Lily and Magnus reached Second City Hospital and entered the lobby. Lily was a little tense and stopped in her tracks when they reached the elevator and stood there without entering it. She turned to face Magnus, who was standing beside her, and looked at him as if to speak. But she didn't say anything. She just opened and closed her mouth several times.
Magnus understood her tension and chose to speak instead. "How about we sit for five minutes before visiting them?"
Lily felt some of the tension leave her body and nodded several times in a row. Magnus watched her sudden burst of what looked like a shaky enthusiasm before they walked across the lobby to the chairs opposite the elevator.
People passing by couldn't help but look at her. Lily ignored their stares and sat quietly in the last row of seats, where she would draw less attention.
Five minutes passed in a blink. Lily thought Uncle Magnus would remind her when five minutes were up, but he didn't. He just sat silently beside her chair. She smiled at his understanding and closed her eyes to push away the fears spiraling in her mind. It wasn't that she didn't want to go. It was just that she was afraid the reality she believed in would turn out to be a lie. Afraid the person she believed had feelings for her would turn out to be her imagination, instead of the unbelievable truth she couldn't explain how or why.
She practically meditated for the next ten minutes and opened her eyes when she was certain she was ready. She stood up. "Uncle Magnus, let's go."
Magnus, who had been her silent anchor for the last fifteen minutes, stood up too and followed the little girl who's now walking a step ahead of him. He simply smiled at her. But his smile was cut short when Lily stopped in her tracks again, before they even reached the elevator.
He stopped behind her, wondering why she'd stopped again. He opened his mouth to ask, but Lily abruptly turned around and beat him to it, her tone thick with dismay. "Uncle Magnus, I think we forgot something."
Magnus blinked, as if trying to remember what they'd forgotten. When nothing came to his mind, he asked with a blank face, "What did we forget?"
Lily tapped her face with her right hand and sighed. She glanced down at their empty hands, her cheeks burning, before saying, "Dear Uncle, maybe we have ulterior motives for this visit, but how could we forget we're here to visit Ivan's granduncle? He had an accident just yesterday and he's still recovering. Look.!!" She held her palms up, empty. "Weren't we supposed to bring something to wish him a speedy recovery? We even forgot the basic manners, Uncle Magnus."
Magnus studied her flushed face and frowned as he blurted out, "Little girl, I don't think they're petty enough to care whether we came empty-handed or not."
Lily narrowed her eyes at him and lifted her chin with familiar, uncompromising stubbornness as she retorted, "Maybe they don't. But I do."
Magnus knew he could only agree with her now and huffed, "Okay, what do you want then?"
Lily smiled, a little cheered, and thought for a moment before listing, "Flowers and fruit?"
Magnus hummed in agreement, then told her to wait there while he went out to buy them and bring them back.
However, Lily disagreed and grabbed his sleeve in a firm grip. "I'm coming with you, Uncle Magnus."
Magnus looked at her hand, then at the absolute refusal to back down in her eyes. He sighed, rubbing his temple. "Fine. Let's go together then."
Then they both left the hospital to buy flowers and fruit.
It didn't take them more than fifteen minutes to buy flowers and fruit and come back to the hospital. They entered the lobby and walked straight toward the elevator when Lily suddenly stopped in her tracks.
Magnus sighed and glanced at her with a resigned look. "What now, little girl?"
Lily glanced at Magnus, feigning surprise as she exclaimed his name. "Uncle Magnus!" She let him wait a moment, keeping her surprised expression, before adding with a laugh, "Just kidding," and winking at him.
Magnus narrowed his eyes and harrumphed as he grumbled, "Let's go now." But his voice still hadn't lost the gentleness he used for her.
Lily still smiled as she nodded and walked toward the elevator. The VIP floor had two separate elevators. The first one had already gone up, so Lily and Magnus entered the second one and went up.
When they reached the VIP floor, the elevator dinged and they both stepped out as the doors opened. However, the moment they stepped out of the elevator, Lily stopped in her tracks.
Magnus growled at her in a soft way, "Little girl..."
But Lily didn't hear him. She was completely fixated on the man with his back to her, walking towards the end of the floor.
Instantly, something in her mind snapped.... A Memory! A memory of a man with his back to her. One memory fractured into several. The fragments gave her a violent sense of Deja vu.
Lily's breathing quickened. She stood there, her vision blurring as fragments flashed between the man walking in front of her and the ones tearing through her mind. Lily couldn't tell which was real and which wasn't.
She couldn't hear Magnus whisper-yelling "Little girl, Little girl" anymore. The flowers slipped from her hands. She felt like she couldn't breathe anymore.
Then the memory hit her, where the man turning to face her.
Lily gasped as if she had finally found her breath again when she saw his face... the face of the man whose back had been to her in every fragment of memory that had flashed through her mind.
The memory didn't stop at his face. It continued. The man saw her too. But, his expression filled with panic.
Lily wanted to go to him, but she found herself unable to move. She felt all the energy drain from her body. She didn't even have the strength to stand anymore. Her knees gave out and she would have collapsed if Magnus hadn't caught her.