Taking a dark turn

It did not take long for the moon to sink steadily behind the horizon, welcoming the sun in its place. And as for my current situation, despite running around in search of a hospital that wasn’t closed, in the end I couldn’t find one. As I continued to sprint on the sidewalk bare foot, glancing at Naomi laying on my back from time to time.

My body became heavier with every step I took, as I could feel my strength slowly decrease with the minute that passed, the feeling in my hands numbing also. I started breathing heavily, as my lungs were in desperate need of more air.

Still, even as my body was disintegrating from the inside, I still managed to push through, though it came at a great cost. Because I hadn’t eating for so long, my body suffered from malnutrition. All that running around while also carrying Naomi in such a weakened state made it no surprise that I started feeling a bit light-headed, the corners of my sight slowly turning white as well.

However, I ignored it to the best of my ability, steeling my mind from collapsing, and continued sprinting through the streets. As I just passed a corner and seeing further down the street, a sense of hope began to flourish as I had finally found another hospital.

“Please be open.” I said as I walked towards the building.

The building, whose outer walls were white colored, had two floors. Despite it having two floors, the building wasn’t particularly big as you would imagine it to be. Due to its small size, calling it a ‘hospital’ seemed like a far stretch. Honestly, I didn’t really care as long as Naomi could be treated. That was what mattered the most.

I stopped at the front of the building, and began looking through a window. After I had confirmed that there were people inside, I went to the door, and opened it quite forcefully, quickly entering the building.

“Help us, please!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, scaring the two souls at the reception, their faces turning pale in an instant.

One of them, who was an elderly woman, quickly came over to help when she locked her eyes on Naomi. After she examined Naomi’s current state, the old woman turned her attention to the young woman, who was still at the reception.

“Kana, get a doctor.” she said, her tone serious. Kana shrieked a little as she witnessed the old lady’s cold stare.

“Now!” the old lady yelled, causing Kana to rush and do what had been demanded of her. As the young woman was out of sight, the old lady had grabbed an empty hospital bed nearby. After she had placed it in front of me, she began to speak.

“Lay the girl here.” she said, her eyes focused on me whilst pointing at the bed. Naturally, I did as I was told, and gently placed Naomi on the bed, making sure that her head was supported. I’ll have to note that I breathed from relieve when the pressure I felt was now gone, it was as if a burden was suddenly lifted.

It wasn’t long after that Kana returned with someone following her. She stopped right before the old lady, gasping for air, Kana wiped the sweat from her cheek, whilst the old lady was stroking Kana’s back. The person who came with Kana began immediately inspecting Naomi.

After he was done evaluating her, he faced me and spoke to me.

“She’ll be fine, for now at least. However, she needs urgent assistance.” the doctor said, with an apologetic look on his face. He turned to Kana.

“Kana-chan, I’ll need your help so come with me.” he said, as he began pushing the hospital bed. Kana quickly followed after him without saying a word, leaving me alone with the elderly woman.

“What exactly happened to you two?” she asked, when she was sure the two were gone, turning her gaze at me.

Well, I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to know. I mean, wouldn’t you want to know if suddenly two injured people came running in, and practically begging for help, I sure would. And so, I got into her line of sight, and began telling her our ordeal.

“It’s a long..” as I was about to begin explaining our situation, a sudden ache began to plague my head, causing me to lose balance. As I reached for the wall to my right, my vision slowly turning white.

It seemed that I reached my limit. I had been pushing my body to the uttermost limit, so it didn’t really come as a surprise to me. In fact, I was amazed how long I managed to last. There is one conclusion I could think off that might explain why, but as my thoughts became foggy, I didn’t really care much about it anymore. I continued to balance myself against the wall.

"A.r...O...k...y?" my hearing was also affected, as I began to hear a constant noise that made me hear almost nothing. It didn’t take long before my legs gave out. As I fell forward, the moment my head had hit the ground, it was then that my consciousness slipped away.

The moment I opened my eyes, I found myself surrounded by darkness. The only source of light was the white circle beneath me, I stood at its center, while scratching my head. I began walking forward with small steps, the circle following me around, as if it was glued to my feet.

After walking for what felt like an eternity, I stopped when I saw something in the distance. It’s dark silhouette began to brighten, as hot flames, burning at their full extent, started surrounding the silhouette.

“Naomi?” I said, as I looked at the person before me, her hazel eyes wet and her expression saddened.

“I’m sorry..” she was abrupted midsentence, something began dragging her deep into the emptiness.

