Prey Drive by Jen Stevens
Chapter 55
the wolf
today. They've moved me into a private room while completing the last of my care. The nurses say I did most of my healing while in my coma, so it's really just been about reacclimating my body to moving on its own and watching for any potential damage from the bullets that they may have missed before. My new room is larger than my last, a shit ton more expensive, and not as close to the constantly buzzing emergency department.
Sienna and my mother were relieved to have peace and quiet, although I know both of them have been missing the drama. They lived for overhearing the far-fetched stories from patients who have landed themselves in the ER like some cheap reality show. Half the time, I wasn't allowed to have my TV on because it interfered with their eavesdropping.
So to commemorate old times, they've taken me for a short walk around the halls while the nurse writes up my discharge paperwork, and we've landed right back into the epicenter of chaos.
We're resting on a bench just outside of the nurses’ station because my body is infuriatingly weak and sore. Sienna has just started to broach the subject of her staying with me in my apartment for the summer while I recover, when one of the nurses quickly hangs up the phone and stands to speak to the other three women loitering around her. All of us turn to watch as she makes her announcement.
“We’ve got a team about three minutes out with a potential overdose. Patient is a twenty-five-year-old female. That’s all they were able to get out over the phone. Prepare a bed for her and grab all the free hands you can find. I have a feeling this is going to be a messy one.”
A rush of hospital staff runs past me, toward a door at the end of the hall filled with far more medical equipment than the rest of the curtained rooms have. Just as that door slams shut, a burst of cold air hits my neck, and I turn to see the emergency entrance doors have been propped open as they roll in a gurney.
My mom and Sienna share a look, glancing between me and the gurney like they’ve just realized that my entrance to this hospital probably looked very similar to this woman’s. I push away the guilt blossoming in my chest at the fear neither of them can seem to shake that one minute, they’re going to blink and I’ll be gone. I can’t dwell on it right now, or on the fact that I feel the same way about them.
But all of those worries slowly drop away like petals of a dead flower when the medics roll the stretcher past us and I see the pale, lifeless face that’s lying on it, and my deadened heart begins to bloom back to life in my chest. In the blink of an eye, I’m standing from the bench, chasing them down the hall so I can get a better look. Not that I need one. I’d know that face anywhere.
It’s her.
My Stardust.
My confirmation comes when the medic tries to push me away, but I continue toward her.
“I just need to see her,” I’m telling them, over and over again. I just need to know what the fuck happened.
And almost as if the sound of my voice temporarily pulls her back to consciousness, those beautiful browns snap open and immediately find me.
“Bash,” she whispers brokenly, then sputters out a cough.
“It’s me, baby. I’m here,” I find myself telling her through all the chaos that’s ensuing, but a nurse is pushing me away as they roll her through the door to her private room.
I don't get another chance to talk to her. A male doctor has stepped into my path and stands rooted to the ground, refusing to allow me access to the one thing that matters in this twisted, upside-down world. But at the very last second, just before the door slams closed and shuts her away for good, a glint of gold on her neck catches onto the fluorescent lights, drawing my eyes to the small locket lying against her chest.
I know then with every fiber of my being that all of it was real.
And just like any other predator who is presented with a new prey, I'm back on the hunt.