"Nurse, how is his situation? Is he better? Can I see him? Is he... is he alive?" Annabelle begged in front of the ER, she was unable to hold her thoughts in, unable to comprehend the situation. Alisha sat stiffly on a cold metal seat, unable to figure out the situation. Everything was supposed to be different, no one was meant to get hurt this time. She was supposed to protect everyone, instead she was sitting in the same hospital as she had before, in front of the same room, waiting as she always had to.
No one could do or say anything, they could only hold Annabelle and hope that nothing happened to Bruce. Time passed them by, finally the head surgeon came out of the ER, everyone stared at him with anticipation. He smiled at the kindly, no one could tell what kind of smile it was, good news or bad news? "He's out of critical condition, he has some injuries still, but he will survive. We want to keep him in the ICU for the next three days and check on his condition, but you can all visit him." Everyone smiled and hugged each other, but Alisha felt shaken to her core. It was almost like a warning from fate, don't mess with time. She shook off the feeling and hugged her cousin. It was all okay.
She walked into the ICU after everyone, Bruce lay there, a goofy grin decorating his face as he held Annabelle's hand. He turned to Alisha and he had a look in his eyes that scared her slightly, almost as if he knew everything. "Bruce you idiot! How could you let yourself get hurt like that?" Annabelle whined with a slight tone of anger. She was so tired, everyone could see, Alisha nodded at Eliza who grabbed Annabelle.
"Let's come back tomorrow, for now you need to rest before you can take care of someone else. Mr Thompson will take us all home." She pulled Annabelle and they all turned to leave.
"Um, I just need to talk to Alisha about something quickly. You too head to the car, she'll be down in a minute." Bryan suddenly announced, Annabelle and Eliza didn't detect anything odd and nodded. Alisha turned around and stood near his feet. She nodded at him, ushering him to speak.
"You're not the Alisha from before, are you? I didn't get into this accident in my last life, and you were in a relationship with Bryan this time in my last life. Everything else is the same, the only odd nominator, is you Alisha." Alisha's eyes widened as she stared at Bruce, what?
"W-when did you die?" She stuttered. She was shocked at his sudden declaration.
"I went looking for you after I found a clause in Annabelle's will, you were supposed to inherit the company. But I never found you, I searched and searched, I called Bryan and he said that you'd gone on a vacation. It was all too odd. Then, I called up Sherry Thomas, found out that you were dead. Bryan... that bastard." Her heart warmed at his rant, she wasn't completely forgotten, someone still thwarted Bryan's plans. He continued, "I began gathering lawyers and filed a case against him, but then I was suddenly hit by a car. I woke up, only to see Annabelle, and new memories suddenly entered my mind of the last two days. Why? Why did he take my Annabelle away from me?"
Alisha's eyes teared up, she hadn't cried in a while. "I-I'm so sorry. I didn't find out until he shot me. Bruce... It's all my fault. Everything..." Bruce was astounded by her outburst but he couldn't move his body, he tried to say something, but he didn't know what he could say. She composed herself and continued, "He didn't want me to have anyone to depend on, so he managed to have everyone killed, one by one. First, Richard, then Annabelle, Fred, my baby, and my sister. I... was so naive, I didn't even suspect him. That day, I was going to divorce him after I caught him f***ing Susanna, but... he shot me. He killed me after telling me what he had done. It all fell into place, why and how everyone died, why it kept happening to me... everything made sense. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." She sobbed.
Bruce sucked in a sharp breath, what a load this girl was holding. She was shot in the head, and now she had to relive that nightmare. He couldn't blame her, but he couldn't help but think that it would have been better if she didn't exist. His thoughts made him feel a bit disgusted by himself, he had to process everything. It's not her fault, he repeated to himself.
"Could I just have some time to myself?" He requested, she nodded and left to go to the bathroom, her heart beating fast, tears rolling unstoppably down her pale face. She bumped into a nurse, apologised and helped the lady up and continued to make her way to the bathroom. The nurse looked troubled at seeing this woman breakdown so she followed her, only to see her sobbing over a sink. The dam in Alisha had cracked, she felt like everything was her fault, the guilt she felt throbbed in her chest, as did the pain of losing everyone.
Suddenly she felt an inability to breathe, she tried and tried but she couldn't breathe. She fell on the floor, choking and anxious, still crying as she had a panic attack. The nurse came in and had a paperbag on her, she started instructing Alisha to breathe in it, but noticed that she wasn't responding. She hit her back lightly so that she could gain some attention from Alisha and finally managed to calm her down. Alisha finally could breathe again, she was covered in sweat and turned to the kind nurse who helped her.
"Thank you miss, thank you so much." She had glazed eyes, and smiled fondly. She was shaken up by the incident and had paled even farther. The nurse placed a cool hand on her forehead, Alisha leaned into the hand, shocked the nurse realised that Alisha had a high temperature. She helped Alisha stand up, and began taking her to a doctor. Alisha's phone rang with Eliza's icon, so she picked up the phone.
"Alisha, where are you?"
"I... I'm-"
And Alisha fell to the ground.