Distance Away (I)

09:01 P.M. 

San Miguel's Hospital. 

June 21st, the year 2018. Thursday. 

Abbey and Mina came out of the doors of the emergency room. They sulked their shoulders and heads flailing indicating their sadness. Matthew asked about Margo and Mina shook his head. 

"I saw how deep her wound was in the abdomen. It looks like someone who was so in a rage that she could stab her like that," Mina explained and he looked at Abbey. 

Abbey can't explain the letter on Margo's wrist. 

"There was something that was on Margo's wrist earlier. I don't understand the meaning of it," Abbey murmured. They cut deep into her veins and nerves, and there was no way she could survive it. It's damaged, and that explained why she died after she had been brought to the emergency room. 

"The forensic doctor explained that it caused her death. Someone tried to yield the dagger through her nerves," Abbey explained. She looked at Matthew. She stared at Zoey, who was still holding Katrina close to her chest, and sighed.

"It was so funny to think what... what was happening right now... this blaming started with..." Matthew cannot continue what he has to say. He realized Katrina stopped crying and looked up at him. 

"What, Matthew?" Katrina remonstrated, looking straight into his eyes.

Matthew pursed his lips and responded, "I know... what I've got to say right now can hurt you, Katrina." 

"Say it. Say you were siding with Carmela about blaming me I am the killer here," Katrina hissed, and swept her hair. She tucked in the loose strands of her hair behind her ear. It revealed her red, puffy eyes. She sniffed and waited for Matthew to answer. 

"Katrina, don't add fuel to the flame now, please," Zoey whispered. Katrina didn't even listen. Matthew closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"I am... I don't even know what was happening, Katrina," Matthew stammered.

Katrina scoffed and retorted, "Why does it feel you were also blaming me?"

Matthew raised his hands and let it fall on the sides of his hips. He turned his back around to Katrina. He noticed a woman on the far side of the hallway, smashing her shoulder into a person wearing a black hoodie. Matthew neglected it, not knowing that it's Sammy Carbonel, and turned to Katrina again. 

At the same moment, Sammy peeked over the hallway and saw Xian's former best friends. Mina and Abbey were observing Matthew. Zoey patted Katrina's back, and she wondered where Carmela and Marcus were. It would not be the right time to show herself to them. 

"Katrina, we all know and talk sense to you about the time you got drunk because of Tristan, right? And you confess you said those words to her! And worse, you said that you didn't regret it, Katrina!" Matthew snapped. Sammy heard it in the corner hallway. She tried to slip on the hallway carefully, but her cell phone rang. Loud.

The noisy ringtone erupted fast. It made the nurses look at her place. She gasped, leaned her back on the wall, and she observed the cell phone number. It was the same as earlier. 

"I knew that, Matthew! I knew you shouldn't lecture me about that because I don't have the right to take it back!" Katrina stood up and yelled back. Mina heard the ringtone, his sixth sense awoke. He turned his head to that hallway. Mina thought someone was observing them. 

When Matthew wanted to talk back, Mina grabbed his shoulder and shushed him. Everyone stopped from what they were doing and turned to them. He put his finger on his lip, motioning for them to keep quiet. 

They all mouthed a question, and Mina spat, "Be quiet, you all."

They did what Mina told them to do. He still heard the loud ringtone, and he walked towards it. Sammy's heart beat louder as she scrambled for her cell phone. She swiped the end button, breathing a sigh of relief. Mina halted, puzzled why it stopped. 

Sammy turned to the other side and put her phone in her right ear. Mina sprinted on the hallway and averted his eyes. 

He saw a middle-aged woman, her hair was pony-tailed low. Mina observed what she was doing, and he furrowed his eyebrows. The woman was talking on her phone. Mina's wrong this time. 

When he decided to go back to his friends, something caught his eye. Someone was standing on the glass door outside of the emergency room hallway. He squinted his eyes. 

Mina stood there, observing the person. Why was he standing there so erect with his back facing the door?

Sammy got puzzled by the undecipherable and muffled voice on the other end of the line. It was repeating what it was saying. 

"Hello? Hello?" 

"Margo is dead. Margo is dead. Margo is dead," the caller said repetitively. It made Sammy look up, and lay her cell phone down. The caller sounded similar to a maniac, which frightened her. She declined the call immediately.

Sammy stuffed her cell phone into her pockets as she swallowed and composed herself. She turned on her heel and took one step. Sammy decided to go back to her son's room, setting aside Margo's frozen body. As she walked a few paces, she bumped into someone. 

She looked up and widened her eyes when she saw Dominador. Mina stared at her and was so surprised Xian's mother was standing in front of him. 

Mina was wearing a simple cream sweater and jeans. His hair was untidy, it looked like he went out of the house in a haste. 

"Aunt Sammy," Mina burst out. Sammy rubbed her hands together, darting her eyes everywhere. She knew about the tragic ending of the relationship between Carmela and Xian. How her son became a stranger after he cheated on his ex-girlfriend. 

"Mina, hi. It's been a long time since I saw you," Sammy responded. Her heart skipped a beat still, not turning back to normal. 

"Why... Oh, I remember why you are here, Aunt Sammy," Mina muttered and scratched the back of his neck. Sammy chuckled a bit and averted her eyes towards Mina again.

"How's Xian doing? Is he well now?" Mina asked, looking towards the person wearing the black hoodie outside of the glass door. Sammy looked over there and furrowed her eyebrows, too. she realized it was the one who she bumped into and shrugged. She must have been smoking outside of the emergency room. 

Sammy nodded and responded, "He's doing well now. Well, after he went to Margo's place earlier. His arm was on a recovery state earlier, but, if it weren't for the fall on Margo's house, he would be alright." 

Mina nodded slowly and muttered, "Margo..." 

Sammy pretended she knew nothing and sadly said, "I think the two of them couldn't be back together since... Xian made a mistake again." 

Mina stared right through Sammy's eyes and said, "Yeah, Aunt Sammy, it was." 

Sammy looked down as Mina scrutinized the person outside. He was still there, not moving an inch, and Mina narrowed his eyes towards there. Sammy also stared at what he was looking at and got startled when her cell phone vibrated again. Mina looked over at her and realized that the loud music he had been observing earlier was coming from her.

... 

Matthew, Abbey, Katrina, and Zoey were watching over and observing who Mina was talking to. Matthew widened his eyes when he saw a glimpse of the person wearing a black hoodie over the glass door outside. It wasn't facing them, but he felt the fearful feeling coming from the insides when he first saw it. 

'Margo was dead, so, if that wasn't Katrina, who killed her?' Matthew asked in his thoughts as he looked over at Katrina. 

... 

Sammy answered the call quickly. Mina skeptically walked through the glass door as he saw the person was talking on the cell phone. He opened the glass door and held his shoulders. 

Sammy heard the same thing. She ended it sooner. She panted as she slowly looked over at the four people standing by the doors of the emergency room. 

Mina gripped the person's shoulders and faced him. He was so surprised at what he saw.