Chapter 79: Chapter 75

Omniscient Narrative

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Her ears picked up the faint rhythmic beeps. Like it was an echo from far land away. Fading in and out as she felt the dryness in her throat. As dry as a parchment left in sun.

The heavy lids felt as if they were glued to each other.

It was dark. She was unconscious as the sense filled her body. And when it finally reached her mind, her eyes snaps open with a soundless gasp, in a speed that left her nauseous.

The steady beeps of her rate monitor collapses, filling the room. Similar to the way the heaves of breath that filled and left her body.

"Clam down Elzi, Its fine. You are safe now" Ian Blakewall was by her side in an instant. Grabbing her frantically trembling hand by her wrist. Carefully not to disturb the IV tapes.

The Girl's struggles to breath and her deranged state of life broke his heart despite him facing many legal trails as a lawyer with cases of immense strategy. He could feel what Elzina was going through.

It was much familiar when she looked so much like her mother Elizabeth. His best friend.

The med faculty barges in and rushes by her side. Some checking on her vitals while the other pressed a painful amount of liquid down her system through lV.

Her vision began blurring into a mush of lazy circles as the ceiling spirals. The little comfort she adapted at the presence of Ian now stirred away as the drugs rushed into her, carried her into a hue of darkness.

Fading in.

Fading out.

But before she could pass out entirely, she willed her lips to ask. A single concerned name broken, raspy and fearful.

"Na-Nathan?"

And then her eyes closed. The last words she heard from Ian being that of utter relief.

"He's fine sweetie. He's okay"

°°

The bright rays from morning sun bathed the White blunt hospital room in such washed and clean whiteness that it almost made Elzina hate the color. Almost.

She was fully awake now. The doctor greeted her this day with good morning instead of pricking her skin with tranquilizers as soon as she opened her eyes after a struggle that new born infants endures.

Metaphorically it was her new life. According to the doctor.

Who had clearly summarized the entirety of the danger she was in, in a nutshell.

A shiver ran down her spine. Chilling and vengeful. Like every single human, she realized the she did feared the death.

The idea of not waking up ever, which once felt a bliss was now a dread.

But what terrified her more the bunch of cleanly strategized questions in her head.

The gaze softly traced over the pattern down her hospital gown. Loose on her body, blue chequered upon soft white fabric.

So much white.

"There you go" the nurse finished up nursing the head wound with a crown of bandage around. The side of her lips wrinkled like brackets as she smiled at the young, beautiful girl in front of her.

But the lifelessness in her grey orbs was worse than a gravestone. She wondered what made her this way. When Elzina lifted her gaze to acknowledge the old lady's help with a nod, something about her made the nurse insecure.

It was intellectuality,

And anger.

A lethal combination. But to the woman, Elzina just looked lethal.

Ian entered the room once she left. The nurse Quite relieved to be out.

"How are you Elzi?" he smiles, nothing about it was natural, formal that's what it was.

"How long" staring at him with little to no consideration to answer his concern. She shoots him with a diverse subject. "How long was I out?"

"Three days" he says, his tone holding not a bit of trepidation. Elzina has been through worse and the way she looked at him now, he knew that the anger had mended her in to something unbreakable.

For the first time, he felt like he was meeting the strong, cold, and a genius billionaire heiress. And not the hopeless teen who would've whined at any chance that confused her.

"Thomas knows that you are fine. I had Mike inform him about it" he adds, fishing out the next possible question that she would have surely demanded him to answer for.

"Inform him?" her voice was like the tip of the spear. Sharp and piercing. Ian by the time knew that she didn't approve of what he did.

"It was for the best, his safety. That he doesn't get to know about you or your whereabouts" Ian's tone were that of experience. The effect of his words lasted longer in silence.

Elzina could only imagine what Alex could do if he didn't got what he wanted.

She just hoped Mike was safe.

"It was my birthday" she spoke again. Ian listened, knowing just how easily she connects it all in spite of the awful situation she had been in. "Someone seems not to be fond of seeing me turn eighteen" she chuckles, sarcasm and bitterness racks the air.

"It doesn't matter. You are safe now" Ian goes and sits on the chair by her side. The same place where Nana had religiously sat waiting for her girl to wake up. But left the morning to rest once Ian insisted her to.

The old woman may be strong in her mind. But not in bones.

"I want to see Alex" looking straight Ahead at the wall she demanded as Ian sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You can't"

"Why?"

"It's not safe for hi-"

"Who are you suspicious about?"

This kills the inline of excuses the Ian had crafted to tame Elzina. The out of blue question by her side. He should've seen this coming.

He wasn't dealing with a normal teenage girl.

Elzina tilts her head, the hair falls by her shoulder In loose curls.

Her face not a veiled emotion anymore. An understanding and shadow that said she have had dedicated nights framing her theory.

Ian at that moment knew he had no way out.

"Why don't you want me to tell Alex about myself despite of him being the closest confidant in near future Ian? Who is your lead?" she blinked, but with each of the second she knew she was getting to him.

