'I killed a plant once because I gave it too much water. Lord, I worry that love is violence.'
- José Olivarez
The dark sky shimmers with gold as the golden rays of the sun come alive. Dawn breaks through the sky and I lie awake, listening to the sound of the crickets, my cold body slowly leaving this earth.
He shot me, Ezra shot me. He pulled the trigger right after he professed his love, he looked me in the eye, or that's what I assume he did and just fucking shot me. The bullet hit me near my shoulder and the bleeding has continued since the night before. Dizziness has overtaken all other sensations and only one question haunts me, why am I not dead yet.
I had two chances to be set free, yet here I lie, gasping for air, breathing again.
When will this all finally end?
Not yet, it seems. I hear sirens coming from afar, I think they're here to save me. But how do you save a person who loves death? I'm the damsel who loves her distress. The end is far again, it seems, tears fall from my eyes but I feel no emotion. Maybe it's the gut-wrenching pain.
The sirens sound nearer and nearer after each passing second.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" some person asks me out of the blue and hands grab my body, lifting me from the earth. I'm too tired to reply back and I mumble a small yes. A small hand grabs my wrist.
"She has a faint pulse," I hear them say.
"We need to move fast, it seems like she's been lying here for a while. So much blood has left her body," another voice answers the first back, but the sounds seem to be getting fainter and fainter.
"Hurry, put her oxygen mask on, I'll give her an IV drip," the first one answers back and I feel my body being lifted and put on a soft bed.
"Can you hear us? If yes, please say something," the first one says again.
"Stop trying to save me," I say and my consciousness ebbs away little by little and I fade into the darkness, hoping it drowns me forever.
***
I hear voices in my dreamy state. I try to say something but nothing comes out. I lift my fingers with such effort to feel my surroundings. My fingers graze some tubes and the sheets on the bed on which I lie. I hear the sounds of some machines beeping. I try to focus on them more and suddenly, voices fill the room.
It's hard to recognize the owner of the voices and their words come out all jumbled to me. Still, I try and keep my focus on them and things start to make more sense.
"Ma'am we found her near national highway one, it seemed like she had been alive for a while due to which she lost a lot of blood. We're trying our best to save her, please be patient. Luckily the bullet went into her shoulder and didn't even graze her heart," someone says and it's followed by uncontrolled weeping.
"Please, save her," that person sobs and I recognize the voice.
Mom.
"Mom?" I call out but it seems they can't hear me.
"Mom?" I say it again, more loudly this time but I get the same result. I try to scream but my throat's all dried out, and no sound comes out. I feel tears falling from my eyes, hoping they'd notice those but their attention seems to be elsewhere.
The sounds on the machine accelerate at the same rate my own heart picks up its pace.
"I think she's awake, I'll get the doctor," the nurse says and rushes out of the room. I hear mom coming closer to me and calling out my name but I'm unable to answer her back, I've lost my voice. She sits next to where I lay and caresses my hair with her hands.
"Lu? Can you hear me?" my mom says in between sobs and I painfully nod. She bursts into tears that instant and clutches my hand tightly.
"The doctor said there was so much bleeding, you could have died. You could have died Lu!" she says indignantly and stands up, pacing around the room I assume.
"I'm fine," I manage to say this time in a cold raspy voice.
"Fine? LOOK AT YOU LU. You're literally covered in tubes, lying in a hospital bed, barely alive. Fine, she says," my mom says with a huff and I have no words of comfort to offer to her.
"Who shot you?" she asks me after a while.
"Huh?"
"Who shot you? Give me his name, now."
"I don't recall," I say and she scoffs in disbelief.
"Why are you trying to save that person, tell me now, Lu," she says, her voice getting laced with more venom every time she speaks.
"I don't know, okay? Can you please call Miles? I need to speak with him," I tell her in anger.
"Miles can't come, he's busy with some case."
"Just call him and give me the phone, please," I say to her and she hands me the phone. The line rings for a while and he answers on the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Miles?"
"Lu? Oh, thank god," he says and breathes with relief.
"Mom, a minute?" I ask her and she leaves the room.
"It was him, wasn't it?" Miles asks me without missing a beat.
"Yeah, so I got abducted by this cab driver who had some beef with Ezra. The cab driver wanted to shoot me, he literally was about to but then Ezra appears out of nowhere? And he shoots the cab driver, he's dead. The next thing I know he shoots me."
"You got abducted? Were about to get shot? And then shot by your saviour? Are you serious?"
"I'm afraid so," I say and hear his sharp intake of breath.
"Lu, I'm coming over to the hospital and we're gonna discuss this in person. Maybe it's about time we moved you into a safe house. This is all connected to your "accident" and probably Lina's too," he says.
"But what about Ezra? A mere safe house won't stop him, that man is a psychopath and dangerous."
"Oh, that. Yeah, you don't need to worry about him, yesterday night there was a big shootout at Hotel Sheldon, ten people were found dead, he was one of them."
"What?"
"Ezra's dead, Lu."
YOU ARE READING
And I, you
RomanceLuna loses her beloved son in a car accident. They all called it an accident, the 'kind' stranger who helped them, the voices in her head, her almost miracle. But was it?
