From what I knew about concussions, it was possible.
If that happened, I’d…
I’d…
The ring of my cell phone interrupted me before I could finish that thought.
For a moment, I stared uncomprehendingly at Magnus’s name on the screen before my brain snapped back online and I answered it.
“Mag? What is it?”
“Hey, Brody,” Magnus said, sounding too casual for the situation. “How… um, how’s Ellis?”
My gaze flickered toward the monitoring machines again, showing the steady rhythm of Ellis’s pulse. “Nothing’s changed since the last time you asked me an hour ago. Now, get to the point. You wouldn’t have called just for that.”
“Okay. Rude. But you’re right. I’ve… I’ve found out some information about Creed.”
I hadn’t forgotten about the situation with Creed, but in all the chaos happening with Ellis it had been pushed to the back of my mind.
It seemed I was failing all of my relationships.
“Did they find him?” I asked, hopeful but not optimistic. If Creed had been found, Magnus would have led with that information rather than asking about Ellis again when he knew nothing had changed.
“No, but…” Again, Magnus hesitated, making me more anxious with each silent moment that passed. “They’re pretty sure he’s POW.”
POW.
Prisoner of War.
Every solider had heard this term at least once and spent no small amount of time contemplating the possibility. But it never truly felt real. It was like a boogieman story. It kept us up at night, but under the light of the sun it disappeared to the back of our minds.
Now, the nightmare had caught up to us, and we found that the boogieman was very real.
“Is there—” My voice cracked, and I tried again. “Is there any news about him?”
I could hear Magnus sigh through the phone. “Well, that’s the weird part. I was able to find out that Creed was captured, but no one can tell me by who, or even where he is. Hell, they can’t even tell mewhyhe was captured, but his captors haven’t made any demands.”
No demands?
My heart sank.
People often said that “no news is good news.” Whoever came up with that saying had clearly never had someone they cared about go missing. If Creed was captured for the sake of a ransom, that wouldn’t be so bad. A ransom could be solved, and it would mean that his kidnappers would had a vested interest in keeping him unharmed.
However, if there was no ransom, then there were only a few reasons why someone would take Creed, and none of those reasons were good.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Magnus said, just as my thoughts started to spiral into a dark place. “I thought the same thing, but… I don’t know. Something about this just isn’t adding up. I can’t place my finger on why, but this whole situation just feels odd.”
“Odd.” I huffed out a depressing imitation of a laugh. “Yeah. You can say that again.”
Movement on the hospital bed caught my attention. Ellis stirred, his eyelids fluttering as he tried to open his eyes, and he grasped at the thin sheet covering most of his body, fisting it in his hands.
“Hey, Mag. I’ll have to call you back. Let me know if you find anything else out.”
“Yeah. Will do.”
With a quiet beep the line went dead, and I shoved the phone back in my pocket just as Ellis finally opened his eyes.
He turned his head, looking straight at me like he knew I’d be there. His dark eyes were like black holes sucking in all the light. They drew me in until I was sitting forward on the edge of my uncomfortable little chair.