Save Me From the Dark

Chapter 6: Heart Operation

She runs after David, shouting, "wait!" She tries to catch his hand, but he runs away laughing. He left her alone in the dark. She keeps going through the darkness, trying the exit. Then she notices Raphael kneeling in front of the huge statue of Sun. She comes closer to better see his face. She gasps. His hands are covered in blood; his eyes are blurred by tears. He whispers, "Andrea. Help me." "What happened, Raphael? "What can I do?" she asks gently. "Save me from the dark," he says without looking at her. Then he started rumbling like a crazy person, "Look at what I have done. There is blood on my hands. That's all my fault." "Come on, Raphael," she says. "Let's go. Let's leave this wretched place. You don't belong here." "It's too late," he responds and then looks at her for the first time. She wanted to scream because his eyes were as black as the darkness that surrounded them, but she didn't scream. She composes herself and says firmly, "let's go, Raphael, we are leaving this place." She extents him her hand. He takes it, smearing it with blood. She does not show that she is disgusted by the blood. Then she says firmly, " we are leaving." They started walking together to the light at the end of the tunnel. Then...

Andrea opened her eyes. She was in the hotel at which she arrived yesterday in the evening. She peered outside the window. It was raining. She calls her dad. 

"Hey, dad."

"Hi, Andrea. How are you? Did you sleep well? How was your flight?"

"Everything's good, dad. I'm fine. How's mom?"

"She is resting. Her heart operation will be this afternoon."

"What time can I come?"

"You can come at 1."

"Alright. Dad, text me your location, please. Okay?"

"Sure," he said and hung up the phone.

Andrea sighed. It's going to be a stressful day indeed. She did not want to think about what will happen if that heart operation won't work. Adrea looked at her hands; they were trembling. She thought needs to busy herself, or she will go crazy from the stress. She drew out her laptop and textbooks from her bag to study for her first upcoming exam in politics class.

After two hours of studying, she headed to the exit, her head a big box of mixed bric-a-brac. On the way to the lobby on the ground floor, she swung by a cafe to buy a bottle of water. Although she has not eaten since yesterday, any thought of food repelled her because she was extremely nervous and kept thinking about her mom's operation that would happen in a couple of hours. 

Andrea had left the hotel and walked towards the forest that was growing nearby. She wanted to find some solace among the trees, the hills, and the rivulets ruining high and low the hillocks. As she reached the forest, her mind began sailing off the dolorous waters towards deep-pondering and reflection. Taking step by step, listening tentatively to the forest and the rustling of the leaves under her footsteps, she gradually reaches the clearing of the forest. Andrea is looking around: she was alone; her only company were trees and flowers and the moss growing on the trees. She sat on the grass; the wind was gently blowing her hair from behind. She took a deep breath, inhaling the insane amount of oxygen, sensing the smell of the forest, its trees, grass, dry leaves and humid ground. She looked at the dry trunk in front of her; its dark bark was peeling off, resembling an old toothbrush. She drew out a small turquoise notebook from her coat; then, she started writing notes describing the forest as her mind voyaged for other dimensions again. 

*** 

Raphael was sitting in a dim-lit room, the wind was vigorous, blowing the curtains like white sails during a storm. A stack of books was standing on his desk, a black fountain pen between his fingers; he was industriously scribbling down notes from an old, ragged book; its pages frayed and started turning yellow and brown at the corners. On one of the pages of the book, there was a goblet and three stones, under each stone, a riddle or rather a prophecy. 

Under the first stone, a dark ruby stone resembling a heart, it was saying:

A man for whom lying feels like drawing breath

for whom power means everything 

And ready to do and pay anything for it

Shall find the Prince stone. 

Under the next two stones, where should be two prophecies, blank spaces. 

Where is the rest of the text? Wondered Raphael. Maybe it was writing in invisible ink or something? He used a flashlight on his phone to see if you can reveal anything with the light of his phone's flashlight. It did not work. Nothing cropped up on the page. He stroked his hair back. Then he turned the page. On the next page, there was an instruction on how to make an elixir of sorts that would grant you the power and would make you the only supreme leader of their society. They did not have a supreme for more than a hundred years since the goblet was lost, and no one was deemed to be worthy of the position. His father always wanted Raphael to become a leader to make their family even more prominent among the elites. Raphael started reading the text about the elixir. 

To make the Machiavellian elixir that will grant you with the power and knowledge to become the supreme leader of all the members who worshipped the God of Sun, you need to crash the three stones until it's powder then mix it with the blood of the sacrificed man who sinned according to the society's code of sinners. 

At the word sacrifice, Raphael frowned --he did not want to sacrifice anyone for this, even if he was considered as a sinner for them. The sinners to the Sun society were considered people who went against the laws of nature. They considered the people of untraditional orientation such as homosexuals or trans as such people. Therefore, not a single member was known to be such a person. If one is discovered among them, he or she is sacrificed to the God of Sun; then their blood is being poured into the Fountain of Power.

Although Raphael heard about such traditions, he has never seen anyone being sacrificed; his father made sure of it because he thought that Raphael was not ready for that yet. 

***

The timer on Andrea's phone started beeping. She stood up, shaking off the leaves from her coat. Then she headed towards the road to stop a cab to take her to the hospital to see her parents. 

When she arrived, she went right to the chamber where her parents were waiting for the operation. First, she saw her dad, she ran towards him and hugged him. 

"Hi, Dad", said Andrea, still hugging her dad; a couple of tears fell on her cheek; she wiped it off with her sleeve before her mom could see her face. 

"Hi Andrea," responded he. 

"Where is mom?" she asked.

"She is behind this curtain over here", he pointed in the direction of the curtains.

She opened the curtains and saw her mom. She was pale as unprinted snow; a syringe was in her right arm. At that sight, Andrea wanted to start crying, but she did want to upset her mom even more.

"Hi, mom," said Andrea sitting on the bed next to her mom and taking her hand in hers. 

"Hi, Andrea."

"How was your flight, sweetheart? Do you like Prague?" she asked, smiling.

"It was good. Prague looks fascinating. It's truly beautiful. How are you feeling, mom?"

" I'm feeling much better, sunshine. The doctor says that after the operation, I will feel great again. I think that everyone will be fine."

" Sure it will," chimed in Dad. "After this operation, your mother and I decided to travel around the world."

"Oh, really? That's great news, dad," exclaimed Andrea. 

"Where do you want to travel the most, mom?"

"I really want to visit Italy to try their amazing cuisine and visit a couple of galleries and museums."

"We could all travel there during the winter break. What do you think, honey?"

"Absolutely, dad. That would be amazing; I always wanted to visit Italy too."

"Alright, that's settled. We will be spending our holidays in Italy this winter."

" How about Switzerland, dad? We could go ice skiing?" 

"Yeah, why not. We could spend ten days in Italy and then a couple of weeks in Switzerland," he smiled.

They were happily discussing what they are going to be doing in Italy and Switzerland until a nurse came in saying that everything is ready for the operation to begin. 

Andrea looked sadly at her parents.

"Everything will be alright, Andrea," said her mom. She was holding her hand all the time as they were walking down the corridor along with the nurses who moved her mom's stretcher to the operation room. 

"See you after the operation, honey. Everything will be alright. We love you," said dad kissing mom's forehead and slightly squeezing her hand. Then the large wooden doors shut, leaving her and her dad outside. Both were feeling crestfallen and worried.