Focus

9. Focus on famili- wait.

"Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic."
— Oscar Wilde, the Picture of Dorian Gray.

                                       •••

Before April fully regained consciousness she was stirred awake by the repeated sensation of hands carrassing her head. Everything was sluggish and it hurt but she still felt his hands and his eyes on her.

He was watching her intently. Completely focused on her. Even as she slept the woman could feel his penetrating gaze fixed on her face. April sprang up and recoiled from the touch instinctively. She had grown too familiar with the unwanted affection and touches from Joe and she didnt want them. Not again. Not again. not again. Her eyes remained shut tightly as she tried squeezing back into the corner of her cold cage like she usually did when he managed to get her caught off guard with his intrusive advances.

"April! wake up its me." his voice called out urgently. Except she wasn't listening.

He touched her wrists, tenderly tracing his own fingers in circles around them but she tugged on her arms and threw herself back in an attempt to seek some distance between them.

Her mind felt like she was trapped in a thick pool of tar. She tried to wade through the confusion and the cold sluggishness that enveloped her but she couldn't. Her efforts were futile. He drugged her again. He did it again. The mere touch of his hand elicited a cry of anguish from April, a desperate plea for release from his torment.

"What the fuck did they do to you? April it's me. Wake up."

Her mind was confused and lost as she thrashed. The words pierced through the fog of her confused mind but she struggled to make sense of them. Everything seemed jumbled and distorted and she couldn't quite focus on the voice. Her mind was playing tricks on her. Joe showed her. Nobody was looking for her. she was imagining him.

"Don't touch me. Please, don't touch me. Let us go please." she barely managed to utter. Her voice was slurred and croaky as she tried to force those words out.

"Goddamnit April." Ramee cursed quietly to himself as he watched her. He forced himself to let go of her, hoping that it would bring her confused and scared mind a semblance of calm. He knew that pressing the emergency button would call forth a wave of doctors and nurses and he knew that they would gawk at her like a freak show.

Ramee swallowed his panic at seeing April so vulnerable and rushed out the door. If he could at least get one doctor to help. He could pay them off to ensure that Tonain wouldn't hear about April's episode. His feet carried him just a few steps away from the door where he spotted a nurse with dark red hair who wore a mask and a soft lilac uniform.

"You! Get the fuck over here." Ramee commanded at the nurse, his voice laced with a sizzling urgency. The older nurse must have been accostomed to being yelled at or she just recognized a panicked look in his face and knew it was an emergency because she hastened to his side.

Furukawa rushed to the yelling man and only recognized him when she saw his face up close. The nurse was far too old for celebrity drama but she had often kept up with the latest news and secrets when she wasn't working. It was her guilty pleasure. A few videos and gossip articles about the man's lifestyle and wealth and relationship drama made Ramee easy to recognize.

She instantly knew that he must have been there for April. "Help her." he commanded with a brusque tone, uncaring if he sounded rude. Without further hesitation the nurse ran to April's room and reached for the emergency button on the side of the bed, ignoring a whimpering and panicked April, who due to the nurses redecoration, was thrashing wildly but not hurting herself by bumping into things in her panicked state.