Shattered

Chapter 43

I shuddered as I found myself walking down a long narrow hallway that was dimly lit. Lights flickered and made bizarre crackling noises as I looked around trying to figure out where I was and how I had got there. There were nurses and doctors standing around desks, but they appeared to be frozen in some sort of trance.
"Hello?" I called looking around hoping someone would hear me. "Anyone here?"
There was no reply other than the sound of crackling lights.
Where am I?
"October?" a voice called my name making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"Who's there?" I called back feeling my heartbeat increase.
"October, turn around," the voice said sending a chill down my spine as I recognized the voice. It was Tyler's.
I slowly turned around to see that all the nurses and doctors who were once frozen and transfixed in one position, had now moved to stand behind me with sinister looks on their faces. Amongst them was someone in a wheelchair cloaked in all white with their head down and a nursing hat on.
My heartbeat increased rapidly as I took a step back, but the eerie voice came again, "October."
I felt my mouth drop when I realized that the voice came from the person in the wheelchair.
No. That can't be Tyler. He's dead. He should be dead. He blew his brains out!
I tried to take a step back, but my body moved forward despite my feeble attempts until I was faced to face with the person in the wheelchair. The doctors and nurses surrounded me to ensure I couldn't run away or even escape.
"October..." the voice spoke slowly, every word causing goosebumps to rise on my arms. "...you could've...stopped this."
"No. No! Stop!" I shouted as my arm reached out to touch the person in front of me.
My fingers were just a few centimeters away when the person looked up at me. I screamed in horror when I saw who it was. It was Tyler with half of his face blown off and angry red eyes.
"YOU DID THIS TO ME!! YOU COULD'VE SAVED ME!! YOU COULD'VE GIVEN ME ANOTHER CHANCE!! YOU REJECTED ME!!" he yelled causing blood to splatter across my face and his lap.
I gasped when the nurses started to encircle me.
"NO!! GET AWAY!!" I shouted.
I sat up abruptly to see Keith staring at me with worry written all over his face. He reached out to touch me, but I veered away from him and pulled my knees up to my chest.
"Hey, it's okay. It's me. Are you alright?" he asked raising his hands defensively.
I stared at him trying to shake away the cobwebs of my horrible nightmare without much luck. Tyler's destroyed face kept appearing in my mind causing nausea to rise in my stomach. Without thinking, I bolted for the nearest thing I could get to, which happened to be a small trashcan on the opposite side of the room, before throwing up into it.
"You're okay," Keith murmured rubbing my back. "Just let it out, it's alright."
He waited until I was done before steering me back over to the bed and sitting down beside me.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "I've never heard you scream so loudly. I honestly thought someone was trying to hurt you."
I shuddered before saying, "It was just a nightmare about Tyler. Please don't make me talk about it."
He studied me for a moment and said, "Talking about it might make you feel a little better."
I shook my head slowly and buried my face into my hands.
"Please, October. The way you screamed, it terrified me," he begged wrapping his arms around me.
I shuddered before saying, "I was in this hospital and the nurses were standing in one spot almost like they were frozen. Then this creepy voice called my name and when I turned around all the nurses were now standing behind me with sinister looks on their faces. In the middle of them was someone in a wheelchair. I realized that the voice was coming from whoever it was. I tried to walk away, but my body had a mind of its own and made me walk towards the person. When I went to touch the person, they looked up and..." I trailed off as my stomach started to churn again. "...it was Tyler. Half his face was gone and he just looked awful. He said I could've saved him. He said I should've given him a chance. Keith, it was awful."
He stared at me for a long moment before wrapping his arms around me and pulling me into a hug before saying, "It's okay. It was just a nightmare. He's gone and he's never coming back."
I swallowed back the bile that rose in my throat and looked up as Mya trotted in with her tongue lolling out of her mouth.
"Hi Mya," I said reaching out to pet her trying to sound cheerful, but she quickly saw through that and whined.
"I'm alright, I just had a nightmare," I reassured her.
Keith stood up and grabbed the trashcan that I had used earlier before walking out of the room. He returned a few minutes later and sat down next to me.
"I know something that will probably take your mind off the nightmare," he murmured handing me a glass of Ginger ale.
