Her Lifeless Breathing Body

The clouds were roaring loudly. The rain was falling heavily. The darkness of the evening had turned more inky because of the gloomy weather. Zian halted his car in front of the hospital. Stepping out of his car, he went straight inside.

He saw Leo standing outside that room where that girl was kept. His facial features hardened as soon as Leo's eyes darted towards him. It was clear that he didn't like Leo, not only because their vibes never matched with each other but also because his father always told him to be like Leo…..A so-called responsible person. 

Zian mentally scowled. Who was going to tell his dad that Leo was being responsible and faithful to him just because he was paying for Leo's and his mother's, Romana, livelihood and expenses, from Leo's childhood. So he was just returning his favour by being faithful towards his father.

"Are they inside?" Zian asked him, clearly indicating that he was in no mood for a long conversation with him. Leo also just wagged his head. 

After that, Zian pushed the door open and went inside the room. This was the second time he had come to that hospital. Zian saw his parents sitting beside the bed where that girl was lying. He was going to see that girl for the first time who had saved his mother's life by putting her own life at stake. He wondered whether she is too brave to do something so selfless like this or is she too naive and dumb?

He knocked on the door, gaining his parents' attention. They looked at him. A clear sign of confusion washed on their faces as they saw him there. His parents walked towards him.

"Zian? What are you doing here?" His mother asked him. Zian sighed before answering.

"I was worried about you both, so I decided to come. I hadn't seen you both from the past couple of days,"

Zian noticed a small smile formed on his mother's face, at his answer. 

"We are fine. Don't worry," his mother uttered, smilingly. Zian was about to ask them when they were planning on coming back home when a knock on the door halted him.

"Mr and Mrs Karlson. The doctor is calling you both in his cabin. He needs to talk to you both about the patient's condition immediately," The nurse, standing in the door, informed.

Zian noticed his parents exchanging a worried glance after hearing the nurse.

"Zian, stay with her till me and Zia don't come," 

Zian turned stunned, hearing his father, because he didn't want to stay with that dying girl, but nonetheless, he agreed by understanding the situation.

He nodded and then his parents left the room, leaving him alone with that girl who was still in coma. With a frown on his face, Zian walked towards the bed and stood beside it.

Finally he got a glimpse of that little girl who did that courageous act of saving his mother. He couldn't watch her face properly because of the oxygen mask she was wearing. She looked like a teenager. Her entire head and neck was wrapped in white bandages. It felt like she was on the edge of losing her life. Anybody would have mistaken her for a lifeless body if not for that electrocardiography machine monitor running beside her.

Zian didn't know what to do there to pass his time. He just waited for his parents to come back, so that he could leave this lifeless breathing body alone.

To pass the time, he decided to play a game on his phone. Taking out his phone, he sat on the bed, beside her and started playing.

"Damn…." He snarled, losing the game. In annoyance, Zian placed his palm on the bed beside him and scowled at his phone's screen, but then he felt something warm and tender tickling against his hand. 

He turned his head and his eyes widened a bit, witnessing that girl's fingers moving slowly. Hurriedly stepping down from the bed, he looked at her face and saw her eyelids were slowly moving too. 

She slowly opened her lashes and Zian got a glimpse of her light brown eyes through her half closed lids. She was awake. Turning alert, he decided to call the doctor and his parents, so he dashed out of the door.

"Leo, where is mum and dad? Tell them, the girl is getting back her consciousness," Zian said to Leo, still in shock.

The news enlarged Leo's eyes too. He nodded immediately and called Zian's dad, Damien.

Within a minute, the team of doctors and his parents reached the ward room. They all went inside, but Zian was in no mood to go inside again, so he settled himself on a chair outside the room and decided to play another game on his phone again which he had lost a little while ago.

………..

Her vision was blurry and drowsy. She didn't even know where she was. All she could feel was a painful numbness running across each and every nerve in her body. 

Blurry figures came in front of her vision. She attempted to blink her eyes but even moving her eyelashes were feeling painful to her now. Somehow, she managed to blink her eyes slowly and cleared her vision a bit.

She saw a couple of strangers but one face among them seemed familiar to her. That woman, whom she saved from that car hit. Finally, things started becoming clearer to her. She remembered running away from those monsters, that park and then this woman who was standing in the middle of the road and that car which was about to hit her. She recalled everything, how brutally that car hitted her and how much pain she had felt at that moment.

"Can you hear us?" She heard a man asking her. Looking at his dressing, she understood he was a doctor. She slowly blinked her eyes in her reply to him. Nodding head seemed painful to her.

The doctor checked the ECG monitor. Her heartbeat was running at a normal speed, so the doctor decided to remove her oxygen mask to check whether she could breath without it or not.

Luckily she was able to breathe on her own after the doctors removed the oxygen mask from her face.

Now her eyesight turned more clear. She could see everyone's faces clearly. She slowly wandered her eyes at everyone but her gaze stopped at that woman whom she had saved. She saw that woman had tears in her eyes as she was looking down at her.

