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墨書 Inktalez
The hospital was filled with a mingled scent, the sharp smell of disinfectant, the bitter aroma of medication, and that damp, indescribable odor, like the lingering echoes of death, silently wafting through the air.
Carter followed the nurse down the long corridor, each step making his heart feel heavier.
His fists were clenched tightly, his nails nearly digging into his palms, but he felt no pain; his mind was consumed by countless "whys."
Why did this happen?
Why was she attacked?
Why hadn’t he insisted on taking her home yesterday?
No answers came to these questions, yet these thoughts coiled around his consciousness like venomous snakes, tearing at his insides with anxiety and regret.
The nurse stopped in front of a patient room, turned to Carter, and said in a low voice, "Once you go in, please remain calm. There are other patients and families here; try to be rational, Mr. Carter."
Carter paused for a moment, nodding stiffly.
The nurse gently pushed open the door, and a soft yet cold white light spilled out from the room, as if time had frozen at that moment.
Inside the room was eerily quiet, almost only the rhythmic ticking of machines could be heard, like the countdown to death, striking at one’s nerves drop by drop.
Carter's gaze fell on the center of the room—Keisha lay on the hospital bed, her face pale as if made of transparent paper, her lips cracked to the point where no color remained.
Her body was covered by a white sheet, but Carter could still see her frailty from the slight rises and falls; her abdomen was wrapped in layers of bandages. Yet even so, her breathing was shallow as if it could stop at any moment.
Her family stood around the bed, each face etched with worry and pain.
One middle-aged woman—perhaps her mother—was quietly sobbing, holding Keisha's hand tightly. A younger man looked furious, his lips pressed together as if struggling to contain his emotions.
Carter's footsteps halted as if nailed to the ground; he could not take another step forward.
At that moment, he could hardly believe that the woman who had smiled at him yesterday and said "let's meet again next time" now lay on the hospital bed fighting for her life.
His chest felt as if it were being crushed by a thousand-pound stone, making it hard for him to breathe, wishing desperately that time could rewind.
The air in the hospital room was almost solid, with only the faint ticking of the machines breaking the silence, resembling a weak heartbeat that seemed like it could stop at any moment.
Carter had just stepped into the room, still processing the scene before him when a low, tense voice suddenly pierced through the air.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Carter's gaze slowly shifted toward the source of the voice.
It was a young man, probably in his twenties, standing beside the hospital bed. His arms were tense, fists clenched tightly, knuckles turning white, and his eyes were like those of a wary beast, fixed intently on Carter.
There was a hostility in his gaze that seemed to warn him—if you dare say the wrong thing, I won’t hesitate to throw you out.
Carter opened his mouth but found his throat too dry to make a sound. Finally, he managed to speak stiffly, his voice trembling slightly. "I’m… I’m Keisha’s friend. I didn’t know what had happened to her, so I rushed over…"
The young man's expression remained tense; he even frowned as if about to say something. But just then, Keisha on the bed stirred slightly, her lips trembling as if she had used all her strength to finally open her eyes.
Her gaze was somewhat unfocused, as if she were struggling to surface from an abyss. Her breathing was so weak it was nearly inaudible, yet she exerted every effort to speak.
"Brother…" Her voice was hoarse, almost a whisper. "He is my… boyfriend…"
The room fell into an eerie silence.
Carter's heart jolted violently, his mind going blank.
"…What?" The young man’s eyes widened in shock.
But Carter no longer had time to be surprised by the truth of Keisha's words; he only felt a wave of intense sorrow and regret wash over him, as if he had been struck hard in the chest, pain radiating from his heart throughout his entire body.
He stepped forward to the bedside and knelt down with a thud, trembling as he reached out to tightly grasp Keisha's pale and cold fingers.
"Keisha..."
His voice was low and shaky, his eyes red-rimmed; he had never felt such fear as he did at that moment.
He had brushed against death on the battlefield, marched through pools of blood over corpses, and watched comrades die before his very eyes countless times. The world had long been cold and cruel to him.
But now, he finally understood what "true fear" was—
He feared that this woman would leave him at this very moment.
The hospital room was silent, the only sound coming from the rhythmic and fragile ticking of the monitoring equipment, as if time was slipping away bit by bit, irretrievably.
Carter knelt beside the bed, gripping Keisha's cold hand tightly, unable to suppress his tears as his shoulders shook with the weight of impending collapse.
"I should have insisted on taking you home yesterday..." His voice trembled, filled with guilt and regret. "If I hadn't let you walk alone... If I had been a little more forceful then... you wouldn't be lying here... It's all my fault... all my fault..."
He could hardly breathe, pain and remorse intertwining into a raging fire that scorched his reason.
This was not a battlefield, nor was it some conspiracy or conflict that could be resolved with guns and violence.
This was something far more despairing than any battlefield—because there was nothing he could do.
"Fool..."
Keisha's voice was so faint it was almost inaudible. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, revealing a faint smile that seemed as fragile as glass, ready to shatter at any moment.
"It's not your fault..." Her fingers moved slightly, as if trying to comfort him. "Don't be like this... I can't bear it..."
Carter lifted his head, tears blurring his vision. His red, swollen eyes fixed intently on her, as if afraid that if he blinked, she would vanish from his world.
“Carter…”
Keisha summoned her last bit of strength to gaze at him, her tone serious yet gentle as she asked, “Do you… like me?”
Carter was taken aback for a moment, then nodded vigorously. Tears streamed down his cheeks, splashing onto the back of Keisha's hand, soaking into her pale skin.
“I like you…” he choked out. “I like everything about you… I love your spirit, your scent, your smile… I love how you look at the world with hope, how you always make me forget how dirty this world is…”
He kept speaking, as if trying to hold onto her with words, as if these late confessions could fill the void of all his regrets.
However, he didn’t notice that the light in Keisha’s eyes was fading little by little, like the last grains of sand slipping through an hourglass, quietly falling and irretrievable.
Her lips still held a faint smile, as if she were listening to him, as if she wanted to respond, but she had already lost the strength to do so.
Her eyelids fluttered slightly before slowly closing.
The beeping of the monitoring equipment suddenly transformed into a long, piercing “beep—.”
In that moment, it felt as if the world had completely collapsed.
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