"What?"
"Our wedding plans."
I raised the glass of soda to my lips and took a sip before saying, "Keith, our wedding isn't until April."
"That's only two months away, babe."
I lowered the glass and stared at him in shock.
Two months? Where has the time gone?
"That's all?" I whispered. "With everything that has happened, I didn't even realize that a month had gone by."
He rubbed my back before saying, "Don't feel bad. The time slipped away from me too. I had to do a double take when I looked at the calendar yesterday. I told you that four months would go by faster than you think."
"Yeah," I said tracing my finger along the rim of my glass. "You weren't kidding."
"Hey, we still have time to plan though."
I looked at him and shook my head as I said, "Yeah, we have time to make plans, but we won't be having our wedding on time."
"What makes you say that?" he asked. "We've already planned where we want to have it and we've already planned size of it. No one is coming except for Gia, Ericka, Beatrice, and Delaney. That's all you want to come. We've already picked out the colors which were gold, burgundy, and white. What else is left to do?"
"A lot," I breathed getting up and walking over to the window. "We've only scratched the surface of what we need to prepare for. We might as well just push our wedding date back."
Planning a wedding is stressful enough as it is, but rushing to get everything done before a certain date was just asking for disasters. Especially when the date is in less than two months.
"Tell me what else we need to do," he said. "We might be able to get it done."
"I'm telling you we won't. We have to start a wedding binder, work out our budget, pick our wedding party, come up with the guest list, hire a planner, reserve dates and venues, book an officiant, find photographers, bands, florists, and caterers, purchase my dress and the bridesmaids dresses, order the cake...need I go on?" I asked turning to face him.
"Well, I can tell you right now, that our budget is fine. We can afford the wedding, the party will be here, we already know who will be attending, and I'm sure we don't really need to reserve any venues or anything. You said you didn't want anything fancy. Everything you named is for a big fancy wedding."
I sighed and turned around before saying, "Yes, I know, but at the same time I don't want a bland wedding either. A wedding with just four people attending isn't a wedding at all."
"You said you didn't want a lot of people at your wedding, October. You're being very confusing right now. Either you want a lot of people or you don't. You can't have it both ways."
"I don't know what I want, alright!" I snapped turning to face him. "I know I don't want a lot of strangers at my wedding!"
"October," he breathed. "Don't be ridiculous."
"Ridiculous?" I echoed. "How am I being ridiculous?"
"You are saying you don't want four people at your wedding and then you are saying you don't want a lot of strangers at your wedding. I don't know what you want."
I frowned before saying, "I wish we would've planned this earlier!"
He stared at me for a long moment with a look of shock on his face before standing up and saying, "Maybe this was a bad idea."
"Maybe what was a bad idea?" I asked as he turned to walk out of the room.
"Discussing the wedding," he answered. "Maybe we shouldn't have one at all."
I stared after him as he walked out of the room leaving me alone. Guilt washed over me as I leaned my head against the window and sighed heavily causing my breath to fog up the glass. It wasn't his fault we had fallen behind on our wedding plans. Anyone could've fallen behind after everything that has happened recently.
My phone rung loudly and I turned around before walking over to the bed to see who was calling me. It was Beatrice.
"Hello?" I answered.
"Hi dear, I hope this isn't a bad time. You sound stressed."
"No not at all and I am stressed," I admitted. "Time got away from me with our wedding plans and we're kind of arguing with each other rather than making plans."
"Well, I can understand how time got away from you. It's best to push the wedding back so that you don't have to rush to plan everything. Pushing it back is better than rushing and forgetting vital things. Now, I didn't call to ask you to come in today. I have some very bad news," she said.
I sat down on the bed and sighed before saying, "What's going on?"
"I must retire from working at the bookstore. My health has gotten really bad. Well, I wouldn't say gotten really bad. It has always been really bad, but I guess it has gotten worse. I went to the doctor a few days ago and they told me I had fluid in my lungs. I have to go back tomorrow to get the fluid removed. I'm sorry, October. I feel like I am putting you out of a job," she muttered.
"It's okay, I understand. Why didn't you tell me you had health problems?" I asked.
