Chapter 27-3

She pulled down the blankets that were covering half her face, giving me a wary look. I tried hard not to gasp. If it were possible, Lauren looked ten times as worse than she did the day before. The bruises and cuts covering her face had darkened in color and a few looked as if they were bleeding. A shallow cut underneath her left eye had swollen a little, giving her an almost puffy appearance. “Hi, Archer.” Lauren’s voice was cracked and raspy, harsh on my ears. “Hey, Lauren.” I took a seat on the edge of the chair. “How…how are you feeling?” Lauren sighed, dropping her head back on a pillow, staring at a point on the wall. “I’ve…well, I’ve definitely seen better days.” I didn’t know what would be an appropriate response, so I kept quiet. The silence stretched on between us for several moments. “Archer, I…” I looked away from counting chips in the paint on the ceiling. “Yeah?” Tears were swimming in her eyes as she sucked in a shaky breath, still avoiding looking anywhere at me. “You were right about…about…” She scrunched her eyes closed, yanking the blankets back up to her chin. “About…” Without thinking I leaned forward and grabbed Lauren’s hand in mine, squeezing tightly. I found that even though I knew what Lauren was trying to say, I didn’t want to hear her try and force the words out. Seeing my cousin like that, my family – or even anyone else, for that matter – was too…painful. “Lauren, please. Just don’t, okay?” I said. “I understand.” “No, no, no. You don’t understand, Archer.” Lauren exclaimed, shooting upright in bed. “You were right about Henry and I should have listened to you. You were only looking out for me, and he did these terrible, awful things and I – “ “Lauren!” Now we were both trying hard to keep from raising our voices. If we got any louder, we’d attract the hospital’s attention. I honestly wished I could tell Lauren the truth, about Havoc, about everything, but that only worsen the situation and she would never believe me as it were. I chose my words very carefully when I spoke next. “Whatever happened with Henry wasn’t your fault. Okay? Regardless of what I said before. You have to believe me on this one.” Her eyes narrowed and her chin jutted out in the Incitti defiant way. “That’s just bullshit, Archer. How can you expect me to believe this wasn’t my fault when I haven’t even told you what happened? About how he -” “Oh, I have a vague idea of what happened, if your appearance is anything to go by,” I assured her. “But please, spare me the details. You just have to trust me that this wasn’t your fault. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but some things in life you just have to do blindly, and this is one of those things.” Wait. Hadn’t I head that somewhere before? “But I – “ “Please, Lauren.” She slipped her hand from mine with a disgusted sigh and slouched backwards against the pillows. Her eyes were trained on the ceiling for several moments while she worked to keep her breathing slow and even. “Why?” she demanded, glaring over at me. “Because…because you can’t let this ruin your life. That’s why.” Or I’ll never be able to forgive myself. “Archer…” At the moment Lauren opened her mouth to say something, there were several rapid knocks on the door. I stood up quickly and moved to open the door, only to come face to face with the last person I wanted to see. I stepped out of the room and slammed the door shut, silently praying that Lauren hadn’t seen any sliver of the person now standing in front of me. “Archer. We’ve got a problem.” “Yeah, I kinda figured that, since you’re showing your face after a good few weeks.” Death hooked a finger in the collar of my jacket and dragged me down the hallway – a reoccurring theme for today – and pulled me into an empty janitor’s closet. “What are we doing in here?” I demanded, flipping on the light switch. We were surrounded by mops and brooms and a mess of cleaning supplies that burnt my nose, which only made this situation even weirder. “If you haven’t noticed, I’ve got enough on my plate to be dealing with.” Death gave himself a second to give me an annoyed look and then his hard face was abruptly serious again. He shoved a hand into his pocket and came up with a white envelope that he thrust at me. “What’s this?” I quickly flipped open the envelope to examine the contents. “Airplane tickets?” “That’s right, Archer. Four tickets for the red-eye to Palermo tonight,” Death said, lowering his voice, speaking quickly. “You’re going to give these to your mother and your sisters and then you’re going to personally see them on that flight. Do you understand me?” “What?” My thoughts were racing a mile a minute. “Why do my mother and sisters need to go to Palermo? I – “ “Dammit, Archer, use your head!” I jerked back a step when Death smacked me on the back of the head. “I told you from the very beginning that something was coming, didn’t I? Well, it’s here.” It felt as if my blood started to run cold. This was it? After months of waiting, was this actually it? “It’s…” I swallowed hard, wiping my hands on my jeans. I didn’t trust myself to keep from throwing up. “You mean now?” “What did you expect, Archer?” Death said flatly. “You knew the end was going to come at some point, didn’t you?” I knew that. Of course I knew that. But knowing something inevitable was going to happen was far from actually experiencing said thing. “Okay,” I forced out. “Okay. So…so…what…” Why was it so hard to speak, dammit? “What do we now?” Death finished for me. “Get your family to Palermo as soon as you can. Okay?” “And what about Hadley, huh? I noticed how you made no mention of her,” I said, my heart starting to pound erratically. “What about Hadley?”