82. Room 24 - 2

'Took me long enough!?', I thought in silence. I was a bit annoyed by his calm demeanor, he was way too calm for a person who was officially meeting a woman he left without saying a word to. I had to literally jump through hoops to find him, I had to do things that were outside my comfort zone in hopes of bumping into him and I was now paying the price for some of my actions. Yes, I cannot blame him because he did not ask me to do any of those things, but still, I didn't expect to find him so casual and looking unbothered by my presence, I expected some sort of reaction.

I stood silently in front of him with my mouth open, but I could not form a single word. I had so many things I wanted to say including the fact that his calmness was pissing me off. I had so many things I wanted to scold him for, I had a long list of things I wanted to voice out, a whole speech of love and affection, but at that moment, I went completely blank. I was just too shocked to fathom the reality I was in, a part of me was in denial, and the fact that he was right in front of me felt so surreal. Maybe it was his sudden appearance or the fact that he was calm, but whatever it was, it had caught my tongue.

There he was, in flesh and I couldn't say anything...I even forgot the reason I ran to the hospital. The man I had helplessly fallen in love with and desperately tried to find was a few steps in front of me and I was too stuck to even run to his arms for embrace.

The room was quiet for a long second, me because I was in shock and him probably waiting for me to do or say something.

Seeing how flabbergasted and flustered I looked, he sighed and headed my way, well, more like towards the door because I was literally standing in front of it, that was until I moved away to make way for him.

"If I were you... I would hurry before his next check-up.", and just like that, he snapped me back to my body, and the clock began moving again. I remembered why I was there so without thinking twice, I hurried to the man who was lying on his back in the tiny hospital bed. He was not moving and as if reading what I was thinking, Walter muttered, "He's not dead. He's just sleeping. Don't worry, he will tell you everything you need to know, isn't that right Thomas?". I flinched to the sudden sound of his voice because I thought he had left already and I was not the only one his voice sent alarms to because just then, the man began opening his eyes with a painful expression.

I'm not going to lie, seeing and hearing him groan in pain brought a subtle smile to my face, I probably would've been in a much worse condition if it weren't for Walter, so yeah, it was either this Thomas fellow or me.

With a grateful expression, I turned to Walter who was now ready to walk out, but I was not going to let him. The idea of him disappearing again made my heart limp heavily. I didn't want this to turn into a one-time encounter where he once again disappeared before I could even have a proper conversation with him, I wanted it to be fair this time. Because of those thoughts and fears and the need I felt to talk to him, I anxiously breathed out, "Don't run... Walter.", on impulse and he instantly stood still in his position. My face flushed with embarrassment, so hoping he didn't see the desperation my eyes held, I iterated more calmly, "Please wait for me outside, just 15 minutes".

He just turned to me, and sighed heavily, and that long heavy sigh was the only response I got before he waltzed out, without saying anything else, leaving me confused, and having to decipher whatever that meant.

I was not sure if he would wait or leave, so I didn't know whether to be excited or disappointed. I didn't know what to expect, a sigh doesn't really say much. Well, I guess it said enough to distract me while I was talking to Thomas. It was hard to focus on some parts of the conversation, especially the non-important ones, the man was quite a story teller and he took his sweet time getting to my part of the story. It was like he knew what was about to happen to him so he didn't hold back with the information, even the things I didn't need to know. And it was during those times when I would zone out, and focus on my partial regret for not talking to Walter, and not knowing whether he would wait or not didn't ease the tension in my heart.

Finally, Thomas reached the part I was there for, it took longer than 15 minutes, but nonetheless, we were having it and by then, I had convinced myself that Walter had left, and that managed to put my thoughts in order, giving me only one emotion to focus on, disappointment, but that was short-lived, thanks to Thomas.

The more I listened to him, the more frustrated and angry I became. I regretted chasing this idea of "closure". Only acts of violence were beginning to fill my head. I was beyond livid.

It turned out I was just some experiment for a group of first-time spikers and drug pushers. I almost lost everything because of a bunch of wannabes, how embarrassing was that?