ADMITTEDLY SANTIAGO KNEW he had wasted precious time to get answers from his attackers. Like Eliana had said two of the witches had been released from custody. Insufficient evidence. Louis had been dubbed the scapegoat and was to take the fall for the entire debacle.

Which meant it was not a total loss. He was still within the confines of the hospital.

Lola’s sister was a medical assistant in the ER she told them what room they could find him in. Santiago tried to thank her profusely knowing the kind of trouble she could get into for giving out that kind of information. Lola’s family had always felt like his family too.

Aside from his mother they had no one else. Lupe’s parents died when she was a teenager. Vicente’s family earlier than that.

The two got their visitor stickers up at the front desk where they claimed to visit someone else on the same floor.

Louis was still in police custody. They were not about to allow visitors.

Elevator chimed and in his hurry to enter it Santiago nearly collided with the cleaning cart.

“Yo, watch where you’re—Of course it’s you.” Wesley scoffed, “You stalking me now. Didn’t realize you swung that way, Santiago. I’m sorry, I’m just not that into you.”

Santiago flipped him off. “What are you doing here?”

“What am—Motherfucker, I work here.” He motioned at his royal blue scrubs, his usual wiry mess of blond hair tucked into a paper cap. “What are you doing here?”

“Visiting.”

Wesley’s eyes narrowed, “Is that right.”

Lola grabbed Santiago, “Look it’s been great catching up, we gotta go.”

The doors slid shut and the two let out a sigh of relief as they watched the counter dial up to the floor.

“Okay, I’ll keep watch.” Lola said, adjusting the dark wig that hid her brightly dyed azure hair. This was the first time in five years he had seen the girl without a nose ring.

“It’s going to look suspicious if you’re walking around.” Santiago pointed out.

Lola waved her clipboard. “Power of the clipboard, baby. Am I a department supervisor? Am I with the DNV? Who knows. They are two understaffed and underpaid to care.”

Santiago bumped fists with her as they hit the floor.

He walked a few paces behind her to remain out of sight from the nurses across from the room. Lola walked up to a few of them to pointedly inform them there was a patient bed blocking an electrical panel.

She left out the part about her pushing it there.

Santiago slipped into the room.

The familiar hum of machinery clustered around the man stirred up some unpleasant and numerous memories of this place.

From the looks of it they were able to reattach the hand. Fortunately, the wound was wrapped in thick gauze. Thoughts of the severed limb as it hung around his neck made his stomach turn.

“Louis,” Santiago murmured, as he smacked his face lightly. “Wake up.”

Louis’s eyes fluttered open. Shock was quickly replaced by anger.

He moved to sit up.

“Hey!” Santiago whispered harshly, shoved him back against the mattress. “Listen to me. Your friends abandoned you. They are letting you take the fall for the whole thing. They sold you out. You’re not getting out of here.”

“You think I don’t know that.” He hissed, “It’s only a matter of time before they come for me.”

“Who?”

Even knowing that they had sold him out he was still being loyal. No, Santiago thought this wasn’t loyalty. This was fear.

Louis laid back against the pillows and stared straight ahead.

“Hey if you’re already dead, why don’t you take the one chance you got of actually getting even with them.” If he could not appeal to his sense of self-preservation he could at least exploit his anger.

“It’s not going to do you any good. He wants your power. There’s not a place far enough for you to run to.” Louis’s dark brows furrowed, he shifted uncomfortably, his breathing shallow. “You can’t trust any—any.”

The monitor beeped loudly as his vitals began to drop.

“Louis.” Santiago cursed, he called out. “We need a doctor!”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You can’t let him take it.” Louis grabbed a hold of him with his uninjured arm, he wheezed. “You can’t. Please—”

Louis collapsed on him Santiago leaned him back against the mattress, as the nurses flooded in.

“Code Blue. Eight East. Stat. Code Blue. Eight East. Stat.” The monotonous overhead voice chimed as the medical staff were in a flurry to resuscitate him.

It was too late. Louis was already gone.

----------------------------------------

“That was the dumbest possible choice you could have made.” Eliana scolded, “I can’t believe you didn’t even have the sense to run.”

“I didn’t kill him.” Santiago said.

“Well, he was fine until the fentanyl killed him. It is unlikely a stranger standing in the middle of his hospital room had anything to do with it.” Her tone dripped with sarcasm, “Thankfully Lana has more sense than you.”

“Lola.” Lola corrected from the couch.

“The tapes were scrubbed and none of the nurses had a viable description. For now, we’re fine.”

She jabbed a pointed nail between his collarbones, “Next time you get a brilliant idea, take it, and put it in a box where it will never be looked at again. And then you call me so I can handle it.”

