in and out while being moved around the hospital, to the room, and to be scanned and back.
“After midnight,” Alex said.