Reborn Heart of Steel

In the quiet and white cube that the hospital room was, the only thing that could be heard was the steady beep-beep of the heart monitor. Sitting next to the bed on which Alessandro lay unconscious, I held his cold hand as hard as I could, praying for his wake-up. Chase was standing by the window, his face against the glass, his shoulders contracted as with suppressed pain. Three days had passed since the call we got when we realized that we had to leave. Three days since, our world has been shattered all over again. I found that I couldn’t let go of the memory of it. In the abandoned church, we had been hunched together with a map of the inevitable in front of us, desperately looking for a way to free Alessandro, when my phone rang.

The next few hours were full of fear and still rooted in hope. As we rushed and got to the hospital, Alessandro was in a critical condition. He was rushed to the operation theater to receive surgery. The bullet had just passed a couple of inches below his heart, and it had a damaging effect. Now, here we were, engaged in passive observation and each hour that passed only worsened our friend’s condition and brought them closer to a comatose state.

“It is all our mistake,” I said, my throat was sore from screaming for hours. “We never should have started this. We should have listened to agent Harris from the start. ” Chase swung away from the window, his face pallid, dark circles under his eyes. “We can’t think like that, Bri. We were just trying to do a good thing. We could not have expected it to come to this. ”

But what he said sounded more like an echo, and we were both aware of it. We understood the risks. We’d just been too confident, too self-absorbed to really comprehend what it was we were doing. A gentle knock brought us out of our reverie. Agent Harris walked in, perfectly composed, his appearance looking like one of someone who was seriously contrite. But I could hear it in his exhausted voice and I could see his thousand-yard stare that said ‘I have endured a lot’. “Any change?” he asked, though I was very much certain the answer was already with him. I nodded and said, ‘No’ without looking at him. Agent Harris sighed, rubbing his head, already thin on top, and darkened with age. “I want to speak with you, you two,” he stated rather gruffly,This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

Chase and I looked at each other and proceeded to follow him into the hallway. The sound of the door and the steady beep of the heart monitor stopped, and I suddenly felt an urge to suddenly get out of the ward. What would happen if Alessandro woke up when we had left the house? What if he… I managed to move this line of thought to the side and look at the rather weary looking Agent Harris. “I know that this is not the right time,” he said softly. But there is only one thing that remains to be discussed: ‘But what does one do after that?’ Chase’s body went tense, although he stood right beside me. ” ‘What do You mean, ‘what happens next’?” He sneered and growled next, “Kill The Raven. ” Agent Harris lifted his hand and for the first time since he had started talking, he looked angry. “That’s exactly what we are not going to do,” he said in a stern voice, while pointing his finger at both of them: “Listen to me, both of you. This has got far enough as you two are clearly out of your depth and have no business messing with things that are better left to professionals. ” I nearly gasped with anger, with that quick, hot anger that rises up unexpectedly from the depths. ‘Let the professionals do it?’ Like they’ve been ‘managing’ The Raven until now? He’s alive, he’s dangerous, he makes people suffer!” “Brianne,” Agent Harris said, his tone becoming a little less harsh. “I know it makes no sense, but I get your anger. But see how far it has gotten you? Your friend is currently in a coma, and you are both lucky not to be in jail now. Enough is enough. ” What he said was so true that literally it was like someone had slapped me. How did I manage that, but I was too tired to think and slid down the wall. “Somewhere, ‘That’s the end of it; we’ll let The Raven triumph. ‘” Agent Harris then shook his head. “It’s not giving up. It’s knowing when you’re cornered. The Raven is dangerous, more dangerous than you can begin to comprehend. He has an entire network of agents working exclusively for the purpose of apprehending him. The best thing you can do now is to lay low and let us do our work. ”

Chase’s brows knit in anger, and he started to say that the idea would not work. He stopped short when Agent Harris spoke. “This is not a request, it is an order. If you try to interfere in this investigation anymore, I will not hesitate to arrest both of you for your own safety if nothing else. ” The decisiveness with which he spoke could not be argued with. We were on the periphery, being watched, as we let others take up the cudgels we had first swung in our defense. “And Alessandro?” Chase questioned softly, he suddenly hardly raised his voice. “What happened to him?” Agent Harris’s expression softened. “We will ensure that he receives the best care ever. And we will ensure that he is under protection. The Raven cannot harm him again. ” I just managed to nod my head, not able to argue with him any further, I was that exhausted. “Can we… can we keep him company? At least till we are ready to take further action?” “Of course,” Agent Harris said. “But I have to have your word that you will leave this alone from now on no more digging around; no more justice seeking. ” Chase and I stared at each other for a long time. My instinct rose up in me at the prospect of surrender of not being able to bring The Raven to justice for what he had done. And as I gazed at Chase’s worn out expression, as I envisioned Alessandro being totally unresponsive in the hospital bed, I realized that we had no option. “We promise,” I said at last, and the words, like bile, rose up the back of my throat. It was apparent from today that Agent Harris had never been happier to hear the words ‘case closed’. “I appreciate it. I know getting myself away from here is for the best. Please try to get some sleep. I’ll call you if there is any update. ” After that, he left, and Chase and I just stared at each other for a good twenty seconds. There was sort of a droning in our ears, closest to the sound of underwater when external noises appeared rather far away. “What did we just do? What do we do from now on?” Chase was perhaps the smallest of everyone there. I frowned and shook my head, realizing that tears had started welling up in my eyes again. On this show they don’t even know when to ask for help or where to find it, and yesterday she said ‘I don’t know. I just… I don’t know. ‘ We went back to Alessandro’s room; save for the brief moment where we embraced on the veranda, we sat by his bedside. It was at once the most comforting and the most aggravating sound of the heart monitor, the steady beep, Beep. He was active, but he was in a world that we cannot access. And as the hours were passing by, my head remained full of memories. Looking like The Raven for the first time and the laughter that came from Alessandro when planning our first attack. His consistency during the period we adopted a risky approach as we sought to achieve our goals. His face contorted with a fierce look of determination when he single-handily detained The Raven’s men to enable Chase and I to get away. And now, he is lying here so deathly pale and perfectly motionless, struggling against an opponent that we cannot help him against. “I know we should have listened to him,” Chase said after a few minutes of quiet grumbles. “That night at the strip club. He said it was too risky, so that we needed more information. But we were convinced that we could handle it. ” I could only stoically agree with her ‘We were very foolish; we believed that with the three of us, we could take on The Raven and his entire criminal network. “And look where it got us,” Chase said with angry vehemence to drive the others into a corner. ‘Alessandro, a coma, and we us, we are just sitting here, without being able to help. ‘ I leaned towards Chase and held his hand across the bed. “What are we good for then?” Chase asked suddenly, her voice a little bitter, “We are here for him. Isn’t that worth something, right?”