“I get it, I messed up.” Santiago frowned, “I can take care of myself.”

“Yes, because you’ve done a phenomenal job so far.” She pressed her hand against her forehead, “Tomorrow morning. Airport. 10am. Do not be late. The more distance we can put between you and this place the better.”

They all sat in silence for a few minutes after she left.

“Holy crap, you’re really leaving Yago.” Alejo said in soft disbelief.

Lola wrapped her arms around his shoulders, “I’m going to miss you.”

“Hey, I’m not dying. I’m going to be a three-hour flight away. I’ll come visit and you all can come visit me when I get settled in.” Santiago rubbed her back. “It’s only temporary. I’ll always come back home.”

“We don’t even have time for a farewell party.” Lola whined, “Mari is gonna be so pissed.”

“I wasn’t expecting to go so suddenly either. Things are getting out of hand.” Santiago said.

No one else would get hurt because of him.

It was going to hurt to leave behind all the people who cared about him. In the end it was for them. They would be better for it.

At least that is what he kept telling himself.

He could have called them. All his friends. Told them he was leaving, and they would pull together a wild grab bag of a farewell party.

Any other time he would have been down for it.

Right now, Santiago needed the quiet.

Everything was going to change. Not only his home. The people that surrounded him. The life that he led up until now was going to turn on its head.

The kind of life he had, he didn’t want it for you.

Was it worse than living out of a car in the frigid Seattle winter?

Was it worse than picking his mother up out of a pool of her own vomit?

Was it worse than burying friends that never grew old enough to buy a beer?

There were so many nights when he stayed up unable to sleep because of the nightmares that waited when he closed his eyes. In those moments of fear, he thought of his father. Wished more than anything he would be there to protect him from the pain.

What would he think of Santiago?

Would he be proud of the man he had become?

Or would he even be able to bear the sight of him?

The stories his mother used to tell him stuck with Santiago.

He always imagined a man with a kind heart and gentle demeanor. His mother would show Santiago the poetry and love letters he had written for her. The photographs of them with smiles and laughter in all the places they had traveled together. Vicente would read bedtime stories to him even while Santiago was still in her stomach.

How could that have been the same man who murdered over a dozen people in a single night?

Something inside him was breaking. The precious illusion of one perfect piece of goodness that existed inside him was tainted now.

Pain seemed to be the only gift his parents gave freely.

Pounding on the door jolted him back into consciousness. Santiago sat up and rubbed the wet from his eyes.

A quick glance at the time made him groan. It was barely six in the morning.

Alejo had not even budged where he laid. He snored away behind his room door.

Pulled the door open roughly squinted through the morning light at the New Orleans native. “You want to do this now.”

“Is Sylvia with you?” Etienne’s face pulled together in a mix of anger and worry as he barged in brushing past Santiago.

“No.” Santiago said, flinging the door shut behind him. “She’s at Rosenia’s.”

“No, she’s not.” Etienne ran a hand through his black hair, eyes still darting about the place hoping to find evidence of the boy lying. “Yesterday, she went for a jog with her pup. I should have gone with her. I promised Rose I would work on her car. She was gone too long— I went to look for her. I found the dog wandering by himself. She’s not answering anyone’s calls.”

Santiago’s chest tightened, there were a million and one things that could have happened to a girl alone out in the woods. The police would not do a thing if she had not been gone for even a day.

His phone buzzed on the coffee table. Santiago nearly flipped head over heels on the sofa back when he saw the flash of pink on the screen. “Sylvia? Where are you?”

“Santiago…” Sylvia murmured into the phone her voice trembled, “The Broadway Performance Hall…If you don’t come in an hour he’s—He said, he’s going to kill me.”

“Sylvia!” The line clicked. Santiago stared blankly at the screen.

“I got to call Rose.” Etienne muttered dialing on his phone.

Santiago swung the door open with such force Alejo flubbed out of bed scared half out of his skin.

“Yago!” He fought with the blanket coiled around his legs.

“They got Sylvia waiting for me at the theater.”

“Wait, Broadway?” Alejo squinted. “Ay, don’t go alone, man. Let me call some boys, we'll handle this together.”

“No. No one else is getting hurt because of my shit.” Santiago snapped as he put his shoes on. “Stay here Alejandro.”

Santiago stalked out the front door, he called Etienne. “Keys!”

“You ain’t going nowhere without me.” Etienne shot back.

“This doesn’t—”

“Involve me. Anything to do with Sylvia involves me.”

“Rose okay with that.”

“I ain’t waiting for permission.” Etienne growled.