SINS (Completed)

EPILOGUE

The darkness slowly gets darker and stifling by the minute. I feel like running away but every part of my body feels numb. There is a periodic beeping in the background, much like an ECG machine. A gradual panic begins to grow inside me.

Beep.

Eventually a faded sound enters my ears from a distance that I try to grasp on to. I look around in the darkness, the metallic smell of blood hitting me suddenly. Just on cue, I hear a gut wrenching shout.

Hardin.

The smell intensifies and a coldness starts seeping into my body. There's a muffled cry and scream in Hardin's voice saying the same thing over and over. I feel a helpless feeling of deja vú wash over, like I've seen through this before.

Beep.

Just this time, his voice is so muffled that I can't distinguish his words.

Painfully I manage to muster all my energy together and open my eyelids to a narrow slit. There's still not much light and the dilapidated ceiling is dangerously low, looming over me, all torn plasters and cracks.

Beep.

Beep.

My vision spins and blurs away, a pungent smell of eutrophication mixing with tangerine blood hitting my nostrils disgustingly. I feel an uproar of nausea but getting up and actually vomitting was no option either.

It just rides back up my nose, the whole uneasiness trapped inside- churning.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

I close my eyes back in exhaustion. Eventually I feel a slick smell of reeking sweat in the air I breathe unwillingly.

And there's a sharp, cold metal sticking into my stomach making me open my eyes wide with a jolt, a shivering gasp escaping my lips.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Lights fill my vision suddenly the ceiling high and the room smelling of alcoholic sanitation.

"Fuck, Tessa, thank heavens-" Celia crushes my hand in hers, and I turn to my side to catch her sitting by me, tears running down her face.

She's supposed to be in Santorini, for her honeymoon, how is she here.

I look around chaotically, the deafening sounds in my head reduced to an abrupt zero. Bafflement consumes me like a tornado.

"I don't- wha-" I start anxiously, attempting to sit up and realise that I am in a hospital room.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Celia goes to the door to call someone in. The ECG machine blips beside me, making my mind throb with hurt for some unreasonable logic. I clutch it with both hands, trying to get the stink, the dirt out-

"Wher- where's Hardin?" I ask Celia frantically, and she tries to calm me down saying all kinds of 'you are fine now.'

"Where is he?" I ask her again, louder this time.

"Hardin is not here." She mutters.

"I can see that Celia, I asked where- is he at his apartment or coll-"

"I mean Hardin is not in Liverpool, Tessa. You had a really bad car accident and you've been out for weeks." She explains in a soft, placating voice.

"Car accident- no, I was drugged and taken away- what are you- just give me my phone." I snatch her bag and shuffle through its contents in a madness.

Her words unsettle me to no limits, and I fumble with my phone with shaking hands. I scold myself for getting so worked up about such a trivial thing and with every passing second, I feel angrier at myself.

I dial his number, and press it to my ears, waiting for him to answer and call my name from the other side. That when I tell him about- this- he'll come straight here and I'll know that I really am alright now.

The line goes dead after two tries. Then three. And four.

My face loses colour and my heartbeat starts accelerating like a nervous wreck. Silence screeches in my ears dreadfully and I feel so desperate to hear his voice, that I'll even take screams and shouts.

"He called me when he landed it makes no fucking sense and now his number doesn't exist where the hell is he?" I mutter out everything in a single breath, looking up at Celia dejectedly.

She looks at me quietly- sadly. Something's not right. I can tell there's lumps of information I'm missing out on.

I stare at the wall, as the nurses scramble in with Dad. The room turns crowded and I feel like shouting out of frustration. Slowly my breath starts leaving my chest in an agonizing torment and my eyes start tearing up.

Almost as if my body was acclimatising with all that was about to come. Probably it already knew then.