JADE:
My eyes fluttered open, and all I could see was white.
I groaned. Is this how heaven looked like?
“Jade… You’re awake!”
I turned my head slowly to the left and saw Liam’s face. His eyes were red and puffy as if he had been crying for a while.
He brushed a hand against my cheeks. Yup, this was heaven alright, but why was Liam here? Was it not Kix who went crashing down with me together towards the first floor?
“What… happened,” I uttered painfully.
“Thank God you’ve woken up, Jade… We thought we lost you forever!”
“Yeah… I thought so too,” I mumbled. As soon as I tried to turn my head into the direction of Liam’s voice, I winced. My body felt too sore to be making even small gestures like this.
“Careful, Jade. You broke so many bones in your body that it’s a wonder you’re still alive.”
“Yes. It’s all thanks to -” Just then, I remembered something that made me immediately bolt upwards from the bed.
“Liam, what… Who-?”
I didn’t know how to ask my questions. The words were all jumbled inside my head.
“How long had I been here?”
“Two days.”
Two days? Thank God, I still recovered. I thought I was dead for sure!
“What happened,” I said, finally asking the question I had meant to ask earlier.
“The fire alarm sounded throughout the dorm. Thankfully, there was no fire. You were lucky you got to the hospital in time, Jade.”
“Was it just me?... Who… Who else got into the hospital?”
I held my breath. I was afraid to find out the truth… Was Kix’s secret exposed because of me? Did they discover Gary’s body? How was Kix?
“Kix was there with you. He was also taken into the ICU. He still hasn’t recovered yet,” Liam said, moving closer towards me.
I sighed in relief. Thank God they found both Kix and I… Hopefully, he’d recover soon as well…
“Was there anyone else? Other than Kix and I, was there someone else,” I gulped.
“No one was there… It was just you and Kix on a heap of ash and asphalt.”
I clenched my fist weakly. Does that mean Gary was still alive somewhere? He didn’t die from that fall?
I shook my head. There were legends that say vampires turn to ask when they die. Was it true in this case too? I wish I could really find the answer. It’s quite unsettling to think that Gary was still alive somewhere…
Liam brushed a few strands of hair away from my face. “I know I shouldn’t be asking you this yet, but… what happened back there? I regretted staying at the restaurant to speak with the captain. If I had known you’d get into an accident like this, I wouldn’t have shouted at you back then too… I should have taken you home. I’m so sorry…”
I looked at Liam’s morose face. It looked like he hadn’t slept a wink.
I could still trust Liam, right? Would he still believe me if I tell him the entire truth?
“If… If I told you that vampires attacked me, would you believe me, Liam?”
I looked at his stunned face, and for a while, I dreaded what his reply would be.
“Tell me about it, Jade… Tell me what happened.”
There was something comforting and convincing in the way Liam looked at me. It felt as if I could trust him with this secret.
I proceeded to tell him everything from the start about Marian. I was even compelled to tell him the truth about Kix.
When I finished, I felt my heart racing inside my rib cage.
What did I just do? Why did I reveal these secrets to Liam?...
Although he was someone I love, I shouldn’t have just told him about these things casually.
He stroked the top of my head gently. “Thank you for telling me the truth, Jade... How are you feeling now?”
“Terrible,” I mumbled. How I was able to go through the ordeal of telling Liam about what happened after just opening my eyes was a miracle in itself.
“Just take it easy for now. I informed Captain Rigdon about your suspicions of Gary Eduardo. He had already put him in the suspects’ list. I’m sure they’d be able to catch him in no time.”
I felt a bit better after hearing all of that from Liam. At the same time, wouldn’t that be futile? Since he was a vampire, they would probably never capture him should he be alive…
“Do you want some coffee,” Liam offered after he adjusted my bed into a semi-sitting position.
“Um, if it’s okay, then yeah,” I said. The terrible ache in my head was really asking for some caffeine.
“What did the captain tell you,” I asked as he turned around into the nearby table to fix us some instant coffee.
“He just asked me about you and how we’ve gotten acquainted - you know, just typical police questions.” Liam then continued to explain what he said to Captain Rigdon.
“Did he say anything about the serial killings?”
“No, but I think they will continue running an investigation about it. He’s just concerned about your interest in Marian’s case.”
“Uh huh,” I answered back absentmindedly.
The rest of Liam’ story escaped my attention. My mind wandered on something else.
There was a side table to my left side, and on it was Liam’s black knapsack.
I would have paid no attention to it since it was black and boring. I was used to the colors Liam typically stuck to: dark blue, black, or gray. There was one thing however that made me smile when I looked at it.
I reached for the small bottle of mementos he used as a key chain. I have seen it before, but I continued to finger the trinket he wounded around it – a tiny silver star sewn on a red lace.
I remembered how he snatched this trinket from my clothing a few days ago when we first slept together.
There were other things inside the small bottle too, but I couldn’t quite see them from where the bottle was dangled.
I looked at Liam. He was still immersed in explaining what Captain Rigdon told him on the night of our accident.
I carefully removed the keychain from Liam’s bag. I wanted to take a closer look at this odd assortment of things he kept with him when he clearly didn’t like trinkets like these.
I shook it a bit and saw that there were tiny powders of colored sand and stones inside.
I began to wonder - did these stones mean something to him? Were they also from his previous girlfriends too?...
I shook it again. One of the white stones actually looked like someone’s fallen tooth… And the other one… why did it look like a piece of manicured nail?
The ends of my hair stood as I looked at the final decoration…
I couldn’t be mistaken. It looked like a black mother of pearl.