"What is your name?" She heard the doctor asking her again. Slowly unlatching her mouth, she tried to answer but all she could feel was a painful throbbing in her throat. She moved her lips and tried to speak but no sound came out of her mouth.

The doctors thoroughly examined her condition and again asked her.

"What is your name?"

She could feel her lips moving as she attempted to answer but again her voice didn't come out of her throat. Her eyes watered immediately. Tears started leaking from the corner of her eyes. She was trying to speak but her voice could not be heard. She couldn't hear herself now.

Immediately understanding the situation, the doctors tried to ask her some other things. They tried to make her speak but all she could do was just move her lips. No sound came out of her mouth. The tears in her eyes turned abrupt. She couldn't understand what was happening to her. Why was she not capable of speaking anymore?

She started whimpering in helplessness but even her whimpers came out as nothing but sudden abrupt gasps. Her throat started hurting badly as she started sobbing silently. Her breathing accelerated. 

The doctors hurriedly put the oxygen mask back on her face, but she turned restless. She tried to remove that oxygen mask from her face. She started moving her body vigorously, so the doctors had to give her anaesthesia, so that she couldn't harm herself under that situation.

Zia and Damien who were witnessing everything with a startled and bewildered reaction, saw that girl turning completely numb again.

"What happened to her, doctor? Why couldn't she speak?" Damien asked, desperate to know the answer. Doctor sighed before glancing at the patient.

"We were afraid that this situation was going to arise after she would wake up," the doctor uttered, looking at Damien.

"There were high chances of her memory or voice loss because of the injuries her head and vocal cords had gotten and it looks like her vocal cords had gotten most affected," the doctor took a breath before stating his next statement.

"She has lost her ability to speak," 

Both Zia's and Damien's eyes broadened, hearing the doctor.

"And there's no guarantee that if she would ever be able to regain her voice even after receiving therapies or any kind of medical help,"

The appalled couple gave each other a terrified look, processing the meaning behind the doctor's words.

"We don't know yet if she has lost her voice permanently or temporarily and in order to find out we need to run tests and examination on her but she is not in a right state of mind currently, so we have to delay this examination for now,"

Damien sighed and nodded.

"Doctor, do everything possible to turn her health fine in every possible way,"

"We are trying, Mr Karlson and the good news currently in all of this is that her life is out of danger now," the doctor told the couple. They nodded and then the doctor left.

Damien saw his wife tearing up. He knew she was blaming herself for the girl's condition. He hugged his wife and placed her head on his chest.

"She will be alright, Zia. Don't worry please,"

His wife didn't reply but just clutched him tightly. How would she ever be able to forgive herself if that innocent soul never got back her voice again? That thought clenched her heart in guilt and remorse. Even her husband became extremely worried, knowing about the girl's condition. The couple just wished to turn everything for that innocuous and selfless hearted girl who dared to think about a stranger's life before her own self.

Next morning, the girl regained consciousness again. The couple noticed how broken she looked when she couldn't speak and communicate with anyone. But the thing which stunned them was how bravely she tried to cope up with her condition and tried to deal with it after knowing about it. Indeed, she was a really courageous girl.

Her back was leaned against the headboard, as she was sitting on the bed. She wanted to get up, so the doctors helped her by making her sit on the bed. Zia and Damien, they both were sitting beside him. Damien was trying to find out about the girl's family from the day all of this had started, but his men couldn't find anything about her or her background.

Zia caressed that girl's face. They didn't try to talk with her in the start as they knew it would hurt her both physically and emotionally, but the girl herself gestured to them to bring something on which she could write and answer their questions. They were getting astonished by her braveness with each passing second.

They brought her a pen and notebook. She told them to ask her their questions by writing it down in the notebook. The couple felt extremely bad but they noticed there was no remorse in the girl's eyes after what she did. In fact, her golden brown eyes gleamed up in happiness when she got to know that Zia was completely fine. After everything, the girl asked Zia about her wellness and this thing pierced through that couple's heart.

"What is your name and how old are you, dear?" Zia asked the girl, tenderly. The girl wrote her answer down on the paper and then showed it to them.

'My name is Kaya Haiden. I am 15 years old..' it was written on that paper. Her name stunned the couple, especially Damien because Kaya was his deceased mother's name. What a coincidence was that? They didn't know how, but after hearing her name, the couple started feeling more emotionally attached and connected to her, especially Damien because he had a painful past which had resulted in making him lose his mother, Kaya Karlson. 

He sighed and gently smiled at that 15 year old girl, Kaya.

"Kaya, what is your parents' name and where is your home, dear?" Damien asked her but noticed that her face turned dull and her eyes turned gloomy as soon as he asked her those questions. 

"What happened….." Damien's words halted with the knock on the door. Everyone looked at the door and the couple saw Leo standing at the door.

"Mr. Karlson, a man named Paul Haiden is here. He is claiming that he is this girl's uncle," 

 Kaya's soul froze in terror, hearing that man's name…..Paul Haiden….her worst nightmare.