Eris's head spun. Too fast. Too much.
Like her brain had cracked somewhere deep and now every thought was leaking out wrong.
Pain clawed through her skull, her limbs, her spine, sharp and grinding like something inside had snapped and refused to settle. Everything ached. Not just sore, ravaged.
She couldn't scream.
Her mouth… Dry. Tongue… Felt like a piece of meat someone left under a lamp for too long.
Her finger… That was the first thing that came back. That pain. It was too specific to ignore. That's the one they fixed, huh? Saved, if she wanted to be poetic, which she didn't.
She tried lifting her arm. Didn't get far. Needles. Tubes. Plastic threads stuck into skin. Something tugged. Something pulled.
She could feel it. The suction.
Each beat of her heart yanked more blood into a machine. She swore she heard it, too. That rhythmic, watery hiss. Like the machine was drinking her.
What the hell…
This wasn't a dream, right? Right?
The finger was stitched. That much was clear. Which only made it worse. More real.
She moved her hand to her temple, at least she tried. Her whole head throbbed like it'd been rearranged and someone forgot to put the pieces back properly.
Focus.
Where the hell was she?
The air smelled sterile. Too clean. The kind of clean that made your teeth itch. Not a hospital. Not exactly.
Wrong vibe. She tilted her head. There, movement. Figures. Three of them. Blurry at first, then sharper in the corners of her vision.
Mira.
Sitting stiff in the corner. Waiting. But not the usual chirpy, overly-sunny Mira. No. This Mira looked like she hadn't blinked in a year.
Their eyes locked. Fast. Too fast.
None of that dumb softness Mira usually wore like perfume.
Eris tried to speak. Failed. Her mouth was a damn desert. Her heart pounded in her ears like a warning siren no one else could hear.
Her finger throbbed again, deep and pulsing, like it was remembering something her brain hadn't caught up to yet. Something missing.
Mira trembled just once before speaking. A quiet voice. Measured. Too level. "Eris… you're awake?"
Eris flinched.
The way Mira said her name… Too gentle. Too careful. Like she was stepping around broken glass. But the words? Sharp as hell anyway.
A blade wrapped in silk.
Eris didn't answer. She couldn't. Her chest tightened. A weird feeling. Heavy. Crawling.
Not relief. Something uglier. Two more bodies caught her eye… Leon and Adam.
Okay. That was weird. They weren't yelling. Or pacing. Or throwing shade at each other with every glance.
They were just… there.
Still.
Leon's face looked carved from stone, as always. Except, his brow was slack. Relaxed. Almost soft.
Adam… That bastard usually never shut up. Now… Slumped beside Leon, shoulder brushing his.
Sleeping. Together. In the same space. Same silence.
Hell really must've frozen over.
Eris blinked. Something in her eyes burned. Maybe just from trying too hard to make sense of this.
Maybe not.
Then Mira again, voice quieter, like she didn't want to break something. "We've been waiting for you…"
Eris stared. They looked blurry. Too far away, even when they weren't. And suddenly… She didn't know what hit her first.
Was it anger? Was it grief? Something cracked open in her chest and let it all pour out.
Something sharp. Something bitter. Something that didn't want to be grateful. She should've been relieved.
Instead, all she felt was: Where the fuck were they when I was bleeding out?
But all she did was breathe. Shallow. And stare. And feel that familiar, rising heat in her ribs that said…
This isn't over.
Not even close.
Mira's eyes were wet.
At first, Eris thought her own vision was still fucked. Blurred from painkillers or sleep or whatever the hell they pumped into her. But no… That wasn't haze. That was real. Tears.
Actual, glistening tears. Red-rimmed, soft-lashed, trembling like they didn't belong on a face that usually smiled too much.
Mira was crying?
For her?
Her lashes shivered with every breath, clumped and soaked like the sky before a downpour. Then… She moved. Leaning forward too fast.
Eris didn't have time to brace before Mira's arms wrapped around her and her head bumped against a shoulder, sharp pain bloomed through her collarbone like fire licking bone.
God. That hurt. The fuck are you doing…?
Mira froze. Then yanked herself back with a gasp. "Oh, sorry! I'm so sorry! I just… I didn't… You're awake, I…!"
Her voice cracked. Shattered like glass that'd been barely hanging on.
She wiped her face, but her hands were useless. Every swipe just made the crying worse. Her breathing was quick and messy, like she was trying to stay afloat and failing, badly.
Still, she couldn't stop looking at Eris. Like if she blinked, Eris would vanish.
"You're awake..." Mira whispered, broken and breathless. Her hands dropped from Eris's shoulder but lingered at her arm, pressing soft, like she needed to confirm she was real.
And Eris… Eris just stared. The warmth curling in her chest wasn't comforting. It was irritating. Too much. Too sudden. Too raw.
It itched beneath her ribs, something restless and sour.
Who is this? This girl, soaked in tears and sounding like something cracked her open? This wasn't the sugar-high, bubblegum version of Mira she knew. This was... something else. Something that'd been through a storm and survived, barely.
"We waited four days," Mira said quietly, like the words were fragile. Like speaking too loud might ruin them.
