True Love

Chapter 6

Raiden was drawing in his sketchbook in the living room while Lisa and their long-time friend Anthony watched a movie. They were all waiting for Jasmine to come back.

“Raiden baby, the food is cold now. How long do we have to wait?” It’s been an hour, I’m just going to eat now.” Lisa whined.

“I’ve been wondering where she is. I thought maybe she needed some time because of some stuff she’s going through. But maybe I should check on her.” Raiden looked towards the door in worry.

“I’m sure she’s fine. I swear it’s always Jasmine this, Jasmine that.” Lisa groaned. She started taking food out and was eating. Both Raiden and Anthony stared at her in shock.

“What is your problem? This isn’t the first time you have complained about her. She has been your best friend for years. What changed?” Raiden asked, shaking his head at her. Raiden didn’t understand what was going on. Lisa started to act weird, not only to him, but he saw how she treated Jasmine differently since she had been back in her life. He remembered a time when all Lisa talked about was Jasmine. He wasn’t sure what changed.

“I grew up Raiden.” Lisa crossed her arms, staring at Raiden. Anthony looked between the two confused, since he hadn’t met Jasmine yet. He wasn’t around when they all met at the club City Limits.

“Hardly…” Raiden was interrupted when Dontae limped in from the open back door.

“OMG Dontae! What happened?” Raiden ran to him noticing Dontae was limping and had red marks on his body. “Where is Jasmine?” Dontae barked when he said her name.

“Jasmine… Anthony, call for an ambulance. I’m going to go check on her.” Raiden ran to his car, not waiting.

When he got to the house, he noticed the door was open. As he got inside, he saw the rope where he assumed Dontae was tied up. As he walked further into the house, he looked down, noticing the rug was soaking wet, and he heard the water was running in the bathroom.

He ran into the bathroom and saw Jasmine in the tub and her skin had a soft blue and pale color to it from the cold water. The water was spilling over the top and Raiden stared at her in shock, when she moaned it shook him out of his trance. He turned off the water and pulled the plug. He ran to the closet and took a handful of towels. He turned and finally noticed the water was red.

“Sh*t Jasmine, what happened?” He laid the towels down and reached in to grab her, when he touched her arm she started screaming; a bone chilling scream.

“Baby, it’s me Raiden. I’m here to help you.” Once she heard his voice, she called down and opened her eyes a bit. He reached in again and picked her up. Hearing her whimper in pain broke his heart.

He wrapped her in towels and held her closely to him. “Jasmine baby look at me. Talk to me please.” He heard nothing and tried to feel her pulse but didn’t feel anything.

He grabbed her closer and cried into her hair and whispered her name. Just then, Anthony ran in with the cops and the paramedics in tow.

“OMG is she alive?” Anthony asked, his eyes going wide.

“I don’t know.” Raiden cried, still clutching Jasmine to his chest.

“Sir, we must see her and take her to the hospital.” One of the paramedics said. They reached for her as Raiden let her go. He backed up with tears in his eyes. The paramedic checked on her and found a faint pulse and said as much. “She has a pulse, but it’s very slow and very faint. We must rush her to the hospital, or we will lose her.”

Raiden got up and didn’t notice he was wet and covered in blood until he saw Anthony and Lisa from afar staring at him. Lisa looked serious, staring at him and also looking around the bathroom while Anthony gaped at him.

“What…oh it’s Jasmine’s blood.” Raiden looked down at his body.

“Please follow us in your car if you want. You sir, come with us in the ambulance, if she wakes up she will find someone she knows.” Mentioning to Raiden.

As they finally got to the hospital, they immediately went into the emergency room and a nurse directed everyone to a waiting room. The three of them sat in silence. “I have to call Draco…” Raiden took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair while he dialed his brother. After several rings, Raiden was just about to hang up when Draco finally picked up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Draco…I have to talk to you, and it’s pretty serious.”

“Baby, who is that? Come back to bed.” Raiden heard in the background.

“What the f*ck was that Draco?”

“Oh nothing…” Draco cleared his throat, and you could hear him moving around.

“What do you mean nothing…who was that?” Raiden yelled through the phone. He couldn’t believe his brother. Here is his girlfriend that he claims to love; in the hospital fighting for her life, and he’s out of the country cheating on her.

“Raiden, what do you want? Why did you call?” Draco asked aggressively, he didn’t want to be bothered and have to deal with his brother when he had a beautiful woman waiting for him in bed.

“What I want to know is why is it you’re f*cking someone else while your girlfriend is in the hospital barely hanging on. She was brutally beaten and probably r*ped and here you are not being faithful and being a cheating a*shole!” Raiden yelled into the phone, ignoring the stare of Anthony and Lisa. Luckily, they were alone in the waiting room.

“What! Are you serious? Is she okay?”

“No Draco, she isn’t okay.” Raiden started pacing between the chairs. He looked over at Anthony and watched him shake his head, he looked angry for them and finding out his best friend was cheating. Raiden looked over at Lisa, and she was just staring at the wall.

“Draco, get you’re a*s over here, you are needed here…leave your wh*re and tell boss what’s going on. Yelling over the phone isn’t going to get Jasmine better. We will deal with you and your stupidity later.” Raiden hanged up the phone and dropped onto a chair. He placed his head in his hands not wanting to look at anyone. He couldn't believe his brother stupidity.

“What the f*ck is going on?” Anthony said lowly. Not really expecting an answer.

Lisa reached over and placed a hand on Raiden’s shoulder. As she made contact, he shot up from the chair and went to talk to the nurse and ask about Jasmine.

“We just got notice now that they are putting her in a recovery room, and the doctor will be on his way to talk to you.” The nurse said, looking over her notes on the computer.

“Thank you.” Raiden walked back into the waiting room and paced around.

Some time later the Doctor walked in. “Are you the family of Jasmie Rodriquez?” The doctor asked.

“Yes.” Raiden said without hesitation. He was nervous to hear what the doctor had to say considering the look on his face.

“Well, she’s not doing so well. Several ribs are broken, her eyes are swollen. She has stitches on her brow, lip, and back of her head. Some stitches on her body from deep cuts. The word wh*re was carved on her chest, but it didn’t need stitching, hopefully it will heal and not scar. She has bruising and knife wounds over 80% of her body. One lung partially collapsed. Her vocal cords and throat were damaged. She has internal damage since there were signs of r*pe. And unfortunately, since she was severely beaten, she is in a coma. We did a scan and there is swelling in her brain. The coma should help relieve that, but it’s also dangerous because we do not know the extent of damage she will have. It’s a waiting game now. I’m sorry.”

Raiden just stood there in shock taking everything in.

“Can we see her?” Anthony asked.

“Sure, it might help if she hears familiar voices. Please follow me. We just moved her to an ICU room so you can’t stay for too long.” The doctor said, turning around and walking down the hall.