Hero Wanted - 9. Chapter Nine

Opening his eyes, Ryan looked up to see a white, square-paneled ceiling and knew he was not in his room back in the dormitories. He looked around and saw that he was in a hospital bed with a curtain drawn at the right side of him. He wondered why he was in the recovery center of the academy when the events of what happened in the Christopher’s penthouse flashed through his mind. Everything from the fire alarm to seeing Christopher who looked like he was in a delusional state as he attacked Ryan, slammed him to the wall and…that moment when their lips met. For his first kiss, it was something that he was going to remember for a long time that was for sure.

Ryan attempted to sit up, but the sudden feeling of dizziness made him plop his head back down on the stiff pillow. As the dizziness slowly subsided, he noticed he was still in his uniform, albeit his coat that was hung on the back of a metal chair and his shoes that were placed under. At least he knew he was not in any serious condition, though passing out after a kiss still perplexed him and he wondered if Christopher short-circuited his nodes if that was even possible.

“Here’s your food, Chris.”

Ryan turned his head, noticing the voice belonged to Delilah who must have been talking to Christopher at the other side of the curtain.

“Thanks, Delilah. You didn’t have to,” Christopher said.

“It’s nothing… So…do want to talk about it?”

Christopher sighed, and the dropping of an eating utensil was heard. “What do you want me to say? That I let those delusions get to me again, especially when Travis came back from the dead and started taunting me.”

“Chris, that wasn’t actually Travis you were seeing,” Delilah said gently.

“I know, I know. It just...it just felt so real. I know you and the doctors keep saying they’re just delusions caused by my nodes…but I can literally see them, hear them. Feel them…especially Travis. He felt so real as I held him and…”

“That wasn’t Travis you were holding, Chris. He was—”

“I know it wasn’t actually Travis I was holding. Travis is dead and—”

“No, Chris, I mean…when you were hallucinating, you were holding someone else and thought that person was Travis.”

“Wait…who was I holding?”

A moment of silence permeated through the room before Delilah said, “The person was Ryan Johnson.”

“What?” Christopher said, sounding stunned. “What was Ryan Johnson doing at my penthouse?”

Sighing, Delilah said, “To make a long story short, I was with Ryan when the fire alarm was activated, and I asked for his help, knowing it was you who caused the alarm and that you were most likely having those delusions again. I left Ryan to you as I searched for the kill switch of your penthouse, knowing the entire place was synchronized to your nodes and it would temporarily deactivate them. It wasn’t working, so I returned to where you two were and…”

“And?”

“And you two were kissing, and the next thing that happened was you two passing out onto the floor and me notifying the recovery center to pick you two up.”

Another moment of silence was felt before a groan was heard, coming from Christopher whose silhouette on the curtain showed him plopping his head onto his pillow.

“I can’t believe this,” Christopher muttered.

“Well, what I can’t believe is a kiss actually taking someone’s breath away,” Delilah joked.

“Delilah. Don’t.”

“Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.”

“Well, it isn’t working… I’m going to use the restroom,” Christopher said, his silhouette sitting up and standing up from the bed.

Delilah sighed and said, “It’s down the hall to your right.”

Ryan listened as Christopher walked out of the room. He then heard Delilah sit up from her chair and walk to his side of the room. With a hand on her forehead, she then turned her head to see Ryan lying his bed. He tried his best not to look like he just listened to their entire conversation from behind the curtain, but he was a terrible liar.

“Uh…hey,” Ryan said guiltily.

“You just heard our entire conversation, didn’t you?” Delilah said.

Ryan nodded with a grimace. “I’m sorry. I just woke up when you arrived, and I didn’t want to interrupt and I just curious about what just happened and… I’m sorry.”

Delilah chuckled lightly. “It’s okay. You deserve to know what happened since I got you involved back in the penthouse… So, do you have any questions? I’ll answer them to the best of my ability without going into too much detail about Chris’s personal life.”

“Okay, um…why was Christopher seeing things? Seeing people?”

Walking to the end of the bed and sitting down, Delilah said, “It’s specifically due to his nodes. They’re prototypes called nooks that enable him to easily remove them and upgrade to newer models of nodes without the hassle of intensive surgery. Unfortunately, they have some severe…side effects. Unlike regular nodes that are fused with the nervous system, Chris’s nodes aren’t and…there’s a theory that is becoming more widely accepted that a node’s structure is held together by spirit-like energy. So, knowing that, having this form of energy fused to a person nervous system guarantees the energy is fully controlled and fully part of the person’s…soul to put it simply. However, Chris’s nodes are not part of him, not fully and because of this the energy is manifesting into apparitions that only Chris can see and interact with. It sounds crazy, I know, but it’s the truth as far as I know.”

Ryan sat up on his bed and said, “I see…so how is this Travis person the one manifesting in Christopher’s senses? It’s not Travis’s spirit in his nodes, is it?”

“It’s not really Travis that Chris was seeing,” Delilah noted, moving some hair behind her ear. “These spirit-like beings have manifested from Chris’s deepest regrets, like those horror movies where the ghost turns into a person’s worst fears like clowns or spiders. And these spirits all come from Chris’s nodes, from all our nodes, except our nodes are fully part of us while Chris’s can detach from his body and…basically haunt him. He has changed his nodes several times, but none of those upgrades stopped the apparitions from reappearing. And his father does not want him to convert to regular nodes despite the side effects… Bastard.”

