•Word Count: 2,355
Open up! A spoonful of drama coming up!
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What is it with me and these residual feelings of guilt and regret ?
Guilt for being the person to push Aurick into the hurricane of nostalgia and regret for my inability to keep my unwelcome comments to myself.
I wish I could take my words back but I know I can't.
I wish Aurick's wife never died.
I wish my parents never disappeared.
I wish I wasn't this stubborn to acknowledge their disappearance for what it really is.
Ironically, my wish list would easily create a measuring tape that stretches across the galaxy.
What is not ironic, however, is that my own galaxy comprises a system of tragedies, making distress adhesively cling to my life the way skin adheres to our flesh.
I hope -at least- since they caught on to the confusion I was feeling, they would notice the deep regret I'm currently feeling because I would hate to come out as callous.
"It's alright sweet child," Frau Marlene assures me.
No, it's not alright. I need to learn to be more perceptive and more so considerate.
I'm still wallowing in a gruesome blend of sympathy and remorse over Aurick's loss and his reliving it when the sound of distant footsteps growing heavier indicate someone's descending the stairs.
We all turn to see the figure that appears at the top of the last flight of stairs, but I can't afford to look at Aurick so I'm quick to shift my gaze.
The sound of leather being swished and moved suggests Aurick grabbing his coat, followed by the sound of his keys rattling, which is the loudest sound in the house, all thanks to the still silent living room.
"I'll be in the car," Aurick says, his voice carrying so much sorrow that it grates the ear, before the sound of the front door closing introduces a new episode of silence.
It's almost difficult to stand up from the couch with this amount of remorse weighing me down, and my feet almost drag over to Frau Marlene to take a now asleep Élise from between her arms before muttering a diverted "I'll see you later"
Opening the front door brings with it a whoosh of biting wind that makes me adjust Élise's blanket over my shoulder, before walking into it and towards Aurick's car.
Somehow, the closer I get to the car, the colder I get.
His abrupt change of demeanour brought by the love he held for a woman makes my heart ache for him.
What twists the knife of sympathy inside me is the fact that he's still wearing his wedding ring as if the partner wearing the matching ring isn't buried underneath the ground he walks on.
As soon as my door shuts, he starts the car and drives down the street, in a disturbingly silent ride.
Well, silent is how a third party would refer to it.
But for me, I can hear my conscience yelling at me, telling me I should have been more considerate, I shouldn't have mentioned his wedding ring.
That, since a wife hasn't been introduced into the picture nor has been mentioned, means she no longer exists.
Would it have killed you to keep your words to yourself?
Also, the air around Aurick ripples with waves of heartbreak, and that alone can cause deafness if it were a sound.
I can't help the guilt I feel, "I'm sorry,"
He sighs, "It's not your fault"
The frown his face sports compels me to retain the silence, despite his toneless yet softly spoken words. It's easier to sense than to describe what goes inside his head.
When the car takes the last turn towards our neighbourhood, I straighten up from my slump in the seat, eager to leave the suffocation in the car's atmosphere.
Disregarding the commotion from 3 months ago right here when I was attacked by 6 men, I've always found this neighbourhood quite monotonous and almost unpopulated.
Especially during daytime, where families are tucked inside their houses either enjoying a meal, watching TV, or spending some quality time together, and workforces exhausting themselves away at work.
So, when we pass by the local park and witness a black car screeching its halt, with its backseat door being opened, and an eerily familiar brunette being tossed carelessly into the grass by the park, I'm not only shocked but also alarmed.
The backseat door of the car slams shut and it zooms off in a dangerous speed, and only then do I notice that Aurick's car has slowed down to an almost stop.
When I look over at him to see his brows drawn together, I know he noticed the bizarrely disturbing unfoldment too.
He flicks the right blinker and slowly drives alongside the park's driveway, before putting on the brakes and idling the car.
Wearing matching looks of confusion and concern, Aurick and I both disembark the car in a hurry, me having to take longer strides and eventually resorting to a jog to catch up to him.
"Oh my God," I hear myself whispering, stunned at the sight before me.
In the dirty bed of grass, a brutally bruised brunette lays sideways, unconscious. Her brown hair concealing her face.
Supporting Élise with one arm, I bring my other hand to my mouth, catching my hot breaths, in a shocked and equally mortified move.
The poor girl.
Then, everything changes. Everything changes when Aurick bends down to flip the girl over
The whole world around me shifts, my feet threaten to give out, and my rapidly beating heart vows to stop at any second if the pressure doesn't ease.
My throat goes dry and an especially large lump takes lodge in my throat, threatening to choke me.
In spite of the numerous bruises marring her face -her very beautiful face- that almost render her unrecognisable, I would easily tell Clara out among a thousand faces.
My eye twitches and my chest begins to rise and fall as I drop to the floor, my legs, true their threat, giving out completely. Even in this haze of fainting inclination, I will myself to hold on to Élise tighter, afraid I might actually loose consciousness and drop her.
And I cry. I cry because it's the first thing that comes to my mind when I look at her, at someone that could potentially be my next loss.
"Clara ?" I call out to her, my voice especially hoarse. She doesn't move.
A remote sense of terror urges me to look closely at her chest, gauging a movement, which thankfully appears in faint rises and falls.
For a second, I have no idea how to react as I sit there next to my unconscious best friend, the closest to family I have made in the past few months, with a sound asleep Élise on my shoulder, and a frozen Aurick standing by my side.
Aurick!
I turn around to look at him; his blanched, stiff, and almost non breathing figure registering as nothing more than an aftereffect of shock.