"…Four days you didn't wake up. Just... laying there. Quiet. Like…"
Her voice snapped. Again. Four days?
Eris felt it all at once. Like her stomach had been flipped inside out. No. That couldn't be right.
Four days? She'd been unconscious, just there, for four whole days? No thoughts. No movement. No control.
Anything could've happened. Anyone could've touched her, moved her, killed her. She could've died and not even known it.
Fuck.
Breathe.
Okay. She was here. She was breathing. Her fingers ached, still attached. Great.
But her throat tightened, sharp like barbed wire, and her chest… Her chest felt... bruised. Squeezed.
Why?
Mira was still crying, though quieter now. The kind of quiet that said she'd done it too much lately. The kind of quiet that wasn't for show.
Her hand hadn't moved from Eris's wrist. Gentle. Like she was scared Eris might slip away again.
Like she mattered. Like Eris was...?
And all Eris could do was lie there. Still. Stiff. Staring at the ceiling like it held answers. Four days. And someone waited. Why? Why the hell would anyone wait for her?
Eris didn't answer right away.
Her head felt heavy, like something was still pounding from the inside, but that wasn't why she stayed quiet. Not the pain. Not the weakness.
No, it was something else. Something harder to admit.
This was a first. The first time she saw someone, anyone, cry because of her. For her. Or okay, at least about her.
And not out of disappointment.
Mira's eyes were still swollen, cheeks slick down to her neck. But she stayed. She didn't walk away. Didn't scream. Didn't flinch. Didn't gag like Eris's mother once did, that time she tumbled down the stairs and bled all over the hallway tiles.
Mira didn't even look disgusted. And Eris must've looked like hell, smelled like a hospital, bruised all over.
She didn't know what to feel. What to do. Or if she was supposed to... believe it.
Maybe it'd be easier to just close her eyes again. Fake sleep. Pretend none of this was happening.
Mira sniffled, wiped her nose with a trembling hand, but when she spoke, her voice had sharpened, clearer now. "Eris... I was scared. I mean, really scared. You were found in the restroom, unconscious, covered in blood. Your own blood."
Eris blinked, slow. Ah. So that was the story going around. Not bad. Tragic, but digestible. Could probably make it marketable with the right details.
"Your hands... your head... when I saw you like that, I thought…" Mira cut off. She didn't need to finish.
The silence filled in the blanks just fine. Eris closed her eyes. Just for a second. But a second was enough.
She saw it. Her father, slumped in the armchair, drunk, flinging a bottle across the room. Her mother, by the stove, yelling, tears boiling back into her skull because she refused to let them fall. And her, tiny, tucked under the kitchen table like a rat. Always crying silently. Like a thief.
"…If something's wrong," Mira's voice cracked again, smaller now, "please tell me. Eris, please."
Her heart thudded. Not from emotion. Not exactly. More like… Cornered. Like someone had just lifted the rug she'd been hiding under and called it "love."
"Don't hurt yourself," Mira whispered. Soft words. But they hit like a slap. Not loud. Not sharp. Just... deep. Too deep.
Eris turned her head slowly, jaw tense.
Shut up, Moreau. Don't get it twisted. She probably just feels sorry for you. And let's be rea, who wouldn't? Girl found half-dead on a restroom floor, stinking of antiseptic and cheap decisions.
But… Why did she say it like that? Why did her eyes look like that, like someone had wrung them dry from the inside?
Why did something tighten in Eris's chest, not quite her heart, but close enough it hurt?
Mira looked down again. "You matter to me, okay? I know I talk too much, and maybe I'm annoying as hell sometimes, but I care."
Then, quieter. "I just... I don't want to lose you." Eris didn't say anything.
No sarcastic comeback. No sharp-edged joke. No well-practiced wall to throw up in self-defense.
Just… Silence. And something sharp, just beneath her ribs. Not pain. Not exactly. More like being bitten from the inside.
Okay. Okay, wait.
Eris blinked, twice, slow. Her skull throbbed, like something inside was still rattling against the bone. But…
What the hell did Mira just say?
'If something's wrong… please talk to me. Please don't hurt yourself.'
What the actual fuck?
Did she look like the type to sob in a bathtub and write a dramatic farewell letter with waterproof eyeliner? No. Hell no.
Sure, she'd been covered in blood when they found her, yeah. But not because she did it to herself.
It was because… Because of him.
That silver-haired bastard's face slammed back into her memory like broken glass. Those unreadable grey eyes. The way he'd muttered "It can be stitched" like he was talking about a torn sleeve, not skin.
And now what?
Now people thought she'd hurt herself?
Her gaze flicked to her fingers, wrapped thick in gauze. Stiff. Clean. Too clean. The stitches were neat. Almost surgical.
And her head… Right. She remembered the hit. Not bumped, slammed. Then black.
So why the hell… Why did everyone seem to think she did this to herself? She didn't get a chance to ask.
A low grunt sliced through the air. Muffled. Rough. Eris turned, just enough to see.
Thud.
Adam hit the floor like a bag of bricks, clutching his gut, face twisted in pain.
Above him… Leon.
