Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
Sunlight streamed through the windows, falling upon our tangled forms. Exhaustion hit me like a semi truck the moment I opened my eyes. I groaned, flopping my free arm over my face, wishing sleep would come back.
It didn't.
It had taken nearly four hours to him back to sleep. Four hours of soothing; of whispering that everything would be okay and that nothing could hurt him here, but even then, he still clung to me. I looked over at him. His poor face was lined with fatigue that could only be contracted from night terrors with dark purple smudges under his eyes. At least now he seemed to be somewhat at peace. His hollow cheeks had filled in a bit and and his lips were no longer cracked and bleeding. He even had a bit of color back to his skin, though he was still pale, it was a healthy shade instead of a dull, pallid gray. 
He was still curled in to my body, breathing softly as he slept. Looking at him now, one would not know the horrors he went through. I wished he could talk to us. It felt selfish of me to wish to learn more about his situation inside the Ring. 
A nagging feeling in the back of my mind told me that there was more to the story, that it was a bigger movement than just one underground dog fighting arena. The pup we found injured in the forest, sprayed with blue paint, told me all that I needed to know. Ajax and Andre felt the same way— I could tell in the way they shared knowing looks in the hospital wing when looking over the pup. 
My stomach growled, and I left him to rest in bed and moved to get breakfast started. It was a simple but hearty meal of eggs, sausage, and a bowl of mixed fruits. I cut a tiny slit into a sausage link to hide one of his pills in the meat, hoping it had the same effect as the peanut butter from dinner yesterday. 
I was just finishing up making his plate when a crash sounded from the bedroom. Dropping what I was doing, I raced around the corner to find him sprawled out on the floor, frantically searching for something. His face was pinched with panic. 
"Are you okay? What happened?" I crouched down next to him, lightly touching his shoulder. 
Relief was apparent in his eyes, chasing away the anxiety. 
"I'm sorry," I said, hugging him back when he wrapped his arms around my torso. "It must have been scary when you woke up alone. I'll make sure not to do that again, alright?"
He huffed into my neck, which I took as him not accepting my apology. 
"I made breakfast," I said, raising a brow. 
He peeked up at me. I smiled. Gotcha. 
I helped him into the kitchen, sat him down at the table, and ate our breakfast together. He was able to hold his cup, I noticed with a bit of pride, and drink from it. The other tableware, not so much. He still struggled to grasp the thin handle of forks and spoons. He would get it eventually, though, with practice. 
The next few days played out the same. We would eat together three times a day. Sometimes, when I cooked, he would sit at a stool by the counter and watch me curiously; I let him dump in pre-measured spices and mix ingredients in the big mixing bowl to help with his coordination. At night we would sleep in the same bed. When he woke from nightmares, I comforted him until sunrise. During the middle hours of the day, while I was doing my online college classes, I put the TV on for him. He was particularly fond of watching hour long videos of birds.
It was day six when Carter knocked on my door. 
"What're you doing over here? I didn't see any text from you," I said, confused. 
Carter looked annoyed. "Me neither. Ajax told me to come and fetch you two." 
"Us two?"
"Yeah." He craned his neck to try to look over my shoulder into the apartment. "Ajax and Andre can't hold back the Council any longer without attracting more attention. How's he doing, by the way? I don't see him."