Chapter 19

"I found her!" 

The sound of a muffled voice registered to my ears as the cold droplets landed on my cheekbones coming from the thick trees above. I squinted in an attempt to see what was going on, hours after Cavin and Nick dumped me into the forest. Nick was against the idea of him assisting Cavin after beating me so, they ended up fighting while covering me in mud and almost ripping my clothes off to make things more convincing.

"Hey, Heureu! It's me, William! You're safe! I found you now," William almost whispered, carefully picking me up from the ground. My head felt light as the adrenaline slowly faded away. I could barely feel anything but pain all over my body. "You must've been so scared."

William gently wrapped his jacket around me, trying to dry me off before he carried me out of the woods. I heard few more came to help him carry me into an ambulance and I felt assured that looking plump and rugged, would surely make them think I had a very rough time.

The ambulance pulled off at the hospital's front with an obnoxious honk. The paramedics who rushed forward to take care of me put me onto a stretcher, helped William with the rest, and rushed me inside.

"To the emergency room," William ordered. The other medical staff nodded in agreement and wheeled me inside. "I'll take care of her." 

That was the last thing I heard from William before a nurse administered medication to calm me down after administering oxygen and cannulas as I drifted back to sleep.

I woke up later in the afternoon, and William and Niko rushed to my side to give me a hug and reassure me I was safe, although they looked like they'd been through hell.

Their eyes had dark bags under them, and their lips were dry and chapped. William seemed to be in some kind of bad shape, looking like he'd just come back from his shift in the ER, but he looked happy enough that it probably wasn't too serious for me. Niko still looked like shit though. 

"Heureu! Are you okay?" Niko asked, his face covered in relief while sitting next to me on a chair and pulling my limp hand into his own. I smiled slightly at him and let him hold it. "Don't worry, we will get you fixed up," he promised, giving me his most soothing smile.

Though I badly wanted to burst into laughter seeing how worried Niko was and I could not take his drama, I should hold it back in order to prevent exposing my ulterior motive of getting proof.

"N...Nick? Where's Nick?" I tried so hard to make my voice sound so weak and faltering, giving out a desperate emotion.

William flinched, his whole body stiffened and moving uncomfortably; his gaze roamed around but not in my direction before clearing his throat.

"His...his gone, Heureu!" William's voice cracked, making me wince as I stared up at him. He squeezed my hand tightly, trying to calm me down while his other hand was wiping his forehead. "He got multiple shots during his run. The officers found his body lying on the forest floors already out of blood, and even though he was rushed back that night and we tried to recover him, he was unrecognizable by the time due to the impact of the bullets."

My hands gripped the sheets beneath me, and my chest heaved in despair as Niko tried to help me calm my nerves. "That is not true!" I shouted desperately, though immense anger rushed through me knowing that Nick was very much alive, but they had already announced his death.

Nick was never really meant to be kept alive; he had to be killed no matter what.

"Heureu! Soon it'll be fine! You'll move on!" Niko cried out, hugging me tight and kissing my temple.

"He made a mistake, and it was beyond a simple mistake. He was gone too much of his obsession with Ferine." William slurred his voice, which made my heart sink to think he was on this scheme of eliminating Nick, but for what reason?

Why were they all so impatient about killing Nick?

My vision became blurred again, and tears formed behind my closed eyelids. The pain was overwhelming, so I bit back my cries as best as I could and hugged Niko tightly. I couldn't bring myself to cry yet. "Help me up; I need to go to the president!"

I heard Niko gasp, and as I pulled back from our hug, I could see uncertainty in his eyes. "What is it?" I asked.

Niko looked at William, and they both decided to remain silent.

My face scrunched and I took a deep breath. "No one is going to speak, or I'll break everything in here?" I screamed, trying to hide the tremble in my shaky voice while my body shook violently on the bed.

"Well, he... um," William trailed off, unsure of what to say.

The silence was deafening and only made me more anxious. "Did you hear what I said? I have to meet the president."

"William, let's just bring her to him," Niko interrupted calmly while rubbing my arm in comfort. He looked down at me apologetically as he sighed quietly, glancing towards William before his eyes flickered back to mine.

I could see William's disapproval, but I was determined to see Mr. Ben. If there's anyone I should really talk to about Nick, it's his father.

As much as I wanted to let William know, I didn't think it was the best move at the moment.

I looked at William, and I didn't let go of my gaze so that he could feel that nothing could stop me from seeing Mr. Ben.

"Fine! "William agreed in defeat. His hands ran over his face, and he barely peeked out outside, acting tensely as if they were hiding a criminal.

Although I am a criminal in many ways, this thing with Nick was different.

"Heureu, the officers told us that you are not allowed to go out or meet people outside the hospital premises, or you'll be fired from the job," Niko explained. The intense fear could be felt in his strained voice.

