I gave up so quickly.
I heard a voice. For a moment, I thought this was just a bad dream I would wake up from.
“You’re okay,” a male voice said.
I had never heard him before.
Pressure hit my chest. His hands pushed hard against me until water spilled from my mouth.
All I saw was his shadow. All I heard were his words.
“I got you.”
Me?
Just me.
One
AURELIA
“Sad, isn’t it?” a woman said. “A girl so young, with her whole life ahead of her, now just...”
I hear footsteps approaching. Heels. A door squeaks open, and the voice that follows is more familiar than the one from the woman who just spoke.
“Just what?” she asks, in a heavy accent. Russian, if I’m not mistaken.
“Be careful what you say,1devochka.“She exhales. “Any updates?”
“No, ma’am.”
A pause.
“You aren’t useful,” she continued. “You are what we call in my country,2ty prosto pustoye mesto.“
Then she chuckled. “Or in your country,empty space.Go. Be useful somewhere else.”
She sounds angry. At least her voice does. And I know that voice. I can’t bring myself to open my eyes and put a face to it. I try to move my hand, to touch hers, but my body refuses to cooperate with my brain.
What happened to me?
Warm fingers touch my cheek as I hear footsteps leave.
“Aurelia,” her voice is softer now, “you have to wake up,3malyshka.They can’t keep you here anymore.”
A drop falls on my cheek, between her fingers, and she quickly wipes it away. I try to open my eyes again, but it feels like they are stitched together, and no matter how hard I try something holds my eyelids down.
Another set of footsteps walks in. This time they are heavier, and a male voice says, “Oh, Dasha, did you come to pay your final respects?”
I try to open my mouth, but I can’t move it either. My tongue feels glued to plastic that runs down into my lungs, and every breath burns, like the air doesn’t belong to me.
“How can you be so heartless? This is murder,” Dasha says to the man.
“Look at her,” he says, louder now. “No one wants to spend their twenties hooked up to machines.”
His voice drops. “And she’s not even family anymore. We can’t keep paying hospital bills for someone who’s never going to wake up.”
“It’s all about money, always about money. Daniel wouldn’t want this,” she shouts at him.
