Reborn Heart of Steel

The hospital corridor seemed to me like the home ground base as far as I was concerned. Chase and I were shoulder-to-shoulder as our shoes clicked along the white-tiled floor. It was two weeks since Alessandro was shot and all this time Chase was worried, his guilty conscience tearing him apart. With that thought in mind, it wasn’t difficult to become anxious, yet hopeful as we entered his room again. Trust that today is the day when we will see it. Hope that today one of us will return at least something of what we lost. Terror that we would come back to get him in the same state as we left him the previous day not moving in a coma that we could not penetrate. Chase took my hand in his hand and gave it a firm grip as he led me into the room. Alessandro was, as usual, stretched on the bed connected to many machines with IV lines. The only conceivable movement I saw was the up and down lift of his chest; and this told me that I was observing the real life of this man. Chase cleared his throat and approached the bed, , ‘Hey, Alessandro,’ he whispered. “I have grown a Mustache.” I managed a pale grin at Chase’s attempt at a joke, sitting down in the chair on the other side of the bed. It was almost painful that such a memory appeared in my mind when I held Alessandro’s hand in mine. — This was a time at high school or simply one of those bad days of Lucy’s. She was supposed to walk into high school. Suddenly, I was disoriented, looking for the English class in the labyrinth that was Westbrook High School. I happened to bump into a man while I was rounding a corner and both of us fell on the ground. “Oh god, I am so sorry!” I blurted out, and I frantically began to try and pick up my books from the ground. “Oh, relax,” responded a voice which sounded more cheerful than he did. I raised my head and what I met was a young boy with accented curls and a mischievous smile that enlarged his small face. ‘I bet that the school hired a maze designer to plan this layout”Hi, I am Chase” “Brianne,” I said, smiling at him, and he let out a relieved smile.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

His grin widened. “Actually, I do”, I said, pointing towards the stated direction , “It’s where I am going, Mrs. Patterson’s English class isn’t it?” I gave a nod, and with the signal out of the way, my body was flooded with relief. “That being the case, pretty Brianne,” quipped back Chase in the Cherophytic flamboyant way, “permit me to show you these scheming corridors. ” It took us a few minutes to get to the coffee shop where we both sat down to have some food and as we conversed and laughed, I knew that she was my first friend at Westbrook. — “Do you remember when we first met?” I asked Chase, being disconnected from the real world by the noisy beeping of the machine. Chase nodded his head slightly, ‘Alright,’ he said, but there was no joy in his voice or on his face. “Ah, yes, how could I forget that you entered the English class laughing like madmen and I thought that you were the two most cool individuals I’ve ever met. ” I chuckled softly. “I said, ‘We were just lost and relieved to have found the right room. ‘” ‘Yeah well you looked cool doing it. ‘ Chase replied. Specifically, the self-scrutiny continued with such thoughts as, “I spent the next week fighting with myself to try and gather the nerve to come and talk to you guys. ” At the same time Chase continued to talk, another memory appeared in my head, one that was not just more recent, but significantly less happy. — ”Lads, I will tell you why we should not do this’,’ replied Alessandro, who no longer wore his smile on his face. It was in my basement where we were strategizing on how we were going to make our move against The Raven’s empire. “Come on Alesandro ” I said, my excitement building up. “This might actually be the opportunity of a lifetime. To get The Raven for good. ” Alessandro shook his head. He didn’t say that we should not act at all; he just said that we should consider certain factors because it’s not like it can be compared to a school assignment or an innocent prank. We are talking about sparring with a criminal organization here. Chase nodded slowly. “He has a valid point there, Bri, Perhaps, we should get more data about this before we act. ” Suddenly, I traced a slight irritation inside me. “As we waste time gathering information The Raven is out there stabbing people. We have a chance to catch him. Are we going to let it slip?” Alessandro and Chase looked at each other. Finally, Alessandro sighed. “Alright. But we do this smart. Avoid danger that is not necessary. I swear. ”

“I assure you,” I replied, not knowing how we were going to be careful as I felt the relief and excitement within me flow vigorously. “Everything will be fine. ” — Those words faded to black and all that remained with a clear recollection of events was the unpleasant aftertaste of what could have been. We’d been so dumbfounded, so self-confident. Oh, if only we had taken that warning from Alessandro and, perhaps, things would not have been like this. ‘We should have listened to him,’ I whispered to myself to verbalize what I was thinking out loud. Chase nodded his head slightly, and he looked like he just wanted to cry. “Yes we should have… but now it is too late as it is… all we can do is to stand beside him and pray that he should wake from his slumber soon . ” And thus, we started having a silence; each of us was possibly thinking and recalling some moments in our past. This steady beep of the heart monitor became a rhythmic ticking of the clock in the room, and we waited with our friend. Later in the afternoon, a nurse dropped in to check out Alessandro’s blood pressure and general condition. We looked on in positive anticipation as she documented his chart, but her face was noncommittal. “Any changes?” I asked, trying to make my voice sound more desperate than it already was. The Nurse smiled at me in a sympathetic manner before the contingency of being assigned to the patients’ care began to sink into my mind. ‘There are no, I am sorry to say’, ‘Well, there are none’, ‘As far as I can see; No, I do not think there are any changes,’ ‘No changes I am sorry,’ ‘No changes at all’, ‘It is stable I believe?’ We nodded, grasping for the faint idea that they might be telling us the truth about at least some part of the plan. Chase got up when the nurse walked out of the room, and started to stretch his legs. ‘Let me get some coffee. ‘Chase said. ‘You want anything?’ I shook my head. “I’m good. Thanks, though. ” This time Chase stepped out of the room, and I was alone with Alessandro for the first time in days. I got nearer to him, and whose hand I held tightly in mine. “Al, come on,” I whispered to myself. “You have to wake up, we need you, I need you, so much I want to explain to you, to apologize for it, please, give us a sign. ” At that instant, I thought that I sensed a movement of his hand in mine. My heart got lighter and, with more hope, I moved closer to him, awaiting any change on his face. Alessandro? Can you hear me? I can only whisper to you now, if you can hear me, you squeeze my hand again. ” I am waiting and perhaps almost praying that something will happen. But there was nothing. Not walking, not running, yet I have not seen the change in his sleeping face. I sank back in my chair feeling the bitter taste of loss and failure at the back of my throat. At that moment, there was a call on my phone. I took it out to take a look, expecting my parents to message me asking when I would be back home. But my blood froze when I saw the notification of the number that I didn’t recognize. I then opened it with my hand and could hardly stop shaking the paper. The words on the screen made my heart stop: ‘It’s up, my love. You didn’t do exactly what I told you. Now, watch what I do to the girl who decided to cross The Raven. ‘ I was still trying to decipher the message when all the machines that surrounded Alessandro started beeping. His heart rate increased and immediately dropped. At this point, an alarm started ringing. Forcing down the bile that threatened to choke me, I responded, “No. ” “No, no, no!” I tried to grab the call button off the wall and banged on it as hard as I possibly could. “Help!” I screamed. “Somebody help!” Pushing me aside, the medical staff entered the room and I could only stand there helplessly as horror set in. Where once there had been a series of monotonous beeps from the heart monitor, a tone that sounded only once was heard. Alessandro’s heart had stopped. And as the doctors worked frantically to revive him, all I could think was: But that is my blame. The Raven did this. And to beat the gel that controls me, I can’t imagine how to stop him.