“So I guess this is what it’s like in Heaven, huh?” Rikaru leaned against one of the many white walls of the hospital’s waiting room, chuckling to himself at a slight attempt to lighten the dreary mood. “Actually, Heaven is filled with lots of hot chicks and my grandma’s pound cake, but this room is certainly the right color.” He shrugged, fixing to speak again before Alethia, who was seated beside him, slammed the heel of her shoe into his right foot.

“Cripes, what’s wrong with you?” Rikaru winced and slid into an open chair.

“This isn’t exactly the right time to be sending us into your happy place. Go there yourself and shut up.”

Rikaru growled at her. “You’re a real piece of work. Who knew so much anger could exist behind such a pretty face?”

Cylin looked up from staring at the floor, rubbing the exhaustion away from his eyes. “While his view of holy grounds may be twisted, it is true that this place is colored correctly.” It wasn’t just the walls of the hospital that was white, but the chairs and nurses’ uniforms were too. There wasn’t one thing in there that wasn’t purely white.

Everyone had been in that same room for the past hour and a half. No word on Stephen’s condition had been reported to them, so they had been forced to wait with a cloud of anxiety raining down. Only Cara had been allowed to see him. When they’d asked the nurse why, she just shrugged and said that he’d asked for Cara and Cara alone.

“I can’t take this anymore,” complained Mira. She was half asleep on Jareth’s shoulder. “Cylin, go see what’s taking so long.”

“Why me?”

“I nominated you!”

“So?” He frowned. “If you want to know so badly, then go check yourself!”

The archer sat up and glared at Cylin. “Don’t you want to know if Stephen’s still alive?”

Lufia looked up from her drawing and spoke. “It would be nice to know if he’s okay. Will you please go?”

“Fine, fine.” As he was fixing to sneak in (the nurse forbade any of them to go in unless asked for), Katalin grabbed his sleeve.

“I’ll… go with you… If that’s okay?” She looked up nervously; her eyes were almost panicked.

Cylin smiled and pulled her to her feet. “You don’t have to be so scared of talking to me, Katalin.”

“But-”

“No buts! Now come on.” Cylin slowly cracked open the door, making sure to keep it from creaking. The woman at the desk was talking on the phone. She tapped her finger in annoyance, then proceeded to scream in fury. Finally beyond her tolerance limit, she slammed the phone down and raced down the hallway next to her.

“Now’s our chance,” whispered Katalin. She slid around Cylin and ran past the desk, turning right. Cylin followed her until she stopped, frowning.

“What’s wrong?”

“There should be a chart around here that shows which room each patient is in, but it’s gone.”

If they weren’t in such a rush to find Stephen without getting caught, Cylin would’ve mentioned that Katalin finally spoke to him without stuttering. “How do you know so much about this place?”

“I’ve been in here before. My mother worked as a nurse for five years.” She glanced from one room to the next, murmuring under her breath. “Two one six two… That means were on the second floor… And if there’s four floors…” She paused, looking up in confusion. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Cylin couldn’t help but laugh. “You seem much more comfortable without everyone else around.”

“I’m no good around a lot of people. It’s just easy to talk to you, I guess. But when there’s a lot of others… E-especially Rikaru and Mira… I get so nervous.“ She tilted her head to the side. “Is that a problem?”

“No, no.” He grinned. “You’re just so cute.”

Katalin ‘s face turned scarlet red. “Let’s… just get back to looking for the chart.” She opened a nearby closed and flew from one side of it to the next, resting her hands on a clip board. “Ah hah!”

“Awesome! Where are they?”

“Lesse here… third floor. Room three five two nine.” Her lavender gaze fixed on a stair case. Cylin once again trailed behind her. When they reached the next floor, Katalin crouched down as two nurses passed by them.

“Did you see him?!” The first one stopped at the entrance to where Cylin and Katalin hid. Her amber hair was in two braids that were tied at the ends; they were tossed behind her.

“So hot!” The blonde nodded and fanned her face dramatically. “Don’t know what’s with his attitude, though.”

“I can forgive a face like that,” the first one giggled. “To bad he was so interested in that Cara girl. If I was Mia, I’d kick her out so face that it’d leave her head spinning.” With that, she disappeared around the corner. Katalin waited until they were certainly gone to stand and head for Stephen’s room. When they were just outside the room, Katalin fell to her knees and listened.

Silence greeted them from the other side of the wall. Cylin grunted in anticipation. His knees were beginning to protest being forced to sit so much in one day until he heard Cara speak. She sounded as if she were trying as hard as she could to control her tears.

“I really don’t know who he is.”

“Cara, I don’t believe that.” Stephen sounded almost worried. “You worked for the man that hired him. How can you not know his name?”

“He was an assassin; I was a mercenary hired as an assassin.”

“Tch.” Cylin peeked into the room to see that Stephen stood. He gazed out the window. “You were a sugar coated murderer. How nice.”

Cara flinched. “It wasn’t like that!”

“Whether it was ‘like that’ or not makes no difference. Rikka is still dead and you are here now. I’d like to believe that there is a reason for that, but…” His voice trailed away. “I’m going to look into the matter.” He turned to head for the door, but Cara grabbed his arm.

“You’re still sick and the hospital hasn’t checked you our yet!”

“I’m checking myself out.”

Cylin wanted to stay and watch, but Katalin grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the stairs. When they were back outside, the nurse still hadn’t returned so they were free to rejoin the others.

“Well?” Mira leaned towards them.

“How is he,” asked Ann.

“He seems all right,” Cylin muttered. He looked at the wall where Rikaru was moments ago. “Where’d Rikaru, Alethia, and Jesabell get off to?”

“Rikaru got mad at Alethia again so he challenged her to a spar. Then Bell got annoyed at Alethia for getting more attention from Rikaru, so she tagged along.” Mira’s eyes grew distant and a smile stretched across her face. “Rikaru and Alethia are going to fall in love, I’m telling you.”

“What?” Lufia bust into laughter.

“It’s true! Any pair who argues that much will fall for each other!”

“Yeah right. The day that happens, Stephen will love Cara.”

“Well…”

Leaving them to their discussion, Cylin glanced to Katalin. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

She smiled. “Sure.” With that, they silently slipped away and out the doors, on to the fields filled with spring blossoms.