awake

Darkness clung to me, thick and suffocating. I was floating, drifting in a weightless abyss where time had no meaning. Voices called out in echoes, but I couldn't reach them and honestly, i did not want to reach out to them. My limbs felt heavy, like they had been carved from stone. A dull ache pulsed behind my eyes, a distant reminder that I was still alive.

Then, something warm. Something solid. A touch, light and reassuring, wrapped around my fingers. I followed that warmth like a lifeline, clawing my way back through the suffocating void until I felt the first stirrings of consciousness. My mind wavered between dreams and reality, teetering on the edge of wakefulness, before finally giving in.

My eyelids fluttered, and a blinding light stabbed through my vision, making me groan. My head throbbed in time with my heartbeat, every movement sending sharp pinpricks of pain through my skull. The warmth around my hand tightened, grounding me, and a voice—soft, familiar—broke through the haze. I grunted, trying to adjust to the blinding light

“Sam?”

The sound sent a tremor through me. It was deep, edged with worry, and unmistakably his. My breath hitched as I forced my eyes open, blinking against the blur. The world spun for a moment, the details shifting in and out of focus, before sharpening into clarity. The first thing I saw was Eric.

He was leaning over me, his face so close that I could see the exhaustion etched into his features. His dark hair was a mess, his jaw shadowed with stubble. And his eyes—God, his eyes—were a storm of emotion, flickering between relief, disbelief, and something deeper, something raw.

“You’re awake,” he breathed, like he had been holding onto those words for days.

I swallowed, my throat dry and sore. It felt like I hadn’t used my voice in forever. “Eric…” My voice cracked, barely more than a whisper, but his grip on my hand tightened as if he had been afraid I would slip away again.

“You scared the hell out of me,” he murmured, his thumb tracing over my knuckles in slow, soothing circles. “You’ve been out for three days, Sam. Three damn days.”

Three days? My mind reeled, struggling to piece together the last thing I remembered. Flashes of pain, me running for my life and almost bleedig to death…—they all collided in a fractured mess. My chest tightened as I tried to sift through the memories, the disjointed fragments slipping through my grasp like sand.

“What… happened?” I managed to ask, my body still sluggish, as if it hadn’t caught up to the fact that I was finally awake. I mean i knew what happened but i thought i was going to die out there. How was i found?

Eric exhaled sharply, shaking his head. “You almost—” His voice caught, and he dropped his gaze for a moment before meeting mine again. His fingers flexed around mine, a silent reassurance, before he continued. “I thought I lost you.”

There was something unguarded in the way he looked at me, something that made my heart stutter in my chest. I had never seen him like this—so open, so vulnerable. Had he been here the whole time? Had he waited, holding onto my hand, willing me to wake up?

He squeezed my hand, looking at me with a gentle smile, and just.. looking at me “i am here” he said

A ghost of a smile flickered across his lips, but it was fleeting, like he wasn’t ready to believe it just yet. “Yeah,” i said softly. “You are.” i felt my self choke on tears as i said that, self hate filling me up as i said that.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The air between us was heavy, thick with unspoken words. His fingers never left mine, as if he was afraid that letting go would send me slipping back into the void. And honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to let go either, mainly because i was to scared to be alone.

The silence stretched, comfortable yet charged. I studied his face, noting the dark circles under his eyes, the way his shoulders sagged slightly, as if exhaustion had finally caught up with him now that I was awake. He looked like he had barely slept.

“How long have you been sitting here?” I asked, my voice a little stronger this time.

Eric hesitated before answering. “Since the moment they brought you in.” His tone was quiet, but there was no mistaking the intensity behind it. “I wasn’t going anywhere.”

My breath caught in my throat. I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Mainly because well…

“what happened” he said, changing the topic which i was genuinely grateful for. I did not want to dwell on that but then again, the topic being changed to did not make a great conversation starter. I was definitely not ready to speak about what happened at the castle. “it was that bastard right? He cast you out after saying he would protect you and…” he gave several curses, making me irritated the more he spoke,

“stop!!” i yelled at him, biting the inside of my cheeks as i tried to keep quiet. “do not….” i took in a deep breath

“look, i know you love him and all” i did not miss how it was hard for him to say the word love accurately. “but you can’t keep defending him, that bastard needs to face the consequences of his actions and…”

“he is dead!!!!!” i yelled just as the tears dropped from my eyes. “so please, just let him rest in peace at this point and let me move on, at least try to”

“oh” he said, looking at me in shock. “ i did not know” i almost scoffed at that. There was no way he would know, at least not until the council decides to announce it.

I hated the look of pity he gave me. “did he know about the baby?”. i snapped my head to look at him,

“what??!!!”