11:56pm Sunday Night

All I could feel was the iciness of the cold hospital tiled floor, it spread through my blood, splintering my heart causing it to freeze. My bruised fists rested tightly on my thighs as I counted the number of tiles there were in the operation waiting room. Jon and Ygrite sit a few metres away, Ygrite whispers in a soft, soothing tone into Jon's ear with a tight but tender grip on his arm. Jon is hunched over, his hands lost in his dark curls and it looked as if all the air had been sucked out of him.

Arya. My eyes searched for Arya. I found her hunched in the fettle position across down the hall with two empty cups of coffee next to her.

I was furious.

Furious because I let Theon hurt Arya. Furious because Robb and Jeyne were on their death beds. Furious because I was helpless. I was so utterly helpless. I wasn't some hero, not even someone with immense medical knowledge. I was Gendry, helpless, useless Gendry. I didn't have a time turner to rid Arya of her psychological scarring from Theon. I didn't even have the right blood type to provide what Robb or Jeyne needed for survival. All I could do was wait. Listen for the soft tick tocks of the clock almost directly above my head.

Tick. Tock. Tick Tock.

Time was the key, and there was nothing I could do to buy it for Robb. My almost brother. The brother of my other bestfriend. The brother of the one whom holds my heard. The ticking of the clock echoed within the boundaries of my head, I felt as if it would simply explode.

Then, those vast, heavenly doors swinged open and a single woman with a solemn express exited ripping of her gloves.
"The family of Robb Stark?" She called
I pushed myself off the floor ignoring my muscles screaming at me to sit back down, Jon was immediately by my side with Ygrite hanging loosely off his arm.
She cleared her throat, "I'm terribly sorry… he lost too much blood… we tried to do everything we could…"

I stopped listening, her voiced droned on in her monotone voice in the back of my head, I turned around as my vision began to blur, not from the concussion but from the pressure building up within my chest. I choked as I pressed my fist into my mouth holding in my scream of agony.
"And Jeyne…?" I heard the broken voice of Arya ask, "what about Jeyne."

The doctor looked uncomfortably at her gloves, "I'm afraid she was in an even worse state…" She then looked up and someone stared into all our shattered souls at once, "She was pregnant, just two months. I am sorry for your losses."

Jon let out a broken cry in desolation as he fell to the ground. Ygrite could no longer carry her previous positivity and strength as she too was red-faced and crying her very own river. It was Arya's reaction that will be forever stained in my mind, she didn't look sad, no, the look that blazed in her eyes wasn't melancholy, it was a mix of angst and exasperation.

I nervously shifted my weight as I waited for orientation to begin. I watched as many other students already chirped away in conversation with their new friends. Most of the crowd had already turned their noses up at me because I wasn't wearing a polo tee and Calvin Klein jeans with shoes which probably cost more than I earn in a month. It was a beautiful day, and the sunlight scintillated through the canopy of the stunning old trees on campus.
I thought to myself, Gendry, you never thought you'd make it into college. You never thought you'd beable to pull yourself out of the vicious cycle of poverty which your mother's family had left you in, but here you are among many of the richest kids in the country getting yourself tertiary education.

I was lost in thought when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Startled, I turned around to almost head butt an boy with a stocky build, eyes the colour of a frozen river and thick red-brownish hair like a fox, next to him stood a slightly shorter boy with a lean build and long face, his hair was dark but not quite black and his eyes were grey, but somehow a warm shade of grey.
"Hi, I'm Robb and this is my brother Jon." He said confidently holding out his hand. I smiled and shook it firmly, "I'm Gendry."
He then asked me what I was studying and about my preferences in music. The three of us spent the rest of orientation together and successively the rest of college together. They were Robb and Jon and I was Gendry. At times I even forgot they were the sons of the great Eddark Stark and the beautiful Catelyn Tully. To me, they were just two boys trying to find their way through life, just like me.

I didn't just lose a friend, a very dear friend. My bestfriend and my girlfriend didn't just lose their brother. And sweet lovely Jeyne, who beer seemed to do a single thing that would harm a mere fly.

We all lost a little piece of ourselves. We lost hope. If people like Robb Stark could die, then everyone could. We were reminded of how fragile life is, how short it can be. With that, we lost our way through life, the fire which previously burnt within us slowly fluttered and died with Robb and Jeyne.