At the hospital, the police came.
Shane should have expected it. The restaurant was a crime scene, blood everywhere. There would definitely be questions. He stood, hugging himself in the waiting room as the officer interrogated her.
"Can you describe the attacker?" The cop was young. An officer in a gray button-down and neon-yellow vest. The thick black lettering labeling him as POLICE looked stark, almost angry. Shane stared at it instead of at the officer's judgmental face.
"I can't," Shane said. It was the truth. No matter what his sister had done, there was no way Shane could turn her in. even if he could, Loralie would find a way to seduce them and get away.
"Shane-ah, what the hell happened?" Minjae stormed up, eyes puffy from crying. Seojun trailed behind with the forlorn expression of a lost puppy.
"Please, I'm conducting an investigation," said the officer.
That brought a frown to Minjae lips and even though he backed off, he watched the cop closely.
The officer turned mistrustful eyes to Shane . "Now, are you saying you can't remember anything about the attacker? You know it's against the law to hide information in a police investigation." Shane shouldn't have been surprised at the suspicion. He literally had blood on his hands.
"I don't know." Shane ran a hand through his head in frustration and turned away to hide his tears as three pairs of eyes scrutinized him now.
"Maybe a trip to the station might loosen your memory."
"Is that necessary?" Seojun asked.
"It's my job to ask questions."
"It's your job to catch whoever did this, not to treat a witness like a criminal," Minjae said.
"I was only wondering if he's not remembering all the details," the officer said apprehensively.
"Oh." Minjae backed up with a fake sweet smile, her eyes still bright as lasers. "Then I guess you're done with your questions now that you got the answer."
"Sure." The officer stuffed his notepad into his pocket. "If you can remember anything, then please let us know." He pulled out his card, handing it to Seojun and no one else. It would have made Shane laugh if he didn't still feel like crying.
As soon as the officer left, Minjae looked at Shane again.
"What happened? Who did this to him?" The anger in Minjae's eyes pierced through Shane's heart. he hadn't realized he'd grown so fond of his half brother. Even throughout all these years in hell, they hadn't bonded as much as they had in these last two months. And to see the disappointment and hurt on Minjae's face caused Shane to falter.
"I can't . . ." Shane trailed off, his voice drowned by his guilt.
"But you do know. I can tell you know something you're not telling us."
"I'm sorry."
"I don't need your apologies." Minjae stomped down the hall toward Jihoon's room, leaving Seojun to follow slowly.
"Seojun-ah."
He looked at Shane with sad eyes. "Can you really not tell us what happened? Not even to help Jihoon and his halmeoni?"
Shane shook his head silently.
Seojun's face fell and his voice became flat. "You should go home. We'll be with Jihoon tonight."
Seojun left Shane alone in the waiting room. he'd never heard such a harsh tone from him. And it was his disappointment that finally broke Shane.
• • •
Shane didn't leave, but he didn't go into the room, giving Minjae and Seojun time with Jihoon. Even after they left to visit Grandma, he stayed on the uncomfortable chairs in the cold waiting room.
Shane overheard Minjae telling Seojun that their mother was devastated. After all, why wouldn't she be? She had lost her husband and mother and almost her son.
A night-shift nurse gave him a cup of water. Shane accepted it with a nod of thanks.
"You should sit with him," the nurse said. "It helps to have loved ones sit with patients."
"I don't know."
"It's good for loved ones, too. Go talk to him. He can hear you."
Shane wanted to say he didn't know if he was a loved one, but the nurse's kindness was too much for him to resist. When had he become so soft?
The sound of machines filled the small hospital room. Jihoon lay so still, Shane almost panicked until he saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest. he sat and gripped Jihoon's hand in his ow newly bandaged ones. For some reason the burns on his own hands weren't healing. And no matter his protests, the nurses had insisted on wrapping SHane;s wounds.
"I'm sorry," she said. "For my sister, for your grandma and dad. For everything." Shane gripped his hand tightly until his wounds burned and his knuckles turned white.
