Love’s Final Reveal

Lola lay lifeless on the hard, cold bed.

“Is she dead?”

A few men in dusty yellow camouflage stood in front of the bed and looked at the sleeping woman. They focused on her arms, covered in a blue–striped hospital gown which was now stained with blood spots of various sizes. Her hands told a grim tale, with blood and bits of flesh caught under her fingernails.

One man lifted the sleeve of her gown. What was revealed underneath took them aback.

Her usually delicate arm was swollen, covered in a mix of deep and shallow cuts. Some of the blood had dried, while in other places, the wounds seemed stuck to the sleeve. As the sleeve was lifted, some of the cuts reopened, oozing. fresh droplets of blood.

They quickly took another look at the woman’s pale face.

“Eric, go buy some medicine, she needs to be bandaged up!” one of the men said, unable to hide his sympathy.

“Darn it!” Eric Wilson blurted out in frustration and walked out.

Soon, Eric was back with a plastic bag. He looked at the sleeping woman and grumbled, “Great, I didn’t make a penny from this, and now I’m out 40 dollars for the medicine.”

The others burst out laughing as they heard this. Eric had bought a lot of medicine, including patches, gauze, alcohol, fever medicine, a thermometer, adhesive tape, and some anti– inflammatory drugs. They used almost everything on Lola.

Suddenly, one of the men remembered something and asked Eric, “What’s the situation outside?”

“Nothing out there.” Eric replied. “It’s been two days, and it seems like the hospital doesn’t even know a patient is missing. The Sinclairs had no idea too. It’s like we’ve been forgotten. There is news, though. The media broke a story about Mr. Sinclair picking up Ms. Moore from the hospital after her miscarriage and taking her to dine at the Carlton. Restaurant.

The room went quiet for a moment

It took almost an entire bottle of alcohol to disinfect and bandage Lola’s nearly ruined arms.

“Thank you…

A weak voice suddenly spoke up, startling everyone. They all turned to see Lola, who had woken up at some point and was observing them in silence.

“We took you away, and you say thank you?”

Eric glared at Lola, his tone laced with annoyance.

Lola glanced at her arms that were wrapped in bandages, and then looked calmly at the group.

“Thank you.”

The men exchanged bewildered looks, unsure of what to say. One of them grabbed a rope to tie up Lola, but was unable to bring himself to do it upon seeing her injured arm.

“We’re not going to tie you up. Just behave and we’ll let you go when the time comes.”

434 PM

Lola’s eyes flickered upon hearing they would release her, as if she wanted to say something, but she remained silent

in the end.

The men left the cramped, dirty room one after the other. Eric was the last to leave. Just as he reached the door, he suddenly turned back to look at the pale woman lying on the bed. “There’s fever medicine in the bag. Make sure you take it. Don’t let it go to waste!”

“Sure,” Lola weakly uttered, then turned her gaze towards the palm–sized window on the wall.

Her thoughts weren’t on why she had been taken away, but rather on whom they would call for ransom- the Sinclair family. Dominick, or the Mitchell family.

After two days of clear weather, a sudden violent storm erupted in the evening, with lightning flashing and thunder rolling. Heavy raindrops hammered down, shrouding an old, deserted factory.

In the factory, a small group of men huddled around a firewood pile, their chatter echoing through the space. They warmed their hands over the flickering flames while munching on sandwiches. Every now and then, thunder rumbled outside, casting a hush over the world. In those moments, it felt as though they were the only ones in existence, tucked away in a forgotten corner of the earth.

Eric took a bite of the sandwich and then suddenly sniffed the air.

“What’s wrong, Eric?” a man noticed and asked.

Eric put down his sandwich, wiped his nose, and sniffed again, frowning in confusion.

“Why do I smell blood?”

Eric’s keen senses were well–known among the group. His nose was as sharp as a hound’s, and if Eric said there was a smell of blood, then he would be telling the truth. They looked around, but none of them were injured, except for Lola, who had been locked in the small room.

They got up and hurried towards the corner room, with Eric ahead.

The door creaked open, and the sight that greeted them was startling.

The woman who had been lying motionless on the bed now crouched on the floor, her eyes brimming with tears. She tightly clutched a triangular shard of glass in one hand, repeatedly slicing her other arm. The gauze that had once bandaged her arm was now scattered, bloodied mess around her.

Numerous cuts made by the glass crisscrossed over the bloody marks from her fingernails. Her skin, turned inside out, wept with blood.

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t push her… Dom, why? I regret it, Dom!

As Lola gazed at her arm, she murmured to herself while cutting.

“Have you lost your mind?”

Seeing Lola about to cut again, Eric immediately shouted and ran over, seizing the piece of glass aimed at her arm. The others hurried to help, wresting the glass from Lola’s hand and tossing it aside.

As a clap of thunder boomed outside, Lola’s face contorted with panic. She looked up at the group, her voice breaking.

“It hurts!”

“What did you expect? Of course, it hurts after what you’ve done.”

Eric scolded angrily, glancing at Lola’s blood–soaked arm. He hesitated for a moment before looking up at another

man.

“Brian, take her to the hospital, or she will bleed to death”

Brian Martin, watching Lola, knew that bringing her to the hospital would expose them all, yet he made up his mind. Before he could speak, Lola suddenly changed expression and scrambled backward, shaking her head and crying profusely.

“I won’t go to the hospital, I won’t…

The image of people embracing and cold words echoed in her ears. Lola looked at the people around her and pleaded

in terror.

“Please. I’m begging you, don’t take me to the hospital.”

The others stared at Lola in shock. Soon, blood trickled down her forehead. It was Eric who reacted first, crouching down to stop her.

“Alright, we won’t take you there!”

After saying this, Eric got up and walked towards the door, all the while expressing his frustration.

“I’ll get some medicine. Seriously, I don’t owe you anything!”

That night, Lola’s mind swung between clarity and confusion. Everyone noticed that whenever there was thunder outside, Lola would become emotionally agitated, trying to numb her pain by hurting herself. Until the rain outside quieted down in the late night and the thunder ceased, Lola gradually drifted into a restless sleep.

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