Friday 30 June 2017

Short Story | Part 4: Trespasser of The Secret Fort

Drops of blood started dripping from her pale, shaky hands. As she continued cutting along the grid of the red paper, she didn't realized the cut on her wrist near her vein until the pain started to sting.

"Ouch!" Aiden frowned and her teeth clenched. She dropped the razor blade she was holding to the floor. It was all smeared with her blood.

She was unafraid with the sight of blood but her anxiety disorder has taken over her. Confused and panicked, but she tried to stand up with the remnant of energy she had to reach her handphone in her bedroom.

"999. What's your emergency?"

"errr I can't move..... fuh..fuh.. and it's hard to breathe." Aiden replied to the emergency operator. Both her eyes rolled to the ceiling as her other hand desperately rubbing against her forehead.

A diamond-looking tear rolled down her cheek, helpless.

"I need help..." her voice was shaky and almost like begging.

Moments later, she passed out before the ambulance came to get her to the hospital.
and the rest was history.

When she woke up in the ward, the doctor came around her bed to tell her that what she just experienced was a symptom of General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which included the muscle tension, headache and raised blood pressure she was having.

Aiden was well-informed of that disorder that has been haunting her since 5 years ago. She was plainly nodding to the words coming out of the doctor's mouth.

To add up to that, the doctor told Aiden that she was also diagnosed with mild brain aneurysm which is enlargement of the wall of an artery that supplies blood to the brain, more specifically, located at the base of the brain called the circle of Willis. If prolong, she might suffer from stroke or subarachnoid hemorrhage. 

"That's new", Aiden replied as she plastered a weak smile to the doctor. She took a quick glance at a bandage around her wrist. The cut wasn't serious, the doctor has informed her earlier but her psychological response to the incident caused her to be warded for at least 2 days in the hospital.  

Somehow, the doctor had a soothing look on her face that comforted Aiden's heart. A little resemblance of her mother.

"We've tried contacting your parents but it wouldn't only take a few minutes for them to reach here from another state. They were madly worried but it's getting late and  it's going to be a long journey for them, Aiden. I told them to come over by this morning."

Aiden nodded as she understood well. The thought of putting even more burden on her parents' shoulder hurt her even more.

"Tell them I'm okay.", she requested under low voice as she shut her eyes close, trying to get a short nap.

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Aiden woke up when every other patient has fallen asleep into dreamland. The ward was in complete silence. She sneaked out of the ward through the second door which is much further to a desk where some of the nurses and staff were dozing off. 

The first thing she saw as she tiptoed along the hallway was a staircase behind an information board that nobody took heed of. It was a narrow staircase made of steel that only a person can climb on it at a time. She took some small steps to the staircase and started climbing on it, barefooted. 

The moon was bright and the night breeze gushed against her skin like a smooth silk. That's when she realized that she was standing at the edge of the building facing the colourful lights of the city. She was dumbfounded, barely breathing at the right tempo as her eyes wildly looking around. Of all things, she was actually afraid of height.

When she regained her courage again, she continued walking along the narrow path in the dark leading to a spot on the rooftop that was shone with light from the moon. As if the spot was an oasis on a desert, she walked slowly to get there, step by step. 

Suddenly, she stopped.

A guy was obviously shaking as he caught sight of her. His eyes were widely open and his body was static. 

Hesitated, Aiden wasn't sure whether to continue walking to where she headed earlier and casually said 'hey' to that guy or to walk back and away from there and further convinced him that what he saw was actually an unhappy and haunted soul who would compensate her revenge with a body of a young man. 

She increased her pace and approached the young man who was already pale faced as he drew his body backwards even more. His brown eyes was almost teary. Aiden felt bad for him. Judging from his measurements, the guy must be 6'1' in height and if he were to stand up in front of her, he would have to crane down his neck in perfect 90 degrees.

But he was still there, hugging himself at one side of the old sofa but this time with a perplexed expression, probably has started digesting the current situation. His clear skin started showing its colour as he immediately jump off the sofa to stand 10 metres away from Aiden.

Once again, Aiden wasn't sure whether to laugh or simply saying sorry to the guy in front of him for appearing out of blue - while laughing.

She chosed the second option as she showed pieces of laugh she couldn't contain from her bashful smile. At the same time, she waited for the stranger in front of him to speak up but she could clearly see how uncomfortable the guy was as he looked into her eyes. He was not angry or even embarrassed, but his expression was too blank that she couldn't interpret what he was thinking.

"You're not supposed to be here. Ever", he finally spoke up.

"Again, I'm sorry but I was just walking around for fresh air and ..."

"You can get fresh air from other places but not here", he cut off. 

Aiden startled. "Okay.. but may I know why are you here? Are you a doctor in this hospital? Oh and what should I call you?", she continued.

"None of that matters." The guys replied as he raised is eyebrows looking at Aiden from head to toe. "And you shouldn't sneak out of the ward at this hour. Why don't you stop causing troubles here and head back to your bed."

'This guy is too good-looking to become so grumpy', Aiden thought as she kept it silence in her mind. She wasn't sure about the last word that the guy said as her mind was temporarily swayed so she stood still and stared at him for a good few seconds.

"Your bed. Now. I insist"

"Oh.. Okay..", she was finally knocked back to her sense and in seconds, she turned around and started walking back to the path she took earlier heading to one destination that we all know. As she walked, she could feel a sharp gaze tailing her along the way.



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