Chapter 4
As night fell, a massive red moon crept over the horizon, casting a deep crimson hue across the pitch-black sky.
Lying on the freezing hospital bed, I reached for the IV needle in the back of my hand and yanked it out in a single, rough motion.
Clear fluid from the plastic tubing immediately leaked from the needle's tip, dripping steadily onto the floor.
Bracing my arms heavily against the edge of the mattress, I dragged my mutilated lower half, inching painfully from the bed into the wheelchair parked beside it.
Every slight movement tore at the raw flesh of my amputated stumps, yet I didn't make a single sound.
The corridor outside was dead silent, the stark white fluorescent lights painfully glaring.
The on-duty nurse was sitting behind the station, flipping through medical charts. Glancing up as I wheeled myself into the hallway, she merely gave me an apathetic look. Without asking a single question, she lowered her head and went back to her work, making absolutely no effort to stop me.
None of them cared about me. I had no friends here.
Pushing the cold metal handrims forward, I rolled down the ramp and pushed my way through the hospital's sliding glass doors.
The ocean breeze immediately hit my face, and the rhythmic crash of the waves against the shore sounded exceptionally crisp in the dark.
The facility was built directly on the coast. Following the smooth concrete path, it wasn't long before I reached the very edge of the beach.
Almost immediately, the front wheels of the chair sank deep into the fine, soft sand, refusing to budge another inch.
The shoreline was just ahead. Gripping the armrests tightly, I slid my useless body out of the seat, dropping heavily onto the sand. The coarse grains rubbed roughly against my hospital gown as I alternated between my elbows and palms, dragging myself toward the water.
Every inch gained sent violent spasms through my muscles, yet I didn't pause for a single second.
I knew the water was right there; I just had to hold on for a little distance more.
Once I entered the sea, I would finally be home.
Meanwhile, at an exclusive luxury resort far from the hospital.
Arthur was sitting by the window in a high-end restaurant, keeping Victoria company over dinner.
A soothing piano melody drifted through the dining room while Victoria cheerfully cut into her steak, chatting about the gorgeous views of the resort.
Suddenly, Arthur stopped the knife and fork in his hands.
Without warning, a violent palpitation echoed in his chest. An immense, suffocating sense of panic gripped his heart so tightly that, for a moment, he actually couldn't catch his breath.
"What's wrong, darling?" Victoria asked.
"It's nothing," he replied.
Feigning generosity, Victoria said, "Are you worried about Aria? It's okay, you can go back and check on her."
Arthur couldn't bring himself to leave her side. "Don't worry, I'll go see her tomorrow morning. She'll wait for me. She doesn't have any friends here, only me. She won't leave..."
As Arthur looked at Victoria, he was startled to notice that the scale necklace resting against her collarbone was changing.
The ordinarily dull pendant was now suddenly emitting an intensely harsh, ghostly blue light.
This glow looked incredibly eerie against the warm ambient lighting of the restaurant, completely overpowering the soft candlelight on their table.
Staring at that frantically pulsating blue light, Aria's weak, pale face flashed through Arthur's mind.
His instincts immediately screamed a warning: something was terribly wrong with Aria.
He shoved his chair back and shot to his feet, his movements so violent that he knocked over the water glass beside his plate.
"Arthur, where are you going?!"
Without offering a single word of explanation to a bewildered Victoria, he turned and sprinted out of the restaurant.
Arthur leaped into his car parked outside and slammed the gas pedal straight to the floor.
The engine roared fiercely as he drove like a madman along the coastal highway, speeding toward the hospital.
The dark asphalt blurred past his windshield. He gripped the steering wheel so tightly that veins bulged against the back of his hands, his heart racing faster with each passing second.
The tires screeched violently as the car slammed to a halt in front of the hospital doors.
Arthur kicked the car door open and sprinted down the familiar corridors, throwing open the door to her recovery room.
She can't be gone, he told himself frantically. Aria is so well-behaved. She wouldn't go anywhere. I'm all she has left.
The hospital bed was completely empty, its white sheets messy and cold. The girl who had just had both her legs amputated was nowhere to be seen.
He immediately spun around and bolted to the nurse’s station outside. Slamming both hands onto the counter, he glared at the on-duty nurse and demanded, "Where is Aria?!"
The nurse jumped, startled. "Aria?"
"The patient residing in the very back room!" Arthur yelled.
Terrified by his deranged expression, the nurse stuttered, "I... I saw her wheeling herself out the front doors earlier."
"You saw her wheeling herself out?!" Arthur bellowed in absolute rage. His eyes were heavily bloodshot, and his booming voice was utterly terrifying in the quiet lobby. "She lost her legs! How could you just sit there and let her leave on her own?!"
The nurse shrank back in terror.
Arthur didn't waste another second arguing. He turned on his heel and rushed straight for the hospital's security room.
Shoving past the duty guard, he frantically operated the console himself, pulling up the feeds overlooking the hospital’s entrance and the beach, rewinding the footage by several hours.
The screen flickered into black-and-white night-vision mode.
Arthur leaned heavily on the desk, his eyes glued to the monitors.
In the dim footage, he watched with his own eyes as I wheeled myself to the edge of the beach, tumbled out of the chair, and used my two bare arms to support my body weight. Dragging the empty bottom half of my hospital gown, I crawled forward onto the sand, inch by agonizing inch.
Every single inch of distance seemed unimaginably strenuous and impossibly long.
No… no, don't. That direction leads to…
Arthur prayed frantically in his mind.
Completely helpless, he watched the figure on the screen drag herself into the freezing ocean.
The black, churning seawater washed over me. A wave crashed down, swallowing me whole. I sank beneath the surface, never to come back up.
Arthur stared at that black-and-white screen in sheer horror. His Adam's apple bobbed violently, but not a single sound could escape his throat.
Absolute, crushing despair instantly fractured his nerves. The reality he knew entirely collapsed in that single moment.
His entire body began to tremble uncontrollably. Suddenly, a metallic, bloody taste surged up from the back of his throat. Lurching forward, he coughed up a massive mouthful of dark blood.
"Mr. Arthur!" the security guard yelled in absolute shock.
Arthur's vision rapidly went black. He collapsed heavily against the floor, losing consciousness right in front of the security monitors.
