LOGINAs his phone rang,the screen lit up with Marcus’s name.Elias glanced at Layla. She was still asleep, her face peaceful for the moment and he wouldn’t want to wake her.He gently lifted his hand from hers, stood up quietly, and walked toward the door.He silenced the phone before it could ring again and slipped out into the hallway, closing the door softly behind him.The hallway was quieter now, the night shift lights low and calm with few chairs lined at the wall.Chloe was sitting there with her mom and Elgin. They had been talking in low voices, trying to process everything they had just learned but when they saw Elias step out, they straightened up immediately.Chloe and her mom sat taller while Elgin shifted in his seat, looking nervous.They all felt the same chill from earlier — that cold, powerful presence.Chloe’s eyes flickered up first as her body stiffened slightly.Her mother followed,then Elgin.They didn’t speak or move. They just watched him move farther from the ward
The hospital had gone quiet in that strange, unnatural way that only comes after chaos. Not peaceful,not calm.Just… muted. Like the walls themselves had absorbed too much pain in one night and didn’t know how to breathe anymore.Inside the ward—The room was quiet except for the soft beeping of the heart monitor beside her bed.Layla was now lulled back to sleep by Elias. She fell asleep. Not the kind of sleep that restores you,not the kind that brings comfort.This was a collapse.Her body had simply given up completely after everything it had carried—shock, grief, terror, loss.Her face looked smaller now against the white pillow. Paler and fragile. Her eyes swollen and red from all the crying while dried tears left tracks on her cheeks.She looked small under the thin hospital blanket, like the weight of the night had crushed her but even in sleep, there was tension in her expression, like her mind refused to fully let go,like she was still fighting something even in dreams.Elias
The house smelled like her mom’s cooking — warm soup and fresh bread.Sunlight poured through the windows.Her mom was in the kitchen, humming softly, stirring a pot.She turned and smiled when she saw Layla.“Baby, you’re home early,” her mom said, wiping her hands on her apron.“Come here,” her mother gestured as she opened her arms and Layla ran to her and hugged her tight. Layla blinked.“…Mom?” Her voice trembled but her mother looked… alive and healthy.“Mom… I missed you so much.”Her mom laughed softly and stroked her hair.“I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”Then her dad walked in from the study.He looked younger, less stressed, the way he used to.He ruffled Layla’s hair like she was still a little girl.“Still causing trouble, kiddo?” he teased.Layla laughed and hugged him too.“Dad…I.” Layla tried to say something but then she saw Nadia leaning against the wall, arms crossed, smirking.“What?” Nadia teased. “Why are you looking at us like that?”Layla’s chest
The world didn’t go black all at once. It cracked first,like glass under pressure. Layla felt it happening—her grip on reality slipping, her body going light, her chest tightening as if the air itself had turned against her. Her chest rose and fell slowly, too slowly as her breath folded. “I’m here, Nadia,” she whispered, voice cracking. “I’m right here. Please don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.” Her legs felt weak. The room started to spin while the bright lights above her head blurred into streaks of white. Her chest tightened like someone was squeezing her heart. She tried to take a deep breath, but it caught in her throat. “Layla?” Elias said softly while hugging her. She didn’t hear him because the world tilted harder. Her knees buckled. “Layla!” She collapsed.Her body went limp on Elias. The last thing she heard now was Elias’s voice. Then everything went black. “Layla! Somebody help!” Elias shouted. He carried her immediately,scooping her into hi
The hospital waiting room smelled like antiseptic and fear. Bright white lights buzzed overhead, too harsh, too cold.Layla sat on the hard plastic chair, her clothes still stained with her mother’s, her father's and sister’s blood.Her hands were red and sticky. She hadn’t washed them.She couldn’t because washing it away would make it feel too real.Nadia was in surgery,in critical condition.Gunshot to the abdomen.The doctors had rushed her in the moment they arrived.Now Layla waited and Chloe sat beside her, still shaking, her hands wrapped in borrowed hospital towels.Both girls stared at the double doors that led to the operating room.Layla’s eyes were swollen and red from crying.She rocked slowly in her seat, arms wrapped around herself.Every few seconds a new sob would escape, quiet and broken.“Mom… Dad…you have to send Nadia back please” she whispered to no one. “Nadia… please…”The pain in her chest felt like someone had ripped her heart out and left a hole.She kept s
Sounds of sirens didn't sound much earlier but Chloe's voice,still screaming faintly upstairs.“Stay with me, Nadia—please! Stay with me!”Her voice cracked, raw and desperate, echoing through the quiet house like a knife.Upstairs, Chloe was now on her knees beside Nadia’s bed, her hands soaked in warm blood. She grabbed towels, shirts, anything she could reach, pressing them hard against the gunshot wound in Nadia’s abdomen but blood kept coming fast.“Don’t you dare close your eyes!” Chloe cried, her voice shaking violently. “You hear me, Nadia? You stay with me! Don’t leave us!”Nadia’s breathing was shallow and weak. Her chest rose and fell in tiny, uneven gasps.Her face had gone pale, almost gray while her eyes fluttered, fighting to stay open.Downstairs, Layla sat on the cold floor, cradling her mother’s lifeless body in her arms.She rocked back and forth slowly, like a child trying to comfort herself.“Mom…” she whispered, her voice small and broken. “Please… wake up. Plea
The question hung in the air inevitably. Nadia didn’t speak because she already knew.Layla closed her eyes slowly while her fingers curled into fists at her sides.Everything had just changed now. The silence didn’t break but stretched in thick and suffocating,heavy enough to press against Layla’s
“Guess it was really a visitor.” Layla said as her eyes moved across the room.And then—She saw her parents sitting on the couch. The look on their faces was a mixture of feelings she couldn't sort out.Layla’s heart dropped.“…Mom?”But there was no response. Her father sat beside her mother,in t
Layla woke again slowly,not the kind of waking where you immediately sit up and rush into the day—This was slow and heavy.Her body felt… warm and comfortable.For a moment, she didn’t even open her eyes. She just lay there, breathing in the quiet,then—Something shifted.A dull ache spread through
After two more rounds of the rough night. The room was now quiet,too quiet for everything that had happened.The curtains were only half drawn, letting in a soft wash of the moonlight that stretched lazily across the bed. It painted everything in warm soft ash light—rumpled sheets, tangled limbs,







