SILENCE

       Faith woke up with her stomach on fire and a terrible hangover. She was very restless and she groped for her phone and found it beside her on the bed. She had had a lot to drink last night after Ethan said those things to her. She had gone into the kitchen and hand grabbed a bottle of cold aquavit from her fridge and had gone into her room and had locked herself because she didn't want Ethan to come in and find her drinking. 

       She had drank and cried until she had fallen asleep. Now, her stomach was on fire, coupled with the hangover from hell. She felt nauseous and at the same time tired. She turned in her bed and tossed, clutching her stomach and managed to tap her phone to awaken it. She looked at the time, it was past five in the morning. She managed to crawl out of bed and crawled towards her medicine chest. 

       But she was disappointed to see that her Maalox liquid had finished, but was grateful that the tablet was still available. Her stomach had been calm for so long that she had forgotten to stock her medicine chest. Tears ran down her eyes and she found her hands shaking and her whole body covered in sweat. She tried going to her speed dial to call Nora or Ethan but the phone fell from her hands and slid under the medicine chest. She let out a cry of despair and sat down helplessly on the floor. 

      Her eyes were gradually slipping into unconsciousness. She managed to push herself up. She has to get to the kitchen and get water to swallow the pills. She pushed herself to her feet and staggered out of the room to the living room. It was still dark and she had to grope in the dark so she won't bump into anything. That was when she started to throw up. She tried to hold the doorpost as she staggered, but she was throwing up badly and it splattered on her door and the wall. 

      She vomited liquid on the floor and fell to her knees, but she had to get to the kitchen and get some water since she didn't even have the energy to cry for help. She crawled towards the kitchen, still vomiting. She finally got to the kitchen, opened the door and turned on the light. She looked at the fridge, it seemed so far away, she kept crawling and threw up again, accompanied with coughing, then something caught her eyes, she looked at her nightdress, it was soaked with blood. 

     She looked at her hands, they were bloody. She was not vomiting the alcohol she had last night, she was vomiting blood! Her ulcer has bled! Her heart sank and with that fear, she threw up one more time and crashed to the floor and her whole world stopped. 

       Ethan woke up and looked at the clock, it was a few minutes to seven o'clock. He hated to wake up so early but he had to leave the house even before Faith woke up. He wants to give her the space she wanted, he would leave very early in the morning when she was still asleep and come back late in the night when she must have gone to bed. He didn't trust himself to be around her, he won't be able to ignore her.  He climbed out of bed stretched himself and went into the bathroom to brush. 

      His stomach churned as he brushed and he realized that he didn't eat last night before going to bed. Because he had been mad at Faith. He spat out the foam and rinsed his mouth. He decided to go and grab some breakfast before having his bath since he was so hungry. He wore his night robe, tied it and went out of his room. 

      Faith's room was slightly open and the light from her room gave a faint illumination to the living room. He went and turned on the living room lights and started towards the kitchen, then stopped short. There was blood all over Faith's door and by the adjacent wall. His heart flew and the man that has been stalking them came to his mind. 

         "Jesus, Faith, " he said and rushed towards her room.  A mental picture of the stalker's car came to his mind, and his face, his gaze came to his head as he barged into Faith's room, her toilet, and her closet. 

    He rushed out of the room and that was when he saw the trail of blood. He followed it to the kitchen, the kitchen was a gory sight. The table, the counter, and the floor were all covered with blood. He looked around the kitchen but didn't find her, he peeped under the table and saw her dead body or what seemed like her dead body at the other end of the kitchen, in a pool of her blood. 

      He ran over to her, knelt beside her and shook her frantically, but her body went anywhere it was pushed. She had grown cold and pale.  Ethan hugged her and screamed her name. At that moment, he couldn't think, he didn't even know what to do, he sat down there, held her to his body and wept bitterly. 

        The paramedics and cops were in their apartment in a few minutes. The paramedics attended to the body while the cops fished around for evidence of her injury. The paramedics put her on a stretcher about to take her to the ambulance when Nora barged into the apartment with Danny.  When she saw Faith being taken away on a stretcher, she shrieked and started to fall. Danny held her before she hit the ground and tried to revive her back to consciousness. 

      Ethan sat on one of the sofas fazed. He kept staring at an imaginary distance. The paramedics said that they had just discovered a very weak pulse, but that wasn't a relief as it was getting weaker by the minutes and she had lost so much blood. They had not given him any hope at all and he blamed himself for listening to her last night. If he had not listened to her, if he had not left her to cry alone, she wouldn't have taken that much drink and ended up like this. 

      He even blamed himself for not coming in time to pick her up. She wouldn't have seen Noah. Tears fell from his eyes as he thought of those things and the more he blamed himself, the angrier he got at Noah. The cops had discovered an empty bottle of aquavit in her room and had taken it to test for fingerprints and if there was any substance in the drink. 

      Ethan's fist clenched as he thought of Noah and how he wanted to punch his face until he was dead. He didn't realise he was shading tears until Axel came and sat beside him. Axel placed a hand on his shoulder and he came back to reality. Camelia, Axel's girlfriend sat beside Axel looking at the devastated Ethan, tears had welled up in her own eyes. 

      Ethan blinked away his tears, but they fell on his cheeks inside. Axel shifted closer and patted his shoulder.  Danny was seated on Faith's sofa, still trying to revive Nora.  Ethan wept bitterly on Axel's shoulders. 

       "It's all my fault," he kept saying. 

    One of the men from the paramedics came in and announced that they were about to take her away. 

       "Who is going with us?" he asked. 

      Ethan raised his head and raised his hand. The man from the paramedics nodded. 

       "Get dressed and follow me then." 

       "Get dressed? Am I not dressed already?" 

       The man eyed Ethan's night robe which was stained with blood. But Ethan didn't care, he started going towards the door, but stopped and turned to his friends. 

      "Axel, thank you for coming over, I will call you when everything stabilizes. Danny, when Nora wakes up, could you bring her to the hospital? Her presence might be needed." 

       "Alright," Danny nodded. 

   Ethan shook hands with Axel and Danny and left with the paramedic. Camelia kept her head on Axel's shoulders. 

       "I hope she would be okay." 

      Axel rubbed her arm.  "I hope she would too." 

    Nora stirred and her eyes flared open. She jerked up from her slumber and looked around.  "Where is Faith?!" 

     Danny held her.  "Babe, calm down." 

     "Calm down? Calm down?!" she said as her phone started to ring. 

      Danny managed to make her sit down again and looked at her screen. It was Charlie. She answered. 

        "Hey, Nora, you ain't at the hospital, we have surgery to oversee this morning." 

      Nora didn't say anything, she just burst into tears and Charlie was confused. Danny consoled her as she cried bitterly. 

      "Nora, Nora, what's the problem?" Charlie asked. But Nora kept weeping.  "Nora, are you okay? Where are you right now?" 

     More cry from the phone. Danny took the phone from Nora.  "Hello, Charlie, Faith's ulcer bled, so she won't be able to co me in today." 

        "What?!" Charlie exclaimed.