Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live!

She was sitting there, a solitary statue, in one of the row seats in the hospital’s eerie hallway. Her hands were supporting her forehead, her back was rigid from stillness. She wouldn’t even dare breathing too deep, afraid that any movement would somehow take a toll on the outcome. She even shut her mind off and was only repeating thoughtlessly “Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please live! Please…”

“Miss Țepeș²?” The low tone of the doctor’s voice cast the endless chanting away. “She’s going to be ok! You can see her now!”

It had been five hours since she found Amy lying unconscious on the bathroom floor, a flood of pink pills all around her. She was barely breathing, but at least she was breathing. Who knows for how long she had been lying there…  She didn’t come home that night, but that wasn’t something unusual. Lately, she hardly spent two-three nights a week at home. She didn’t call, either. At least, that should’ve raised her suspicions, but noo, she just enjoyed the silence. What happened to her?! She didn’t use antidepressants in over a year.  She was doing so well, all excited about her new make-up business and her new boyfriend... her boyfriend! That bastard! Still, she looked fine yesterday at the party! What on Earth happened?!

“He left me,” Amy finally confessed, with her face sunk into the soaked pillow. She wouldn’t look at Kara, but at least she accepted her hand. “He said he was never serious about me! That I was only a distraction! And that I should stop calling him now! It’s over! Oh, it’s so over!”.

The machines started beeping as she crumbled on the side, choked in storming tears.

“You should let her rest for now,” interfered the nurse. “We’ll give her a sedative so she should be able to sleep ‘till morning. You should also go get some rest.”

Ten minutes later, she was jamming her foot down on the gas pedal, roaring like a tiger in the Bluetooth headset, with her cheeks burning up and the temple veins pumping:

“You f#cking son of a b!tch! I’m gonna kill you! You hear me, you f#cking creeping bastard, I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”

No answer!

“You hear me?! Dumping my friend like that and treating her like dirt! Do you know she just tried to kill herself?! DO YOU?!!”

 Still silence. She leaned forward to check the phone screen again, in between shifting lanes like crazy – it was connected. And the number was the one she found in Amy’s phone, the last on the call register - Dante Soare⁴! 

“Yeah, that’s right, you better be sh!tting your pants right now! ‘Cause I’m not gonna let you get away with it, this time! You better call mommy and say your goodbyes now! You scumbag asshole!”

He was still not replying, just some indecipherable ‘mmmm’-ing noises in the background. Was he sleeping? It wasn’t even midnight yet.

 “Just wait and see!”

 Appalled, she threw the headphone away while making a tire screeching right turn onto the narrow streets of Astoria Neighborhood where, according to her intel, Mr. Fancy lawyer had acquired a quite expensive villa, three months ago.

She stormed into his yard through the missing gates (the fence was still under construction) - the small car obviously upset with the violent hand brake stop. She pulled off inches alongside an old Italian registered sedan – understandable since he lived in Italy for so long.

 “Is he planning on going somewhere?” she mumbled to herself while checking the inside of the car. The engine was on, but there was no one inside, and the lights were off, but it was common for these old cars to take a while to heat up. Even weirder was the contrast with the enormous SUV, Romanian register plates this time, sitting on the other side of the alley. Hm, maybe just a reminiscence from the old days in Italy, she concluded without much thinking. The lights inside the house were on, so she jumped straight to the door, roaring:

 “DANTE! OPEN UP, YOU... What the...”

The door was already cracked and busted wide open under her all-mighty fists and kicks, with herself landed halfway in the living-room, before she could even realize it. A strong gasoline odor struck her nostrils, while the shocking image in front of her struck her eyes even harder.

“Are you here to kill him, too?” she, finally, said.

                                                                           End of Scene 

Author’s Thank You Note

I hope you enjoyed the story so far. Please look forward to the next episode.

Also available on Amazon e-book and paperback at https://amzn.to/3YHk507

I’ll be waiting for your feedback, comments, and theories.

https://www.instagram.com/daydream.myart/

 Thank you so much for your support!