Untitled Episode18
900 Words
James' eyes were filled with tears, his heart was pounding. People were asking him questions all around him. What happened? How are things going? But James couldn't seem to hear anything.
He was holding the car handle tightly, his body shaking. Yet, there was only one prayer in his mind. I just want Sofia to live… I want to be by her side…
His fear, hope, and love merged into one strange feeling. In that moment, amidst all the uncertainties of life, James wanted to believe in only one thing. Love was not over yet.
The taxi pulled up in front of the hospital. Even before the door opened, James's chest was pounding. It was as if he had lost control of his body.
As soon as he opened the door and stepped outside, he felt as if the world had suddenly changed. Everything was the same, yet everything was so unfamiliar.
As soon as he got out of the taxi, he rushed to the emergency department. The hospital corridors smelled of strong antiseptic, nurses and doctors were running around, and helpless people were waiting.
All in all, there was a strange air of terror. James's eyes were darting around restlessly, as if he were searching for Sophia in every face.
Suddenly he stopped a nurse. His throat was shaking, breathing became heavy. He said with difficulty, he said.
“The woman who was just brought in for an accident… where is she?”
The nurse looked at her with a sympathetic look and quickly said,
“She has been taken to the emergency department. The doctors are treating her now.”
After hearing this answer, James couldn't move for a moment. He went to stand in front of the door. On the other side of the door, the busyness of the doctors was moving like shadows.
The occasional sound of machinery, the hurried orders, all combined to create an invisible battle going on inside. James's chest was pounding. His hands were shaking, his lips were going dry.
Time seemed to have stopped. The hands of the clock were not moving, only his fear and uncertainty were increasing.
After a while, the door slowly opened. A doctor came out.
James suddenly came back to life. He hurried forward and said in a trembling voice,
“Doctor… how is he?”
The doctor was silent for a moment. There was a kind of weariness and seriousness in his eyes. Then he said slowly,
“We are trying to save him…”
He didn't say anything else after that. But that incomplete sentence seemed to say it all. James's head spun. He leaned against the wall. His lips were trembling, tears were silently flowing from his eyes.
There was only one thing on his mind....
"Sophia... nothing will happen to you... you can't leave me..."
A deep silence fell in the hospital corridor.
Suddenly, an ambulance siren blared in the distance. The sound made his chest feel even heavier. He sat down quietly in a corner.
Every moment spent with Sophia began to come flooding back to his mind. The first meeting, the little smiles, the afternoons spent together, and countless dreams.
Her lips quivering, she whispered,
“Sophia…”
Just then the doctor came back to her. He slowly put his hand on her shoulder and said,
“I’m sorry…”
These two words struck James like a bolt of lightning. Everything before his eyes blurred. The world seemed to stop for an instant.
He burst into tears. He felt like everything was over. The meaning of life, the dreams of the future. Everything seemed to have been wiped away in an instant.
After a while, he stomped his feet and stood in front of the glass wall of the ICU. Inside, Sophia lay. Strangely calm, as if in a deep sleep. No pain, no suffering, just silence.
James stared. Tears welled in his eyes, but no more words. He didn't know if this was a farewell or a miraculous return.
Finally, he slowly turned around and walked out of the hospital. When he got outside, he saw an ambulance parked in front of the emergency room.
Some workers were carrying another girl on a stretcher. Her face was so burned it was hard to look at. James looked away.
All around us is that rush, that anxiety. The struggle between life and death is constantly going on here. One loses, the other fights.
James started walking forward without thinking.
But at that moment, inside the ICU, Sophia's condition suddenly changed.
The monitor's sound began to fluctuate rapidly....
Tick… tick… tick…
The doctors rushed in again.
“Hurry! Check the pressure!”
“Increase the oxygen!”
A desperate attempt began again.
Sophia's life hangs by a thread. A little twist and turn could end it all.
One of the doctors went outside to look for James. But he was nowhere to be found.
Then the police officer present there, who was investigating the accident, saw the ID card found in Sophia's bag and gave her the name of the legal guardian.
The doctor immediately said to the nurse,
“Tell him quickly… he needs it now.”
Meanwhile, James was walking down the street. He felt like everything inside him was collapsing.
Yet, a voice deep in his mind kept saying....
"Sophia, stay alive... You can't leave me..."
- Writer
