Page 4 of Letters to the Lost

“I’ll go grab the pills from her room. The hospital might need to know what she took,” Sebastian states as he walks away, his strides purposeful.

“I’ll grab the car,” Zander says, already walking away.

Atlas sits on the floor, his back to the wall, his legs spread out in front of him as he stares at the door with a lost expression, tears streaking down his cheeks.

“Dominic, why don’t you go grab her clothes from her room so she can change at the hospital? I’ll make sure you can see her before we leave if you promise to be calm.”

Trying to negotiate with Dominic when he’s like this can be impossible, but this is Autumn, and that normally makes him a bit more reasonable.

“Fine,” he grits out before he turns around and storms out of the hallway towards her room.

“Come on man, let’s get you up and we can go in and see her. Hopefully, Doc’s done,” I clasp Atlas’s hand and haul him up, catching him when he stumbles.

“Why would she do this Tobias? Why?” Atlas croaks, before he breaks down in my arms.

Pulling him in for a hug, I hold one of my best friends, as he cries for our girl. He sounds so lost and hopeless.

“Let’s go see her, yeah?” I open the door to the room, leaving it open for the others.

Atlas jerks out of my hold when he sees her, stumbling over to her bedside. Doc just finishedwith the last stitch, covering it with a bandage.

Atlas falls to his knees by her side, clasping her hand in his as he cries into the sheets, begging her to wake up, begging her not to leave him.

Turning to Doc to give Atlas some privacy, I notice how tired he looks.

“You ok, Doc?” I ask.

“I’m fine son, don’t you be worrying about me.” He waves off my concern, flapping his hand in my face “We need to get her to the hospital now, she needs more help than what I can give her.”

The others return to the room in no time, all of them kissing Autumn on the forehead, whispering to her. All while Atlas still kneels by her bedside.

The ambulance arrives, and the paramedics work carefully, getting Autumn onto the gurney, while they try to avoid Dominic’s intense gaze as he stares at them with murder brewing in his eyes, palming his knife in his hand.

He was so excited to show her his new addition to the hilt tonight, he got it customized earlier today while she was at therapy and paid his guy to engrave a cupcake with a lobster sitting on top of the frosting. She would have groaned and huffed about it, but secretly she would have loved it. Now we have to hope that she makes it through this to be able to see it. Dominic wouldn’t handle losing her well, we’ll most likely be cleaning up bodies around Phoenix for the rest of our lives.

“Is anyone coming in the ambulance with her?” one of the paramedics asks.

“I’ll go,” Kelvin barks, as he enters the room, his face hard as he stares down the medical team. “Doc will be following and will be in charge of my daughter's care.”

They just nod, murmuring their agreement, before they rush our girl out to the ambulance that is pulled up to the front door.

We all scramble into the cars waiting for us out front, Sebastian carrying her pills in a chokehold and Dominic carrying her weekend bag with clothes. We pile into the car, wasting no time racing after the ambulance, the tires on the car screeching from how fast Zander speeds after our girl.

The next few hours are absolute torture.

One smashed-up waiting room, Dominic threatening a doctor with bodily harm if his Cupcake dies and a practically catatonic Atlas, Doc finally comes into the room looking exhausted.

All of us jump to our feet, shooting questions at him until he holds his hand up to silence us.

“She’s alive, but only just. We nearly lost her again, but we managed to stabilize her. We’ve administered naloxone to counteract the drugs. But…” Doc swallows, “But, we found bruises on her ribs and stomach, just like the last time she was in the hospital. So, I sent her for an X-ray and discovered she has a broken rib.”

“Who?!” Dominic bellows “Who hurt my fucking Cupcake!”

“We’ll get those answers when she wakes up, from Autumn, but I need you to be calm,” Doc tells him, his voice professional but his tone is tired.

“Can we go in and see her yet?” Kelvin asks him.

“Yeah, we’re hopeful she will wake up soon, so I’ll take you to her.”

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