Naturally, I began to panic, as my body moved towards Naomi in an attempt to save her. As I got closer to her, I stretched my arm out to get a hold of her. However, I had just missed her by an inch.

“Naomi!!” I yelled as I saw her get dragged further into the darkness, her saddened smile was the last thing I saw before a white flash blinded everything around me.

After the flash had subsided, my vision began to clear. The darkness, present a moment ago, was no more, instead it were blue curtains instead. My eyes naturally rolled downwards, I saw blood streaming into a cannula attached to my arm, its blood sourced from the blood bag on the stand to my right;

Slightly confused as I was at the moment, I sat up straight. A sudden pain spread across my core, it was like my stomach was continuously pierced with a sharp knife, I bit into my lip to ignore the pain. A headache, I felt mostly on my left side, attacked me as I tried to think how I ended up here.

Most of my memories were vague however, feeling quite frustrated, I continued to dig deeper into them. As I did, the headache worsened, causing me to support my head with my left hand.

Tears, that had suddenly formed, began streaming down as the pain from my stomach had stopped, leaving an anxious feeling in its former place.

“What happened to me?” I posed frightened, as I dug my nails into my face.

“You collapsed, that’s what happened.” I had asked that question expecting no response, so you understand my heart skipping a beat when I heard a voice behind the curtain in front of me. The curtain swung open, revealing an old nurse standing there. Upon seeing her face, I vaguely remember speaking to her before.

“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked, her facial expression quite worried.

“I’m fine, I guess?” I answered vaguely, as I wasn’t really sure.

“Good,” the old lady, who seemed dissatisfied with my answer, had forced a smile, I could feel her pity me.

“You’re probably wondering how you ended up here, right?” she continued.

It was like the nurse could read my mind. Of course, as she had piqued my interest, I couldn’t possibly decline, so I nodded my head.

“You barged into the building begging for help while I was on my morning shift. After scaring both me and my cute colleague, we quickly went to help you.” as the nurse was talking, those memories came flooding back to me. It was then that I remembered something important as well.

“How’s Naomi?! Where is she?!” I yelled in a panic, as I tried to get up from the hospital bed. I felt a sharp sensation piercing my core, making me stop, I laid back down. The nurse looked sadly at me, as she cleared her mouth.

“As for the girl, allow Haru here to explain her situation.” a doctor suddenly walked in, he stood next to the old nurse, his face also familiar.

“Me and Kana-chan did everything we possibly could to aid the girl you brought in. Her condition is stable for now, we were very lucky. Had you waited any longer, than she wouldn’t have possibly survived.”

“Can I go see her?” I asked, quite worried for Naomi’s health. Haru shook his head in response.

“She hasn’t woken up after the surgery, unfortunately. Even we couldn’t possible do anything against it. What she needs now is to rest and recover on her own.” Haru said, his expression apologetic.

“I’ll be leaving then.” Haru walked away, leaving the nurse and me alone in the room.

Silence prevailed in the room, causing the air to tense up. I began gritting my teeth violently, after a short moment I finally cut through the silence.

“And what about my situation?” I asked the nurse, whilst resting my left hand on my forehead.

“Yours was critical, but it is steadily improving. Don’t go have any ideas though, you still need to rest.” the nurse answered, a soft smile formed on her face.

“Thank you.” I said, as I covered my eyes with my left arm. The nurse tapped the end of the hospital bed, before also exiting the room. After I heard her close the door, I began gritting my teeth again.

“Fate always has to kick me right where it hurts the most, don’t you agree?” I asked the soulless room, as expected I hadn’t gotten a response.

“Hey, you Gods above, tell me, why do I have to suffer so much?” I asked again, still no response.

Who was I even kidding? I mean, every time I had prayed with my hands glued together, begged with my head hitting the floor, did I even once had a response from them? Not once did a miracle happen, and even now, the misery that is my life continues, peeling me at every chance it sees fit.

I felt dark emotions bottling up inside me, tainting my thoughts. It was like a slow poison, steadily corrupting my mind by the second. By the time it had fully infected my emotional state, I couldn’t help but feel exhausted mentally.

And so, after I dropped my left arm beside me, I endlessly stared at the white wall to my front. As my emotions were being drained from my body, the colors surrounding me slowly faded into a strong white shade.

                                                                        …

Several days went by as I continued to recover, so much so that I was allowed to leave the depressing room I resided in. Though it might’ve seem like a good thing, realistically it was just as depressing, as I wasn’t allowed to go beyond the first floor.

