CHAPTER 82
TWO MONTHS LATER
Kaelith focused his attention carefully on the picture in his hand, slowly analyzing each detail captured within it, memorizing it.
His face remained void of any noticeable emotion, leaving his inner sentiments hidden from his friend’s eyes.
However, Lorcan despite this, managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of longing and despair that momentarily flickered across Kaelith’s dark eyes.
It was an invisible twitch of his jaw and a subtle clenching of his fist that Kaelith was attempting to hide.
Lorcan instinctively lowered his gaze, avoiding direct eye contact with him, before repeating his previous words.
A bouquet of soft pink peonies was on his lap. The one he'd never forget to bring.
“Doctors said we can shift her…”
He started looking pitifully at Kaelith. The man destroyed Francis and Abigail in days, and his brother behind bars, but couldn’t save his destination.
“She’ll come back, right?” Kaelith mumbled caressing the picture in hand. It was of them, as children.
“Of course…” Lorcan’s throat tightened at the disheveled state of his friend. Tousled hair, unshaved face, eye bags and teary eyes. What love has made a man?
“What’s taking her so long? Does she not see how much I miss her?”
“Give her time,”
“I’m afraid I can't wait any longer. She… does not love me,”
Lorcan was about to say something when the commotion happened. “Emergency! Room 1297! Call Doctor!”
Kaelith felt his heart pounding loudly in anticipation. Her hands shook as he instinctively grabbed onto the bouquet and rushed to her medical room as he crossed the hallway to the room. He almost tripped over the floor several times if it wasn't for Lorcan holding him.
The moment he entered the room, several people stood in front—doctors, nurses... Kaelith didn't have time to process before he rushed inside the room. His eyes wavered and his heart sank with each step.
“Blood pressure is high! Give her Diuretics!” The nurses rushed from one side to the other.
“What’s happening?” Lorcan asked with panic. Kaelith stilled.
Please god, let her be alive. Please god, I'll do anything. Just let her be alive. He prayed side-stepping the nurse as his breathing quickened. Please god, I'll leave everything behind. I'll never—
His breath hitched as his eyes widened and the hose around his neck tightened. He stumbled a step back, and then another till he was pressed against the wall. The peonies slipped through his hand, falling on the floor with a soft thud that echoed in his chest.
"We are losing her!" The doctor’s rough voice echoed in the room as Lorcan looked nervously at the Kaelith.
Shocked and stunned Kaelith let out a choked breath.
She cannot leave him... he won't let her.
"Amara..." Her hooded gaze swayed upon Kaelith, her eyes slowly wandering across his face, her chest rising up and down.
It should have evoked relief, an overwhelming joy, but alas, all that resonated within him was an icy tinge of sorrow and anguish.
The way she looked at him seemed as if she was looking at him for the last time.
With every attempt to move closer, Kaelith could feel the fragments of his heart splintering into a myriad of pieces.
After two months she opened her eyes.
Amara’s heart monitor beeped as her heart rate increased and the doctor panicked. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" The doctor tapered her IV as he injected some clear liquid into the IV.
Yet her eyes did not leave Kaelith. He for once couldn't read her, he couldn't recognise her. She looked like a stranger, someone he didn't know. As if...she was not the Amara he loved, but the Amara he lost.
As if...was going away.
As the wind weaved its schemes, the world felt like a co-conspirator in his grief. Even the raindrops refused to offer solace, joining the chorus of torment. Every drop seemed to beg for relief, every breath a burden. He couldn't breathe. Didn't want to.
Kaelith stood frozen, his mind a whirlwind of emotions. The sight of her lying there, so fragile and distant, shattered something deep within him. He wanted to reach out, to hold her hand, to whisper words of reassurance and love, but the fear of losing her paralyzed him.
Lorcan's hand on his shoulder grounded him momentarily, offering a semblance of support in the chaos. But Kaelith felt like he was drowning in a sea of uncertainty and despair.
The medical team worked frantically around her, their urgency accentuating the gravity of the situation. Kaelith felt a knot tighten in his chest with each passing second, the dread of losing her consuming him whole.
"Please, don't leave me," he whispered shaking his head as tears streamed down his face, his voice barely audible.
Everything became a haunting melody, reminding him of what once was.
She was the melody, the light that illuminated his darkest nights, while he was but a shadow, a mere reflection of her radiance.
Her absence left him adrift in a sea of darkness, longing for the warmth of her presence. If only he could become her essence, her very being, to once again feel whole. But he knew deep down that he was but an illusion, a figment of her memory fading with each passing breath.
