Chapter Fifty - Six
Linda
Peace.
A single word to describe death.
That's what I wanted when I closed my eyes and let the blackness take me. I had known from the moment that I closed my eyes that I would die.
But then I did not.
The moment I opened my eyes, I wanted to die.
I knew what things I have to face today if I did open my eyes. Somebody stroked my hand and my eyes snapped to his.
James.
Above him was Michael, who was towering over him. They were looking at me. I could not stand to see the sight of them. I shielded my eyes from my arm.
"Why did you save me?" I asked. My voice was already a little heavy from swallowing my tears.
Nobody answered. Then Michael spoke.
"Linda ..."
"Is my baby alive?" I asked them, dreading to hear the answer. I knew what their answer would be but a part of my poor heart still held onto the silly hope.
"Is my child alive?" I asked them again, taking my arm away from my eyes. Two tears leaked down from my eyes. They did not say anything. Only looked at me with pity in their eyes.
I hated the look in their eyes.
The look of pity.
"Answer me!" I shouted at them in anger even though I was sobbing like a child. Both of them bowed their heads. They kept their mouths shut, not answering me.
"No. The child did not make it." Michael told me, shattering any hope that I was carrying inside. Although I knew that there was no hope for the baby, it still hurt. My skin felt prickly like someone was running a knife on my skin.
This news broke all the dam of my heart and I started crying like I have never done before. The pain was too intense, too much. Like I had never felt before. Not when I was getting tortured when I was a kid, not when I was pushed to do intense training and not when Elijah tried to get information out of me. It was a pain that could burn the bridges down.
I kept crying and crying until I became so angry with everyone and everything.
I hated this fucked up world. I hated its people and everything in it.
My anger turned on the Twins who were watching me like I was some sort of animal. And then I remembered the way they told me that I had to die after I birthed THEIR child.
"Why did you save me?" I asked them, getting out of the bed. I pulled it away with force, pulling out every pipe and needle that was attached to my hand. Blood shot through the places where I had pulled the pipes. But I did not register the pain. I could not feel any pain except from the one I felt of losing my baby.
Twins stood up and backed up when they saw me pull away the pipes. James took a step toward me.
"Linda, listen ..." He said but his voice was drowned by the other sound.
I heard the beep beep beep from the monitor and it got too loud that I picked up the monitor and threw it away.
Nurses and doctors flooded inside the room, looking worried and startled. When they saw my bloodied hand and broken monitor all of them started chiming in telling me to stop and calm down.
Calm down.
How?
"Why did you save me when you wanted to kill me anyway? Aren't I supposed to die after my baby dies, huh? Didn't you tell me that I will be punished by death? Then why?!" I screamed.
For a second my anger was so intense that I lost control of myself. I picked up a scalpel.
Everyone's guarded and worried eyes turned into a panic one when they saw the scalpel in my hand. Twins took a step forward.
"Linda put down the scalpel." Michael told me.
"If you don't kill me then I will do it myself." I told them and did exactly the opposite of what Michael asked me to do. I brought the scalpel to my neck and was just going to cut it when somebody caught my wrist and injected me with a needle.
The control of my body loosened and the blade fell from my wrist. I fell backwards into someone's chest, their hands came around and grabbed me by my waist. Black dots appeared in my vision and I fainted.
This time when I opened my eyes I found myself in the same room. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep. Flashbacks of the night began running inside my head. Parker, Master, his words and the last memory of a wolf jumping on him.
My eyes flew open with a shudder.
Few locks of my hair had fallen over my head. I tried to tuck them away when I felt the restraints on my hands. I glanced down and saw both of my hands and legs were restraint.
I tried shaking them off but they were tight around my wrist.
A door opened and a nurse entered inside. She saw my open eyes and looked surprised for once.
"Oh. You are awake. I was hoping that you would have woken by now." She said and put down the board she was carrying with herself on the table.
"How are you feeling?" She asked me. I stared at her dead in the eye.
"Open my hands." I said in a cold voice. Her eyes darted towards my hands and shook her head.
"Umm. I can't do that. You are still grieving the loss of your child and still under risk of harming yourself." She told me. A growl escaped my mouth.
"I SAID to open it up." I ordered her.
"No. She won't do that." A voice came. I glared at Elijah and I swear to God, if my hands were not tied then his chopped off head would have been rolling on the floor.
"I know by your look that you want to kill me. And I would deserve it." He said. The nurse quietly got out of the room, leaving us alone.
"But I want to make a truce with you. Our whole Alpha Council had decided to change its decision about your punishment. We all had decided to take the decision back." He told me. I spat on his face, my spit landing on his chin.
"Now that I have lost my baby, you want to make TRUCE with me? How dare you?" I asked him. Elijah took out a handkerchief and wiped off my spit from his face.
"I dare it, because I knew I was wrong. And I apologise for everything I had done to you." He apologised to me.
"Why change your mind now? What changed?" I asked him. My anger died down when I heard his apology.
"You saved a life." He told me.
I could not believe him.
"It wasn't like the one you helped Adan with. This time, you sacrificed yourself and your baby for someone from our pack, while going against your master. It is enough for us to realise our mistakes. James and Michael made us realise that you almost got killed for someone that was in your enemy clan. Yet you still saved him." He told me.
"At the cost of another life." I muttered to myself.
"Linda…"
"What happened to my Master?" I questioned him. I knew the answer but still.
"He ... is dead. Consider, your Master's sacrifice was worth it. Especially your unborn child's sacrifice. This war had cost the blood of future Alpha. There won't be another war between hunters and wolves. Enough, people had died in this war. We won't risk it ever again." He told me.
"Linda, I can't help you with the pain you're feeling but I can assure you that I will make sure no other mother will go through the pain that you are going through. No child will be sacrificed from now on. So for the sake of the child, Truce?" He asked me.
No child will suffer the pain that I went through?
It was worth it.
It was the time to let the past go and accept today.
Yeah, the Master's sacrifice was worth it. There won't be another war. Thus, I swallowed all my anger and hurt. I traced my stitches on the stomach.
"One question." I told him. He jerked him to tell me to go on.
"Whose baby was it? James's or Michael's? I never got the chance to know about it." I asked him. All this time, I wasn't told whose baby it was and nor did I question it. But now I could not stop myself since this chapter was closing.
Elijah bent down on my side. He squeezed my hand once and extracted it.
"It doesn't matter." He told me. His words worked like magic as I realised how right he was. All the pressure that was weighing me down left me. And I felt lighter.
I nodded.
"Truce."