St. Martins Hospital~
The hospital ICU ward was eerily quiet and deserted save for the continuous hum of several machines and the ominous beeping of the heart monitor.
A young lady lay on the bed, her fair skin too pale…almost lifeless and helpless. Her face was calm and beautiful despite her sunken cheeks and almost hollow eye socket.
Sonia.
The person on the bed was a version that she would never believe was hers.
And if she stirs awake and sees herself in a mirror she would definitely scream her way back to the land of the dead.
Her hand rested at her sides, a bright gold ring with a simple glittering diamond stone on her middle finger catching the light.
Her fingers twitched almost unnoticeable at first, then stilled. Her eyes, for the first time in six months, twitched, showing signs of life that were never there.
Her toes moved slightly and then went still again as though it had not moved at all.
Her eyes flickered slightly and slowly it opened.
Her gaze remained unfocused, glassy, staring into nothingness as though she were hovering between worlds, neither fully here nor entirely gone.
The sharp and persistent scent of antiseptic wafted through her nostrils and unconsciously she scrunched her nose slightly.
She had always disliked the smell of hospital disinfectant but surprisingly that is the first air she breathed in after six months.
Not the sweet aroma of a well cooked dish nor was it the sweet fragrance of her body wash.
She felt it was odd.
Sonia's mind drifted back and forth as she tried to register her surroundings, but it was unfamiliar.
Where am I?
Beep!
Beep!
Her brow drew together…that sound was strange.
And it seemed to be the only thing keeping her company in the quiet room.
Her ears perked up as she tried to register the direction of the sound.
Slowly, she turned her head towards her left side, closer to the wall, her gaze narrowed.
A computer monitor, three lines of green, blue and yellow each moving from left to right in different waves.
She blinked slightly. "Heart monitor?"
How come?
She swallowed, but then she felt an unfamiliar tightness in her chest; her throat was dry. Her legs ached, and more terrible, it was heavy.
She tried to move her legs, yet it felt heavier than any water logged wood. She couldn't move.
She couldn't speak, her lips parched and almost peeling off.
She glanced round the room again for the tenth time.
Her thoughts raced as she tried to piece together every ounce of memory she had left.
She felt alive, but why did it feel as though she had been dead? Why couldn't she remember how she had gotten here? What had happened?
This was the hospital, right? Was she sick? Since when?
No matter how she thought about it…she was unable to untangle the web of confusion gripping her mind.
Her eyes roamed the ward again, it was empty with just medical equipment lining every corner and no sign of a human.
She struggled to lift her hand as though she was looking for something, but it felt heavier than she had thought.
The feeling that she might have been abandoned in the hospital clawed at her heart.
She closed her eyes briefly as a few images flashed through her mind.
"Husband?"
"I was married. Yes…"
Her consciousness sharpened little by little, like a blade drawn across stone, several memories coming together while she pieced each together to draw the facts.
But her memory was still slow. Then…
The door creaked open, slicing through the silence of the ward. Her brow furrowed slightly.
Is someone coming in?
A nurse?
A family member?
But the next moment, she heard another footstep, falling in beside the earlier step, her ears sharpened as she tried to distinguish it…it was a soft click of a heel.
Sonia's hand trembled softly, her eyes fluttering shut as she noticed the footsteps approaching the bedside.
Then the familiar voice of a man, supposedly the voice of her husband Alex Hort filtered through the silence.
"She really had a long life." He smirked.
"Well, everyone does unless in special situations." A female spoke, her voice a bit distant that she wasn't able to distinguish it.
"Didn't expect she could still be clinging to life even at this time." He sighed. "Even as the organs were said to have failed."
With slow steady steps he stopped beside her bed, his gaze trailed down the frail woman on the bed.
"Alex," a woman called softly.
Sonia's breath caught.
That voice.
Isn't that Cyndi's? She mused.
"Alex, this wasn't what we agreed on," Cyndi said aggrieved.
Sonia's pulse quickened. Her mind screamed even as her body remained still.
She couldn't be hallucinating besides the voice was her best friend's.
A lady she had called my sister. The woman she had trusted with every secret, every fear, every fragile piece of her heart.
The woman she had hoped would help her understand the situation she was in now.
The footsteps moved closer, Sonia held her breath. She sensed shadows falling across her bed.
She wanted to open her eyes fully, to confirm she wasn't imagining this but fear held her back.
Fear of being discovered.
"Alex, it's been four years and since the time she was in the hospital it had been six months," the woman muttered. "Six months of waiting."
