Chapter 29: Harsh Reality
THE NEXT DAY (Mid-afternoon)
Simon got back from an outing; he walked in with an airport schedule. He found an Internet café nearby and went in to get the information he needed. Simon was careful that he wasn't spotted and was lucky no one asked questions. When he returned and walked in he saw Tom looking out the window with a bottle of Scotch in his hand and Renee was still in the bed.
He walked up and joined his friend by the window and gave him the schedule he copied from the Internet. Tom hands Simon the bottle and takes the paper and looked over it then looks up at Simon who was taking a drink from the bottle.
"It's a well planed schedule, but I'm afraid we can't go right now! Renee is still too weak! I… I… don't think she is going to make it." Tom painfully admitted.
"We have to think positive! We just can't give up now! There is hope, there has to be!"
"FINE!! You can play make believe all you want, but I am looking at the big picture and I say that this journey is over!" Tom stopped to light up a cigarette. He blows out a puff of smoke from his mouth as he again looks out the window. "You can make it, if you think you can!"
"What?"
"You have more strength then us. Plus, I'm not going to leave Renee."
"I can't just leave you guys! You're my friends! I'd rather stay here and die with people I know and care about, then die alone on that Island! Or anywhere else for that matter!"
"Then we are at an agreement? We stay?" Tom looked over at Simon with terror in his eyes. Simon solemnly nods in agreement and tears up his well-planned schedule and throws it in the garbage beside the bed.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
EARLY NEXT MORNING
Simon woke up in extreme pain; he started to cough as he began to feel his lungs. Slowly he got up and staggered into the bathroom. Once he makes it to the sink, he takes off his glasses before washing his face. He then puts his hands together and makes a cup shape with them. This enabled him so he could bring water to his lips and drink. After his coughing was under control he dried off with the hotel towel and put his glasses back on his face.
As he was walking out of the bathroom he noticed Tom and Renee still sleeping on the bed, only something didn't seem right. Renee was laying on her right side facing Simon and some of her red hair was covering her face. The longer he looked at her, the sooner he realized that she wasn't breathing. It took him with such force that he had to lean against the doorframe for support.
He managed enough strength to walk up to Renee and move some hair strands from her face. Her eyes were slightly open and without life. He also noticed an elastic band still rapped around her upper arm and the syringe lied beside her arm. Some of the bed sheet looked stained by the drug as well as a few drops of blood from the needle. Simon closed his eyes as tears began fall down his face. 'She O.D.'d!' He immediately thought. "Oh, no!" The words quivered out of his mouth.
"What is it now, Simon?" Tom sighed; obviously he had not noticed what has just happened. He was sleeping in the opposite direction facing the wall.
Simon was almost afraid to say it, but he knew he would find out sooner or later. "It's Renee, Tom…She's dead!" He managed to squeak through his tears.
"WHAT!!" Tom shot up like a bolt of lightning and looked right at Simon, who was too upset to even speak now. Simon sat on the floor beside the bed and had his right hand covering his face as the tears rolled uncontrollably down his cheeks.
Tom rolled Renee over to look at his love and to see if Simon was telling the truth. He began to cry hysterically as he hugged Renee's lifeless body and rocked it gently back and forth. "Nooo!! Oh god, NO!!" He screamed, hoping that this is just all a nightmare and that he'd soon wake up.
"What do we do now, Tom? What do we do now?" Simon asked, after re-finding his voice.
Tom looked up and saw Simon looking back hopefully. "I want you to get out!"
"What?"
"You heard me! Get out!! Leave us!!"
Simon, for some reason, didn't feel right just leaving Tom alone right now. But maybe if he just leaves for a smoke then come back maybe Tom will be more level headed, and together they would be able to work something out.
"Ok," he said as he got up with sudden shakes through out his body. "I-I-I'll just go for a bit…then come right back." After whipping his tears from his face, Simon puts his coat on and grabbed his smokes and the small silver flask filled with some Rum, he then left the room.
Tom watched as he left, "I'm sorry, Simon." He whispered after Simon closed the door. The moment he dreaded the most has just happened. Tom carefully laid Renee back down on the bed and just watched her for a moment. With the slightest hope he figured she would blink, look up at him, and give him one of her most beautiful smiles. But that didn't happen. More tears raced down his face as his lower lip quivered in sorrow.
He then combed back her soft red hair with his fingers and moved it away from her face. Out of respect, he then closed her eyes fully. Taking both of her hands, he over-lapped them neatly on her stomach. Then he reached over to the table at his end of the bed and pulled out the gun, which he took from the Drug Dealer, out from the drawer. After checking to see if there were still any bullets in it he looked at his loves' body on last time, and gave a slight smile. "I will be with you soon, my love! I promise, my soul will find you again!"
Outside Simon was just coming out of the Hotel Inn and he was trying to light up his cigarette when a loud bang startled him. Simon immediately knew it was the sound of a gun and that it came from their room. "Tom?" He whispered as he dropped his cigarette.
He at first couldn't move, until he starting to hear sirens from a police car coming his way. Even though the police might not be responding to the gunshot from the Hotel, possibly heading to another call, but still Simon suddenly had the impulse to run. He didn't care where just as long as it wasn't near the Hotel Inn.