This feeling in the pit of my stomach is almost impossible to describe. I’m scared and worried and angry and so many other things right now. I’ve never smoked before, but I could probably go for a cigarette. My hands are shaking, and I wish that Sylvia was still here. She had stayed with me for hours, but we both had grown tired and hungry. She offered to go grab us both some lunch, and I agreed that that would be a good idea. Now, I wish I had just called my assistant or something because sitting here alone staring at my older brother in a medically induced comma is making me antsy.

The doctors said he had probably been lying there in the factory for hours based off of the blood loss before Sylvia and I had found him. Whoever did this is going to pay big time. He got out of surgery about an hour ago, and the surgeon did not really offer me any words of encouragement –just a simplistic, “We’ll see.” That had been enough to put me on edge.

Eddie really looks like shit. His face is bruised and covered in stitches. A large bandage is wrapped around his head, and a neck brace is strapped around his neck. He has a breathing tube in his mouth, and his wrists are strapped to the hospital bed to keep him perfectly still. He has a fractured skull, broken neck, two broken arms, one broken leg, and even a collapsed lung. Who could have possibly have done this? Eddie is not a big guy, but he is not exactly a little guy either. Someone either got the jump on him or was easily able to overpower him. Either way, he’s hurt –bad.

I’m sitting in a chair beside his bed; I have not been able to leave his side ever since he got out of surgery. We had just gotten into this crazy fight just hours before I had found him. It was so stupid. I had actually accused him of sabotaging my company! What’s wrong with me? And then I had gotten pissed off because he got mad about it! Of course, he got mad about it! He’s given so much of himself to my company; he would never try to sabotage me. I’d give anything for him to wake up just so I can tell him how sorry I am.

I keep looking at the tiny window on the door of the hospital room whenever someone passes by. I want Sylvia to hurry back. I can’t stand sitting here by myself anymore listening to the slow, steady beeping of the heart monitor. I look at the tiny computer screen at the two ECG lines: one if for his heart and the other is apparently monitoring his brain waves or something like that.

Anxiously, I scoot my chair closer and touch his right hand. His right hand has a line of stitches across the back of his palm and over some knuckles. The doctor said he thinks Eddie took a swing at his attacker and busted his own knuckles, but we can’t be sure. The attacked could have knocked Eddie’s hand with a blunt object; the rest of his injuries seem to suggest that the attacker had some sort of weapons like a pole or bat.

I hear someone walk by the room, and I look up hoping the door will open and Sylvia will pop in, but she doesn’t. Is she still not back yet? I feel weird touching Eddie’s Frankenstein-esc fingers, but I feel like I have to reach out to him somehow. “Eddie, I’m sorry,” I say for the millionth time since finding myself alone in the room with him.

I should probably see if I can get in touch with his other half-siblings. I’ve never actually met any of them, but they should probably be informed of what is going on. Honestly, I have no idea how to even get in touch with them. I’m not even sure if I know their names or how many there are exactly. I’ve been so stubborn about all of them always asking Eddie for money that I never wanted to meet them. I shake it off, deciding that I’m not going to waste my time trying to figure that shit out –not with the way they have all treated him ever since he found out about them. Screw them. Eddie and I may have our problems, but I have never taken advantage of him the way they have. They will come looking for him as soon as they need another handout, I’m sure.

The hospital room door opens, but it’s not Sylvia. It’s Éclair, my business rival, and occasional fuck buddy. I frown. I had really been expecting Sylvia, but I have to admit seeing Éclair’s face is a little bit reassuring. She puts on a sad smile when she sees me. She’s holding a vase full of flowers. She’s awkward when she speaks, “Hello, James.” She says in a tone shier than what is normally Éclair’s typical demeanor. “I heard what happened. It’s on the news.”

I nod, “I’m sure it is.” I have been in the news a lot lately. My latest line of supplements has been poisoning people, evidently. Turns out someone has been putting rat poison in the vitamins, and I’m the dumbass who actually accused my own brother of doing the deed. I know it wasn’t him, though. He would never do that to me.

She puts the flowers down and awkwardly stands at the foot of the bed, staring at Eddie. She and Eddie have never gotten along. Eddie has always acted like an asshole towards her; it always bothered him that she and I had a thing going on the side –she is our business rival, after all. Éclair forces herself to look away from Eddie; she walks around the bed over to me and drapes her forearms on my shoulders from behind me. “I’m so sorry, James.” She says and leans down and gives me a reassuring peck on the cheek. “Listen, if you need anything, anything at all-”

She is not able to finish her sentences. The monitors suddenly go berserk, and Eddie starts jolting around like a fish out of the water. I jump up, and Éclair darts for the door shouting, “Nurse! Nurse!”

“Eddie!” I shout, “Damn it, Eddie!” The room is suddenly swarming with doctors and nurses. My eyes scan the small crowd until I am sure of who is in charge of the situation; I look at the doctor, “What’s wrong with him? What’s happening?”

The doctor ignores me and looks at his staff, “He’s gone into cardiac arrest.” He says and begins barking out demands from his team of nurses.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” I cry out, and suddenly the doctor points a finger at me.

“Someone get those two out of here.” He says.

I feel a few nurses grab hold of me, “We need the space.” One of them says as I am being drug out of the room.

The next thing I know I’m standing out in the hall and the nurses are gone and shutting the door behind them. I feel Éclair grab onto my arm, “He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be fine.” She says over and over again, but it does very little to reassure me.

I’m shaking as I locate a bench out in the hall. I probably would have fallen over if it was not for locating that bench so quickly. Éclair sits next to me. I just stare at the floor, unable to speak. How could this be happening? Surely this is just all a bad dream?