"You have to wake up, you have to." Shame blazed through him until he thought it would burn him to nothing but ash.
Jihoon's hand jerked in Shane's, and His eyes flew to Jihoon's face. He convulsed so violently that Miyoung jumped back. The machines beeped rapidly, as if screaming at him to do something. Nurses raced through the door. Shane was pushed aside as they pulled the bed rails down.
"You should leave." It was the same kind nurse who'd spoken to him before.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"He's seizing; it can happen after a trauma," the nurse said. But Shane was an experienced liar; he knew when someone was only telling her part of the truth.
he retreated to the hall, where his legs gave out as he sank onto a bench along the wall. Something wasn't right. he'd felt an energy in Jihoon, something familiar, something strong.
That's when it hit him.
A part of Shanes soul,if he even had one, was the one that had brought Jihoon back to life. It was not the power of the scythe, the scythe was just another medium.
• • •
"He didn't die." Loralie sat next to Shane in the waiting room. Even though the medical team had revived Jihoon, he hadn't dared return to the room.
"No," Shane confirmed.
"What did you do?"
"I may have managed to transfer a part of my soul to him."
Loralie scoffed. "Stupid boy."
"You're a murderer.." The heat of anger rose up in him, and shane embraced it because if she was angry, at least he wasn't feeling any of the other emotions he wanted to ignore.
"What?" Yena's voice was low and cold.
"You're a murderer. You killed his father."
"You really weren't doing your job, Oshane." Loralie's voice was biter and dark, like she had utterly enjoyed killing them, " YOu were supposed to take his soul. Instead of that, you fucking fell for that pathetic boy."
For a person who hated killing, Shane looked downright murderous. Still he managed to control his anger. He couldn't possibly become the future king of hell with a part of his soul taken away from him.
"We need your soul back."
"What do we do now?"
"I want to rip it out of his chest."
Shane twisted to see a look of resignation on Loralie's face.
"But you can't do it without hurting me, too, can you?"
Loralie stayed silent. Shane scoffed.
"You're such a fuking hypocrite, Loralie Kensington, on one had you hate me so much you almost kill the boy who I love and then you're acting like you care about me? How fucking fantastic." Sarcasm was flowing out from his mouth like a waterfall.
"I don't care about the boy's life, but I won't risk you."
Shane should've been grateful, comforted even. Instead he felt empty.
"You can't be around him," Loralie said. "If he holds a part of your soul, he holds control over you."
"He wouldn't hurt me. I trust him."
"I don't."
"You're telling me to leave him alone. His family is dying down the hallway," Shane said.
"I didn't kill the old woman."
Shane wanted to throttle Loralie but he only sighed.
"If I take souls normally, will it hurt him?" Shane asked.
"There's no way of knowing that." Loralie spoke like a politician skirting the topic. It made Shane's suspicion expand tenfold until he had no room for anything else, like air or rational thought.
"If I take a soul, my soul energies, it could flare up inside Jihoon. It could kill him."
Loralie shrugged, clearly uncaring of what happened to Jihoon.
"You're the future prince of hell, the only thing you should care about is how to gain your soul back and take his."
Shane wanted to scream. Scream out all his pain, all his agony, all his hurt. In his lifetime of a hundred and nineteen years, there was only one thing that he wanted- the crown of hell. He had never expected that it would take a mere mortal to make him want to throw all of it away. He'd made so many choices without thinking about anyone else. Now was the only time that had made him question his own choices.His choices had a ripple of consequences that even he couldn't see. And people ended up hurt, like Jihoon.
Jihoon didn't deserve to be hurt the way that he had been.
All that Shane wanted now was to become a regular mortal.
"We're leaving. Today." There was finality in Loralie's voice.
SHane didn't move, his body still, mind racing. He glanced up and saw Minjae and Seojun walk past the nurses' station. They didn't even spare him a look. Everything she had thought he could have was gone now. He was a fool to think she deserved anything good.
"Oshane, did you hear me?"
"Yes," Shane finally said. "I heard you. We'll leave today."