Way And Direction

Chapter 35

"Poppy, give me your hand. Tell me your problem. I'll help you get out of it," Richard tells her in a soft tone.

Tears line her eyelids and her breathing is slow, as she shakes her head slowly.

"Let me help you," he pleads.

"Poppy trust me."

She stretches her hand forward, tears streaming down her eyes, and he runs forward to grab her hand.

As he touches the tip of her finger, she slowly burns in front of him, every piece of her reducing to ashes.

"Poppy!" he grabs hold of her face, and she looks at him, helpless.

"I love you Mr Russell."

In no less than a second, that face became part of the ashes. He drops to the ground and touches it, before screaming out loud.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

His eyes open all of a sudden and his heartbeat becomes exceptionally fast. The nurse in the room gets frantic and tries to help him calm down, whilst she calls out for the doctor.

"What- oh my God!" the doctor exclaims as he enters the room. He helps to control his breathing and eventually when he is calmed, he just sits and looks around, void of any emotions.

After some time the doctor politely asks, "Do you want to talk Richard?"

Richard looks at him with his pale, red eyes. The lump in his throat doesn't permit him to explain his turmoil, but all he ends up doing is shake his head.

The doctor nods and leaves the room, on his way to tell Richard's family.

Richard lies in his bed, looking to his side, his chest feeling heavy, trying to cry but the tears won't budge.

"Hello Mrs Russell, I've got somewhat good news for you," the doctor says on the call.

"Y-yes?" she asks, trembling as she sees Ellie in front of her.

Before Ellie could explain what's happening the doctors call seemed to arrive and all of them decided to hear what was most important first. They feel as if their hearts are in their hands, and all they can do is wait for the truth.

"Richard has awoken," smiles plaster across all of their faces, "But not quite in the way we expected."

"What do you mean?"

"He woke up with a sudden shock, from an extremely low pulse to a very high one in just a split second. It seems as if his mind was going through its own conundrums and creating situations in it, which he physically reacted to. He doesn't want to talk." Dahlia looks down and closes her eyes.

He continues,"The nurse just informed me that he's asleep, but you all can come by  later on. Mrs Russell, to be utterly honest, his mind is the hurdle to him living. I don't know what has happened to him, but he needs closure or he might forever remain a lifeless being."

"I understand, thank you," she cuts the call and sits on the sofa with her head in her hands.

Kiaan rubs her back and tries not to cry as well as the others in the room. Ara taps his shoulder and he looks up at her. She makes an eye gesture toward Ellie, who is standing outside just where he bumped into her.

Raw anger shot through him and he clenched his fists tightly. He looks at Ellie and bolts toward her.

He grabs her by the arm, "Who are you? It's because of this face that he's suffering in hospital, get out his life once and for all."

"Kiaan!" Susheel frees her from his grip. Rubbing her hand, she moves backward and says, "Thank you," to Susheel.

"I can understand this kind of behavior, it's okay. When one is under a lot of rage, this usually happens-," she gets interrupted.

"Cut out the crap and answer the question," he says with his anger only increasing with each word.

"Xandra, psychotherapist from the Kerden Unit. Most importantly, I'm the one who was never mentioned."