CHAOS

       Ethan wasn't sure he was not asleep. He must be dreaming, it must be a dream. He stood there in shock, only looking down at Faith as she slipped down from his body, he stared at her with wide eyes. She was looking at him and something like a smile was on her face. 

     "I am dying," she whispered and blood ran down from her the corner of her lips. 

    "No, no, no, please don't say that." 

     "Maybe you should give me my last kiss." 

      "But I don't want to give you a last kiss, I want another first kiss, please stay with me please!" 

      "I love you," she whispered, her voice barely audible.  "I am so sorry." 

      "Stop talking, please, stop talking, I'm begging you." 

     "No, I want to let it all out." Tears ran down the sides of her eyes. "I have watched people fight for me since I was a kid, I have seen people love me with everything in them, putting their lives in front of danger for me. My mom, Joshua, Nora, you... I... I feel it's time to do the same for the ones I love... I love you so much... "

      No, no, no, Faith stay with me, Faith!"  Faith's eyes slowly closed. Ethan hugged her and fell to the floor.  "Ahhhhh!" he cried hugging her tightly to him.  "Ahhhhh!" 

     Douglas who had beaten Noah into an unconscious state called the paramedics. He saw that Ethan has been shattered and wasn't thinking at that moment. He watched as Ethan held Faith crying and he went to where they were lying and touched Faith. 

      "Oh, my God! She is cold!" He didn't know what to do, let me get my car keys," he ran off and stopped almost immediately when he heard the siren in a distance. 

     Charlie walked up to them looking confused. He had seen them left and had wondered where they were going and why that security guard was following them. But he had waited a while and when he didn't see any of them reappear, he followed them down to the playground only to be confronted by two people lying down as if they were dead. One was the security guard he had seen leaving with Ethan, the other was Faith. Why was Ethan crying and hugging her? Why is there blood on her dress? 

      "Oh, my God! Is that, Faith!" he screamed when he got closer.  "What happened here?!" 

    But no one was going to answer him. They have all collapsed with grief. Douglas was on his knees and Ethan was sitting on the floor holding Faith. 

       Nora looked around as she and Danny danced. She didn't see Faith, no Ethan and she smiled. She was sure they were something hitting it off. She put her hands around Danny's neck and leaned closer.  "It's almost coming to an end, babe. Do you see Faith or Ethan anywhere?" 

     "No, I don't, seems they've gone off to work it out," Danny replied. 

      "Don't mind those two, they could barely stay a day without being with each other." 

       "I tell you," Nora said and then they heard the siren. Nora frowned and looked towards, as every other person turned to look too.  "What's going on?" 

      The ambulance drove in quickly and started towards the playground, Followed by police cars. Nora's heart went to Faith and stopped for a while. She clutched her chest. As people began to run helter-skelter at first as the police cars drove in. Nora started going toward the playground and Danny followed her. She saw Charlie coming toward the reception ground, now a few people were also going toward the playground. 

       "Charlie! Charlie!" Nora called and pushed through the crowd. Charlie saw her and walked up to her. 

       "Hey, Nora." Charlie's voice was cracked and Nora could tell that he had cried. 

       "Where is Faith?" She asked, her chest rising up and down. 

        "Seems she's...seems she's..."Charlie trailed off and pointed towards the playground. 

      Nora and Danny hurried towards the playground and Nora saw the paramedics surrounding someone. She rushed over, even as the police blocked the place so that no one would cross. She went. 

       "Sorry, ma'am you will have to stay back." 

       "No, I want to know what's going on!" She looked behind the police and saw Douglas kneeling on the floor his hands were bloody. Another man was lying down farther down the swing. She was confused and was just a step away from going crazy. 

      "He is still!" one of the paramedics yelled. 

    "What happened!" Nora yelled. Danny tried to calm her down but she would be calm. 

      "A woman was shot dead okay," the cop said so that Nora would stay away.  "Stay away, it's a crime scene." 

      "She is my sister!" Nora yelled.  "Let me see my sister!" 

      "We are detecting a very weak pulse, it wasn't there at first, she isn't breathing and the pulse is too weak. I doubt she would make it, one of the paramedics said. "Let's give her all the help we could!" 