I didn't think eliminating Nick would be a big deal. I couldn't help but scoff at the idea. "So basically, I can't go out, why? Do they think I'd be an associate? Did they even give Nick a chance to explain himself? Huh? F*ks*t! I'm sure they didn't! Because whatever he says won't matter! Of course, he won't matter, because he is a rehab, someone useless in society! I guess he was better off dead than living in this unfair life," I spat out of anger, as I kept my gaze down the cold floors of the hospital. I could not bring myself to look at these people who are quick to believe what Ferine said because it was easier.

"Heurue, what are you saying? Nick stabbed Ferine!" William retaliated.

I lifted my gaze to him, thinking that if the look was deadly, William might have been killed by now. I'm being consumed by anger now and I wanted nothing now but to kill everyone here. I should have never come back. I should have just stayed there with Nick and convinced him to start a new life rather than insisting on going back to the place where nobody was even interested in seeing him alive.

"How did you know? How are you f*king sure that Ferine is the one telling the truth?" I said it emphatically so that William could feel that I was not convinced of Ferine and the hint of accusation in my voice could be felt because I wanted him to feel it.

"Stop it, Heureu!"

"Why? Because you are not sure either, but you chose to believe her! Because...choosing to believe that Nick is the proprietor is a lot easier to do. He is a rehab patient, so it is convincing that he could do things like that!" I could not hold my outburst, my body was shaking along with my hands.

Although I shouldn't be devoting so much emotion to Nick, I still believe that people are entitled to be treated fairly until proven guilty and that I badly knew the feeling of being unwanted.

"F*K! "William gritted through his teeth and looked outside once more before turning back. "Niko, this is my car; use this!"

Niko and my eyes widened because I didn't expect William to agree of getting me outside in secret.

"Niko, get Heureu in here, go to the parking lot, and act calm! There are no CCTV's once you reach the end of the corridor to the parking lot," William instructed, and he helped me get off the bed and into the lower compartment of the medicine cart. "Take care of her, Niko. I'll stay here to buy you time. I told the officers that the medicine I gave her was strong enough to keep her asleep for two days to fully recover. Bring her back as soon as possible, or we'll all be in danger once the officers find out she's gone!"

Niko nodded and locked the door of the compartment where I squeezed in to make my escape.

After Niko and William finished talking, I heard the door open and felt the medicine cart move.

In the beginning, the cart was pushed slowly, but after three minutes, I felt that it was speeding up. Although the sound of rusting cartwheels was deafening, I endured it just to escape without too much trouble. Because if we had an encounter now, it was unlikely that I would be able to fight well because Cavin enjoyed beating me too much.

"Heureu! Heureu! We're here; hurry up," Niko whispered his instructions before unlocking the doors of the small compartment.

Gladly, Niko had already managed to position the cart's door facing the car door. I quickly got out and rolled into the back of the driver's seat while he took out medicine bags and other medicine kits.

"Are you in?" Niko called. His head kept turning around. I couldn't help but be disappointed.

"Hey, enough with that, and let's start driving, or your too-obvious crams would spoil our escape!" I chuckled at him.

"Whatever! "Niko groaned and hopped in the driver's seat.

The drive was nerve-wracking, as there were so many checkpoints at every corner that I had to hide beneath the compartment of the backseat.

"Don't you dare die on me back there!" Niko shouted as I barely made a sound or moved a single muscle while we drove to Mr. Ben.

"Shut up! I'm thinking!" I told Niko, still lost with my anger and frustrations.

After minutes of silence, Niko finally told me that we had arrived at our destination. "Make it quick, Heureu!"

Taking a quick peek outside, I was not expecting that we would be at the rehab center. Based on Mr. Ben's actions before, he seemed uninterested in being at the center, even for a minute.

I immediately hopped out of the car and went straight inside to the head nurse's office, and I was not surprised to see her looking frightened. Besides my wrecked face, I knew she was oriented not to let me in here. "What are you? You can't be here!" She gasped, trying to get on the phone, but I was quick to grab it away from her and destroy it.

"Where is Mr. Ben?" I slammed both hands on her table. "You'll tell me or..."

"HEUREU! "Mr. Ben came interrupting me, and he walked calmly in, motioning for the head nurse to move away from her seat. "Leave us alone?" He ordered the nurse with an authoritative voice, which made the head nurse oblige immediately, almost scrambling out of the room.

"What happened?" I quickly asked Mr. Ben.

"Where's Nick?" He returned the question to me without letting go of my gaze.

I stared at him and tried to evaluate his gaze. "Are you the one trying to get him killed? Answer me honestly, or you will not get any answer from me."

Mr. Ben frowned, and I felt his heightened emotions as his face looked so strained. He let out an exasperated sigh before saying, "They brought me into the center, as I needed to recover from my loss! But not an inch of my body believed that the corpse was Nick. I know you kept him alive. I trusted you to keep him alive." I felt a tremble in his voice, but he did not break. "The position of the President is now under Ferine's father's control, so be careful!"