Misha went to see Gabriel on Saturday. However, he came across an empty room.
At first, he thought he had walked into the wrong room. So, he stepped back outside to check the room number, but just as expected, 201 was indeed written on the room plaque—it was Gabriel's.
He didn't get the room wrong, but Gabriel was not there, quietly lying in his bed as he usually would. Today, the bed was empty. Even the bedsheets had been taken off, revealing the grayish-white mattress. Every personal belonging was gone; the only thing left was the white tulips, carelessly abandoned on the night table.
Gnashing his teeth, Misha stormed off into the corridor and bolted toward the first nurse he saw. He disregarded basic courtesy, not even saying hi, and directly asked where the teenager was.
However, the nurse didn't reply, not even lowering her head to meet his eyes. She looked ahead and pretended not to notice him, bypassing the boy as if she was running away from the devil.
It left Misha speechless. With his mouth slightly agape, he pinched his cheeks twice to make sure he wasn't dreaming. The pain felt real, if anything.
"What the—"
At the last second, Misha held back the curse about to escape from his mouth. He clenched his fists and turned around, ignoring his mother's plea for him not to run all over the place.
"Wait! Misha, wait for me!" he heard his mother scream. But he couldn't stop himself, and went from one nurse to another.
However, every nurse Misha met afterward reacted the same way, paling at his mere view. Their behavior had changed overnight, and the medical staff, who were still friendly yesterday night, had become as cold as ice in the morning.
After questioning a few more nurses without much success, Misha had to take a few deep breaths to calm down, or he feared he'd lose his temper and chew out the next person he met, regardless of who they were.
There was no need to be a genius to realize that something was amiss, and the root of the problem certainly lay with Gabriel's family.
Today, the nurses seemed terrified, and none dared to answer his queries. But Misha just wanted to know what had happened to the teenager and nothing more! He didn't even want a precise answer, just a bit of information; he wasn't asking for the moon, for goodness' sake!
"This bunch of useless pieces of trash," he mumbled under his breath, dashing to the next person that had caught his eyes. Whatever. He would find someone willing to answer his questions, even if he had to turn the hospital upside down!
"Misha, please! Slow down!"
.
.
While Misha was busy roaming about in the hospital, closely followed by his mother, Masha tried to contact Gabriel. But no matter how many times she called, her phone calls never went through, and the only thing she heard was the dial tone.
She clutched the cell phone lent to her by her father, a feeling of dread sprouting in her heart. She wasn't as clueless as Misha about Gabriel's family situation, and she could more or less guess what had happened.
But that didn't ease her anxiety—on the contrary.
Knowing that woman, she was probably trying to isolate Gabriel, taking the opportunity to brainwash him. Someone without memory was easy to fool, not knowing the true visage of the person standing in front of them.
Memories shape the mind, after all.
Only after making sure that Gabriel had become her obedient little pawn would Angela consent to let him out and explore the world. But who knew how long this would take? Weeks, months, or maybe even years? Moreover, restrictions would surely regulate Gabriel's newly acquired "freedom"—a chaperon, for instance.
'It's even more disgusting to think that she'll proclaim to be doing this out of motherly love, if not outright for his own good,' Masha thought, almost angered into laughing. 'This is so messed up.'
Since long ago, that woman had a knack for distorting the facts. Gabriel had just lost his memory, and it would be in his interest to stay at home so that he could recuperate in peace. For how long? Well, for as long as that woman saw it necessary. And concerning his cell phone…. Again, Angela could easily make up a lie, telling Gabriel that it was broken in the fall or that he simply didn't own one. It would leave the teenager with no means to contact the outside world, isolating him further.
Long story short, Masha had a hunch that no one would pick up her phone calls. Still, she didn't want to admit defeat so readily. She dialed the number again and again under the stern eyes of her father, pacing back and forth inside the silent room.
Time ticked by.
Masha's phone calls never connected, and Misha also returned empty-handed. No one in the medical staff dared to talk to him, only consenting to utter something about being very busy today. And to make matters worse, he didn't come across Yuki, even after walking through every floor and corridor thrice. While he was at it, he also asked his mother to verify if the nurse wasn't in the girls' bathroom—just in case. But there was still no sign of her. It was as if she had vanished into thin air overnight.
Misha tried to push down the unease flooding his heart and repeatedly told himself that it was probably Yuki's day off. Yeah. Even nurses had days off!
Without any good news to report, the two siblings could only stare at each other with a blank look. Meanwhile, their parents didn't know how to console them. Empty words would only upset their kids as both had a pretty bad temper, so they tacitly decided to keep their mouths shut.
After visiting hours ended, they had to leave.
Sitting in the back seats, Misha gazed out the window.
'I shouldn't have let go of him yesterday,' he thought. 'I should have insisted more.'
But what was done was done. He had asked Masha if they couldn't just barge into his house and kidnap him back, but she had told him that she didn't even know his address.
Whether he liked it or not, his only option was to wait at home and hope he would receive some kind of news before long. It wasn't like he could call the cops, even more so when it was his fault that Gabriel ended up in such a sorry state in the first place. It wouldn't be strange if his family wanted him to cut ties with him, and it wasn't like Gabriel had been abducted by strangers either.
Now, Misha resented his past self for the lack of interest he had shown in Gabriel's everyday life. He had taken his presence for granted and never asked where he lived. He also never showed any interest in his family; it wasn't a lie when he said he had never heard of his brothers back at the hospital.
That bratty attitude of his had come to bite him in the ass, and he couldn't help but ruminate about the past and how stupid he was.
In this way, two weeks passed, and school started again. Summer vacation had officially come to an end.
But even then, Masha wasn't able to meet Gabriel.
On the first day of school, the teacher announced that the teenager had an accident in August and had to stay at home to recuperate. It caused an uproar in class, yet Masha didn't learn anything more. The teacher didn't elaborate, refusing to answer his students' questions.
When Masha went back home and met the hopeful gaze of her little brother, she felt a lump in her throat and had the urge to hit someone. Although she knew Gabriel could take care of himself, having no news for so long was still worrisome. And most of all, she didn't like to crush her brother's hopes and see the light in his eyes dim.
It left a bad taste in her mouth.
______________________
Chapter revised on 2022-05-19
Edited by Clozed! ♥
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