Revamped!

[I can't believe I forgot to mention this a few chapters back but THANK YOU ALL FOR 100 REVIEWS!

Also, I don't know why I'm telling you this but I already finished writing the next arc.

Just a heads up that this chapter is sad and possibly triggering (kind of is for me but I barely conquered it.)]

Kai-nd of a Legacy: Part Eight

Cinder pulls into the hospital entryway. She tried to ask Kai which entrance she should enter in from since there were at least five, but ever since the hospital was in sight, Kai went full-on mute. The text message became more real for him. Cinder understands Kai's fear and worry but she needs him to say something. After no responses from calling his name three times and seeing his blank gaze out the window, Cinder took the first entrance they saw and it was the ambulance lane that led to the emergency room. Before Cinder got a chance to loop into the parking lot, Kai unbuckles his seatbelt, unlocks his door, and opens it to run straight towards the hospital.

"Kai!" Cinder screams for him.

Of course, he wouldn't come running back. Cinder unbuckles her seatbelt and closes Kai's door which silences her car alarm. She grunts as she parks into the first available parking spot in her sight, not seeing if her car is even allowed to be there. She hopes she doesn't get towed but doesn't care if it happens. She steps out and locks her car before running inside.

The moment the hospital's automatic door open for her, Cinder's thrown aback by the hospital environment and its eerie familiarity that brings her back to her final days in Artemisia. She looks around frantically at all the chaos in just the waiting room of the emergency room. Doctors, patients, and visitors blur as gurneys speed past her and ambulance sirens deafen her.

"Kai!" Cinder exclaims.

No response. Nobody even looks her way. Cinder results in running past the front desk and down the corridors.

"Excuse me, Miss!" A nurse yells at her. "Get back here!"

"Not now!" Cinder yells back.

She continues running down the hallways which end up looking the same to her. She hopes security doesn't follow her. Aside from Kai, her current hope is that she loses the nurse who screamed at her. Cinder takes a second to pause and catch her breath. Her heart is beating too fast not only because of the running but because hospitals freak her out.

"Sir, don't run in here!" She hears a different nurse yell.

"I have somewhere I have to be!"

That's Kai. Cinder starts running in that direction. When she finds Kai, she grabs his arm pulls him to the side. She holds his shaking body still and calms him with a hug. Kai's about to collapse but at least she's here to hold him in place. Cinder parts from Kai and turns him around when she sees Torin approaching them.

Torin barely looks at Kai when he leads them. Cinder holds Kai's hand up to the point when they approach a hospital room. Torin and Cinder stand to the side as Kai walks inside and sees his father in the bed connected to monitors and an IV. Kai doesn't get it. He was fine before he left the house and now he's here. How could this have happened so fast? His dad looks at him and Kai has nothing to say because he knows that when he opens his mouth, a sob will shoot out like a firework.

"Tell me something good, Kai," Rikan whispers to him. His voice is hoarse and it sounds like it's hard for him to speak. "Please, tell me something that made you happy."

Rikan opens his hand to a chair next to the bed and Kai takes a seat. At first, Kai isn't sure what to say given the climate of the situation. His heart is in his throat, his stomach is shrivelled up, and his lungs are trembling. But, despite all that, a small smile forms on his face all on its own because something out of all this did make him happy.

"I found Selene," Kai tells him.

Rikan lights up a little in both delight and confusion. Kai understands why because of all the Selene conspiracies he was talking about with his friends before he had to rush here.

"How?" Rikan asks perplexed.

"She was right in front of me this whole time," Kai tells him. "It's Cinder, Dad. Cinder is Selene Blackburn."

Rikan looks up and thinks that over before slowing nodding. "Now that you mention it, there's an uncanny resemblance between Cinder and Channary."

Kai nods and turns to the door. He calls Cinder and she peeks her head in before entering. She's skeptical on walking in on their intimate moment, but he gestures her in with his head. She stands behind Kai's chair, resting her hands on Kai's shoulders and gives a friendly smile to Rikan.

"Good to meet you, Selene," Rikan says.

"The pleasure is mine," Cinder responds softly and genuinely. This moment is her first official meeting with Kai's dad and she can't believe it.

"Fairytale or not, I still give you my blessing to be with my son in whatever relationship you two will have in the future."

Cinder bites her bottom lip in gratitude. "Thank you."

Rikan smiles at her. Cinder gives Kai a reassuring shoulder squeeze before excusing herself back outside again to give him and his dad their needed personal time. Kai looks back at his dad and can't stop himself from crying this time. He saw this coming from the moment he read the final will and testament, got pulled out of class to go to the hospital. There was no walking away from that, only forwards and it brought them here - to the waterfall of tears, the smell of rubbing alcohol, and the sound of a slow but steady heartbeat.

