CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEEN.
Jayce’s POV.
“Reed!” I scream his name as my eyes shut open. I rise from the bed with sweat trickling down my temples. Heavy, labored breathing makes my chest tighten with pain and the room feels like it’s spinning.
A nightmare.
A gory one.
It feels like a bad omen!
Reed. I have to call Reed.
“Baby.” Alora calls and that’s when I realize my sudden scream woke her up as well. I turn to look at her with my face damped with perspiration. I’m breathing heavily. My heart feels like it’s being chopped into pieces.
She turns on the light on the nightstand and drapes her arms around my shoulders, giving me a worried look. I swallow dryly.
“What’s wrong? Why are you breathing hard and sweating profusely?”
“I had a bad dream about Reed.” I turn to the nightstand and pick up my phone. “I have to call him.” My voice is a harsh whisper as I fumble with the screen icons, trying to access the call logs and then Reed’s phone number. Alora is gently rubbing my back, trying to calm me down, but it’s not working. There’s this ugly feeling tearing my nerves apart and my stomach feels like there’s a well in it. My soles are biting, my scalp is itchy, my entire body feels like I’m on fire.
Reed.
Please Moon goddess. Please.
I dial his number but it goes straight to voicemail.
“Shit!”
He’s unavailable.
I step down from the bed.
“Where are you going?” Alora asks and does same
“Stay here baby, I gotta go check on Reed. I need to make sure he’s alright. I’ve never…” My sentence is cut short by the sound of my phone ringing. I want to sigh with relief thinking it’s Reed calling me back, but my anxiety grows to a higher height when I see Lloyd’s number on the caller Id. I quickly answer the call and press the phone against my left ear.
“Lloyd.” My voice is deceptively low and strained.
It’s midnight.
Getting a call from Lloyd at this time is unusual.
“Alpha Jayce.” Lloyd calls with a calm voice. “Alpha Jayce.” It’s strained now. My heart sinks into my stomach.
“Yes Lloyd. Tell me what happened. Are you with Reed?”
“Reed…” he pauses and exhales heavily. I feel my organs shutting down in my body. There’s a bomb ticking in my body. “Reed is dead.”
It explodes.
The phone in my hand drops to the floor and shatters into pieces. All the hairs on my body stand erect. Grieve ripples through me like electric current, almost knocking me off my feet.
“No!” I whisper in total disbelief. Alora stands before me with a worried look.
“Babe, what’s wrong? Where’s Reed?”
“At the morgue.” I say lifelessly.
“What?”
“I can’t… dress up, let’s get going!” I instruct and head into the closet to change as well.
By the time we arrive at the hospital, I have become a version of myself I am not familiar with. Hot rage is brewing in my veins. Sorrow has covered my body like a cloak and I’m a walking corpse.
“Alpha Jayce.” Lloyd approaches us with swollen eyes. He has been crying. Reed is indeed dead!
“Where’s he?” My voice is as tight as a knot.
“Come with me.” I turn to Alora.
“Stay here.”
“But I…”
“No. Not now! Stay!” This is the first time I’m talking harshly to her. She understands the seriousness of the situation, so she calmly nods her head and retreats.
Right now we are in the morgue section of the hospital and I’m following Lloyd into the room where Reed has been placed.
As we walk on, I still haven’t gotten my head around the fact that Reed is dead. I haven’t bothered to ask Lloyd what happened. I want to confirm with my own eyes Reed that is dead before I start investigating what happened. I feel like I’m dragging my heart on the floor as I draw closer to the room.
“He’s in there.” Lloyd points to an open door. “I don’t want to go in there again, it’s…”
“I know.” I cut him off. He nods and walks away. I barge into the room and stop in my tracks when I spot a familiar body lying on slap at the centre of the freezing cold room.
It’s Reed.
My chest is rising and falling. My breaths are coming in too hard. My hands won’t stop shaking. My forehead is beaded with sweat. My legs are suddenly too weak to stand. This cannot be happening.
“Reed.” The word falls from my mouth like a foreign word. I take calm, calculated steps closer to the slab, wishing in my heart that the person lying on it shouldn’t be Reed, but that prayer is not answered because I arrive there and still see Reed lying on the slab.
Something within me snaps and the tears in my eyes break loose.
His eyes are closed, his thick brown hair is gelled all back and when my eyes drop to his neck, I gasp in horror. There’s a horizontal line across his neck which shows it was a lethal cut that has been stitched.
He was murdered!
Anger makes my body vibrate.
“Reed.” I sob, placing my hand on his head and gently caressing his hair. “Who did this to you?” Tears fall directly from my eyes to his body and in no time, I’m a crying mess. I scream my lungs out in agony as I watch the lifeless body of my best friend lying on the slab, cold and stiff.
He was fine yesterday. He fucking ran an errand for me yesterday.
Was that a sign?
Was that a sign that I will never see him again?
“No!” I violently shake my head. “No Reed! You can’t die. This can’t be the end!!” I hold his shoulders and shake him hard on the slab. His body is as stiff as a wood. “You have to wake up! You haven’t accomplished anything yet. You can’t die like this Reed! You are too great to die, please wake up. Reed!” My head drops on his chest and I cry myself ugly, caring less about the fact that I’m lying on a corpse.
It’s not just any corpse.
It’s my best friend.
My thoughts are tangled like a coiled rope, torturing me with the reality of this entire moment. I…
Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub.
That’s the sound of a heartbeat.
It’s coming from Reed’s chest.
I lift my head from his chest and I almost fall over when I see light rays shooting out from his right scapula and spreading out like sun rays. I watch In horror as Reed’s pale and cold body instantly warms up and my tears on his chest are sinking into his chest through a channel I cannot see. They seem to be diffusing through his pores into his body.
What fresh hell is going on here?
The light rays coming from his scapular form a light ball which floats over to his chest. It hovers over it for a while and my hand flies to my mouth to block the scream from escaping when the light ball rises high up in the air and drops down, disappearing into Reed’s chest and immediately, his eyes blink open and he coughs.
I lose my balance. I find myself on the floor. I want to crawl out of the room and run away screaming when Reed sits upright and looks at me, but a force keeps me glued on my butt.
The stitched line on his neck has disappeared. He doesn’t look like a man who was dead a few seconds ago.
“Reed.” I call, frightened.
“Yes, brother.” A smile tugs at the corner of his lips.
Brother.
Did he just call me brother?