3:09

CHAPTER 8 - THE PATH

Cara's eyes fluttered momentarily as she awoke from her deep sleep. Her hands tremored out of fear from the events of the previous night. Still dazed, she lifted up her head slowly. She looked around the room patiently, awaiting for her mind to return and her uneasiness to wear off. If it ever would...

"H-hello? Is anyone there?" she questioned.

She rested her head back onto the pillow upon hearing no reply. The room was eerily quiet. Cara rested her hands upon her stomach, immediately feeling a swelling pain. She lifted her blanket to see a long bandage placed horizontally across her lower abdomen. She pressed onto it firmly to identify the level of pain, instantly regretting it. Her hands began to shake as she tried to press down for a second time. The harder she pressed, the more water formed in her eyes.

Cara turned her head to look outside of the window. The weather was bleak, overcast and sprinkling with raindrops every minute or so. She noticed a small table in the corner of the room. A table with a bouquet of roses and two balloons that said, 'Congratulations!' and 'It's a girl!'. Seated on the chair was a brownish-red teddy bear, of which she thought she had never seen before. Where is my baby? She thought to herself. The thoughts in her head grew to darker places. Places a mother would never wish to go to, especially not at this time.

A nurse suddenly entered the room. Upon securing eye contact with the young nurse, she frantically pushed through the slowly closing door in a rush of some sort.

A couple more minutes passed after the concerned nurse scurried out of the room. Cara looked out of the window and saw nothing but the emptiness of the morning sky. She rested her eyes for a moment and briefly fell back to sleep.

"Cara... Hello there. How are you feeling?" an unfamiliar Doctor asked her, holding her hand to wake her up from a deep sleep.

"Yes that's me" she panicked. "Where's my baby? Where's my idiot husband? What's going on here?"

The Doctor grabbed the chair from the corner of the room, removing the teddy bear that was seated on it and placing it on the windowsill.

"Ma'am. There was a... complication with the birth. Your child will be perfectly fine, but..."

"But what, Doctor? Just say it. Please" she asked with tears growing once again.

"There's no easy way to say this, but due to your stress levels, high blood pressure and heavy breathing throughout the birth, your child has been diagnosed with apnea."

"What does that mean?" she inquired as the tears fell from her eye, drowning in the confusion of it all.

"Well... apnea or sleep apnea... is a... quite a rare disease in newborns, which causes irregular breathing patterns when sleeping. We also believe that this illness is most likely hereditary" the Doctor revealed.

Cara could feel the pain of a thousand daggers, piercing into her aching heart. Unable to move in the slightest, all she could do was look at the Doctor, who was explaining how her life would be changed forever. All of her undivided attention was given to the Doctor, however, she couldn't move a centimetre of her body. She was frozen in place, unable to move, unable to hear and unable to feel anything at all.

"I have to be honest with you ma'am, your girl will grow up with many challenges and it's going to be hard for her and even harder for you, but I know deep down in my heart that you are going to give her the best life she could ever ask for. Do you think you could do that for me, Cara?"

She paused her tears for a moment, as if she had complete control of them.

"H-how long will she have?" she asked.

The Doctor pulled out a handkerchief from his upper coat pocket, brushing it against his strained and now sweating forehead.

"Due to the severity and extreme nature of her breathing patterns, it looks like she will have about 2 years, but you can never know for sure."

Cara peered out the window once again, blocking out the rest of the muffled conversation. She could only think about one thing at this moment. Her husband and what he had done.

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A couple hours passed. Multiple nurses entered her hospital room throughout the day, giving her the time and medicine required for her to heal properly.

"Cara, how are you feeling?" a young nurse asked.

She paused for a short minute. "Fine" she replied, barely looking in her general direction.

She was more fixated on the world outside of the window. Cara was so enthralled by the window that she moved out of her bed into the chair, peering out into the car park, trees and other side of the hospital walls. It was at this point that she overheard some irritating sounds outside of the door in the hallway. The sound of balloons hitting the roof as people walked by, footsteps of children going about their day and the brassy laughs of inconsiderate old men. These frustrating noises stopped just outside of her door. Then, there was silence...

Cara turned her head attempting to view the people outside. She walked closer to the doorway to hear as much of the conversation as she could.

"...she can't see any people right now... you have to leave..."

"...oh Lord... what happened?"

"...no guests... I'm sorry... you can't be in there right now..."

Cara sluggishly crept back into the bed, as though it was calling her name.

"...Sir, that means you too..."

"I-I'm her husband."

*CREAK*

Aaron slowly entered the room. His face was unnervingly pale and his oily hair was a mess. He slouched as he walked in with his hands in his pockets, looking at her.

"Hey. Um... how are you feeling...?"

She didn't reply. She couldn't. She didn't look him in his broken, swindling eyes. Cara didn't know the man that came out of that door. Not now, not ever.