Memories

"Rose! Someone is looking for you!" Joanne called her, loud and clear from downstairs. Rose who had her head buried between the thick book and a few scribbled notes, raised her head in bewilderment. She readjusted her flowery pink dress and checked her reflection on the mirror before she slowly went down the stairs.

Once she opened the door, she was stunned. A man in dashing slim-fit black suits appeared before her eyes. She was momentarily in dazed and couldn't believe her eyes. The man approached her with a smile. Joanne who stood behind her was charmed too by the dazzling smile.

"John!" She whispered his name. A smile bloomed into spring as the man stood right in front of her.

"Are you busy?" John asked while tucked a few strands of her hair at the back of her ear.

"Nope, I'm just about to take a rest," she answered, her cheeks turned crimson, blushing too hard. Well, she never thought John will come and visit her at the student's lounge.

"Err… I wish to bring you to the lab today," he said, hesitantly. When she heard lab, her expression brightened to a certain degree that John was blinded by the big smile she has on her face. She might be young, but she possessed the attractive charms that beckoned boys and men alike to come close to her.

Oh! How he wished to keep her away from the peculiar gaze from other men. She was his. They had been started to date each other since Christmas Eve Party.

"Sure! Hold on, I'll go and get my purse," without waiting for his response, Rose dashed into the student's lounge, directly to her locker and took out her purse. She stopped a while when she walked pass Joanne who was dumbstruck upon looking at the way she was at the moment.

"I promise I'll accompany you to study the next time. Got to go!" she dashed out and went straight into the fancy car. Joanne could only look on with a sigh. It was the first time she saw a man came to pick him up, and she even never seen her brother too.

Once they reached the Biolab Tech lab that belonged to Luke Company, John directly brought her to one of the labs. She was totally in awe with the interior that she couldn't stop herself from marvelling over the advance technologies that Biolab Tech could offer.

"Now, what are we going to do here?" She looked at John, left brow arched upward, inquired him about their intention of going to the lab. John held her hand and brought her to one of the stations, leaving Rose to be wonder about his intention.

"Rose, regarding the drug patent that you had created before this, hmm…" he paused, and was hesitated to continue his line. He looked around them to make sure no one else with them at the moment. Rose's heart frantically raced that she suddenly became nervous. She could feel something was wrong but she couldn't put her finger on what has gone wrong. She blinked her eyes, studying John's expression. She might be young to understand a few other things but she was one that could easily detect problems. That was how she could create the drug patent when the researchers were at their bottleneck.

"John… What is it? Just tell me," she lightly squeezed his hands, giving him an assuring smile that everything was going to be okay. Though deep inside, she knew how much chaos brewing and whirling in her heart that made her breathless.

"Rose, we can't possibly get this drug patented for some reasons. And now, someone is targeting your life and if we are careless, it might end up in the wrong hand for the wrong purpose. Please allow me to encrypt your work so that no one will be able to use this patent, or another word, sell it in the black market," Rose was stunned when she heard him. Her eyes widened and gaped.

"Wait… Someone is targeting my life? How is that possible? I have nothing to offer," she was perplexed with what John had mentioned earlier. John sighed. John was about to say something when all of sudden she felt as if she was sucked into the black hole. She tried to hold onto John's right arm but somehow John was exploded into tiny sparks that blinded her eyes.

John!!! She screamed on top of her lungs, but she couldn't catch the tiniest bit of his projection.

In the next second… All that greeted her eyes were a whitish ceiling that seemed so dull that it pained her eyes to see. She closed her eyes. And remained closed it. She could hear people calling her names, but she refused to open them.

Just let me be… Where should I belong… All of sudden, she felt a heavy bang that sent excruciating pain to her head. Her chest was heaving abnormally and she gasped for more air. It's painful… Too painful… Tears flowing freely from her closed eyes, she bit her lip, hard. She tried to open her eyes but to no avail.

While in the present…

Her ECG reading showing spikes that made Jude quickly pressed the button to summon the doctors. One hand held her hand, another wiped away the sweat on her forehead. He frowned. What made her sweating too much?

As Samuel entered the room with few more doctors and nurses trailed behind him, he stepped aside but never left her hand. It was then Rose's eyes suddenly flung opened before they closed the next seconds. Samuel checked her pulse and her eyes. He turned to one of the doctors and said, "Please get the Radiology Room 5 ready. We need to send the patient for MRI." His voice stern and firm.

"Jude, we need to perform an MRI. It seemed she is experiencing some shock in her head," Jude nodded his head. His heart was beating wildly when he saw she opened her eyes but just for a short while before she closed them back. He called her name, but, she didn't respond. He began to feel nervous.

"Why did she sweating a lot? Is it normal?" Jude grabbed Samuel's hand, agitated.

"I need to perform MRI to confirm my hunch, Jude," he paused and studied his friend's expression, feeling despondent before adding, "Don't worry Jude. We will do our best. Rest assured." The nurses swiftly moved about and got everything ready, the ECG monitor, her breathing mask and oxygen before wheeled her bed towards Radiology Room 5 for the treatment.

Jude followed them. Fists clenched nervously, expression darkened that could make those who see him chicken away. He went inside together with the doctors and stood behind the glass-window to witness the treatment. Samuel had to drag him to the monitors' room and showed him a few sections of her brain.

"Based on this one here, it is clear that her thinking is active. But here," he pointed to another screen and muttered, "there is a noticeable seizure which referring to abnormal movements or behaviour due to unusual electrical activity in the brain, or what we commonly call epilepsy and Rose, she is having temporal lobe seizure which explains the lost conscious just now," he explained.

Jude looked at him as if he was talking an alien language. Samuel felt depressed all of sudden due to the way Jude reacted to what he had explained earlier. He tried to shrug off the feeling, but he simply failed to. He sighed.

"But don't worry. We will keep monitoring her well-being. And you, my dear friend, need to take a rest yourself. Just in case she wakes up from her deep slumber," in the end, Samuel tried his best to convince him.

Jude leaned against the wall behind him, feeling extremely lethargic that he almost lost his consciousness. He inhaled deeply the air and calm his turbulence heart.