Wrapped in Red

Chapter 1

"I'd climb every mountain
And swim every ocean
Just to be with you
And fix what I've broken
Oh, 'cause I need you to see
That you are the reason"

P R E S E N T

'Broken' ,if all the words that ever dwelt on the pages of my journal wage a war against each other to be the singular,space-less string of characters capable of describing my current state of mind, it would be 'Broken'. After all the hypocrisy gained and all the blood shed through the years I thought myself to be truly invincible. I thought, I have lived and aged like the immovable statues of Moai. But today when I saw her, stretched out on the floor , trembling like fins of a dying fish,chest swelling and dropping in desperation for air , fumes heaving through her mouth in coughs and pukes I felt a cold blade shoving through a part of me which I thought was long cremated.

I was in my room,scrolling down articles on amnesia when the cacophony rose next door. I jumped to the window side and saw Nitish running out of the building in a haste. Something told me it was about her. I quickly grabbed my glasses,ran down the stairs and across the street with my heart in my throat. The main door wasn't latched and so I moved in without a knock. I followed the noise and as I paced forward every other sound ceased to my ears creating room for that one looping cadence of a struggle for breath. I moved straight into her room shoving through the little crowd that gathered near the threshold before freezing to a halt. For the sight that laid before my eyes made my heart skip several beats at once.

It was indeed her.I gasped and crashed to the floor picking up her head to my lap. Jane was too sitting on the floor trying to rub the fluid off her face. "Oh my god ,what's wrong with her, whats happening to her ?",I asked shooting up a look at Jane.

She took a moment before she answered, maybe trying to form the right words or just weirded by my sudden intrusion.

"Its one of her attacks. She goes through them pretty often though it has never been for this long before or this strong ",she replied, her voice strangled into sobs. "Nitish has went to get the doctor", she added rubbing her face. She looked genuinely scared which scared me even more.

"Let me call him",I gulped down trying to sublimate. I couldn't panic . Not at that moment when she needed me to be strong. I returned her head to the ground and stood up to dial Nitish .He picked up immediately. "Hey. Did you get the doctor?",my heart was throbbing to break free. I was so so scared for the first time in many years.

"He told me to call the ambulance .I did .They'll reach any moment". My voice didn't surprise him probably because he apprehended my arrival at the centre. I looked over my shoulder once, the phone still pressed to my ear. The tremors had increased and her face was deepening with suffocation. "Please make it fast "I almost bleated the words before disconnecting.

A minute later, the girls shifted her to the bed and Jane moved out to prepare a hospital bag.The heaving had stopped but the tremors were only getting worse. I went to the bed and sat next to her head, moving a hand down her forehead. Every single cell in my body was wanting to crawl out and do something or call someone but I knew that it would be useless. There was only one hospital in the town which was already called and informed. Where better was I supposed to take her than late at night?

I placed a hand on her throat and found it icy cold."She is losing temperature", I said raising her up, making her sit with her back inclined against my shoulder. I rubbed her back and asked a girl to rub her feet. She immediately followed.

"Breath Breath ",I whispered to her and she listened , trying to hold back,to calm down with all her grit, not ready to give up without a good fight,like always.