DIANA
“Branden you’re ok?!” my stupefied self asked.
He blinked twice and morphed out a smile, words couldn’t describe how happy I was to see him awake.
I embraced him and held him tight, I never thought I’d touch or feel him again.
“Diana” he uttered mildly, I could detect the lack of energy and life in his voice. It was low, almost equivalent to a whisper.
“Branden are you ok? How do you feel now?”
“Don’t worry about me, how are you? Did those thugs touch you?” he asked.
“No they didn’t, I’m so sorry for putting you in this mess, I didn’t mean to. Yes we did things in the past that we regret but this wasn’t my prayer for you…..”I kept expressing myself like it was the last time I would ever speak to him. A pool of tears formed around my eyelid and I didn’t hesitate to let them fall.
“I understand Diana, it was never my intention to kill your parents, Yes it was planned but I didn’t want to be part of it. I was threatened be present when your parents were drugged, I was just a young man what did I know? Yes we took drugs and partied even at a very young age but killing people was out of it and I wanted nothing to do with it. They threatened to kill me if I didn’t join the operation but I wasn’t the one drugging them, I didn’t have the heart to” He revealed slowly and less audibly.
I stood and stared at him in blank amazement, I was truly robbed off of speech. I found the information quite difficult to digest.
So I’ve been avoiding Branden for the past one year and he turns out to be quite innocent.
Fuck!
“I wasn’t sure if those were really your parents so I got a picture of them and tried investigating and that’s how you… Ahhhhh” Branden groaned painfully in the middle of his confessions.
“What’s happening to you? Doctor!! Somebody help?!” I yelled loudly. My voice echoed across the emergency ward.
The heart monitor unit increased it’s beeping rate as Branding continued to groan in pains.
“Doctor!” I yelled again.
In a split second the doctor, his nurses, Branden’s parents and Sylvester rushed into the ward.
“Please go you can’t be in here right now” The doctor said to Branden’s parents and I. There was no way I was going to leave Branden alone, he needs me more than ever.
“What’s happening to my son” Mrs Smith cried and struggled to reach Branden when some guards came in and held us both. We struggled and cried.
Branden mustn’t go this way, he can’t leave us just like that. What was I thinking? I didn’t know the full story and I went ahead to cut him off. I wasn’t even ready to hear him out.
With all the years we spent together I can’t let you go, I won’t face this world without you Branden.
“Ma’ams you need to leave or I’ll be forced to use a taser on you” the security guard threatened.
“Get off me!!” I roared before I was forcefully pushed out of the ward.
I came out to meet Mr Smith comforting Sylvester. I was broken to see the whole family sobbing over Branden, all this was because of me.
If I didn’t come out at night he wouldn’t have done what he did for me, if I never left Branden I wouldn’t have been in that mess.
The heart monitor kept beeping rapidly, increasing it’s tempo every second until it stopped beeping and a loud siren replaced the beeping.
No! My heart shattered in a billion pieces.
I hit the door repeatedly and tried pushing through but it was locked.
I caved myself to the floor and let the tears freely escape my eyes, I hope what I’m hearing is different from what’s happening.
I can’t loose Branden just after getting him back.
The ward’s door opened up and everyone rushed to the doctor to hear what the doctor had to say, by the looks of it, our expectations were different from the reality.
The doctor didn’t come out smiling, he came out looking gloomy, irrespective of that we still obliged the doctor to give us the news that we all wanted to hear.
“I’m sorry but…. he is no more” The doctor muttered.
Those words cut deep into my soul, my heart stopped beating and my body stiffened. My world crashed the minute those words left the doctors mouth.
I pushed him and ran into the room to see the nurses using a white tarp to cover Branden up.
My hands covered my mouth and my eyes offloaded a stream of tears.
Shit! so it’s true. Branden is really gone? I wasn’t dreaming when the doctor said so, his heart is no longer beating all because he tried to save me.
He lost his life trying to save me even after cutting him off for a whole year he still loved me and sacrificed his own life for me.
“I’m sorry ma” one of the nurses walked up to me and tried to comfort me, she placed her hand on my back and pated me like a little child.
Branden I’m sorry for everything I caused, I put your life in danger so many times, you risked your life severally to make sure I never left and to make sure I was safe but I still left.
I was too stubborn to listen, I was too fast to judge, I was too slow to think and I jumped into conclusions immediately. I could have avoided all this but I didn’t think twice about what might happen, I just did whatever was right and it made me loose you.
I’m sorry for putting you through alot, I was never grateful for the sacrifices until you could no longer live to sacrifice more for me.
You deserved better Branden, I wish I was better for you.
“Take heart ma, everything will be fine” another nurse prod into my thoughts and i broke into tears one more time. They kept flowing like a river out of my eyes, the more I saw him lie lifelessly on that hospital bed, the more pain I felt.
I wish I was the one to die in his place, he didn’t deserve it, I did.
How will I live without you Branden, I can’t stand and go on with life when you are no longer by my side. You were my entire life and now you are gone.
What’s the use of living? It’s better I die and follow you. I don’t want to stay in this wicked world without you.
I’m the reason for your demise.
I’m sorry.