Nightfall ✓

Chapter 31

• chapter thirty-one •

I woke again at late afternoon. I felt much better than I had before. The blinds were drawn, but just by looking at the way the sunlight was falling on the floor through the blinds, I could tell. I had always been able to tell what time of the day it was because the morning sun was soft, and the afternoon sun was harsher, brighter. My nurse was sitting on a chair in a corner, going through a medical file. She smiled at me. "You must be hungry again."

"Yeah. But I need to use the toilet first."

She helped me walk to the toilet. When I was done, she sponged my face with a wet towel, freshening me up. I was given coleslaw sandwiches for lunch. I ate with my good hand. "It's pretty boring to be in a hospital."

"What can I do to make it interesting for you? Should I get you a book?"

"Yeah, I'd love that." I read The Girl On The Train for half an hour before deciding it was too depressing. I needed something happy. Plus, my one arm was tired of holding the book. My eyes were hurting too. I put it down and idly thought about everything, just to check if my memory was okay. I remembered the accident. I remembered my Skype password. I remembered Sana's Skype password. Seemed like everything was okay.

"I'm bored again," I complained. "Are my friends outside?"

"Yes, I'll call them." She went out and Ash and Zack came in. Ash ran towards me and hugged me carefully, trying not to touch my injured parts. Her face had dried tear tracks.

"Have you been crying?" I asked her, as Zack pulled the nurse's chair next to the bed and sat down on it. He took my hand.

"No," she lied.

"Where's Liam?"

Zack answered. "He's sleeping at home. He was here all night so he was tired." He leaned forward. "Are you feeling better?"

"Much better. I'm so bored, though. Can we play some game?"

"Why don't you sleep a little?"

"I just woke up. I'm sick of sleeping. What time is it?"

Zack looked at his watch. "It's five o'clock." Ash sat on the edge of my bed.

"If he's awake, can I talk to him on the phone for some time?"

Ash looked at Zack, who took out his phone and dialed. He held up the phone to his ear and put it down after a while. "No answer. He's probably still sleeping." There was something weird about the way he was talking. I couldn't remember seeing him so serious before.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at him.

His face was carefully expressionless. "Of course. What would be wrong with me?"

The answer didn't satisfy me much, but I nodded. We chatted about some things. Ash told me the story of some comedy movie she had watched long ago, but her eyes were so emotionless, so devoid of humor, that I got further upset. Plus, she was stumbling in many places; but that was natural, that was normal. I couldn't compare her to Liam, who was the best storyteller I'd ever met. My heart swelled with pride as I thought of that. It was hard to listen to anyone else after listening to him once. I remembered the nights when he'd told me stories he'd written long ago to make me fall asleep. This made me crave his company even more.

Two hours had passed since they'd come in. "Liam would be awake by now, wouldn't he?" I asked.

Zack dialed again. It was so quiet in the room that I could hear a robotic voice on the other end telling him that the number he was dialing was switched off. Zack put down the cell. "He's not picking up, probably still asleep."

"He's not picking up, or the phone is switched off?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Yeah, it's the same thing," Ash said. "His phone is switched off because...he forgot to charge it. And he's still asleep so he can't charge it now, right?"

"Ash, I met him in the morning. It was before sunrise. If he directly went home and slept, which I assume he did, he should be awake by now. Twelve hours have passed."

"He didn't directly go home...we took him to...McDonald's. He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday."

"Yeah, but how long can that take? One hour, at most. He can't sleep for eleven hours."

Zack clenched his jaw. His voice turned rigid, like he was trying not to betray the slighest trace of emotion. "Hazel, when we're telling you that he's at home and sleeping, why do you have to argue with us over that? We are tired already."

That got my attention. He'd called me 'Hazel'. Never in his entire life had he called me anything apart from 'Reddie', except maybe once. What was going on? 

Zack stood up and pulled up Ash with him. "We're going home, but we're just one call away, alright?"

Before I could ask anything else, they kissed my cheek and left. I could do nothing but stare at the ceiling. They were lying about something. I knew that. They were upset about something. It could be a problem between them which was none of my business, and that was probably why they weren't telling me anything. Maybe they'd had a fight. But I knew that wasn't it. The problem had something to do with Liam. That was what my gut feeling said. My heart responded by beating faster. It did that a lot these days. One day it was gonna burst out of its cage. What if the ghost had targeted him while he was alone in our apartment? Nonononono. I shook my head. It wasn't healthy for me to think such thoughts in this condition. All at once, I felt cold despite the warm afternoon. Goosebumps stood on my skin. I had to wrap myself in sheets to calm myself down.

Eventually, I succumbed to sporadic sleep. At around four in the morning, I woke up from a nightmare about Liam, and didn't sleep again. I looked out the window at the streets below, at groggy dog-walkers and at night-club goers in short, revealing clothes. I wished I could see the Brooklyn Bridge from here. I wondered what it would be like to see the sun rise through a visual latticework of suspension cables of the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges.

Zack and Ash came in the morning. "Where's Liam?" I asked, before they could begin the drama of holding my hand and asking how I was feeling and telling me I should rest. They both gave me blank looks. "What the hell? Don't tell me he's still asleep, because I won't believe you. Why didn't he come with you?"

They sat. "Why are you so worried about him? He's not here because he had to go somewhere."

There was no way I could believe that. The guy who'd slept all night on the floor just so he could be there for me when I came round couldn't go anywhere while I was here in this condition. They were lying.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" My brows furrowed together. "Is something wrong?"

"Of course nothing's wrong." Ash squeezed my hand.

"Has something happened to him?"

"No." Zack's lip quivered as he said that.

"What is it?" I asked. "Is he sick? Tell me or I swear I'll kill you both." Zack's eyes were moist and it was driving me nuts. I knew it had to do with Liam. "Has Mary got him?" Their silence was killing me now.

"He's... he's..." A tear fell from his eye. He blinked.

"He's what?" My whole body had gone cold. The blood had frozen in its place. I shook Ashley's arm. "He's what?"

I watched her face crumple and drown in a flood of tears. "Hazel... he's... he's dead." 

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