"I didn't want to worry you, October. You worry enough with the things that are going on in your life. The last thing I wanted to do was add more worry and stress to your already full plate. Especially in the condition you are in," she explained. "Stress isn't good for the baby."
I looked down at my stomach before placing my hand over it. A small bump was starting to show, but it was only visible when I sat down or if you really stared at me.
"Who's going to run the library?" I asked.
"I don't know, honey. Someone will probably get it and turn it into something useful since there are several bookstores and libraries here."
"I can run it," I said without thinking.
"Heavens no! I would not allow you to do that. It's too much for one person alone to run it and besides, it's best that you be a stay at home mom. With Keith working so much, I think it would be best because I wouldn't trust anyone with my baby. I know I didn't trust anyone with mine."
"Wait, why don't you get your daughter to run the bookstore?" I asked.
"I talked to her about it last night and she said she would let me know if she can do it. Her schedule is pretty tight with school and her part-time job, so I'm not holding my breath for her to call. Now, back to the wedding. If you need help with the cake and decorations, I would be delighted to help. I also do floral arrangements and dresses."
I jumped up before saying, "Really!?! That's great!"
"It's the least I can do."
"It won't be too much trouble, will it?" I asked. "With your health and all."
She laughed before saying, "Goodness no. All I do is make cakes and plan decorations for parties. All you have to do is give me a color scheme and I'll get to work on the decorations and dresses for your bridesmaids."
"Bridesmaids? I don't think I'm going to have any of those. I only have four people for my guest list. You, Ericka, Gia, and Delaney."
"Well that's not a guest list at all. That's more of a house party and even then, I'm sure house parties have more guests than that. You don't want more people there?"
I sighed heavily before saying, "Who else can I invite? My brother's dead, my mother's dead, and my father is in jail. I have no other family that I even talk to. I don't even know any of my other family, so yeah."
"What about Keith's family?"
"He's about the same as me."
"Well, I would be delighted to help you get your guest list if you don't mind. I can talk to my daughter. She's been dying to meet you and you can always ask Delaney's mother if she can come down too."
"I hadn't thought of that. I'll do that. I do have a color scheme picked out. It's probably more of a prom theme than anything, but it's white, burgundy, and gold."
"Those aren't prom colors at all. They could be, but I think they will look great at a wedding. You could be like my sister. Get married on Halloween so that your guests come dressed up in costumes and instead of throwing a bouquet, she threw a pumpkin. I had a thrill with that one."
"I saw something like that on Facebook a while ago. She actually did that?" I asked.
"Yes, I was the one who pointed it out to her. I didn't see it on Facebook though. I merely got the idea off Pinterest."
I laughed before saying, "As cool as that would be, I think will stick to a traditional wedding."
"I can understand that, dear. Well, I'm going to get to it then. Again, I'm sorry about all this. I don't mean to put you out of your job."
"It's alright," I murmured. "Thank you for your help."
"No problem. Like I said, it's the least I can do. Bye-bye dear."
"Bye Beatrice," I said before hanging up the phone and laying back on the bed gazing up at the ceiling.
I could hear the television playing loudly in the living room and pots and pans rattling in the kitchen. A few moments later, Mya came trotting into the room.
"Hi girl," I said petting her.
She licked my hand before looking up at Keith as he walked in.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I know it's very frustrating with everything that has been going on."
"It is, I'm sorry too. Beatrice offered to help us," I murmured.
"That's great."
I nodded and sighed before saying, "She has to retire. Her health is getting bad, so she can't run the library anymore."
He stared at me before walking up to me and wrapping his arms around me.
"It's okay, I know you liked working there, but if you want you can be a stay at home mom."
"I don't have much of a choice," I said walking over to the window.
He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist before saying, "Everything will be okay. I promise. Just one day at a time."
"Okay," I murmured leaning against him.
I smiled. It was always something about being in his arms that took away all my worries. The sound of my phone vibrating again made me sigh and turn around.
"Did Beatrice say she would call you back?" he asked as I walked up to the phone.
"No," I answered picking it up. "It's Ericka."
I answered the phone and was immediately met with panicked screaming on the other end.
"OCTOBER, GIA AND RYAN ARE GONE!!"