"I shot Detective Park." Haseena interrupts and all of a sudden, her voice is the only sound that echoes in the room. No one responds to the statement. No one dares enough. James and Aanya act like they are pushed off the cliff and freefalling into the rocky shore. They are shocked and are about to lose their minds.
However, none of those expression is shown from the lawyer. He stares at Haseena for a few seconds more before shifting them back to the papers on his laps. "You need a sleep, Miss Haseena. Your memories might align better when you get a good night sleep."
"I don't need a sleep." Haseena gets a little aggressive and shoves the cushion she has been holding to the couch. She faces towards her lawyer; hoping she can prove to him that what she has said is nothing but the truth. "I know what I said. I know what I saw. I know what I did."
"I've got the crime scene description from the first responders and they said it looked like the two officers got into a fight with each other. Firearms were found next to them. Kidnapping went wrong." Her lawyer reads from what he has pulled many strings to get his hands on. "So without any further information or lab results, the information you've just shared will be just a mixed-up memory you have, Miss Haseena, and for your own sake, you shouldn't say that to anyone again."
"Hmm." James breaks his silence although confusion is still consuming him entirely. He shakes his head and waves his phone where he has just read a text on. "Detective Singh has just come out of surgery. She is in ICU."
Haseena doesn't wait a second more when she springs up on her feet and makes her way past everyone in the room. She has a place to be and she has to be there now.
"Haseena." Aanya tries to stop her but that's all she can do; try to stop her. Haseena's mind is set and when she grabs Aanya's car key from the hook by the door, she is not turning back.
"Don't follow me." Haseena stops James when he is also up on his feet and about to take a step towards her. James does exactly what he was told and stands his ground to watch Haseena stump out the door.
"Would you mind describing their relationship to me?" The lawyer asks as he opens the lid to his expensive pen. He has just spotted a big spot that needs to be hidden or cleaned. Either way, it is not going to turn out great.
Haseena walks through the hallways to the elevator that will take her to the ICU floor. Some eyes land on her and some lips whisper her name. She is being recognized but at this point, none of that matters to her anymore. All that matter is Karishma. She wants to see with her own eyes that she is breathing and she wants to say with her own lips that she wants her to come back. The date that Karishma didn't exactly agree to is waiting and she needs her to pull through.
As soon as she steps into the elevator, another individual rushes her steps and makes it right before the door slides shut. She smiles politely at her elevator-ride company who has long dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. Her tan skin shines sparkly as she moves away from the panel without pressing another button. They are riding together and it seems like they are heading to the same floor. Haseena doesn't take much interest in her as she strokes her hair back and sighs lightly. Once the elevator opens again at her destination, the tan-skin girl leaves first. She leaves and takes a swift turn to the right while Haseena's eyes land on a couple officers who stand guard in front of the glass-window room. As she tries to process the sight before her, she is pulled. She is suddenly pulled away from the elevator and away from anyone's sight into the small storage room nearby. After the door is shut, the light is on and her mind gets to process the act, that dark hair girl with great skin appears before her eyes.
"Haseena, correct?" The girl asks and quickly steps away to give Haseena some space. She didn't mean to scare her or make she feels threaten so she immediately retreats. She can only guess what she has been through and she put her on another situation that can easily be too much for her.
Haseena nods and tries to calm herself down from the rushing breath and the racing heart. The girl in front of her clearly presents no threat but her mind is still lingering the thought of what happened. The wound is still too fresh to touch or mess with.
"I'm Angela Maria. I was Karishma's partner when she was with patrol." Officer Maria introduces herself calmly and warmly with a smile that hopefully will take Haseena's worries away.
Haseena places her hand on her forehead as the name rings the bell in her head so loud; too loud. Karishma mentioned this name and she has no choice but to trust her from here on out. "Karishma said I should ask you for help."
Officer Maria nods. She is about to explain something but that something seems to be hard to be put into words. When she heard about this whole thing at the station earlier, she couldn't bring herself to believe the tale that has been told. There is no reason for Karishma to plot such a plan on such a girl she broke into this ridiculous smile when she talked about her. Something is terribly wrong and she could only guess that Karishma would need her help. "I don't know the whole story but I can bet with my life that Karishma wouldn't just shoot Brian without any reasons -"
"She-"
"No." Officer Maria interrupts Haseena. "As soon as they wake up, there will be interrogations and from what I can see, things are not very well in Karishma's favor. I will be questioned as her former partner and if I know exactly what happened, I won't be able to fully vouch for her. Karishma will lose a person who can confirm her liability. Have you been to Karishma's apartment?"
Haseena nods.
"Did you stay the night?"
Haseena nods again.
"Great." Officer Maria hands Haseena the key fob to the main gate along with the key to Karishma's apartment. "There is an undercover following you around now. So make yourself as present in Karishma's life as possible. They are not searching her place right away. They are waiting for your statement. It might be easier to get Karishma out of the alleged kidnapper if it appears that both of you are involved for quite a period of time. That will throw all the dirt back to Brian. I'll see what I can do on my part. Can you do yours?"
"Yes." Haseena whispers so low that her confidence doesn't shine through as it used to. "Will Karishma be okay?"
"Of course." Officer Maria breaks into a gentle smile that is obviously fake but somehow it is comforting at the moment. "Now, you go in first and I'll walk in. We'll introduce ourselves like none of this has happened, okay?"
