When Hell Runs Cold

Chapter Twelve

Alysia froze in her seat, before quickly getting up and opening the door to the hospital room.

The sound of the continuous beep echoed in her mind, as she stared at her father's limp body. She knew she should've felt bad, or even sad, but she didn't. She felt a sense of relief instead. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched, glancing at Doctor Greenwell.

"I'm sorry." He muttered, bowing his head in respect for her father.

The beep continued to echo throughout the room, and Alysia sighed. She couldn't believe it was finally happening. Her father was dying. Alysia and Greenwell stood in silence.

She hated the look in Greenwell's hazel eyes. It made her feel vulnerable. The look identical to the look he had given her seven years ago.

He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by the heart monitor when it started to rhythmically beep again.

Alysia felt her breath getting caught in her throat, gripping the edge of the railing on the side of his hospital cot.

He was alive.

Why was he alive?

Alysia's eyes widened. "Son of a bitch." she muttered, glancing at Greenwell who grinned at her, probably ecstatic with the fact that he didn't have to break the news to Alysia again..

"Well would you look at that? It's a miracle." Greenwell swept some of his graying hair out of his face. "Now, that is what you call a miracle." He muttered again, more-so to himself than Alysia.

Alysia wrapped her fingers around her golden moon necklace, before fakely smiling at Greenwell. "Yeah, a miracle." She fiddled with the smooth surface of the necklace, trying to calm her racing heart.

She had finally thought she was free. But she wasn't.

Would she ever be free?

"I'll leave you alone with him." Greenwell patted her shoulder, before leaving the hospital room. Alysia crossed her arms, looking around the hospital room.

The room seemed bigger, in a sense. The last time she had been in there, it was filled with flowers from family she had never even heard of. She had told the doctors to give the flowers and gifts to the senior home less than a mile away.

They deserved it more than her father did.

Her father looked defenceless. Just like her mother had looked nearly a decade before, laying on the hospital cot, brain-dead.

"Karma truly is a bitch, isn't it? I want you to die." Alysia muttered, glancing at the pillow under her father's head.

How easy would it be to just take that pillow and suffocate him?

She glanced at the green eyes that were nearly identical to hers, before wrapping her fingers around the pillow.

***

Alysia shivered as the cool air hit her skin. Autumn in Ziren City had more mood swings than April had when she was drunk.

One day it could be in the seventies, sometimes even in the eighties, but on other days, such as this one, the lows could hit forty, on rare occasions the mid thirties.

She should've brought a jacket.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to shield herself from the cold. She walked through Selcouth park, watching as an orange leaf fell in front of her face. She blew on the leaf, watching it float to the ground.

The sound of her father flatlining echoed in her head. It brought her back to when her mother had flatlined right in front of her all those years ago.

"Mommy, please, you need to wake up." Alysia sobbed, gripping onto her mother's hand. "I can't do this without you."

Alysia watched as her mother's chest rose and fell with each breath, and the ventilator humming and hissing in unison. Her mother's olive skin had paled, looking almost gray, ashy. Alysia moved a piece of her mother's golden brown hair out of her face.

"They'll pull the plug, mom. If you don't wake up soon, you'll be gone forever."

Brain dead.

That's what Doctor Greenwell had told her and her father. The ventilator, Doctor Greenwell said, was pushing air into her mother's lungs, but her mother's brain would never be able to control the flow of air again.

She heard her father and Doctor Greenwell talking outside the hospital room. His words would always echo through her mind.

Greenwell had a stocky figure , his broad shoulders and his abnormal height of six foot six inches made the man recognizable from a mile away.

Although he looked scary to thirteen year old Alysia, he had a heart of gold. Always sneaking her a second and third lollipop after yearly checkups behind her mother's back.

Which is why she knew it was serious when she saw the usual grin on the man's face replaced with a look of sympathy. A look of pity.

"I'm sorry, there was nothing else we could do. The damage is... irreparable." Greenwell had told her and her father, his face filled with pity.

Alysia let out a shaky sigh. "Please, Mom, you need to wake up. I can't do this without you." She whispered, looking at their intertwined hands. She waited. For anything. A squeeze. Anything.

"Mommy?" Her voice cracked. She hadn't called her mother 'Mommy' since her sixth birthday. "You're supposed to dress me up for when I go to prom, when I get my first boyfriend, you're supposed to be there. You can't leave me."

She heard the door to the hospital room creak, but she didn't bother to look back, keeping a firm grip on her mother's hand.

She knew what they were there for.

"I'll take out the tube, and then she'll flatline, okay?" He had said it like it was a question, but both of them knew that Alysia had no say in the matter anyways.

"Please don't. I need her." her voice was barely a whisper, but the question itself was louder than the room.

Greenwell looked at her, sympathy filling his warm hazel eyes. He looked behind her, and Alysia turned to see her father nod, a seemingly devastated look on his face.

Greenwell sighed, before removing the tube from her mother's throat and shutting off the ventilator. A whimper escaped Alysia's lips as her breathing slowed, and the heart monitor started to flatline.

She felt her father grip her arm, pulling her out of the seat. "Thank you doctor." He muttered, pulling her out of the room.

The sound of her mother flatlining would forever be ingrained in her mind.

That was the day Alysia started to hate Henry Lockheart. The day he had killed her mother.

Happy Friday! I've changed my update schedule from Tuesday's and Fridays to just Fridays!

Did you enjoy this chapter? What are your thoughts?

QOTD: Who is your favorite singer or band?

Mine would probably be 5SOS or Lewis Capaldi!