Florian was slightly surprised when Darius suddenly stopped in front of a row of three elevators. Since entering the building, the two had not encountered anyone.
“Why does it feel like we’re the only ones in this place?” Florian asked as if speaking to himself.
Silence settled between them again as Darius reached out his finger and placed it on a fingerprint scanner. A soft beeping sound confird his authorization to enter and a mont later the silver doors to the elevator opened. Florian narrowed his eyes slightly but did not make a comnt when the elevator descended, taking them down to the floors below ground. The ride in the elevator was short and filled with silence as the two n seed wrapped up in their own thoughts.
“I should have figured that Leo wouldn’t be here to check up on any work progress...” Florian mumbled softly to himself just when the doors of the elevator slid opened.
Once again, Darius did not bother to reply to his brother as he walked out of the elevator. Florian took in a breath as he stepped out of the elevator and couldn’t stop himself from wincing. The sll of disinfectant made him feel uncomfortable and he was reminded imdiately of a hospital which wasn’t so far from what the place was supposed to be used for.
“Leo, you better be down here...” Florian muttered to himself again before raising his hand to rub his nose softly.
After a short walk down a straight hall with doors to both sides, the two of them started running into the staff working on the floor. Imdiately upon sighting the prince, the few staff mbers dressed in white lab coats quickly bowed to show their respect before continuing with the tasks at hand. The overall vibe was a very busy one.
“Your highnesses, I apologize for not being there to greet you. You see, I was not inford of your visit...” an old man with thinning silver hair and golden rimd glasses said with a polite bow of his head.
“It’s fine. We’re not here on an official visit. It was unplanned and we didn’t want to bother you or the staff,” Darius replied politely.
“Still, I should have been there to welco you. Please let know if there’s sothing that I can do for you today?” he asked humbly.
“No, there’s nothing. Please continue with your work and pretend that we’re not here,” Darius replied with a slight nod of his head.
“Is my brother here? Is Leonard here?” Florian asked impatiently.
For a mont, the old man looked nervous as he seed to struggle to reply to Florian’s question. The two princes caught on to the old man’s discomfort imdiately and both understood without the need for him to answer that Leonard was in fact sowhere in the building.
“Don’t worry about that. Please continue with your duties. I hope that you have a wonderful and productive day ahead,” Darius said to dismiss the poor man.
“Thank you so much, Your Highness,” the man replied before bowing and quickly excusing himself.
“So, you’re right about Leo being here. You should have gotten that man to spit out where Leo is, so we don’t have to waste our ti searching for where he is in this huge building...” Florian complained with his eyes still on the back of the old man.
“That’s not necessary...” Darius replied calmly.
“What do you an? Ughh...I can’t wait to get out of this place. It stinks...” Florian said while making a face of slight disgust.
“I think I know where he is...” Darius replied before walking ahead.
...
If Leonard didn’t know better, he would have been tempted to believe that the figure laying on the hospital bed was just enjoying a peaceful slumber. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been sitting there on a chair to the side of her hospital bed, but he thought that it must have been quite a long ti. The only sounds in the room were the soft rhythmic beeping of the various machines that were hooked up to the body lying on the bed. Now and then, Leonard would start to feel insecure and the coldness in the room would get to him. The prince’s eyes glanced over at one of the few things in the room that gave him so comfort and his eyes imdiately landed on the monitor displaying the regular graph of the patient’s heartbeat and numbers related to the patient’s heart rate. If nothing else, it assured him that she was still alive.
“You probably can’t hear ...” he whispered because he hated how his voice seed to echo in the room.
Whether she could hear him or not, he didn’t know but he wasn’t surprised that she was in no state to respond to his words in any shape or form. Regardless, he waited for a mont as he observed her face. Her eyelashes did not flutter, her lips did not quiver, and none of the muscles in her face moved. Although the prince had thought that he had gotten used to her lack of response, he still found himself feeling disappointed.
“I guess I’m still hoping that you’ll wake up...and demand that I give you a break so that you can secretly smoke...” the prince said softly as he kept his eyes on her face.
The slightly painful twinge of disappointnt that he felt in chest was a harsh reminder that he had not lost all hope that she could regain consciousness. Although he knew that with each passing minute, hour, and day, the probability of her ever waking up got slimr and slimr.
“This is for you. I still rember your favorite brand but if you don’t wake up soon, I’ll start forgetting about you...” he said to her softly.
Once again, the woman on the bed showed no response to the prince’s words. Leonard smiled a little to himself before he placed a pack of cigarettes next to the head of her bed.
“Honestly, I have no idea why you’re offering her a pack of cigarettes when she’s unconscious and you know that it’s not healthy. Then again, I have no idea why you’re hiding out here...”
--To be continued...
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