       When Nora heard that, she passed out. Danny held her. The paramedics quickly rolled Faith inside and helped Ethan up, his ivory suit was covered in blood. They took Faith's body into the other ambulance and Ethan entered the ambulance with Douglas and they quickly put the oxygen mask over her nose. 

      Ethan and Douglas watched her as the nurse quickly went to work, trying to stabilise her and stop her from bleeding. 

      Mrs Hills went over to Danny and helped him with Nora.  "Here give me the car keys, you bring her forward and I will drive. Danny carried Nora and followed Mrs Hills. 

     The police recovered the gun Noah had used to shoot at Faith. The wedding guests dispersed slowly as the events were over and their hosts were unconscious. 

     A few minutes later, they were in the hospital, the nurses wheeled Faith's body towards the theatre. Ethan and Douglas went after them but when they got to the door of the room, they were held off by some nurses. 

     "Mr Floyd, allow us to help your fiancée." 

   Ethan watched as they wheeled her inside and closed the door. He clutched his mouth and tears welled up in his eyes. 

       Axel and Camelia were in their car driving towards the hospital. Axel kept dialling Ethan but he wasn't answering his phone. 

        "I don't think he would be able to answer any phone calls now. We should go home, we would probably see it in the news tomorrow," Camelia said. 

       "This is unbelievable. What just happened? Who was the other man that lay unconscious?" 

        "Everything would be revealed in the news tomorrow." 

        Danny and Nora's parents had to take Nora to the hospital where she works. Unlike the first time Nora passed out on the news about Faith, she has not woken up and it was getting Danny worried. He sat behind with Nora's head on his lap. His phone rang, he looked at it and saw it was his mom. 

       "Hi, mom," 

        "Daniel, are you okay, is she conscious now?" his mother's voice sounded concerned over the phone. 

       "She is not, she is still unconscious, please get some sleep, alright." 

       "We can't sleep tonight, it's a very terrible thing that happened and I can't sleep knowing that you are out there with your bride who is unconscious." 

       Danny rubbed his head and looked at Nora, who was lying so peaceful beside him.  "We would be fine, we have gotten to the hospital, I will talk to you later, alright." 

        Noah regained his consciousness when the nurses were done cleaning his face. He sat up and realised that his hand was cuffed to the ho bed. He tried to jerk it off but to no avail. He screamed and tried to wriggle out of the bed but he couldn't. Two cops came into the room, one in uniform, the other was without uniform, he just showed his ID to Noah. 

      "Now, you have to behave yourself and cooperate with us," the man in mufti said. 

      The doctors set out to carry out the emergency surgery on Faith. She had lost blood but she still had enough to carry her for the surgery. They set to remove the bullet from her body. Carefully following procedures. The monitor bleeped slowly as her heartbeat raised and fell slowly, not encouraging at all. The doctors were just hoping she survived the surgery, but they would do the best they could to help. 

      In a few minutes, the surgeons were able to extract the bullets from her shoulder blade and her heart. The surgery was going successfully until her heart started to drop rapidly. 

      "No, not a cardiac arrest, get the defibrillator, quick," the doctor said.  It was handed over to him, and he placed it on her chest, giving her the electric shock therapy. 

      Ethan paced about outside the emergency room, he didn't know what to do. He kept praying to God to make her survive it. Douglas just sat on the seat in the waiting area, his elbows placed on his knees and his hands supporting his head. 

      Ethan got agitated as time passed, he kept glancing at his watch. It was hours since they took her in and he had refused to sit down. The door finally opened after a long, long while and Ethan ran over to the doctor, Douglas shot up from the seat. The doctor stared at them for a while. Ethan's heart started to beat rapidly and he thought he would get a heart attack at that moment. 

      "Well, we were able to extract the bullets from her shoulder blades and her heart—the sac surrounding her heart and it's a good thing that it's a .22 calibre bullet which was not shot at a close range. She is still unconscious..."

       "What of the baby?" Ethan asked. 

    The doctor shook his head.  "I'm sorry, we lost the baby, we hope she survives it." 

       "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Ethan exclaimed and hit the nearby wall in frustration as the doctor walked away. Faith was going to hate him forever. Tears ran down his eyes. 

       Douglas went and placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down . Then Douglas' phone began to ring he took it out of his pocket and saw it was Charlie calling. He answered the phone.