Tora moved away from Darren's seemingly lifeless body as the paramedics placed him on the stretcher. They laid him down on his chest so his wound would not touch the sheets before rolling him into the ambulance.
She watched as they placed an oxygen mask over his mouth and attached him to the machines in the ambulance as the doors closed.
Every sound muted, and everything she saw was blurred as she stood in the middle of the park, motionless. She felt dizzy. The park was spinning around her. Voices mixed together, and all the images merged together like motion blur. Her eyes and brain throbbed whenever there was a flash of light from the crowd.
Tora sensed several eyes on her from the crowd that still gathered. She closed her eyes and wiped her tears off her face. She took a few deep breaths, each burning her throat and lungs.
Tora opened her eyes again. Her vision adjusted to the night and sounds rushed into her ears with newfound clarity. The flood of sounds in her ears was deafening.
Tora almost jumped when she felt someone touch her arm. The man held his hands up before he took out a phone and handed it to her. It was her phone. She'd given it to someone before she started giving Darren CPR so that he could talk to the 911 operator. She took the phone from the man who gave her a look of pity before he turned and went on his way.
Tora straightened her back and began to walk back to her car. She stopped for a moment. Even with the traffic in her head, she sensed an intense gaze burning the back of her neck. She turned around to find the origin of eyes that stared at her. She locked gazes with Electro, who had a woman standing next to him, both of them looking her way as they conversed.
Tora saw red. Her heart thumped in her ears, and all other sounds were drowned out. Her blood boiled as anger flowed through her in waves. She tightened her fist as she was overwhelmed by a sudden bloodlust.
As her heart raced, her mind cleared.
Kill him. Kill him. The thoughts resounded in her head.
Tora wanted to kill him. He hurt Darren. Killing him would only give him a taste of his own medicine. Her knuckles blanched as she did her best to reign in her anger and stop her feet from crossing the park and beating him to a pulp.
Not that she could do that anyway. She was not strong enough. Calming her anger, calming her thumping heart, she continued to watch them. Tora held her ground, maintaining eye contact, seeing what looked a bit like caution with a bit of anxiety before Electro and the woman turned away from her.
Even in the dark, she could see the woman's face. She had seen that woman before. She had seen her on the television with Electro and the other members of Super 7. His publicist. She often accompanied them on television interviews and other appearances. She also appeared after every big event or battle to help the Supers answer questions from the media.
She caught Electro's gaze once more before he flew off, disappearing into the night sky. Her eyes turned back to the publicist, who was being escorted by several armed guards to her car.
No interviews today?
She walked silently to her car, ignoring all the stares from the people around her as she left the park. The car doors were unlocked. She sat in the car and put the key in the ignition. She rested the back of her head against the headrest before sighing for the umpteenth time that night.
This was the worst night of her life.
Nobody stopped Tora as she ran into the emergency room of St. Christopher Hospital. For a moment, she became lost in the chaos until a familiar voice pulled her out. "Tora."
An older woman in a white coat stood in the middle of the reception area. She had her arms wide open, and Tora rushed straight into them.
"Mom." She said, her voice breaking. "Darren, how is he?"
The doctor tapped her ID badge on the panel before the double doors opened. "He's in ICU. We had to give him anesthesia, or else the pain for the burns would be torturous." They walked through several long hallways before they made it to the second set of glass doors that spelled "Intensive Care Unit" in bright red bold letters. "We gave him a wide range of antibiotics and put him in a cleanroom to lower the chances of an infection. The Burn Unit will take care of him."
"We're getting an ECG now. Later, I've scheduled a CT to see if there are any internal bleeding or injuries to decide whether or not he needs surgery. I have a cooling vest on him to help with his burns."
They walked up to the glass windows to see inside the white room. Darren was laid on his chest, his eyes closed with a tube in his mouth attached to the ventilator. There were several doctors and nurses in Personal Protective Equipment surrounding the bed. Bloody bandages and towels were thrown into the trash as they cleaned the blood from the great wound on his back.
Tora brought her hands to her lips in horror. Tears flowed from her eyes as she looked at him. It was not the first time she had seen a burn victim, but it was the first time the burn victim was someone she had an attachment to.
She released a shaky breath.
Dr. Carlisle placed her hand on Tora's back. "Tora, he's alive because of you. If you hadn't been there to perform CPR, he might've died." She turned her daughter to face her and pulled down Tora's chin so their eyes could meet. "You did well."
Tora nodded her head. She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. Something else came to her. "What about the little girl, Abby?"
"She only has some minor burns on her hands. Thanks to Darren, she wasn't heavily injured. We bandaged her hands and gave her antibiotics. She's unconscious, but we're monitoring her closely," said the doctor. "I've contacted the police. They on their way to take her picture and find out who she is and if she has any family."
Tora nodded before backing away from the window. She rested her back against the wall, letting her body sink to the floor.
She did not even get a real chance to rest before an alarm began to blare. "Code blue, Code blue." When Tora saw the look of her mother's face, she quickly got up and followed her mother to the room. "Darren! Darren!"
Tora tried to follow her mother in, but Miriam stopped her at the door. "Etora, you know you cannot go into that room." The code team followed in ahead of them. "I am in charge of Darren's case, and I will pull out all the stops to help him, but you have to give me some space. I have the best doctors helping him. You have to let them do their jobs."
Tora knew that. No matter how much she wanted to be by his side, there was nothing she could do to help him at the moment. Tora's breath trembled, and tears resurfaced before she nodded in agreement. She watched her mother go into the room, and slide the glass doors close before closing the curtains. She could no longer see or hear what was happening behind the doors.
She passed her fingers through her hair, anxiously pacing around the hallway. Her whole body jittered, she began to twist the ends of her long hair. It was something she had not done in a long time, but she was too stressed to even think about stopping tonight. She placed her hand over her mouth as she began to sob.
Tora did not turn around when she heard the hospital room door slide open. She could sense movement behind her, but she did not turn to look at her mother. She faced the wall as she asked, "Is he okay?"
Miriam placed her hands in her coat pockets. "He's stable right now. We still have some more tests to run, but we'll keep a close watch over him tonight," said Miriam.
"Okay." She wiped her tears away before she turned around and walked away.
"Where are you going?"
Tora stopped for a moment. She turned around to face her mother, her eyes red and swollen from all the crying. Her eyes drooped as if she was in a daze, her movements almost robotic. "I'm going to pick up Darren's things from his hotel. Then, I'm going to go home to eat, take a warm bath before going to bed. Darren will be fine with you watching over him, and I'm sure you don't want me here in this unstable emotional state."
There was nothing more she could do, so there was no use for her to remain in the hospital any longer. No matter how worried she was, she wasn't a doctor or a healer who could restore the damage done to Darren's body. And crying certainly wouldn't solve anything. All she could do was hope and pray that Darren would pull through. Tora knew her mother would make due to her promise to help Darren as much as she could.
Tora walked out of the ICU presence was not needed there.