Whose fault?

As the suffocating feeling grew the more her legs refused to move. The screams of the couple's argument grew louder, with stuff breaking in between.

Just then the child's voice from earlier echoed suppressing the fight noise. This time Azalea got a glimpse of the kid. In a white frock, her dark hair cut into a bob with fringes covering her forehead. Azalea squinted her eyes to figure out the girl's face. Slowly the girl's face came to light, causing Azalea to freak out as if she had seen a ghost.

"It can't be…." Azalea muttered, grasping for breath.

"Why are you so scared of me? I am part of you." The younger girl spoke as a grin appeared on her face. As the girl came closer, the scars all over her body were clear. The eyes are void of life and the face pale as a ghost with a sickly figure. She looked pitiful.

Tears started to brim in the little girl's face as she saw Azalea trembling in fear and trying to avoid her gaze.

"Who do you all hate me so much?" The young girl started to well up.

"Because you ruin everyone's life!" Unable to bear it anymore….Azalea yelled out, covering her ears in hopes of not hearing those cries anymore.

Suddenly, her surroundings started to turn cold and eerily silent. No more fighting in the background or cries of the young girl. Just the silence that haunts you.

"Aren't you the same? You are me. I am you…then how can you be foolish enough to think you will be loved? No one will ever love you. Accept it. You are a burden, nothing else! A misfortune." The child's voice whispered straight in her ear from behind. The soft calm voice almost caught Azalea off guard, from nowhere it sounded like a child's voice. It was the whisper of the devil with an angelic face.

Tears spilled down Azalea's cheeks as memories of the past flooded her. How foolish… how foolish she was to believe she could be loved. Azalea plopped down onto the ground accepting her defeat.

***

Adam looked at the unconscious Azalea lying on the bed. Her face was pale like every drop of blood had been drained out. Like a corpse immemorial she lay there.

"Why is she still not waking up?" Adam questioned, his gaze still fixated on Azalea's lifeless face.

Ashton scanned through the chart standing across them. His eyes were surrounded by eye bags from the many sleepless nights. The tired expression was clear, how stressed he was. "I don't know. Her vitals seem to have gotten stable." Ashton replied, staring at his unconscious sister.

"Then what seems to be the problem?" With a passing second, Adam grew impatient. It's been days since she laid in the bed like that. Like a princess in her eternal sleep who will never wake up.

"In simple terms, she doesn't wish to wake up…." Ashton's calm voice sent the room to quietude. The beeping noise of the monitor rhythmically echoed through the room. Suddenly the door of the room was forced open with Alice entering the room.

"Ashton Woods!" A calm yell, as Alice stepped into the room. Her gaze averted towards, eyes red and swollen. "I didn't raise my daughter to be weak-willed. If she had no desire to live she wouldn't be holding onto her life this long." With a voice of confidence and determination, Alice declared.

The depressing mood in the room got a gist of motivation. Like the darkness leaving at the first ray of sunshine, the tensed emotions that stormed into the room slowly pacified.

Alice glared at both men in the room signaling them to leave and the two followed leaving Alice with Azalea. As the silence surfaced around them. Alice sat down beside Azalea, holding her pale cold hands in between her.

"Lea….Wake up. Mama misses you." Alice pleaded tears rolling down her cheeks. Her desperation breaks down the path of hell. A mother's love knows no bounds and surely Alice doesn't.

After hours of calmly sitting by her side, the warm sun had returned to its home and still her daughter never did. A lifeless body lay just there with the beeping sound of the machine enlightening that she was still alive.

The dark room seemed to be wrapped in fear, and helplessness as the sound of the door opening filled the silence of the room. A streak of light entered the room, with a shadow of a man standing by the door frame. His clothes were barely tidied, dark hairs all ruffled up. His eyes had been encircled with dark circles.

Alice looked at the desperate Adam as if anytime that man would collapse to the ground. No matter how many times Alice tells Adam to rest and leave Azalea's side. Adam refuses. Even if he leaves, he just sits outside right beside the room, silently waiting for her as time passes. It seemed time had stopped for him. The life that had ceased to exist. A harsh winter that was cruel enough to stop the budding blossoms of spring.

Alice exhaled a breath, "Alex, go home tonight and take some rest."

Alex stared at his new mother-in-law, his eyes void of emotion yet filled with a silent cry for his loved one. "How can you expect to rest when she…" Tears brimmed up at the corner of his eyes as if the dam he held for so long was about to burst out. "... it's all my fault, if I didn't push her too much she would have not left alone…" Tears rolled down his cheeks to the white marble floor.

Alice saw him breaking down right at the doorstep. The unchecked feelings finally poured out. Alice got up, trying to calm him down.

"It's not your fault…" A weak and meek voice fell in their ears. It was barely audible but audible enough to know where it came from. Alex instantly stopped crying and instinctively ran up to the bed with Alice following him. Both Alice and Alex's eyes were shocked before they showed signs of relief and joy.