Days on end, I sat in a corner, reading the same old magazines that were placed on the shelf to my left. Currently, I had just finished the magazine I had in my hands, when a familiar nurse spoke to me.

“Have you finished that?” the old nurse, who made an effort to comfort me the entire time, asked while pointing at the magazine.

“Yeah, for the twentieth time.” I responded sarcastically, I forced a smile. The nurse’s expression however remained apologetic;

“I have something important to tell you.” the nurse said, whilst staring at my eyes.

“What is it?” I asked, my brows squinted slightly.

“It’s about the girl, you should go to her room immediately.” the nurse said, her expression still the same.

“What’s wrong with her? Did something bad happen?” I stood up in a panic, and placed my hands at both the nurse’s shoulders, fearing for the worst, I tightened my grip on them.

“You should just go to her.” the nurse said, whilst avoiding my gaze.

I didn’t waste a single second before running off, heading towards the second floor where Naomi’s room was located. As I bumped into several people, I continued to push my way through, all while hoping Naomi would be okay.

When I finally arrived at her room, I saw the door opened slightly. I heard several voices present there. I breathed in and out, calming my senses. After I gulped, I opened the door, inside the room I saw nothing but familiar faces.

Haru, the doctor, stood next to the hospital bed Naomi was resting on. As for the remaining people in the room, they were my in-laws.

I shamefully bended my head down, refusing to look in their eyes. Suddenly, I heard steps nearing me, and right as they stopped, I felt something hit my left cheek. The force behind whatever had hit me had sent me flying backwards, I fell right on my butt.

“You bastard!” I heard a deep voice yell, it was my father-in-law, Youij Watanabe. I could feel the rage bursting out of him. I raised my head, and looked at him.

“Dear, stop it!” a soft feminine voice yelled directly after, it was my mother-in-law, Andrea Von Bonn. She struggled holding my father-in-law back.

“It’s all your fault, kid. Didn’t you promise you would protect her with your life? So, tell me. Why didn’t you?!” my father-in-law yelled, whilst pointing at Naomi. The machine to her right displayed her current heart rate, it only went up by a little.

“Dear, calm down.” my mother-in-law said, as she slowly burst out in tears, digging her head in my father-in-law’s chest.

“It’s not fair.” he said, as he slowly dropped to the floor, all while embracing his wife firmly. My young brother-in-law stood up from his chair, and went to embrace his parents as well.

My gaze moved to Haru, who hadn’t said a word. When we locked eyes, he began to speak.

“I’m sorry, we tried everything we could. In the end, we couldn’t save them.” Haru said, as his gaze dropped towards the ground.

Wait, did he just use plural? I was certain my ears weren’t deceiving me, so why did he say ‘them’ instead of ‘her’. I cocked my head to the right.

“Them?” I asked Haru, my eyes wide open.

“Naomi did tell you, didn’t she?” my mother-in-law responded instead, as she turned her head to face me. As I had no idea what she was talking about, I squinted my brows.

“She didn’t, I see.” my mother-in-law said, whilst looking at the ground.

“She was pregnant with your child. She discovered it when she was staying with us.” my father-in-law spoke, as he looked at me.

“Huh?” baffled at my father-in-law’s words, I looked at Haru for conformation. He nodded his head, confirming what my father-in-law said.

Silence covered the room, leaving only beeps at small intervals from the heart rate monitor. It wasn’t long when a constant beep filled the room, the line on the monitor flatlining.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Haru said.

My in-laws all started crying, mourning the loss of someone dearest to them, whilst comforting each other with their warmth. I, however, sat near the door on my own. I simply stared at the scene unfolding in front of me, all whilst wondering when this misery would finally end.

                                                                        …

It was a few days after Naomi and our unborn child were pronounced dead. A funeral was organized by her parents. Family, friends, former classmates all came to pay their condolences. A sorrowful atmosphere hung in the air, as many came in dressed in black.

I, unable to face my in-laws, spectated the funeral from a distance, hiding near a wide tree.

After my in-laws had said their final goodbyes, they buried Naomi’s coffin deep in the ground. When all of them had left to their respective homes and I was sure I was the only one in the area, I slowly made my way towards Naomi’s grave.

I stared at her gravestone, and fell down to the ground. Tears began violently streaming down, as I began yelling my lungs out.

I had lost not only one person, but everyone around me. That realization had kicked whatever hope I had left down the toilet. After those three years of final peace, at the end I was alone yet again. With everything taken from me, I lost track of time as I continued to mourn the loss of my beloved.