A Rose to Keep (The Society 1)

The world began to spin and I felt sickness swirling inside me. I couldn’t get up, and then, the world went blank.

****

Mateo

I hated the sound of the hospital. The rustle of activity. The occasional beep of a machine. The sudden rush of people as they tried to save someone. Some found comfort in this place. Me, I saw a place where a lot of people came to die.

Gideon paced the room. William leaned against a wall, hands thrust into his pockets. Dante had his notebook in hand but wasn’t scribbling away at some piece of art he felt inspired to draw. I sat, arms folded, waiting for news.

We weren’t there today.

All of us got a phone call, telling us to be at the cafeteria by order of The Society. Our dads were on their way to the hospital.

We’d been so preoccupied with waiting we didn’t hear the news of the fire until it was too late. Sian’s hands were burned from touching the glass. Her hair had been hacked off. Something wasn’t right, and as we all sat here waiting for more news, I knew we all blamed ourselves.

“Heather didn’t make it,” William said.

“We know,” Gideon said.

“How do we tell her?”

“I bet she already knows,” I said.

Silence fell between us.

“What did we do wrong?” William asked.

“We shouldn’t blame ourselves,” Dante said.

I closed my eyes, feeling the start of a headache. I didn’t want to have to deal with their arguing.

“Enough,” I said, speaking up. “We don’t have time for this. None of us do. Sian wouldn’t want us arguing.”

“Her best friend is dead,” William said. “Her hair was hacked off. What the fuck are we going to do? Do you even realize what this says about us?”

“We’ll deal with whatever the fallout is at school,” Gideon said.

An attack on our school was bad news.

“We’ll handle everything.”

I was about to open my mouth and ask how he expected us to handle everything when our parents chose that moment to enter the hospital.

Lucas went to Gideon and slapped him on the back. My dad, Justin, came into the room. We had never had the kind of touchy-feely relationship that other fathers and sons had.

“Are you okay, son?” he asked

“Fine.”

“How is she doing?”

“We’re waiting to hear.”

Gideon suddenly shoved his dad back. “No, I’m not going to remain calm. I told Sian we’d protect her. This is The Society’s doing.”

Lucas glanced around. “You watch your mouth!”

“No, I will not watch my mouth. Someone attacked Sian. They killed Heather, and they put Fred in the hospital. Tell us what is going on!”

“This isn’t the time or the place to be doing this.”

“Not the time or the place. When is it the time? You told me to handle this. How the fuck can I handle this shit when they’re going behind my back, killing her friends?”

“Keep your shit together. I trained you better than this,” Lucas said.

“We were all trained to handle whatever came at us, but this goes far beyond that,” I said.

“Mateo, show some respect,” my father said.

“I have.” I stood up. “We followed the rules. I’m sure we’ve bent a few that weren’t supposed to be, but Heather? She didn’t do anything wrong. What about Sian? Why attack her? None of this makes any sense. Is this The Society?” I asked.

At the clearing of a throat, I turned to see a doctor waiting. “Sian Roberts?”

We all moved close to him to be able to hear. “Tell me how bad it is,” Gideon said.

Sian had sustained burns to her hands from touching the glass. Her head had also been cut in the process of removing her hair, and she had some cracked ribs.

“We’ve moved her to a private room. At the moment, she is resting.”

Gideon took the lead, wanting to see her. I needed to see her as well. The thought of her being all alone as her best friend lay dying right next to her was too much to even think about.

Whatever Sian needed, she could have.

We walked down the corridor. Staff gave us all a wide berth. We weren’t too fucking scary, but I had a feeling with how we looked, we didn’t exactly give off the powerful-men vibe. Our fathers followed us, and as we got to the room, after one look at Sian in the bed, I was close to losing my shit.

After entering the room, Gideon, Dante, William, and I moved in closer. She was breathing. Her hands were wrapped in bandages.

“Why isn’t she awake?” Dante asked the doctor who’d come to join us.

“After the trauma she experienced, we felt it best for her to not be under any undue pressure,” the doctor said. His beeper went off. “I have to go handle another patient. I’ll be back.”

He left us alone.

Sian looked so fucking vulnerable. The hair she loved so much was gone. Someone had hacked it off.