"Baby, you have to calm down. It's almost over," her husband said quietly.
"Almost?" The woman scoffed. "You've been saying that for a while now."
There was a pause. Sonia imagined him rubbing his temples the way he always did when irritated.
"One more month," he said at last. "Just one. The doctors said as long as there's no progress or improvement by then…"
He didn't finish the sentence.
He didn't have to.
Sonia finished it in her head.
"I'll be gone."
Her chest tightened painfully.
One month? I was estimated to live on machines for another month.
Cyndi exhaled, long and slow. "Alex, our baby can't wait. The more she is lying here the longer it takes for us to settle down."
A tremor passed through Sonia's awareness. "Baby? Settle down? Am I hearing things?"
"She doesn't even know," the woman continued. "Doesn't feel a thing, must we wait for her to pass away."
Alex lowered his voice. "Be careful."
"Why?" the woman shot back. "She can't hear us. Look at her."
Her fingers traced Sonia's face, she pinched her cheek lightly expecting a reaction but there was none.
Sonia wasn't ready to make herself discovered. She bore the pain silently. Her face expressionless, not even a twitch.
"You see that. She doesn't feel a thing, how do you think she will hear?"
"Sweetheart, I understand that but…" Alex began.
"Alex, six months ago," the woman went on, "I thought it would be quick. Yet after six months the result wasn't achieved."
Alex kept mute…not denying, not refuting.
"I just want my life to start," she added softly. "I'm tired of sneaking around."
"Cyndi…it's not like that…" Alex began.
She scoffed. "It's like how?" she smirked, meeting Alex gaze head on.
"For God's sake," she continued. "You can't keep me waiting for a woman who's already half gone just because you don't want it to look bad…just because you can't let go."
Sonia's mind reeled. So this was it. Not grief. Not devotion. Just a means to avoid the public outcry.
But she had been plotted against by her best friend and husband.
For as long as four years ago?
Her fingers twitched again and this time it was stronger.
Yet it had gone unnoticed…they weren't interested in her. They weren't bothered. She is going to die anyway.
"She's not coming back," the woman whispered. "You know that."
A sigh followed. "Don't say it like that."
"Like what? Like the truth?" Cyndi retorted.
"..."
"You promised me," the woman murmured. "That once this is over…"
"I know," he replied. His voice softened. "I just need you to be patient."
"I've been patient," she said bitterly. "But I think you are just reluctant to part with her."
"No matter what…living together for four years, there must be some attachments," her husband answered.
Attachment? That shouldn't be there…that wasn't the arrangement." Cyndi smirked.
"I know. I know. Can we not talk about this again?" He whispered softly, almost coaxing.
Sonia's eyelids fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes for a fraction as two blurry shapes came into focus.
Alex and Cyndi stood beside her bed, Alex wrapped his arms around Cyndi, his head lowered as he captured her lips in a soft coaxing kiss.
Cyndi leaned into him, her head tilted upward, eyes closed as she responded with the same fervor as Alex.
Their hands grappling against each other in frantic touch, soft moans and groans echoing from their lips.
It seems they had forgotten this was a hospital ward.
They were so absorbed in each other that they never looked at her face.
Never noticed the faint awareness burning behind her gaze. Never noticed her eyes wide staring at them.
Sonia watched, frozen in disbelief, as her husband's hand slid higher. As the woman's breath hitched. As they forgot where they were.
Forgot who lay between them.
Sonia's vision sharpened painfully. Every movement stabbed deep in her heart and it remained stuck.
Her heart pounded wildly now, no longer in rhythm with the machine beside her.
Look at me, she begged silently. Just look at me.
But they didn't.
They were lost…lost to restraint, to decency, to the presence of the woman whose life they were waiting to end.
Sonia's tears slipped silently down her temples, soaking into the pillow.
Her chest burned.
Anger flared in her chest; hot, sudden, burning alive.
With one final resolve, she opened her eyes wide to witness the scene properly.
She wanted to remember this betrayal, to remember this day. To remember this harm, the betrayal of her friend and her husband.
Her heart beat erratically. Then…The monitor faltered.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Cyndi gasped and shoved Alex away. "What's happening?"
Alex spun toward the bed in panic, colour drained from his face.
Sonia closed her eyes calmly…not out of fear but from resolve.
Her face paler than usual.
Footsteps thundered outside. Voices shouted. The ward erupted into chaos. Doctors rushed into the ward.
Alex's heart thumped hard against his chest.
The sound warped, stretched and then flattened.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!