Chapter 21
Dimitri
"So, shall we?", Mark asked. "Your blood results are here."
"Shoot", Rose replied with an easy air around her.
How could she be so calm? I asked myself. I couldn't believe how collected she was. I know I was sweating and thinking about all the possibilities. No matter what Rose said, it wasn't normal to just puke and faint out of nowhere. Something was wrong with her and I had no idea what it was. I just hoped it wasn't anything serious and Mark could help us.
Of course, the thought of Rose being pregnant crossed my mind. And honestly? I was scared shitless! I didn't want a child of my own, not now, definitely not now! If there really was a child on the way I would probably love it to no end and spoil it with everything I've got, but right now was not the right time. I could lose so much, Rose could lose so much, we both would ruin everything we had now and never know if we would have stayed together on our own account.
But then, I looked at Rose and suddenly there was this image forming inside of my head. I saw myself a little older, I saw Rose also in an older version and I saw our child on a swing. I saw our little daughter – yes, I was certain that if we would ever get a child, it would definitely be a girl – laughing and giggling. She looked exactly like her mother and I felt pride swell in my chest. She had the dark brown locks from her mother, the smooth and porcelain skin. She looked so much like her, but I could still see a little bit of myself in her.
"Okay", Mark started and pulled me out of my little fantasy.
I felt a cold sweat break out on my neck and in my palms. I could hear the strong beating of my heart loud in my ears. Suddenly it was hotter than before, too hot. And now I was feeling sick. Why couldn't he just tell us already? Why did he have to torture me?
"Your blood results show that there is something in your blood that shouldn't be there. Right now, I am not sure what it is. We will have to do another test."
"What does that mean?", I asked.
What was wrong with Rose? God damn it, why couldn't he just spit it out?
"What's wrong with her, Mark?", I asked.
"Maybe nothing", he reassured us. "But if the worst case occurs you may have cancer, Rose. I'm sorry."
What? No. No, this couldn't be true. Rose couldn't have cancer, Rose couldn't die. This just wasn't possible. She said she was feeling fine, she said she was okay. It just wasn't possible.
I already had enough bad things happening to me, my family or my friends. Rose certainly wouldn't be one of them. She didn't deserve it. If there was one person in this world that didn't deserve something like this, it had to be Rose. God couldn't be so cruel, he wouldn't be.
"What?", Rose gasped. "I- I- "
"No", I interrupted.
I had no idea why I said it and what I was saying at all, but it fell out of my mouth and I couldn't stop the words that flew out of me.
Rose needed to know she was fine, she needed to believe she was fine.
"You don't have cancer, you hear me?", I growled. "You don't. You will be fine. He said it was a worst case scenario, not that you do have cancer, okay? You're healthy, you're fine and these other stupid tests will prove exactly that, are we clear?"
Rose and Mark stared at me, Rose with an open mouth and wide eyes. Her eyes glistened a little and tears were about to fall from her eyes. With my hand, I reached for her cheek and cupped it, stroking it lightly with my thumb.
"Are we clear?", I repeated myself, calmer and in soft voice this time.
Rose couldn't form words, I saw that in the way she tried to even her breathing and gulped noisily. Instead, she nodded with a trembling bottom lip.
"Everything's fine", I comforted her and pulled her into a hug.
Her hands grabbed my shirt in a tight grip and she sobbed into my chest. I could feel her trembling in my arms, but no tears left her eyes.
"A nurse will take another blood sample. I'm sorry, but you have to leave then. It will take us at least 12 hours to get the results so there is no point in keeping you here. Get some sleep at home and come back tomorrow."
Waiting. Waiting meant torture, torture for both of us. Hours of not knowing, not being sure, not being able to form one intelligent thought. But I couldn't think like that, I needed to comfort Rose, to keep her occupied and don't let her think about this.
-o-o-o- Thrown Into His World -o-o-o-
10.27AM.
Only three more minutes, only three more. Only three, that's not that bad, that's okay. I only had to count to 180, that wasn't so bad. I mean, really, how bad could it be? One … Two … Three … Four. Oh no, I bet the three minutes are over, I thought about these three minutes at least three minutes, right?
10.27AM.
What? Why the hell was this taking so long?! Maybe the clock was broken? I bet it was. Did they know it was? Maybe I should tell someone, it could be -
10.28AM
No, not broken. Well, only another two minutes. See this one minute has gone by fast, it – OH WHAT THE HELL AM I THINKING?!
"I'm gonna ask if they're ready for you", I said to Rose and rose from my chair.
Practically running over to the reception, I didn't notice Mark walking down the hall towards me.
"Nurse", I called.
The nurse behind the desk didn't even look up, she just hold up a finger and kept on talking to someone on the phone.
"Nurse", I growled.