"Please, Kai," Rikan says, "I love you too much to stay silent as you weep so let me do all the talking."

"Dad…" Kai stutters between choking sobs. "I can't handle this. I don't want to lose you. There's a cure out there somewhere, I know it, just hold on to me, please."

"Waiting to be cured isn't living, it's a waste of time. Why spend your last moments striving for a pill that your body might reject when you can be by your family's side instead? Cures aren't cures, Kai, they're pause buttons. Mariko believed the same thing before and wanted to stay as long as she could. You know what you got from your mother? Your ability to adapt. She was more than capable of handling whatever life threw at her. That's why I married her."

"I already lost Mom. I'm scared to the stars of losing you too."

"You have already grown into a man your mother would've been more than proud of. Whatever happens, Kai, it does no good to be afraid. What matters most is how you handle the bad stuff and how you let it handle you."

Kai unwillingly nods. He takes his dad's cold hands into his and warms them up. Kai holds them tightly as he blinks away tears and looks into his dad's eyes. They're crying which makes them smile sadly at one another.

"You're good, Dad…" Kai whispers to him. "You're good…"

-o-

Kai didn't dream nor did he remember falling asleep. He wakes up, slouched on the arm of a chair in the waiting room. He isn't sure when he got in the waiting room but looks up to see a doctor standing in front of him. How long has it been? By the way his face is shaped, he can tell that he isn't here with miraculous good news. Kai doesn't think because he doesn't want to connect the dots to why he's in a different room and why a doctor is here.

"Kai…" The doctor says gravely. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this but your father has passed away in his sleep."

Kai stares at the doctor blankly and numbly. He nods as the doctor gives his condolences and says that he will be giving the paperwork to Torin; all the words sounding muffled as they went through his ears. Kai sits as the doctor excuses himself. He gets up and walks back to his father's hospital room. Every step there feels like a mile, especially since the hospital is now in a quiet state. It was the longest walk of his life. Kai finally arrives and takes a breath before entering.

All he sees is the hospital bed in the middle of the room with his deceased father lying on it, a white sheet covering everything except his head. All the machines are disconnected and removed because there's no use for them anymore. The lights in the room were off but natural lighting comes in through the window. Kai walks across the room, stopping at the foot of the bed, and his eyes never leave his father. There are blips in seconds where he swears that he saw his father flinch or that his chest moved from taking a breath, but he secretly knows that's only the residual air leaving the body. He doesn't want to blink so he could prove he isn't seeing things.

This couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening. No one died. His dad is fine. Everything is fine. Everything will be normal and okay.

No matter how hard Kai tries, he couldn't believe himself.

Kai walks to the window and leans on the windowsill, resting his arms. He squints his eyes at the bright sunlight and looks at the view of beautiful Commonwealth. Kai sees a city that lost its mayor and when he sees his reflection in the window, he sees a now-orphaned boy who just lost his last parent.

Kai just wonders the following: How long was his father dead for? Did he fall asleep or did his father? Was he asleep in here until his dad flatlined and the doctors moved him out there to see if they have to clock a time of death or save him? Was Torin or Cinder here when it happened?

Back when he was a child and his mother died, he saw her body and he was too young to understand what was exactly going on. He knew she was dead but he wasn't mature enough to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Now, Kai is grown and knows the reality of loss and still, he should still be too young to know that. He's orphaned now, isn't he?

Kai turns back and heads to the foot of the bed where he stops. He leans forwards on it, looking directly at his father. He isn't sure what he's doing. Kai acts af if he's waiting for a response but he knows that nothing will come. Everything is still and silent as Kai just stares at his father; no thoughts running through his head. What was there to think?

"Come back…" Kai mutters. His body starts to shake. "Come back, Dad. I need you. Dad, please come back and bring me home."

Kai stumbles back until he hits the wall and he slides down to the ground, keeping his knees tightly pressed against his chest. His heart breaks into millions of pieces. Tears fall down his face but he does nothing to wipe them away. There's no point. He tries to take a breath but a giant lump in his throat makes him finally break down, in a fit of unstoppable sobs. He hides his face in his sleeves which muffles his cries as well which is good since he doesn't want anyone to look at him. He doesn't want people to see an emotional young boy who no longer has his parents. He wants his mom. He wants his dad. He doesn't want to hear any condolences or that everything will be okay because it sure as the stars doesn't feel that way.

[From someone who has been in Kai's position and has lost a parent a few years younger, I can honestly say that it's a hard experience and it never fully leaves you. Even when you think it's all good, you will sometimes think back to that moment and all the tears you didn't shed then come out. So, in case you were wondering: yes, I cried so many tears while writing this chapter.] [2020: 6 years later and I still remember that day vividly. A lot of what I wrote in this chapter was from that moment.]