~It will always be a mystery
to me how we can't forget
the love that forgot us.
-JmStorm

"How long Vincent?" I questioned him staring out the window. He wasn't going to reply if he lay there lifeless. "Tell me how long you're going to leave me: a week, two weeks, maybe a month. It's been that fucking long since you left me" I held my hands to my face crying. I never thought it would be this hard. Now I know how he felt all those times I lay lifeless in the hospital bed and the eight years that I stayed away from you. It's suffering. I can't withstand it anymore.

"You've gone, and this time for so long. I still don't believe that this is the end. You know, it is so hard to see a person that you love to go to another world. It is so hard for me to turn and not see you behind me, but it's faith." I don't want this. This can't be how it ends.

"I wish that you were here just to tell you things I couldn't tell you; tell you that I love you, tell you that I'll never forget you, tell you that I'll always see you in the stars at night, tell you that I miss you, but you won't try. You're not fighting to wake up, at least do it for the twins please." I begged in some way to allow him to wake up.

The nurse entered the room without slowing her stride at all. One moment she was in the corridor, her eyes dead ahead, and the next she was grabbing Vincent's hand to take a pulse. In this exchange, she neither made eye contact nor spoke; even if he was not awake, I know he was aware of how someone was handling him like he was nothing, as if he was no longer qualified as a person at all. "Be gentle will you, he's still alive," I glanced up at the ceiling to trap the tears that were ready to fall.

The nurse's face was like an overstored apple, round, full, yet crinkled worse than a brown paper bag after all the candy was gone. Her eyes were small, mean, bereft of any make-up, and she smelt of detergent. She made a clicking noise with her tongue before pursuing her withered lips, finally hiding her yellow teeth and cutting off the smell of garlic.

A few hours ago, my stomach growled. Now it is silent. I'm past the growling point. I feel a sinking emptiness, but strangely, I don't feel exactly hungry. I just feel empty, like a part of me is gone and I need to get it back. I'm tired and can't focus. My throat is dry and sore; every lungful of hot hair robs more water from my body. There is a pain at the back of my head that threatens to grow into a powerful migraine, a sure sign that dehydration isn't far away. I run my finger around the glass as if slicing the top off and watch the transparent "blood" drip onto the pristine mirrored table below.

I stared at the surface of the clear water sleeping in the cup. A loud boom came from down the hallway. The water jumped clear out of the glass. Another boom and another jump. The next time the water jumped, the glass tipped and spilled across the table, and onto my dress. I sighed and went to the bathroom.

My hands tremble and my eyes water as I reach my hand towards the doorknob. Something was behind there and it was anything but good. My body feels hot and sweat starts trickling down my neck. I gripped it tightly and twisted it. With every move I make, I get more and more terrified. My breath quickens as I hear the creaking of the door. Suddenly, everything is silent and behind the door is just darkness.

I know I heard the sound of a glass breaking and footsteps. I shook off the feeling and walked over to the light, turning it on. What I saw made my blood boil. All the anger surged through my veins.

"What the fuck are you doing?" The nurse dropped the syringe. She went pale seeing me. Her eyes went wide. Her eyes and her mouth were frozen wide open in an expression of stunned surprise, and although she was staring straight at me, she appeared not to notice me at all. "Mam I-" she stutters, looking down at the syringe, but I stopped her in mid-sentence.

"Did I stutter when I spoke to you? I'm sure that I didn't. Did I now? Now I'm going to ask you again, what the fuck were you doing to my husband?" Her comment was so out of character, so far from what I knew of her, she just stared at me open-mouthed. She seemed to formulate no thoughts other than to register that she was shocked. She closed her mouth. "There's no need to speak. I'll take care of this."

"Guards!" I shouted. It only took them a minute to reach up the flight of stairs, bursting through the doors. "Take her away!" I did not even think twice because I knew what I saw, and it was clearly showing that she tried to drug him. She was trying to kill him.

I clenched and unclenched my hand. I was trying so hard to keep myself from punching this woman in the face. She laughed at me before leaving the room. It was all Sarah's deed to kill him. Somehow she knew he wouldn't die, and just to finish off the job, she sent someone to finish her dirty work.

Can this day get any worse?

*****************************

"You can't just not eat or drink anything. Do you want to freaking die?" Tina grabs my arms, shaking me uncontrollably. "You can't- you can't do this to us, to your children. You've sent them away to their grandmother, so she doesn't see when you're acting all crazy. You can't do this to us." It was like my brain was completely shut down because I refused to say anything.

"So, you're just going to sit there and not say anything when you know he's up there lying in a coma, and you're not paying attention to your children, you're sending them away, you're being crazy, you're not eating, and not doing anything. How do you expect him to come back when you're being like this? Tell me goddammit!" I never expected her words to hurt me so much. It felt like a thousand knives just pierced through my heart. I can feel the hot tears already welling up in my eyes. I look at her, and I can tell she regrets every word she said, but we both know her words are the truth. Even if I want to deny the facts and fight about them, in the end, they are still true.

"I know you can't do anything to help him, but please snap out of this. He's not dead. You should know Vincent. He never loses, and giving up on you doesn't exist for him. I'm taking Vince and Venice to my place for a couple of days. Don't worry, they'll be okay. Mason is there." Tina was my only friend, and I couldn't ask for another like her. I was behaving like it was impossible for him to wake up. I just couldn't handle each passing day that he was not here to hold me or tell me everything was going to be fine.

I only ask for one thing, and it's for you to return him to me.