The Prince

My phone buzzed on the table in front of me, pulling me out of the darkness of my mind and back into the hospital room. I had fallen asleep. Again. I glanced at my mother in the bed, still unmoving and unconscious, the monitor beeping steadily as it had been for the past three months. With a sign, I closed the textbook in my lap and reached for my phone.

~Where are you?~

Shoot, I forgot my brother was picking me up. I quickly gathered up my books and then stepped next to my mother. Staring down at her still young and beautiful face, I brushed a strand of hair away from her temple and gently leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“Ethan’s here to pick me up. I’ll be back tomorrow, mom,” I said quietly. But of course, I got no response.

I gave a small smile at my mother’s sleeping face before I turned for the door. Ethan had a shift starting soon and I couldn’t make him late. I opened the door and hurried out, running straight into a nurse.

We both bounced apart with yelps and dropped everything we were holding as we fell on the ground.

“Ow,” I held my forehead that came in contact with hers. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going!”

“No, I’m sorry!” The nurse rubbed her own forehead sheepishly. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, laughing softly. “I’m always like this, I’m so sorry,” I apologized again as we began to gather up our things.

One of the two guards that were always standing in front of the room next to my mother’s came over to help. The nurse had been holding a bunch of papers and books and they were now scattered across the hall along with mine.

“In a hurry?” The nurse asked with a small smile. I nodded again, glancing at my watch and gathering everything quickly. Within a minute, we were good, and I apologized again before hurrying towards the stairs. I was going to make my brother late again.

An hour later and in the comfort of my own room, I stared at the little black notebook that was definitely not mine. And I knew where it came from. Whoever was in that hospital room next to my mother’s was going to be so worried, if not mad at that nurse I bumped into. I picked up the book and turned it over in my hands. Maybe I could find a name or something inside? It was a softcover notebook of what I believed was pretty high quality, with a little elastic band to keep it shut. It was a little worn, but was otherwise in pretty good condition.

Undoing the elastic band, I flipped opened to the first page and was met with one word in beautiful handwriting. Beautiful probably didn’t even begin to describe it. A short word was on the center of the page, although I wasn’t sure what it meant. Quartum. Something to do with the number four?

I flipped the page and was met with more of the gorgeous handwriting. It wasn’t exactly calligraphy, because some of the words seemed to have been scrawled quickly, although elegant even in its half-heartedness form, but the handwriting was definitely mesmerizing. All those instagram feeds of bullet journals or calligraphy videos I always watched could not even begin to compare with what was before my eyes.

Halfway through the page, I realized I had no idea what I was reading. The characters were legible, but the words weren’t in English. I skimmed through the first two pages, turned to the next page, and recognized a familiar letter. Was that french? My eyes skimmed the next paragraph and then I realized it was german. The next was vietnamese? I flipped the page again and was met with chinese characters, and then what looked like Russian. Either the owner of the book was omnilingual, or he was taking notes from languages lessons.

I flipped to a random page in the middle of the book and came across what looked like a sketch, except it looked like it could’ve been printed, it was that amazing. The words had been in black ink but the sketch was in blue and red. It looked like mechanical parts of a machine, each part sketched out meticulously in pen, a few centimeters apart from each other and filling the entire pages. I turned the page and was met with more drawings, each one as enthralling as the last. And then before I realized it, I had flipped through half the pages of the little black book. Realizing I had just gone through someone else’s private notes, I slammed the book shut and sat back a little. That was certainly some serious talent. I wish I could be able to draw like that.

Was it a guy? Or a girl? And how old? A child genius? Or someone with the skill or practice from the accumulation of many years? Either way, I was intrigued. Why were they in the hospital? Or was this a gift given to them? I picked up the little book again and turned to the last page. It was blank. I flipped backwards quickly until I saw ink again. The notebook was only three quarters full. So maybe not a gift. The owner may most definitely want this back. I’ll return it tomorrow when I visit my mother again.

As soon as I thought of my mother, my spirits deflated a little. What if she never woke up again?