"Leo" he finally says it "Leonard White. I can't let him know about you unless I stir his image and my suspicions about him clear"

"When?"

"What?" baffled but composed Ian frowns.

"When can I go back to Stuarts?" pursing her lips she rests her back at the matters which was raised to a slant, half seater position.

"You cannot" she nods raising her brows. As if she expected it. But on the other hand Ian was never more anxious to know what went on the young girl head.

A girl who could go from being the liveliest to soulless in a matter of seconds.

Versatile?

No.

Destructive. She was a beautiful living nightmare.

"Your safety is the top most priority. And after what happened there are questions that your friends would want to know answer for, its best if-"

"If I go invisible for a while" she sights shaking her head with a smile. At the cruel, cruel fate.

She was never the one to blame blood because of a person sins. Such an irony was she wanted Alex to hold her and never leave her side while she aspired to ruin his father if the theory contradicts even a bit to what reality was.

Will Alex hate her for doing so?

He Abused Alex.

But he still is his father.

He loves me.

"I think it's time we take the next step." Ian then proceeds to pull out the file. With sleek black leather cover. He hands it to Elzina, who with grace like a fallen queen, but burning passion of getting back on her throne takes it from him.

Ian offers his pen after she opens the crisp legal document.

When she signed it with the flick of her wrist.

She was aware of what she had done.

Her motions left the trail, inked the corner of the page.

Marked and made her something that she was all along.

It gave her back what was her.

But it felt like a trade. A trade where she was stripped off the life she had built for herself.

And with that, a part of her soul.

When she was done. Elzina didn't return Ian's pen the very instant. Because she had one last thing to do.

°°

The entirety of Stuart could feel it, the academy's chatters and whispers mostly included the disappearance of the feisty student who they disliked with their nonchalance, but somehow they always had this tiny part of themselves that respected her and admired her for her bravery.

She was different and everyone knew it. So unique that even Alexander, the boy who breathed for living began to live for her.

No one knew where she came from, and neither one was aware where she left.

A week had passed and the whispers were now just silence. Especially when one happened to cross path with the clique. They were affected at the most.

Their smile forced, their conversation always trying to ignore the pain that came with her, the spaced out frown as they wondered what actually happened that night.

Lee was the worst. He tried to answer them but realized the ridiculousness of his own words.

He was there, he saw her get hurt, he remembered the tremble he felt as his heart skipped a beat, he realized the way the med carried her and Nathan to the ambulance, and the way he also obeyed when Mike came to him, asking him to leave as soon as he was done with a phone call.

He didn't realized at that time, but now when he thought about it, it was clear. Mike was just taking an order from someone. Mike was freaking out, and Mike was here four nights ago as he emptied Elaine's room. Lee saw, he kept quiet.

Lee was confused, but he also believed that Mike knew better. And Elaine, did Lee even know her?.

Sweet, caring, feisty, and a sarcastic tutor. Sneaking him some of her cookies and treating him with it only if he would learn his subject first.

Blood, guns, and secrets. Who was she that night?

Desensitized and dazed Lee was back in the blocks of Elite that night, there was no one there. Everyone was at the party. And like a ton of frozen bricks it hit him, and that's when he had dialed the one number that needed to know this.

And as for Alex. There was no way he could make his nerves slow down as he drove over to Lee. There was no need to, there was no escape from something that kept him feeling alive enough, but killing him equally.

It was all my fault.

His hands began shaking terribly by the steering wheels as his heart pounded mercilessly.

I should've have never left her.

By the time he ran to Elite, where Lee had informed him where he was. He could barely feel his movements. And when he spotted Lee by the corridor, standing with Edmund,Hailey Riley and Jared who had returned a while ago, with tense atmosphere surrounding them.

His eyes searches for her with vulnerability. So desperate that Edmund took a cautious step towards him when-

"Where is she?" directed towards Lee he walks past a futile Edmund to the Asian boy.

And when his eyes landed on the dried blood by Lee's shoulder, they go wide. His eyes, as his lips quivers opening and closing. His skin turning a shade of dusty pink, flushed with fear.

"Can anybody tell me where she is?" he screams as Riley flinches, Edmund tried to hold him by his shoulder as Lee tears up, helpless to see the deranged and broken state of his friend. Helpless as he answers him with a useless whisper of repeated

"I don't know"

The night following that and numerous failed attempts to call up Mike later, Alex received a lone text from the guy in question. It read

She is fine.

And Alex never hated a person more than Mike before. He even surpassed the scale he had for his father. His hand raises to throw his phone against the wall, but shocked he stops, bringing it back to read the text. He does this for couple more times until it feels real.

This damned phone was the only thing that kept him sane.

Days passed.

He tried his best to track down her whereabouts, food was no where on chart, he couldn't even remember the last time he slept, was it on the car when he went to Summersville?, speaking of it Diana wasn't there, and for Noah, he only knew that Elaine was with his brother and that she was safe. Enough to seal his questions. So many questions draining their consciousness. Wired and thin. Nothing made sense and yet it was there. She didn't want them to find out where she was.