"Okay." Haseena is about to leave when her feet are grounded and her face is turned to the cop again. "Jabba-"
"Jabbs is with me. He is with his brother. You don't have to worry." Officer Maria smiles kindly before getting a gentle nod from Haseena.
It is not the easiest thing to see; Karishma laying there with tubes and machines hooking on her. The breathy sound of the oxygen machine and the beeping sounds of several machines flood the air. They act like they are the best sound of music there is but music should be pleasant to the ears; not this miserable. Haseena slides her hand into Karishma's and caresses her light brown hair off her face. The wound by her eyebrow is stitched up but the bruise on her cheek starts to make its appearance along with other bruises on her body. Her right arm is in a sling that will help heal the severe gunshot wound on her shoulder. It must be very painful. It must be very hard to wake up to the unbearable pain. Haseena's heart is shattered just thinking about it. Somehow, she feels so responsible for all of this. Somehow, she thinks there must have been a way to avoid all of this.
It's been a while and Officer Maria fails to enter the room. Once Haseena realizes that and gets her mind on the matter at hand, she starts to look for her. Then, the off-duty female officer is seen across the nurses' station. She is standing in front of another glass-wall room with a doctor next to her. There are also a few uniform officers standing guard just like there are a few in front of Karishma's. She takes her wildest guess before staring so attentively. She takes her wildest guess before the figure behind the glass-wall window is blurry seen. He is as hooked with all sort of machines as Karishma. He is as unconscious as Karishma. That's where Brian Park is.
"Hi." Officer Maria finally reaches Karishma's room with her fainted smile and her greeting that has been prepared. She glances at the officers in front of the door before extending her hand at Haseena. She is playing her role so well that maybe she deserves some awards. "You are Haseena Malik?"
"Yes." Haseena shakes the hand and quickly pulls it back to cross her chest.
"Nice meeting you."
"You too." Haseena glances at Karishma who is still very much rely on the machine just to take a breath. Her heart is beating but it is so weak that it is impossible to say for how long.
"I've talked to the doctors. Both of them have done great in the surgeries. Brian... is a bit better. Karishma didn't get the medical care she needed fast enough and it seemed she was stalled by something in her system. But. They believe that she will pull through." Officer Maria explains and makes sure that the important information gets through to Haseena. She also makes sure that she sprinkles a little uplifting thing in there; to lift Haseena's spirit up and to answer more directly on the 'will Karishma be okay?' question.
"That's great to hear." Haseena whispers before using her thumb to caress Karishma's hand one last time. She has a place to be and a thing to do. She has to make sure that when Karishma wakes up, the physical pain she is bearing is the only pain she needs to face. "I'm... going to go. I have... Hmm."
"Right." Officer Maria watches Haseena press a kiss on Karishma's forehead and caresses her face before taking off. Then, she takes Haseena's spot with her arms crossing her chest. She sighs and smiles. "You'll definitely be kicking yourself in the butt if you keep playing dead and let someone like that go."
……..
Karishma touches her face and rubs the back of her hand as if something or someone has touched it although she is sitting on the couch with her mom at another end and her dad at the armchair. They watch her doing so with the answer that is waiting to be told if the question is asked. However, Karishma doesn't seem to raise anything as she keeps watching whatever it is on the TV.
"Are you alright, sweetheart?" Her mom looks up from her knitting. "Something's bothering you?"
"Yeah. No. I just felt like something touching me."
"Ha." Her dad exclaims and doesn't say anything more to elaborate that. He flips the page on his newspaper and crosses his legs comfortably. He even kicks his foot a bit something Karishma also likes to do.
"Ah." Karishma throws her head back and whines. She covers her face and mumbles through her fingers. "It's Haseena, isn't it? What is she doing? Do we have something like a magical mirror to look at the happenings in the human world?"
Her mom giggles at her daughter. "You watch too many movies."
"Then how do you guys know about Haseena?" Karishma argues.
"We watch over you." Her dad says as he puts away the newspaper and leans towards her. "We don't have that magical mirror, beanie. We're just with you and we'll always be... That's what we do."
"And we'll get to be together again when the time is right." Her mom reaches and grabs Karishma's hand. This time around; although Karishma sees the hand on top of hers, she can't feel the warmth or the presence of it at all. It is fainting away. It starts to feel like an illusion that is gradually replaced by a reality. "Right now, you just have to live the life you have... and you should live it for us as well."
Karishma sighs so deeply through her mouth as her tears start to form. She doesn't want to leave this place; wherever it is, it fills with everything she has sought for. However, she wants to go back to the life she wants to leave behind. Haseena is there; possibly running around doing things she shouldn't do and feeling things she shouldn't feel as usual.
"You asked her to do something that would keep her awake at night. You know exactly how that feels. Don't leave her go through that without being by her side. We didn't raise you to be like that."
"Yeah." Karishma wipes her tears from both eyes before they pour like waterfalls. "Damn it, she still tries to mess with me even I'm trying to die. This girl."
"Watch your language, Karishma."
"Could you..." Karishma takes her deep breath and lets it out through her mouth as she tries to hold her tears. "...watch over her also?"
"Of course." Her mom says with the warm smile of the proud mother.
"Alright then." Karishma slaps her own thighs before taking a stand. Her mind is finally made up. She has no other choices. "Where is the Hogwarts Express?"
_________
This story is really high on drama🤣
Take care
Bye'll