“I’m assuming this wasn’t the first time that this has happened,” Ryan said.

Delilah shook her head. “They often activate when he has synchronized his nodes to his penthouse, activating the virtual reality system that reconstructs his memories into three-dimensional images. That virtual reality is the most likely reason why these apparitions have been able to manifest into people from his past… I always tell him to not use it too much and that’s why there’s a kill switch, but…all he can think about is the past…before he became a Champion.”

“You seem to know him very well,” Ryan inferred.

Chuckling, Delilah said, “When I was still competing in pageants, I knew plenty of girls who dated Chris and had their hearts broken weeks later. Then I started ‘dating’ Chris, knowing where it will soon end up, but Chris knew this and we soon developed a friendship years after we ‘broke up.’ Then when I was recruited into the Champions, our friendship continued to grow, and I eventually watched over him, to make sure that he doesn’t hurt himself when he begins seeing apparitions and destroying his penthouse because of that.”

Looking up to the ceiling, Delilah continued by saying, “It’s all a façade, really. To the public, he’s the handsome and mysterious man who has broken many hearts…but in private, he’s also a very sensitive and kind person who is always haunted by a boy he loved more than anything or anyone else.”

“I can relate,” Ryan said, holding the locket of his mother’s in his hand. “My mom’s death still affects me after three months even though I thought I moved on.”

“At least you’re trying to move on. Chris, however… I was surprised that you two passed out from just a kiss,” Delilah said, changing the subject.

“Me too. Do you have any idea why that happened?”

Delilah shook her head, “Nope…but it’s not every day that someone gets to kiss the famous Christopher Shepherd, so I wouldn’t know.”

“But I thought—”

“Like I said. It’s all a façade. He never actually dated all those women, let alone kiss them.”

“I see… So, Christopher’s…”

“Yup… Are you?” Delilah asked with her head cocked to the side, looking directly at Ryan.

“Uh…”

“Don’t worry, Ryan. Being gay is not prohibited in the military anymore, hasn’t been for a long time now. And fraternization between soldiers isn’t either.”

“I know. It’s just…even in the year 2036, there’s still people who have backwards thinking and I always try to avoid conflict wherever I go.”

“Then you shouldn’t be in the Champions,” Delilah said, giggling.

Sighing, Ryan said, “Whatever... So, yeah. I’m gay, and the only person I think can about since I’ve been at the academy is Christopher.”

“Ryan…I know that he looks like the reincarnation of Adonis, but…he’s not looking for anybody, not anymore…and the last person you want to deal with is his father, the President of Synergy and the worst bastard that I ever had the misfortune of knowing.”

Frowning, Ryan said, “Well, I guess you’re right… I should be going now. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me other than the whole passing out part. I’ll see you later, Delilah, and thank you for answering my questions.”

“No problem. Have a good night.”

Ryan stood up from his bed, slid his feet into his dress boots and held his coat in the crook of his arm. He walked around the curtain to leave when he bumped directly into somebody. Taking a step back, Ryan looked and saw Christopher standing right in front of him, causing his heart to stop and his jaw to drop in the process.

Christopher had furrowed eyebrows and it appeared that he heard the conversation that Ryan had with Delilah. And the knowledge that Ryan was at the other side of the curtain the whole time must have also registered since Christopher took a step forward and grabbed him by the shoulder with a firm grip.

Ryan’s heart was beating rapidly, wondering if he was going to get injured by the first-ranked cadet for eavesdropping. But when Christopher’s hand moved from his shoulder to the cheek of his face, Ryan froze. He looked at those gray-blue eyes, wondering what the hell was going on, as Christopher caressed his face with a hand so warm and comforting.

Christopher’s thumb then went to touch Ryan’s bottom lip, brushing across the sensitive flesh and Ryan did his best not to gasp from the sensations that he was feeling from Christopher’s touch that was starting to melt him from the inside out. He continued to look at the man right in the eyes that seemed to possess him, entrance him and right then Ryan would do anything to please the man named Christopher Shepherd.

The hand touching Ryan then moved to the top of his head where Christopher combed his fingers through his blond hair, tugging it slightly that caused him to bite his bottom lip from the sensation that he never knew he would like until now.

“Chris, is that you?” Delilah said from behind Ryan.

With a still expression on his face, Christopher slowly dropped his hand and walked past Ryan like nothing had happened. Well, something did happen, and it caused Ryan to race out of the room and through a hallway before he stopped by the elevators.

Never had Ryan been so turned on, all from a hand on his face, but that hand belonged to the sexiest man that Ryan had the greatest fortunate of encountering personally, face to face, in the flesh. The only question was why Christopher touched him in the manner that he did.

The elevator opened, and Ryan walked inside before pressing the button to the first floor. When the doors closed, he leaned against the back of the elevator, his hands on the rail, and took deep breaths in attempt to calm down his body from the sensations that still surged through him from the very close encounter he had with Christopher. He was a more dangerous man than he ever thought before and the worst part was that Ryan did not know if that was entirely bad.