赤裸裸的滑稽故事

They had spent the night in the hospital waiting room. Ashleigh jumped from her chair every time the door opened, hoping that the doctors were bringing news that their mother would be okay.

After arriving, Corrine had been rushed back for treatment. Axel and Ashleigh had been stopped in the waiting room, being updated when there was something to report. But, unfortunately, there hadn’t been much to report.

Corrine had been in distress for several hours. She struggled to breathe and cried out in agony. She had faded in and out of consciousness multiple times throughout the night.

Clara had tried to reach out to Caleb, but he wasn’t answering his phone. So instead, she had gotten ahold of Galen and let him know what had happened with Penelope and then about Corrine.

Bell had insisted on coming with him to the hospital.

The doors to the waiting room opened. Axel looked back from his place by the window, Bell and Galen sat nearby. Ashleigh had already been waiting by the doors.

Peter stepped out.

“Is she ok?” Ashleigh asked. “Has anything changed?”

“She’s resting, for now. In the last hour, we’ve seen improvement. She has been calmer. Her numbers are coming back down to a normal range.”

“Has she spoken?” Axel asked.

Peter shook his head.

“So far, she hasn’t been aware enough to speak.”

“Can we see her?” Ashleigh asked.

“Not yet,” Peter said. “I want to monitor her for another hour to make sure we have made it through the worst of it.”

Ashleigh nodded but looked away with disappointment. Axel came over and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him. He hugged her close.

“She’s going to be fine, Ash,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

“You don’t know that,” Ashleigh replied sadly, pulling away from her brother and returning to pacing in front of the door.

Bell swallowed and looked away from the siblings. Galen gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“No,” she whispered.

Galen hugged her.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Of course not, Corrine is like a mom to you too.”

Bell nodded.

“She is,” she said quietly. “But, if Peter says she’s doing better, I trust him.”

Galen furrowed his brows.

“Then what’s wrong?” he asked.

Bell glanced back where Axel and Ashleigh had been.

Axel had moved back to the window, hugging himself and looking out as the sky was beginning to change from darkness to light. Ashleigh remained standing near the door, chewing on her lower lip nervously.

Bell looked back at Galen with sadness in her eyes.

“I’m worried about what this all means,” she said softly.

“What?”

“Corrine is a healthy woman with no reason to suddenly get sick. From what Axel said, she hadn’t ingested anything new or strange. Furthermore, they had been in the room for at least an hour at the time, so it’s unlikely she inhaled something from the environment.”

Bell paused, glancing her eyes back once more.

“Peter has found no injuries or external symptoms,” Bell sighed. “Which means that the most likely cause of her symptoms…”

“Is the mate bond,” Galen sighed in understanding.

Bell nodded.

“Extreme physical duress.” She said, “When one mate endures extreme physical duress, the other often feels it. Sometimes they can sick or even injured from it. But the worst cases, are almost always a sign that their mate has….”

She paused. Galen hugged her close.

“From what Clara told you about Penelope’s report… I’m afraid…”

“He’s a strong man, I’m sure he is on his way home right now,” Galen whispered.

Ashleigh clenched her jaw and closed her eyes, pushing back against the swelling of painful emotions that were crawling inside her belly and screaming in her mind.

Although they tried to keep their voices down, she could hear every word Bell and Galen spoke.

She had already considered it, but hearing someone else considering it, made it far more real. The possibility that her father was being tortured, or worse still, that he would never come home again.

She looked back down at her phone; she had been trying to reach Caleb for hours. He told her that he would be unavailable, it wasn’t his fault. Just really bad timing. With the suppression in effect as well, she felt even more alone.

She tried once more, praying to the Goddess that he would answer, that his voice would help soothe her heart. But it seemed the Goddess was not listening. She sighed and set her phone down in her chair.

The voices in her mind were whispering, too softly for her to understand, too many for her to distinguish. But nevertheless, it was difficult to ignore.

She took a deep breath and turned away from the door to the treatment areas. She headed for the hallway.

“Ash?” Bell called. “Where are you going?”

Ashleigh paused.

“I need some air,” she said quietly. “Come and get me if there is anything…”

“Of course.”

Ashleigh didn’t look back, she just pushed forward into the hall toward the exit. She hoped the cold air would help clear her mind.

It was hard enough to have watched her mother fall, to see the pain on her face, and hear the shriek of her voice. But to think that her father might also… it was too much.

She shook her head and tried to cast out the fears and the doubts. Just focusing on the door leading outside.

But something else caught her attention.

A whisper outside of her mind. A pained, tearful whisper, a pleading.

She looked around, looking for the source, and finally, she saw the door to one of the empty offices open just slightly.

As she approached, she could hear soft sobs, and a familiar voice.

Inside the office, Penelope sat in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest as the tears fell in rivers.

She sobbed into her thighs and let out gasping breaths as she tried to control herself.

But she just kept seeing the look on Mateas’s face. The pain, the sadness.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way…” she whispered. “This wasn’t supposed to happen….”

Ashleigh furrowed her brows at the words. She knew it was Penelope, but why was she hiding in an office? Why did her voice sound so pained?

‘She left him behind.’

Ashleigh closed her eyes, trying not to listen.

‘Traitor.’

She shook her head.

‘Don’t you remember what her brother did to Axel?’

Ashleigh took a shaky breath. The memory of Axel in the hospital bed shook her confidence, just enough.

“What wasn’t supposed to happen?” Ashleigh said from the doorway.

Penelope lifted her head in surprise. She saw a familiar silhouette from the light of the hallway, with a pair of moonlit eyes staring back at her.

“You seem to be feeling guilty about something, Penelope,” Ashleigh growled as she stepped further into the office. “So, what is it that wasn’t supposed to happen?”