Chapter Five
1284 Words
Chapter 5
Alice pov
I tried opening my eyes, but the light was blinding. Where was I? I tried to move back, and I felt my entire body ache.
Images of what happened started flashing in my head. I finally opened my eyes, blinking countless times before my vision became clear.
I looked around. The beeping from the monitor was consistent aI was in the hospital.
I pressed my hand on my stomach. My baby... Those people who attacked me had hit my stomach so hard. I just hoped my child was okay.
The doctor walked in, a smile on her face.
"You’re awake."
"Wh...at..." My throat felt dry. I could barely speak.
"Calm down, Alice. You're safe."
"My... baby..." I clutched my stomach. The doctor's expression dropped.
"We're so sorry, Alice. The beating was too much, and your body couldn't handle it. You lost the baby."
"No... no..." The tears rushed down my cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Miss Alice, but you need rest so you can get better. You've been unconscious for four days now."
Whatever she was saying didn’t matter to me anymore I had lost the child.
Everything happened so fast. The way those men came at me... I begged them, because of my baby, but they didn’t listen. I kept sobbing uncontrollably.
I stayed in the room alone. Days passed quickly, and with each day that went by, I was getting better physically but I was broken inside.
I just sat on my bed, staring blankly at the wall. I was going to be a mom. Even though I wasn’t ready, I wanted to have my baby.
Why was the universe so cruel?
The food they brought remained untouched. Nurses came and went, checking vitals, changing IVs, murmuring soft words I barely registered. Their voices sounded distant, like I was underwater drowning in silence.
Sometimes I’d feel the warmth of the sun creeping through the curtains, reminding me the world outside was still moving. But mine had stopped and stood still.
The memories wouldn’t leave me alone. I kept hearing their voices, those cruel laughs, the way they showed no mercy even when I screamed, “I’m pregnant!”
They didn’t care.
They wanted to hurt me and they succeeded.
They say the loss of a child comes with an unexplainable pain, I didn't understand that until now.
The hospital bed felt like a cage. I couldn't sleep. I couldn’t cry anymore either. I was hollow and the emptiness never went away.
On the sixth day, a nurse with kind eyes entered. Her name tag read Lena. She didn’t say much. She just pulled a chair beside me and sat in silence. I didn’t look at her, but I could feel her there.
After a while, she whispered, “Do you want someone to talk to?”
I shook my head.
She didn’t push. She just reached out and gently placed a small bracelet on my bedside table. It was made of simple beads.
“For strength,” she said softly. “When you're ready.”
And before she left I heard her say from the door“ there's someone that always comes to check up on you, he spents hours before he leaves, I'll let him know you are awake".
I didn't respond, and she walked out the door.
That night, I stared at the bracelet for hours. It wasn’t much but it was something. And in a strange way, it reminded me that I was still here.
The nurse's words echoed in my head. Dean should have heard: I lost the baby. So why was he still coming to see me? Did he care? Of course he did.
I sat on my bed, barely had enough sleep. I was plagued with nightmares of those men I kept reliving that moment over and over again.
The door to my room opened, and he walked in, his presence commanding the room as usual. But his expectations had fallen.
“Alice,” he said my name almost like a whisper.
He walked toward me and sat on the bed. His eyes carried so much sadness it was clear I wasn't the only one going through this.
He took my hands in his. “How are you feeling?”
“I... I...” I tried to form a sentence.
“Shhh,” he placed one hand on my lips, “it's okay.”
“I promise, whoever did this will pay.”
I rested one hand on my stomach as the tears rushed out again.
His thumb gently wiped them away.
“Thank you...” The words came out so faintly, I wasn't sure he heard them but he did.
“The hospital called, said you woke up. I was so worried. I'm sorry, Alice. I should have come earlier. If I’d been there... none of this would have happened.”
“I just wish I stayed inside. Why did I have to go out?”
“The... baby,” I said in a low voice.
“I know,” he replied, his voice carrying a sad edge to it.
A heavy silence fell between us, the kind that didn’t need to be filled with words. It spoke louder than anything either of us could say.
Dean’s grip on my hands tightened slightly, not enough to hurt, but enough to anchor me. His presence alone brought a strange kind of comfort, even though everything inside me felt broken.
We sat for a while, then his voice cut through the silence.
“I have to go.”
“Stay,” I gave him a pleading look.
“Hey, look at me. I’ll be back, okay? I promise.”
I just gave him a slight nod before he stood up and headed to the door. He gave me one last look before opening it and just like that, he was gone. And I was left alone once again.
I sat back on the bed. I heard a faint voice outside my door. Was Dean still around? I gently got out of bed and walked to the door, but I didn’t open it. It sounded like he was on the phone, so I just leaned my ear against the door.
He sounded angry.
“This wasn’t the plan. She wasn’t supposed to survive. You had one job and you failed.”
Wait... what? Was Dean behind everything? No, that wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be.
“We’ll have to find another way to get rid of her,” his voice came again.
I didn’t realize when I fell to the ground. I was the one he was talking about. This was all his plan. He never wanted the baby.
I wanted to scream. My chest ached as the tears rushed out uncontrollably. I placed a hand over my mouth as I sat on the floor.
I crawled across the floor until I reached the bed.
My phone on the table buzzed. I couldn’t even bring myself to look at it. I just kept repeating: Dean was responsible.
When I finally managed to check my phone, it was an alert—one million dollars from an unknown account.
A message appeared:
Leave town and don’t look back. If not, you won’t live to tell the tale.
I cried silently. Why was Dean doing this to me? I wiped my tears and got up. I stood still for a few minutes before walking out of my room.
I made my way out of the hospital without anyone noticing I was gone. And before anyone would notice, I would be out of town.
My destination? A place where no one knew me.
I was never coming back to this place.
- Writer
