Her Soul

33. being there for her

Riaan was deep in his sleep, his body occupying the left side of the bed. As he liked to sleep in pitch darkness, all the lamps were turned off. His phone which lay beside him on the bed vibrated waking him up from his slumber. He let out a growl and picked up the phone cursing himself for not switching on the silent mode.

He opened his eyes in a slit to see the caller ID, it was Aviana. He clicked the green button with a frustrated sigh. "Do you know what time it is?" His voice was groggy and came off irritated. Well, he was irritated, who liked to be disturbed in their sleep?

"Riaan." Her voice came from the other end.

"Just in case you did not know, people actually sleep at night Aviana." He could feel his sleep slowly receding away from him.

"I am sorry...it's just that, I am at the hospital...never mind, sorry to bother you." She sounded like she had just cried.

He shot up, switching on the bedside lamp, his entire body going rigid and awake. "What? Wait, what happened?" He inquired, alarm coming over his voice.

"There was a fire." A hundred different images of her trapped in a fire filled his mind and he hated each and every one of them.

"I will be there."
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She was leaning against the wall, her cheeks were tears strained. There was soot everywhere on her. He blew out a relieved breath, taking in her uninjured form. Her eyes registered his presence, it was still red from crying.

"What happened?" He asked in the gentlest voice possible after he made her sit.

"I don't know, I woke up and the house was on fire. Mom, she inhaled a lot of smoke, they say she is suffering from acute respiratory syndrome. I have no idea what it is except that it is bad." She explained in a quavering voice, he could tell she was trying to keep it together for her mom but was hardly managing it.

There was absolutely nothing he could do, other than just being there for her. It made him feel helpless. He placed his hand on her back and tried to calm her down. "It's going to be ok." He did not know that. No one did but he said it just for Aviana's sake. "How did the fire start?"

She was leaning forward resting her chin on her Palm. If she bent down a little more, her hair would fall on the floor, sweeping it. "Some short circuit problem or so they say."

Was it a coincidence that within a month she had been in a life or death situation twice? The first time Dash was hurt and now her mother. Riaan knew that the first attack was a deliberately planned one. But what about this one, was this really an accident?

"Where is your new neighbor Ash?" From the way Ash acted towards Aviana, Riaan guessed he liked her. If that was true, shouldn't he be here, trying to help the girl in distress by lending a shoulder to cry on and be the hero?

"I called for him, I guess he was not in his home." When one of the room doors opened, Aviana took off running towards the young female doctor.

Riaan could tell it was good news, Aviana's face just lighted up by two degrees. She returned back to him after a few minutes with a happy face.

She hugged him in a reflex, her arms going around him in a ring. He was surprised by her action at first but later hugged her back, looking down at her. "See, I told you everything was going to be alright."

She broke the hug and looked at the female doctor, who was now skipping through some file. "She's alright and had passed the danger zone but would have to be in observation for a while it seems."

Riaan observed her, noting how tired and drained she was looking. "There is a cafe in the basement. Maybe we should go get you some coffee, you look like crap."