Still as a statue. Cold as one too. Except his eyes, lit, not with rage, not exactly. Something dirtier.
Disgust. Pure and undiluted.
"Fuck off," Leon growled, voice hoarse but heavy, like it carried weight. "Stay the hell away from me."
Eris flinched. Her body screamed in protest as she shifted upright, breath catching. Mira reacted just as fast, tugging the blanket back over her, but her wide eyes snapped to the scene, alarmed.
Adam lifted his head, wheezing. "Bro, what the f…?"
"Don't call me bro."
Flat. Icy. The kind of voice that vacuumed all the air out of the room. Leon didn't move, but something in the air had shifted, thickened.
Pressure.
The kind that makes your chest tighten before your brain even knows why. Eris stared. Tried to get it. Tried to connect dots her mind wasn't ready for.
Leon pushed him? Leon, the quiet one, the controlled one, looked like he wanted to break something. Someone.
And Adam… He looked confused as hell. What the fuck was going on?
None of it made sense. Like puzzle pieces with the right color but the wrong shape, jammed together out of desperation.
She was just sitting in the middle of it all. Head pounding. Muscles aching. And one thought spinning like a siren through the pain: What if this isn't a misunderstanding? What if someone changed the damn story?
"I was sleeping, goddammit…" Adam groaned from the floor, one hand clutching his side like he'd been slammed with a sledgehammer. "You scared the shit outta me! What the hell, why'd you push me?!"
Leon didn't answer. Didn't even look at him. Just a glance, sharp, detached, but not at Adam. At someone else.
Someone whose eyes had just flickered open.
And Eris, only Eris, caught it. Caught the way his shoulders twitched. Barely a movement. A reflex.
Like his body almost moved. Almost came closer. Almost checked if she was breathing.
But he stopped himself.
Jaw clenched. Fist curled, then released. Then curled again, tighter.
"You're awake," Leon said.
The words dropped low, like they were scraped off ice. But there was something else beneath it. Like breath held too long.
Adam spun around. And within seconds, he was off the floor, moving fast.
"Holy sh… Eris? Eris?!"
Footsteps scrambled across tile. The whisper of a pulled blanket. A soft click-hiss from the IV line as the fluid kept dripping.
Eris didn't move. Didn't speak. Just held her breath, bones locked in place while her brain sprinted miles ahead of her body.
Why did Leon look like that? Like he almost ran to her… but didn't? What the hell was that?
Adam, now standing at her bedside, his panic felt real. But something behind his eyes screamed guilt. Thick. Heavy. Like he knew something. Like all of them knew something.
Except her.
Her fingers, what was left of them, tightened on the edge of the blanket. The gauze itched. The stitches pulled. And her skull… Felt like someone was hammering nails straight into it.
But none of it, none of it, hurt as much as this. This feeling. This… Being lied to.
Adam was really standing there. Right there. Eyes glued to her like he couldn't believe she existed outside of a nightmare.
Like if he blinked too fast, she might vanish.
"You know..." he started, voice low, wobbly around the edges but not overplayed. Just real. "…those four days, I kept thinking…"
He swallowed hard.
"…what if you never woke up?"
Eris didn't answer.
Her gaze shifted, slow, sideways, to the other corner of the room.
Mira.
The girl's eyes dropped the second their stares collided. She clenched the hem of her sweater with both fists, head bowed, face buried halfway into her sleeve.
Not from embarrassment. No. She was hiding tears. Why are you crying? Why do you care this much?
Everything in Eris's head felt like a crushed can, dented, leaking, way too full. Too many gaps in her memory. Too many pieces missing. Too many people acting like…
Like she'd tried to die.
She didn't. She was hit. She was taken. And her finger… Her fucking finger…
"Hey, Mira."
Adam's voice cut through, soft but easy. No pressure. No guilt-tripping. Just… a gentle out.
"I'll get you that weird strawberry coffee you like. My treat, yeah? You freak me out every time you drink that stuff."
He smiled. Briefly. A mask over the leftover panic still leaking from his eyes. Mira gave a tiny nod and bolted for the door with him.
The door clicked shut behind them.
Silence.
Not peaceful. Not safe. Just... silence.
Eris inhaled. Shallow. Controlled. Then looked, really looked, at the only one who hadn't left.
He stood there, same as always. Still. Cold. unreadable. But something in that stillness felt off. Not wrong. Just... trembling. Quietly. Beneath the surface.
And when she turned again, he was sitting.
He hadn't made a sound. Hadn't asked. Just sat, like the space beside her bed belonged to him.
Too close. Her heart jerked. Hard.
Damn it.
She shut her eyes. One... two… Opened them again. Leon hadn't moved. Still there.
Watching her.
Not an expression… God, no, he'd never give her that. But his eyes… They dragged breath out of her lungs. "Glad you didn't die."
His words landed heavy. Cold. But too bare to be indifferent. Eris didn't breathe.
She searched his face for something, anything, to hold on to. But as usual, it gave her nothing.
Just a tight jaw. Lashes low. And, maybe… Maybe his shoulders sat lower than before. Just a little.
Like whatever weight he'd been carrying… He'd finally put it down.