Olivia's POV
Samuel, Nick, and I enter the same hospital I had been admitted to after my accident, and five steps in we already run into a familiar doctor dressed in a blindingly white coat.
"Olivia?" Dr. Kate rushes past the reception desk and stops a step away from us. "Are you hurt? Is it your head again? Your ankle?"
"I'm fine," I assure her, but at the same time take a safe step back. "I'm here to visit someone."
The moment I take a step back Samuel takes a step forward and positions himself so he's standing in front of me. Nick, on the other hand, only glances between Dr. Kate and me with a confused expression.
Dr. Kate rests one of her hands on her side and the other over her heart. "I'm relieved to hear this." She keeps her mouth open as if she's going to continue, but instead she pulls out a small rectangular device from the pocket of her doctor's coat. "Duty calls. As always don't hesitate to come to me if anything happens. Oh, and don't do anything reckless. Okay?"
Without waiting for my answer, she spins around and disappears into the sea of surrounding doctors, nurses, and patients.
"She a family friend?" Nick asks.
"Do you find her behavior too friendly as well?" I turn to him. "I've been thinking that way ever since I first met her. It's like she knows me better than I know her."
"So, you don't know her?"
"No, I do. Just not in a way that it would be normal for her to be so worried about me."
"What's wrong with a doctor worrying about her patient?" Nick cocks his head to the side. "It seems more like a bonus than anything else."
"I just find it a little unsettling." I shrug. "Let's go."
Nick leads us down a surprisingly familiar hallway and I can't stop the smile that sneaks onto my lips. This is, after all, the hallway I hopped down when I first saw Samuel inside my hospital room. I glance at the said Guardian and find him already looking at me. Yet again he takes my breath away with the bright smile that changes his features into an almost different person. How can someone with a smile like his smile so rarely?
"What are you smiling at?" Nick's voice bursts the bubble formed around Samuel and me.
"I'm just remembering the hallway from my stay at the hospital."
"Right, the car accident." Nick nods and two steps later stops in front of a closed-door to our left. "Here we are."
He knocks and then slides the door wide open. While he enters the room, I remain in the open doorway and instead first look around. The hospital room looks just like the one I stayed in. I'm, however, unable to take in a single detail before my eyes land on the middle bed, where a young boy is sitting and smiling at Nick. There's no denying that he's Nick's brother. They share the same light brown hair, although the boy's hair is much tamer, and the same shade of blue eyes.
There is a protective cast reaching from the boy's toes almost up to his knee, which makes it obvious why he's in the hospital. This, however, isn't the reason why I freeze the moment our eyes meet. What has me unable to breathe, let alone move, is the fact that I have seen him before. Despite the blur of my memories, I'm sure that he's the one whose eyes have been hunting me ever since I remembered the reason for the accident.
"Liv?" Nick returns to my side and tugs me a couple of steps into the room. "Charlie, this is Olivia. Olivia, this is my younger brother, Charlie."
"You okay?" Samuel asks from where he stops right beside me.
I'm unable to listen to either of them, though. All I can do is stare back at the pair of curious blue eyes.
"Why are youâ" Samuel continues. "Him? Don't tell me he's the boy from your memory."
"Hello." Charlie clears his throat. "Nice to finally meet you. You won't believe how much Nick has been talking about you."
Instead of his words, I'm focused on the fact that there isn't a single glimmer of recognition in his eyes. Hadn't he seen me that night?
"Shut up," Nick hisses from my side and then after a moment of silence, he waves his hand in front of my face. "Liv? Everything okay?"
Before I can do more than blink, another voice joins in from the still-open doorway. "Hey, Charlie."
I turn to the door to find another familiar face standing there. Hugo is smiling lazily at Charlie, but his smile drops the second his eyes land on Nick and me.
"Hugo," Charlie greets Hugo with a smile. "What took you so long?"
Hugo waves him off as he takes a step deeper into the room, which allows me to notice that there is someone else standing behind him. As my eyes land on the tall young man, I feel like someone jabbed their elbow into my stomach. The man in his early twenties fills out most of the doorway, but despite the lean state of his body, his cheeks still carry a chubby roundness. Instead of at the rest of the room, he is staring at me with his eyes wide openâjust like I'm probably gaping at him.
His is, after all, the first face I remembered from the night of the accident.
The fact that no one, not Hugo, Charlie, nor Nick are paying him any attention, tells me that Samuel's and my guess was right. The man from my memory, the same man who is standing less than five steps away from me, is the Guardian who saved me.
"What's wrong with you?" Samuel nudges my arm. "Snap out of it."
I push his hand away and instead take a step toward the Guardian still frozen in the doorway. Before I can take the second one, though, the Guardian closes his eyes and vanishes into the disinfectant-filled air.
"Wait," I call after him, but it's already too late.
"What?" Samuel steps in front of me and cups both of my cheeks. "Do you know that Guardian?"
Instead of answering him, I shake off his hold and turn to Hugo, who is now sitting on the empty bed next to Charlie's.
"How do you know Charlie?" I ask.
"Hugo's the one who found him," Nick answers instead. "He called 911 and helped him get to the hospital in time."
"You were there?" I ask Hugo.
"Yeah, and now that you mention it, I think I saw you too." Hugo's words cause everyone to snap their eyes at him.
"What're you talking about?" Nick asks.
"I was sleeping on my bench when the shrill of sirens woke me up," Hugo says. "I got to the intersection in time to see the paramedics put Olivia into the ambulance. From there I went home, and on my way ran into Charlie."
Despite neither of us moving, his every word feels like it's coming from further and further away. The surrounding room begins to spin and no matter how hard I try my lungs refuse to expend enough to allow me to take in a deep breath.
"I..." I lift my hand and reach for the nearest solid object, which happens to be either Samuel's or Nick's hand. I'm not sure. "I need some air."
Without another thought, I spin around and sprint out of the room. Someone calls my name, but I don't stop to see who. All I know is that I need to get out.
I burst out of the hospital and then continue down the sidewalk. Before I can reach the edge of the building, a strong hand wraps around my upper arm and forces me to stop. The same arm then spins me around, and I come face to face with Samuel's worried eyes.
"What's going on?" he asks.
"Charlie..." The shallow breaths are making it hard for me to speak, but I force myself to push through. "He's the one... The one I left behind. The boy... I saw being beaten up..."
"It's okay. He's okay." Samuel takes in a deep breath and then a deep exhale. "Breathe."
"No, you... You don't understand." I shake my head but then stop because of the still persistent spinning inside my head. "The Guardian... He's the one from my memory."
"What?" Samuel's eyes widen.
"Hugo's Guardian. He's the one who saved me... We found him."
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- E