𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋 ✔︎

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐱

It was the day of my operation. I woke up at six in the morning and got ready because the appointment at the hospital was at eight. I got dressed in a baby blue tracksuit and it took me only five minutes to brush my hair, set it loose, brush my teeth and put my feet in my white trainers and I was ready.

As soon as I left my room, I witnessed Layla leave her and to my surprise, she was also dressed in a light blue tracksuit and after some time staring at each other, we couldn't help laughing.

"Totally not spying on you," she said.

"Totally not peeking through your keyhole," I replied.

"Ah, but I stalk you through your window," she declared.

I laughed. "No more stalking for you today. I won't be here all day."

She stopped smiling. "Why?"

"I'll be at the hospital."

She suddenly looked so anxious, I was afraid she would run back to her room. But instead, she came closer and put her hands on my shoulders. I winced as she gripped the shoulder with the painful blood clot. Seeing this, she put her hands away like I was a burning stove.

"Tell me, please. Zoe? What's wrong?" she asked.

"I have surgery," I said. "It's okay, though. It's just on my shoulder. I have a blood clot that's causing tissue damage."

"I'll come with you."

"What? To the hospital?"

"Yes. I want to be there for you."

"But you won't be allowed."

"I don't care. I'm going," she said and stomped down the stairs to ask Nina.

Violet came out of her bedroom, knitting her eyebrows while scowling at me. She had such pale skin and her silky dark hair hid half of her face.

"You stay away from her," she said. "Layla is my best friend. She's ditched me ever since you joined "

I felt like laughing. "What?" I exclaimed. "Mind your own business. Weird."

"No one speaks to me like that, cow," she hissed. She looked so much like a snake, I was almost scared.

"I can speak however I want. Leave me alone and get a life. You're pathetic."

Her hissing got the better of her. She slithered through the hallway, aiming for her prey (ie. me) and lifted her hands. I shut my eyes and slightly cowered away, expecting a hit or anything else, but I didn't feel anything so I opened my eyes to find her still scowling at me.

"Get lost," she said. "You're not wanted here."

"You okay, Zoe?" Layla asked, coming back up the stairs.

"I'm fine. This Violet girl isn't, though."

Layla stared at Violet, giving her a menacing look.

"She's a brat. No one likes her," she said after Violet went back to her room and shut the door. "Oh and Nina didn't allow me to come."

"Come where?" I asked.

"I can't come with you to the hospital. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologise, Layla," I said and I walked away, preparing to leave for my appointment.

In the hospital bed, I lay there in hospital clothes. The rain became stronger and stronger each second.

"Shall I switch on the telly for you?" asked the nurse.

I nodded, my eyes getting heavy.

On the news channel, the weatherman said it would be raining all the time all over the world and God knows when it would stop. I smiled. I just had to endure eight more afflictions. I thought the second one didn't seem so bad- the blood clot.

I was wrong.

Wincing in pain, I let out a groan. It hurt so much, I felt like it would never stop. My shoulder burned like hot coal was pressed against it. It was too much.

"I'll just give you a painkiller, alright?" said the nurse.

I nodded, biting my bottom lip.

The next thing I remember is waking up to a burning sensation in my chest, doctors and nurses all around me.

"Yes, I was right. The clot has made its way to the patient's lungs," someone said.

I lifted my head up.

A nurse gasped. "The anaesthesia didn't work well. I need to put her back to sleep," he said.

I looked down. The sight was unbearable.

"Increase the patient's level of sedation," said the surgeon.

I remember falling asleep again.

During that time, I had a dream that almost seemed as if it was real life. Aqua was talking to me, reassuring me that everything was going to be okay and I was to wake up with burning pain for some time and the second affliction would be over. He said the surgery would be successful. My heart felt light in the dream, like it was floating softly on a still pond.

I woke up, breathing heavily. I felt drunk or under some kind of spell. My brain was not working properly so I was not able to think. I remember Nina holding my hand and then Liv in between my blinks and then Layla smiling down at me and then the other children except Violet.

Going back to the foster home was strange. I do not remember Violet being there in the hospital but she was at the back of the supermini, eyeing me with an unknown emotion.

The burning pain was still there, getting stronger every time I breathed in and the plaster on my chest got wet in the shower so it peeled off. Everything felt so hazy around that time, especially when Nina and some children from the foster home made me feel warm with hugs and wet my face with kisses while I was lying in bed.

I recovered after a few days and it was raining as usual so I decided to go out in my warm coat and leggings with my hood up to visit Aqua. I felt an urge to speak to him. I needed to speak to him.

I sat on the same park bench as the park bench I sat on a few weeks ago; the same park bench where I left my book, the same park bench when I first saw the watery, patterned swirls and the same park bench that I felt paralysed in when the swirls built itself into the soul.

"Aqua please come out," I pleaded.

But nothing happened. No swirls, no patterns.

"Aqua please! Why don't you come out when I actually want you to?"

Then it happened. Some raindrops turned into swirls and built him.

"I am sorry," he grumbled. "I am losing control. I am not controlling when I can come out anymore. My power is so weak, I cannot even control when you can see me. Zoe, you should have stayed to listen to me before. The night when the swirls first built me. I controlled that. If you stayed before to listen, Zoe, you would have gotten through all the afflictions earlier. You probably would be on your tenth and final affliction by now. But no, you are unfortunately on your second. I am growing weak and the only way to stop it is to make the third and fourth and fifth and so on to come sooner. I am sorry Zoe. Do you give me permission? Or no?"

My heart pounded in my chest.

"Aqua... I-"

"Aqua?" He looked at me in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry, it's what I call you in private but-"

"It is all right. You can call me that. So do you give me permission?" he asked.

My heart pounded some more. There was a pause and all I could do was open my mouth.

"Yes. I'd do almost anything," I began. A smile crept up his watery cheeks. "But... please make them easy ones?"

"I will do my best," he said, "Zoe. Zoe. Zoe, you brave, strong human."

Tears pricked in my eyes and streamed down my face. "I love rain," I said.

"I love you too."