"Aurick can you call an ambulance ?"
He continues to stare at Clara, his irises trembling.
"We need to call an ambulance,"
His wide eyes rake over her whole form, but that's the only movement he makes.
"Aurick!"
The volume of my voice visibly snaps him out of his shock, and he recovers with a blink as he finally looks at me.
He stares at me for a few seconds with a devoid expression, before he shakes his head slowly. He then swallows, raking both his hands through his hair, fisting the mass painfully.
"No" He whispers, shaking his head in apparent disbelief.
"It can't be," He says this more to himself, as he begins pacing, back and forth.
"She..." He snaps, pointing at Clara, "she's not real," He says with a shake of his head.
My brows draw close. What is he talking about ?
"No, no," He repeats, shaking his head and rapidly running his hands up and down his face.
Then, his whole face contorts in a way that suggests he's in pain, before his hands tug at his hair one more time and he turns around muttering a string of incoherency.
He ignores my calling for him as I hear the sound of an engine roaring and tyres squealing before the passing silhouette of Aurick's car passes us by, leaving behind a noisy silence that echoes throughout the neighbourhood.
He left. He left us here.
Being alone heightens the horribleness of the whole situation.
I will myself to push the hurt of Aurick's abandonment to the back of my head, refusing to waste precious brain energy on a lost cause.
I need to do something. I have to do something.
Fuelled by the horror, I hold Élise closer with one arm and support myself with the other, gathering myself and standing up on shaky legs.
Now what ?
My eyes inadvertently travel to my Clara, the sight of her bruised form shakes, before her whole being disappears behind the blur of my vision.
With a resuscitating shake of my head, I grip Élise, if possible, tighter, and head for the park's exit, well aware that screaming for help wouldn't serve me but rather scare Élise out of the peacefulness of her slumber.
For all I know this neighbourhood is relatively unpopulated, if the lasting desolateness that Clara and I pointed out on different occasions was anything to go by.
Once outside, the clenching of my fist flexes my forearm muscles under Élise, and I support her head with my other hand to steady her as I run in the direction of our house.
Having reached the alleyway, I'm surprised to find myself still breathing properly. The after-effects of both the shock and the alarm are still in effect, rendering my corporeal capabilities exhaustive.
One of the two men permanently posted here, runs to my side, holding both his hands out in a show of help on standby.
With a prominent frown, he walks past me, to peer at my house's -closed- door, and when he returns to my side, he makes no effort to hide his bafflement.
He's shocked at my standing before him, puzzling over the absence of a door opening and closing.
And I understand in that second that he doesn't know I have snuck my way out earlier.
"How can we help you, ma'am?" The other man asks in broken English, rounding the rear of the car to join us at its front.
"Clara..." I say, slowly sprawling up the cliff of insanity.
"M-my best friend, Clara.." I don't find the words to say.
My only family is beaten up and is currently sprawled unconscious across the dirt in the park, can you please help her ?
It's what I'm wishing I could say, but the ability to speak handed me its resignation, in the time I need it the most.
The two men exchange a look that's capped by matching frowns, before one of them motions to the other with his head.
One of them moves to my side, and the other runs around the house to check what's wrong, only to come back seconds later empty handed.
"The park.. she's in the park" I say, and the second the words are out, the realisation that help is on the horizon brings back the tears, along with it, an insight into the enormity of the situation.
This time, when my legs give out on me once again, the man by my side is quick to catch me, supporting me with a massive arm -that easily engulfs my whole being- around my shoulder.
At this point, I'm sobbing so hard to the extend that it does what I feared it would -it wakes Élise up.
At first, she only stirs, because I'm being cautious with the amount of sound I'm letting on, but the second she lifts her head off my shoulder and turns to me, her lower lip puckers forward.
Her wide green eyes -a replica of my mother's- shine, and she begins to blink a few times, her pouting mouth letting out introductory whimpers to what I know would be a full-blown cry soon.
"Shh, hey," I whisper, rocking her up and down, but it doesn't help, because she's staring at a tear that rolls down my cheek.
Suddenly, the shrill sound of her cry startles the man who's ushering us into the backseat of the car, and I have to continue rocking her to quieten her.
"Hey, hey, look at me, I'm smiling," I flash her a wide smile that almost brings more tears to my eyes with how much effort I'm putting into it.
She's crying to the point where she's interrupted by her body-jolting hiccups,
"I'm sorry, look," I say, wiping my tears and flashing her another toothy smile, that I hope she buys.
Her cries reduce to whimpers and hiccups at the sight of my smile, and I let out a chuckle for measure, hoping it soothes her. Thankfully, it puts her back to a mere pout.
With a pat to the back of her head, I urge her to lay it back down on my shoulder, but when I spot the man running back with Clara in his hands, I slap my hand against my mouth to stifle the cry.
Her hair swishing around, her hand dangling, and her cheek pressing against her own shoulder, Clara's appearance summons the discomposure, and my shoulders shake with the force of my cries.
Élise joins me shortly after, but this time, I think I'm the one in need of being soothed.
It all happens so fast, the door to the backseat opening, Clara being gently placed in the seat next to me, and the car roaring to life.
The driver waits only until his comrade has embarked the passenger seat before he's driving, with a dangerous speed, onto the main road.
The sound of the car's engine is't enough to drown out my whimpering, Élise's loud cries, and most importantly, my thoughts. My mercilessly calculative thoughts.
Please be okay, Clara. Please.
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The door is opened for guesses!
Let me know what you think about this chapter and the surplus of drama
-Asia