But her gaze remained on him taking slow deep breaths, as if she was trapped in a world of her own. Kaelith felt a pang of helplessness grip him as he watched her slip further away.
Desperation surged through him, fueling his tenacity to fight for her. With trembling hands, he reached out to her, his touch gentle yet desperate.
"Amara, please," he pleaded, his voice cracking with emotion. "Don't leave me, baby. I need you.”
But as the seconds stretched, he realized that the battle he was fighting might already be lost. And in that moment of heart-wrenching realization, he felt his world crumble around him.
Amidst the chaos, he stood there, consumed by grief and regret. He realized that some losses were too great to bear, and some wounds too deep to heal.
As her tears fell like raindrops on a parched land, Amara's hand trembled in Kaelith's grasp. "I'm here, Amara. I won't leave you," Kaelith whispered, his voice choked with emotion.
Amara's lips quivered, but no words escaped. Instead, she reached out to touch his cheek, her touch a gentle caress amidst the chaos. “I love… you.” She whispered.
"I love you too," Kaelith murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.
Amara's eyes like pools of sorrow and love met his, and for a fleeting moment, they shared unspoken words—a silent vow to cherish each precious moment they had together.
But as the steady beep of the heart monitor filled the room, a sense of finality settled over them like a heavy shroud. "Live... for me." She whispered her lips wobbling as she admired him for one last time. These eyes, she'd miss them. Oh, heavens let her have these memories of him for a
little longer.
"No," Kaelith breathed, his voice a desperate plea against the inevitable. A moment or two. That's how long he wanted this world to stop so that he could cry, just so he could look at her, admire her, cherish her. But even ages were not enough.
Amara looked at him and tried to smile, yet she couldn’t. The oxygen mask scrapped against her face as she drew in a strained breath. She knew her time was close, but she prayed the god to give her some minutes with her, moments with him, breaths with him… time with him.
Amara's emotions swirl like a turbulent sea. Acceptance brought a quiet calm, while fear loomed like a gathering storm. Memories flickered like distant stars, and reflections on life's journey stirred her soul. Amidst it all, a sense of longing whispered.
She could see his face, torn with tears and sorrows. “Kae…Kaelith…”
Her chest tightened and she drew in another shaky breath.
“I… I…”
She wanted to say but instead, tears rolled down her cheeks. Her hand on his cheeks trembled.
Kaelith grabbed her wrist.
“Please, no, no, no! Don’t leave me!” he pleaded.
"Come back to me, Amara. Even as a nightmare."
He swallowed hard his voice breaking his dark eyes lifted ever so slightly Amara flinched as the lone tear rolled down his cheek softly landing on her hand as her fingers shook.
"Even as a memory. But, please come back to me."
So close yet he felt so far. His heart pounding loudly in his ears.
The sound of his heartbreaking echoed through the room, a cruel dance of pain and loss that threatened to consume him whole.
In some other life, in some other world, where she was not Amara, and he was not Kaelith. Where she was his as much as he was hers. Where their souls were moulded in one soul, he wished to meet her there, at the horizon, at the bottom of the sea, at the top of the skies.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
A sharp, violent shrill exploded through the room.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP—
“No!” Kaelith roared.
Something primal tore from his throat as he lurched forward, nearly climbing onto the hospital bed.
“AMARA!”
Doctors rushed in.
“Hold him back!”
Lorcan grabbed him around the torso just as Kaelith nearly ripped the IV lines from her arms.
“Kaelith!”
“LET ME GO!” he snarled, fighting like a man possessed. “She’s scared! She hates being alone!”
His chest heaved violently. Tears blurred his vision.
“She promised me…” His knees nearly buckled. “She promised…”
The doctors surrounded her.
“Clear!”
Her body jolted as they electrocuted her. Nothing. There was simply nothing.
“Again!”
“Clear!”
Another violent jolt and still nothing.
Kaelith stopped fighting.
Stopped breathing.
Stopped existing.
His hollow eyes stared at her lifeless body.
His lips parted. But no sound came.
Nothing.
Absolutely and literally nothing he could do.
He'd follow her.
He'd follow her to whatever hell had claimed her.
BEEP.
“Wait—”
BEEP.
Another.
Then another.
The doctor’s head snapped toward the monitor. His eyes widened.
“No… no way…” Another doctor looked at the screen, then at Amara, then back again.
“…Holy heavens.”