Striking Blue

4. HOSPITAL...

In the dim light, was the silhouette of a man. Only this time, he was not on the floor like the other bodies, he was sitting on a chair, staring at me.

My parents took the stairs all the way up, panting as they opened the door to our flat. But I wasn't there. Not in any of the rooms. The balcony door was open and my cell phone on the floor inches away from the door.

Lights. The sister had switched on the lights. That means the power must be back on I felt for the light switch and turned it on. My eyes struggled with the sudden brightness.

Panic rose up my parents' veins. My mother's thoughts ran....she must have gone upstairs to see the flat....too many murder novels and that girl cannot see that her best friend was not murdered....it was a suicide...clearly. My mother was still chasing her wild thoughts when my father grasped his heart in sudden pain. My mother turned back from where she stood, just in time to see her husband collapse to the ground.

It was a girl, not a man. But the sight was any less displeasing. She was staring at me with her dull lifeless eyes from the chair to which she was tied. Her head was shaved bald and her eyes blue. All this blue was blinding me. I was wondering, now, if I was seeing things. She wore a plain white tank top which was the only part of her rid of crimson blood.

Across the white was written in blue ink that matched her eyes with an eerie exactness, the words that snatched the life from my insides.

My mother took the lift down, holding her husband up against her. One ambulance hadn't left yet. She screamed for help and got it. My mother was asked if she wanted to accompany my father to the hospital. My image flashed through her mind as she denied. She got into the lift once again. But this time she pressed a different button - floor 15.

Across her white top was etched the words "I JUST HELPED THE CANCER TAKE HER LIFE...SHE WAS GOING TO BE DEAD ANYWAYS. MANY MORE ARE DYING EVEN TODAY, WAITING TO BE RELIEVED." I gasped.

The elevator door opened as my mother ran out and turned to face the flat. Light shining from within, the sister stood there staring at the fallen body.

Bile rose up my throat. How could someone...? Tears. Voices. Oh god. My mother. I could hear them crying- the sister and my mother. I turned the doorknob and slid through to the outside of the door and tiptoed to the stairs. I couldn't see anything with the tears in my eyes. Once I was at my door, I fumbled to fit my keys into the lock. The door pushed open. The first thing that I saw was my cell phone. I skid on my knees to the ground. There were blood trails on the floor. My knee was bleeding from my fall on the stairs....I had forgotten. The phone turned on...4:15 am. Still dark outside. My breath was heavy. I stood up and ran out, my key forgotten in the lock.

My mother's arms were wrapped around the weeping sister and her voice trying to console the despaired. She felt for the sister....yet didn't know how to feel. A noise. They both looked behind. Nothing.

I slid back into the flat where I was minutes before. Beside me, I heard my mother leave the sister and go back home. My shaking hands could barely take a picture but I tried anyway. I was still crying. All of this had gotten the better of me. One picture of the girl tied to the chair and I left the room without hesitation.

My mother's face whitened as she reached the 14th floor...our door was open. My key was in the lock, my cell phone gone and bloodstains across the floor....I had been there, she knew, and I was hurt.

Out, I bumped into someone. My pulse spiked up. Blue eyes, again...the sister. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? " her voice was sharp but hurt. I didn't say a word. But pushed the door of the next flat open to reveal the bald girl. The sister gasped. I left her in awe and strode past her hiding my tears.

In a few seconds, I was out on the road. I pulled out my cell and looked up - 'CANCER HOSPITALS NEAR ME'