DEATH'S HEART

Chapter 17 (Radish Fiction Version)

"Oh my god!" Zach inhaled sharply when Asha peeled her eyes open. The pair of crystal clear gems she revealed made polished amethysts and charoites look dull. Every muscle in his body seemed to have lost its will to move while he was mesmerized by her. This must be what it meant when they said how one could get lost in someone's eyes. "You are so beautiful," he exhaled, drawling on his words. That was a complete understatement. How else could he describe her? She was beyond perfection. There was nothing else to it–just beyond perfection!

When he saw her for the very first time, he sensed something different about her. He was one of the most popular guys at the university. He was fully aware that he had his good looks, and he used this to his advantage. It was easy for him to get any girl he wanted...and this girl was something special. She had a pretty face, but with those atrocious eyeglasses covering her face, it was a complete turn off. A geeky-looking girl like her was clearly not his type; however, he couldn't understand why he suddenly felt so ordinary in her presence–so ordinary that he had a desperate need for her to remember him. Therefore, the prank that he had been pulling off on lost freshmen was way too good to pass.

It was funny to see how gullible she was, but the moment she ran off to follow his false directions, he felt a strong sense regret. He wanted to go after her, and tell her it was a bad joke, but he didn't. Then she turned up in French class. He knew they shared the class when he saw her timetable. She didn't look impressed when she saw him. Again, he was unsure why that made him feel uneasy. He hid his discomfort with an amused smile, like the cowardly jerk he was. He watched her fidget at the barrage of questions the lecturer threw at her, deliberately embarrassing her–a price she had to pay for turning up late. Thanks to him! She was going to hate him with a passion, he was sure of it. That shouldn't matter at all, but it did.

Then there was the incident with the soccer ball on that same day...Asha Strauss probably thought he was out to get her. He felt sorry for her, but somehow she surprised him–for a short moment, he caught a glimpse of the exquisite face a pair of hideous spectacles violated. He thought she had the most stunning blue eyes, but until he noticed a round film on the ground, right next to his shoe. Contact lens? She was desperately and frantically scouring the ground for something before she had ran off. Was she looking for a contact lens? That didn't make sense for someone to have glasses and lenses at the same time. He crouched over to pick up the small piece of film. It was blue. He found that very odd. Why would she wear blue contact lenses? If she was trying to be fashionable, the glasses would have defeated the purpose in the first place. What was she hiding?

Staring back at her now, he thought he had unlocked a treasure chest, revealing the most precious jewels of all. Zach brushed a thumb lightly across her cheek. In the last four days that she had been unconscious, the swelling had gone down significantly.

She had no idea how emotionally wrecked he was after witnessing a lunatic grab and throw her like a rag doll. If the police hadn't been there to restrain him, he would have killed the man. The images of him grabbing the bastard from behind, and throttling him to the ground was still clear in his mind. He could still feel the slight throbbing in his knuckles from repeatedly bashing the guy's face. Anger boiled within him as the harrowing memory played in his head. Insanity nearly got a hold of him when the paramedics pronounced her dead. She was not breathing. Her heart was not beating. Her temperature was abnormally low and they would have concluded hypothermia and severe head injuries as the cause of death. Hypothermia. It was winter, and she had fallen in a pool earlier that night. Again, all thanks to him! There's the cause of hypothermia! Guilt clawed him in the gut.

They were about to carry her away when one of the paramedics noticed some slight movement in her fingers. She started breathing. Very faintly, but she was breathing! He watched them scamper at the slight signs of life. A huge sense of relief overwhelmed him. She was alive! He wanted to cry that night. Even though there was nothing between them, he didn't want to lose her? When he heard her say that she needed to die...That she didn't belong here...That doesn't make sense! Is life so hard on her?