Should he respect her choices?

Heck to it.

Sitting by the greenhouse wooden flooring with his legs crossed and knees pulled up to his chest was Alex. Refusing to talk or be seen by anyone. His room was where he could be the pathetic self he is.

He Eyes the white folded sheet by his side. The one that Mike had knocked by his room last night and handed it over to him.

Mike wasn't taken aback when he saw the bags down Alex's eyes and his unkept hair, or the way his piercing sharp gaze landed on the travel case that was next to where Mike stood. The one that contained her things.

But to his surprise Alex does or asks nothing, he leans his side by the sill and crosses his arms watching Mike.

"How are you?" Mike asks, gathering enough courage as Alex chuckles bitterly. Shaking his as he looks at the ground.

"Great. The best I've ever been" he breaths as sarcasm drips from his tone as he shrugs, Mike silently sighs, there was nothing he could do.

"What are you to her Mike? Why can you be there for her and I cannot?" it was so genuine, as if almost a plead for Mike to reveal his guts. There was no jealousy or jab, just a want of understanding that he already knew he won't receive answers for.

"She wanted me to give you this" he reaches for the letter and hands it Alex, way too fast in action as he wanted to be anywhere but here. He can't even apologize to Riley at this point, except to disappear along with Elzina.

He never thought he would say this, but to him family came first. And Riley will understand once this is all over.

As for Alex, as he left he throws one last glance at him, watches him stare at the letter in hand.

He couldn't make out what went through his head, but he knew that it wasn't good.

For once Alex's anger felt better than what he was now.

Alex hadn't touched it since last night, and even now whenever his gaze would land on it he wanted it to burn it into ashes or shred them to the size of atoms till it disappeared.

That letter was a prove that she wasn't coming back.

For some reason it felt like a closure to his hope.

He searched his jacket for a stock, the cigarettes as he unconsciously realized with a smile with his eyes closed. Ofcourse.

He sat there for an hour more, recalling the moment that took place in this very same room. Where she had confessed to never quit on him.

What was so wrong with him?

And suddenly he began to feel the restlessness, the answer is in those pages.

The next second he found himself holding its crisp edges as he unfolds them.

That was the easiest part, what wasn't was reading it.

I know you must hate me at the moment. So much enough that you might even would have locked me up if you had known I would leave you like this. You must regret not doing so. You must hate me because you know you love me too much.

I do too. I hate myself too.

But don't you dare blame yourself. I began loving myself because I could see it in your eyes that way you loved me. It made me feel the worth I am to you, so if you give up on what you feel, it's going to effect me twice more than you.

So please don't. It wasn't your fault.

The first day in summers high. I remember it as clear as the day. The boy with his hair dyed into the color I adored. Despite of it, you were the complete stranger that in a glace I concluded that we are poles apart.

I could have never be so wrong.

You were there being what you weren't and while I was there denying everything that I was.

But then like a stubborn storm you came in. wanting to be my friend. I saw the struggle Alex. I know how hard I was for you to reveal, when all you ever knew was to hide.

Each day you became someone I couldn't imagine even a day without. And then you became the reflection of mine.

We had the bitter days, we had seen the Cruelty, We have our own share of scars.

We both tried to repel each other. Only to cross path again.

Fall deeper and then deeper in love each day. And today, I don't regret even a second of what we've been through good, bad and destructive.

You made me the girl I am today.

There are times when I don't want to do anything else. But watch you. To see and feel the little things you do when you think I am not aware of it. pack down my stationary when the class ends, add more fries to my plate, kiss my forehead when I would fall asleep during a movie night, glare at Edmund, well not so subtly or the hundreds of times I've caught you smiling at me.

And that smile, is the best thing I wait for in a day to happen.

Only to realize that I don't deserve it.

You always complained that I never ask for anything, that you wish to spoil me with presents. But today I want something. Something big that if you disagree with it, will tear me apart.

I want you to promise me that you will wait, wait for me. Wait till I change. Till I mend the wreck I am. Wait till I become worthy enough for your love. We will meet soon Alex .And on that day there won't be any walls between us. No secrets and no pain. Just us.

Your curiosity rover loves you too much and she's hurting because she knows you are. But she is hopeful, and you are her only hope.

Sucking in a deep needed breath, that he had been holding for so long he gazed ahead. Looking at nothing in particular as the her words houses in his head. In the end it answered him with only one belief. It was healthy, it was positive.

She'll come back. And when she does, she won't leave. He won't let her.

He stayed like that for few more minutes thinking what she would've wanted him to do if she was here.

Immediately he gets on his feet dusting away his jeans as he walked to his closet.

Grabbing the uniform he changes into them, his eyes igniting with slow but determined sparks as he watched himself in the mirror while working on his tie.

Sliding on his backpack he tears open the door to his room as he walks out. The air fresh on his skin, and a small smile as he eyed the door to her room. It may be empty for now, but she'll be back soon.

And when she does, he'll be the same as she had left him.

Then he heads in the direction to attend his first class with just one faith echoing in his mind.

I won't disappoint you.

***