Blood and Aurora

The door closed behind him. Cole left.

I stood there blankly for two seconds. It took a long moment before I finally came back to my senses. Then, I found my lawyer’s number and dialed it.

“Hello. I’d like you to draft a divorce agreement for me as soon as possible. We don’t have any shared property. There are only some debts that need to be divided. The sooner the better. Thank you.”

After hanging up, the rain outside the window seemed to grow heavier. Along with it, my breathing grew hotter and faster. Maybe it was because I had gotten soaked in the rain outside the supermarket, or maybe it was the aftershock of my emotions rising and crashing all at once.

Dragging my heavy steps, I returned to the bedroom. When I checked my temperature, it read 38.5 degrees Celsius, which meant I was having a fever.

I searched the house for a long time and finally found a single expired fever pill. However, I couldn’t care about that anymore. I swallowed it with cold water and prayed that when I woke up after some sleep, the fever would be gone, but things turned out far worse than I imagined.

In the middle of the night, I woke up from the pain spreading through my entire body. It felt like a volcano was burning inside me. This couldn’t continue, but my mind was burning and hazy. Almost instinctively, I reached for my phone and tried to call Cole for help.

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”

Only when the tone rang for the third time did my sluggish brain realize something. Cole should be on a flight to Iceland right now. How could he answer the phone?

I let out a dry laugh, which only made my throat hurt even more. I laughed at myself for being so delirious from the fever that I had actually expected him to help me. Then, I thought of a coworker. Even though I hated bothering other people, with my current condition, I had no choice but to swallow my pride.

Alas, the voice that came through the receiver was a mechanical prompt.

“Sorry. Your phone service has been suspended due to an outstanding balance. Please top up your account as soon as possible to restore service.”

Suspended?

I tried to top up the account and opened the payment page, but where could the money come from? Our account balance showed 41 cents. It wasn’t even enough to buy the cheapest phone plan.

The phone service and internet were tied together. If the phone service was cut off, it meant the internet was gone too. I couldn’t even send a message asking for help, so I had to save myself.

Luckily, the map app still worked. Squinting through my fever haze, I struggled to search for the nearest 24-hour hospital. The closest one was five kilometers away. If I had a car, it wouldn’t be that far.

With that thought, I forced myself to the garage and turned on the light to find it empty. Only then did it slowly occur to me that Cole had sent the car off for modifications yesterday. At the time, I had suggested renting a car temporarily. After all, we lived in the suburbs, and getting around wasn’t convenient.

Cole had immediately shaken his head. “There’s a bus stop and a subway station right outside. Why waste money like that? I’m just changing the exhaust pipe. The shop works fast. I’ll drive it back tomorrow. What could happen? Stop worrying about nothing.”

Yet, there was no car now.

I stood there, shivering all over, barely able to stay on my feet. If the fever kept rising like this, I might die here alone in the house.

No. I had to get to the hospital.

Using the last of my strength, I pulled out the thickest down jacket from the closet. I layered on two pairs of pants, pulled my socks up high, and wrapped a scarf messily around my neck and mouth, trying to trap the little warmth there was. I couldn’t lift an umbrella, so I put on a raincoat instead.

When I pushed the door open, Sunnytown at 3:30 a.m. felt like a giant wet refrigerator. The cold seeped straight into my bones. Every step I took felt like I was walking on clouds, dizzy and unsteady. I kept my head down and walked, too afraid to stop, when suddenly, several pairs of dirty shoes stopped in front of me, blocking my path.

Slowly, I lifted my head. Three men stood there. They were soaked from the rain, and the heavy stench of alcohol and tobacco clung to them. They grinned at me with excited, lewd smiles. In that instant, I knew something was wrong.

I turned and tried to run, but one of them grabbed me and yanked back the hood of my raincoat.

“You’re dressed so thick… What good stuff are you hiding under there?”

A hoarse scream tore from my throat. “No… Get away from me!”

However, two of them had grabbed me and dragged me toward the darker woods nearby.