I shook my head quickly. No use thinking of unnecessary thoughts like that. The Exper Disease was a rare disease that caused those affected to go into supposedly eternal disease, but there were those who woke up. About 2% of them. But the hospital bills were wracking up. With my brother and I taking multiple shifts, we were just able to cover our apartment’s mortgage and the bills every month, and working at the soup kitchen three, four times a week meant we were able to get free food for every meal. I sighed out loud to release my pent-up stress just a little. I just needed a few more thousand dollars. Or twenty.

When I arrived at the hospital the next day, I stopped by the room next to my mother’s first. There was one guard there today, and I recognized him as the one who helped me and the nurse yesterday.

“Hi,” I gave him a small smile and showed him the black book in my hands. “I accidently grabbed this yesterday and I think it belongs to whoever’s in here.”

He said nothing but nodded for me to go in. I murmured a thanks and pushed down on the handle slowly.

I wasn’t sure exactly who I was expecting to be in the hospital bed, but the tanned Adonis sitting up working on a laptop was definitely not it. He had looked up when I walked in and now cocked his head curiously. I abruptly closed my mouth and approached him a little closer. He had stunning blue eyes so light they were almost grey, and his brown hair was tousled in a way that made me want to reach out to run my fingers through it. His neck and entire left arm were wrapped with bandages, and more of the stark whiteness peeked out from the low neckline of the hospital gown.

“Hello,” I managed to say when I found my voice. I raised the little book and his eyes immediately narrowed, his entire face turning a little cold. “My mother is in the next room and yesterday I was in a hurry and didn’t look where I was going,” I admitted quickly. “And I bumped into a nurse who was holding what I think was your stuff. We both dropped everything and when I grabbed my books I think I grabbed yours by accident.” I gently placed it on his leg and backed up a step. His eyes were studying me kind of suspiciously, but he reached out his bandaged left hand to grab it. He surprised me when he spoke.

“Did you look through it?” His beautifully accented voice was deep and a little raspy, probably as a result of whatever wound that required the bandage around his neck.

“Yes, and I’m sorry,” I confessed. “I was wondering if I could find a name or a phone number or something of the sort.”

His captivating blue eyes regarded me for another moment as if he were contemplating if I was telling the truth. But at last he nodded, face softening just a little.

“Your mother?” He prompted.

“Exper,” I sighed. “Don’t know when, or if, she’ll ever wake up again.”

“My condolences,” he murmured. I nodded my thanks, the missing $20k wandering into my stream of thoughts again. I pushed it aside and straightened.

“Anyways, I’ll leave you alone,” I tried to smile as I backed up towards the door. “Sorry about that,” I nodded to the little book.

“No problem,” he smiled back, the corner of his eyes wrinkling slightly with deep laugh lines. I gave a little wave before ducking out and past the guard.

When I went back to the hospital the next day, the guard next door was gone. Did that mean he was gone too? I peeked through the little window on the door, but the room was empty. I smiled wistfully to myself as I went to greet my mother. His face was one I would never forget, despite our extremely brief encounter.

When I got comfortable in the wingback next to the window, I noticed a white envelope on the table. Curious, I picked it up and turned it over. It was unsealed and there was a piece of paper inside. I glanced at my mother but she was most definitely still asleep. Sliding the piece of paper carefully out of the envelope, I turned it over to the side with the print and stared at the ink uncomprehendingly.

Twenty thousand dollars.

I blinked, looked up at my mother, and then back down at the little piece of paper in my hand. Was I hallucinating? Why was there a check for the exact amount I needed?

“Okay, momma, you got me,” I laughed out loud before peeking at my mother carefully. No response.

I hurried out of the room and to the nurse’s station, stopping before a nurse.

“Do you know anything about a white envelope in my mother’s room?” I asked her. She gave a smile, her warm brown eyes twinkling.

“That was a gift from the prince,” she announced. I blinked at her blankly and her grin widened. “As a kind of thanks for his notebook, which was very important to him.”

I stared at her in surprise. The Adonis was a prince?

I hurried back to my room, flipped open my laptop and googled the royal family of Inferis. When I got to a site with the whole family, I stared at the fourth prince. That was most definitely who I met.

And the $20k? The fourth prince had the ability to read minds, and I had thought about the money when he asked about my mother.

Clutching the check to my chest, I allowed the tears of happiness to flow down my face. The royal family members were often described as angels. And the fourth prince was no different.