Neon’s small frame was covered in white sheets, and I hardly recognized her. A catheter bag hung from the side of the bed, halfway filled with urine. Suddenly, I wanted to search every part of her body to see every wound. I wanted to know exactly what the hell happened to her.
“Neon, what did they do to you?”
She tried to move but groaned, and Ink almost knocked me out of the way to help her. Gently, he removed the sheet as he helped her ease up a bit on her pillow. Her right arm was wrapped in a cast from shoulder to wrist, bent at the elbow.
“Jesus Christ. Neon?”
“It’s okay, Swan Lake. They didn’t do anything I couldn’t handle.” Her voice quivered, and I knew she was trying to be brave, but failed miserably.
She groaned out in pain as Ink tried to help her move.
I rushed around the bed to the other side. “She needs to lay on her back with that arm in a cast.” I reached out to help when Ink grabbed my hand.
“Stop.”
“What? I want to help.”
His pained expression almost slammed me to the ground. “She can’t lie on her back, Alyx.”
“What? Why?” I glanced down at her, and that was when I saw the bandages on her back. “What is this?”
Onyx stepped in next to me. “She has third-degree burns on her back, Alyx.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“They burned—”
“Onyx, no,” Neon snapped, her voice soft yet stern. “Shut the fuck up, would you?”
I cut my gaze from Onyx to Ink. “Will someone tell me what the fuck those monsters did to her?”
“Swan Lake, stop.” Neon’s voice was almost a whisper. “It’s not important.”
I rounded the bed again, wanting to see her face. “What do you mean, it’s not important? Jesus, Neon.”
Her eye closed for a few seconds and opened again. “I’m fine. Doc, here, is working his magic. The shit he’s giving me ain’t making me feel a thing. I’m okay.”
“No,” I shook my head, “you’re not okay. You’re far from okay.”
“I’m alive. So that means I’m okay.”
I looked back up at the door, but Granite was gone. He left, and I had no clue when.
The doctor injected something into her IV which stood on the other side of the bed, and in that moment it was like all the grief and pain I’d felt ever since I was told she was dead came rushing back, and I closed my eyes as tears rushed down my cheeks.
“Don’t cry, Swan Lake. I’ll be fit as fuck in no time.”
A laugh mixed through my sobs. It was typical Neon, trying to play down the seriousness of what had happened to her.
“I’m so sorry, Neon. I’m so sorry they did this to you.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“But it is. It is my fault. It’s because of me that they hurt you.”
“No.” She tried to shake her head but cringed instead. “It’s not your fault.”
I started to sob, the skin on my cheeks feeling raw from wiping it with the back of my hand. “If Granite had just given me—”