How

Chapter 53 - How?

Alisha sat beside Torin's bed, close enough that her shoulder almost touched his. The bouquet she had brought was resting on the small table beside him, its flowers bright against the dull white of the hospital room. A few petals had already begun to bend from the heat of her hands.

She reached up and gently ran her fingers through Torin's hair, careful not to touch the bandage wrapped around the back of his head. Her movements were slow and absent-minded, the way someone might touch a person they were afraid of losing. Every few seconds, her eyes drifted toward the bandage before returning to his face.

Torin remained quiet, watching her.

There was something different in her expression. She was trying to keep herself composed, but the worry was obvious in the way her fingers moved through his hair and in the tiredness beneath her eyes.

The door opened, and Lenna returned carrying two cups of coffee. She handed one to Alisha before placing the other carefully on the table beside Torin.

“I thought you might need this,” Lenna said.

Alisha gave her a small nod and wrapped both hands around the cup, letting the warmth spread through her fingers.

Lenna then looked at Torin. “I have to go now. If you need anything, call me, all right? Don't try to get out of bed by yourself.”

Torin nodded.

Lenna gave him one last look before leaving the room and quietly closing the door behind her.

The room fell quiet again after Lenna left. For a while, neither Torin nor Alisha said anything. The faint hum of the machines beside the bed filled the silence, occasionally joined by the muffled footsteps and distant voices drifting through the corridor.

Torin lifted the cup and took a small sip, but he barely noticed the bitter taste. His thoughts were still trapped in that night—the blood on the floor, Kelly's terrified eyes, the man carrying her away, and the face of the woman he had recognized just before everything went dark.

Across from him, Alisha remained silent as well. She took a slow sip of her coffee, but her attention never really left him. Her eyes moved to the bandage around his head, lingering there for a moment before returning to his face.

She seemed to hesitate, as though she had been holding the question back.

Finally, she lowered the cup into her lap and spoke.

“Torin, how did this happen?”

Her voice was gentle, but the worry behind it was difficult to hide. She looked again at the bandage, her fingers tightening around the cup as she imagined what must have happened to him.

“Who did this to you?”

Torin didn't answer immediately.

He could have told her everything. He could have told her about Rita, Ron, the strange door, the attack, and the people who had taken Kelly. But he wasn't ready to put all of it into words, especially not until he understood what was happening himself.

So he gave her only the part he was willing to reveal.

“Kelly was being kidnapped,” he said. “I tried to stop them.”

Alisha's expression changed immediately.

“Kidnapped?”

Torin nodded.

“I managed to get close to them, but the kidnapper wasn't alone. He had someone helping him. While I was trying to save Kelly, his partner came from behind and attacked me.”

Alisha stared at him, clearly trying to process what she had just heard.

“And Kelly?”

Torin looked down at his coffee.

“She was taken.”

The words left a heavy silence behind them.

Alisha lowered her eyes. Her grip around the cup tightened until her knuckles became slightly pale.

“Why didn't you tell me this before?”

“I just woke up,” Torin replied. “I haven't even had time to understand everything myself.”

Alisha looked at him again. The fear in her eyes had not disappeared, but there was something else beneath it now, something Torin could recognize easily. She was genuinely worried about him. Her gaze kept returning to the bandage around his head, as if she could somehow see the injury beneath it and understand how close he had come to something far worse.

Torin noticed the way she was holding her coffee, both hands wrapped tightly around the cup despite the warmth it gave off. She seemed to be waiting for him to say something, but he wasn't ready to tell her everything.

After a moment, Torin shifted carefully against the pillow and looked at her.

“How did you find out about me?”

Alisha's expression softened, and she lowered her eyes to the coffee in her hands before answering.

“Tina told me.”

Torin's gaze sharpened. “Tina?”

Alisha nodded. “She was the one who called me. At first, I didn't understand what was happening. She sounded frightened, and she wasn't explaining much. She only told me that something had gone wrong and that you were hurt.”

She paused and looked back at him.

“When I heard you were in the hospital, I came as soon as I could.”

Torin studied her face, trying to judge whether there was something she wasn't saying. “Tina told you I was in the hospital?”

“Yes.”

The answer was simple, but it immediately caught Torin's attention.

He lowered his coffee cup and thought about it. Tina was missing. Kelly was missing. Rita and Ron had disappeared the day after the incident, and now he was learning that Tina had somehow known enough about what happened to contact Alisha.

Torin looked toward the closed hospital door before turning back to her.

“What exactly did Tina tell you?”

Alisha hesitated. Her fingers moved slowly around the rim of the cup as she tried to remember.

“I don't remember everything she said. She was too frightened. Her voice kept shaking, and she sounded like she was afraid someone might hear her.” Alisha frowned slightly. “She only kept saying that something had happened, that you were hurt, and that I needed to know.”

Torin remained silent.

“Did she tell you where I was?”

“She knew you were with Kelly,” Alisha replied.

Torin's eyes narrowed.

“With Kelly?”

Alisha nodded, apparently unaware of why the answer had suddenly changed his expression.

“Yes. She said you were with her.”

Torin slowly lowered his cup without taking the sip he had intended. His headache seemed to fade into the background as another thought pushed its way to the front of his mind.

Tina knew he was with Kelly.

But how?

He hadn't told Alisha that. He hadn't even told Lenna that Tina had known where he was. As far as Torin could remember, there had been no reason for Tina to know his location that night.

His eyes remained fixed on Alisha.

That small detail had just become much more important than it should have been.

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