She hold up two fingers and I ended her call for her. She gasped and looked wide-eyed at me. It was like she wanted to tell me "Oh no, you didn't just do that".
"Oh, I did", I growled. "My name is Dimitri Belikov, you know who I am?"
I glared at the nurse and she visibly paled.
"I- I- I- I'm so s- s- sorry" the nurse stuttered and began trembling. "I- I- I- I thought y- you-"
"Do I look like I care about what you thought?!"
"B- B- But I- I- I-"
"Mary, it's okay", Mark interrupted her stuttering and let a hand fall on my shoulder. "Mr. Belikov." He nodded at me. "Let's get your wife, shall we?"
"Mark, tell me", I rushed out and grabbed his shoulders. "You have to tell me, Mark. Is Rose okay? Is she okay? Will she live? Come on, you have to tell me, man, I can't take this anymore!"
While I ranted my little speech and yelled at Mark to finally end my misery, I didn't see Rose standing up and coming towards Mark and me. But suddenly, I felt her hands on my right arm, trying to pull it away from Mark.
"Calm down, Dimitri", Rose whispered.
Her eyes, those beautiful brown eyes looked sad, broken and like she already gave up. It tore my heart apart. My hands fell from Mark's shoulders and engulfed Rose's face.
"Don't look at me like that", I said. "You're okay."
"We don't know that", she whispered.
"Maybe I can help with that", Mark interfered. "Follow me."
Mark nodded behind him and began walking down the hall again. I took Roza's hand in mine and intertwined our fingers. I gave her hand a light squeeze and we began following Mark. It took us about 20 seconds, but it felt like we walked miles instead of meters.
When we finally made it into the room we were last time, Mark turned around and smiled at us.
"First of all, you don't have cancer", he told us.
"Oh thank God", I sighed in relief.
Before Rose could see me coming, I had her up in my arms and spun her around. I laughed whole heartily, not being able to believe my luck. My shoulder became wet and I heard quiet sobbing coming from Rose.
"I'm okay", she whispered into my shoulder again and again and again.
"Yes, you're okay", I replied.
"Actually", Mark interrupted.
Rose and I turned and looked questioningly at Mark. He wanted us to sit down, so we did and looked a little worried at Mark.
"So Rose", Mark began. "As I said, you do not have cancer, but there is something wrong with you. We found poison in your system."
"Poison?", Rose gasped.
"Yes, you have a plumbism", Mark answered.
"What the hell is that?", I asked.
"You know plump, I don't have to explain that. Well, it looks like someone put a great amount of plump into Rose's food or drink. Your body noticed the change and made you throw up. You can be lucky about that, otherwise you could be dead by now."
"B- But shouldn't I have tasted or smelled that?", Rose asked.
"Depends", Mark shook his head. "And obviously you didn't."
"Who would do something like this?", Rose asked. "And why me?"
That was a damn good question.
-o-o-o- Thrown Into His World -o-o-o-
Rose
Now, a few days later, I was back to my old self. Dimitri and I, we were back to our old selves, well, almost. But we we're okay, I guess.
Dimitri was convinced that whoever tried to poison me or possibly kill me, was someone we knew. I couldn't believe that and I didn't want to either. But Dimitri didn't gave up upon that idea. He installed cameras in our apartment and at school and hired men to watch the videos 24/7. Whenever they thought someone looked suspicious, they showed the material to Dimitri. It was always a little tense at home, but after a while, I didn't even notice anymore.
-o-o-o- Thrown Into His World -o-o-o-
Unknown
It was dark.
It was close to midnight.
It was supposed to be a quiet night.
It was in a little alley, where no one was supposed to be at this time at night.
Two groups of boys stood opposite each other.
Two leaders glaring at each other, clenching their hands into fists.
One was blond, had jade green eyes and an arrogant smirk on his lips.
The other one was dark haired, had brown eyes and looked royally pissed.
"I know it was you", the dark one growled.
"Whatever could you mean?", mocked the blond one.
94 seconds passed from that moment on, until the first fist flew and broke a nose.
It took another 284 seconds for the first guy to stumble to the ground.
And another 43 seconds for him to die on the street.
He wasn't the only one who died that night.
18 guys walked into the alley, only 13 made it out alive.
6 of them still laid in the alley, unconscious and a second away from a coma.
7 guys were lucky and made it out with a few bruises, broken bones and bloody scratches.
Andre Dragomir wasn't one of them.
Jesse Zeklos wasn't one of them.
Adrian Ivashkov wasn't one of them.
Christian Ozera wasn't one of them.
Mason Ashford wasn't one of them.
Ivan Zeklos wasn't one of them.
Dimitri Belikov wasn't one of them.
Eddie Castile was one of them, one of the lucky guys.
He was the one who called an ambulance.
An ambulance that came too late for one of those seven guys.