Chapter 4 The Trance

• Suddenly both their eyes dropped to her arms, while their synchronized breath hitched. The paleness her bruises caused on her skin began to fade. Alongside the blemishing of the darkened spot on her skin, the angry red cuts along her cheeks strolling down to her shoulders began to vanish. Zara looked down at her skin in examination, eyes wide open in horror and awe. Lost in their gaze on her body, the loud noise of the machines beside her brought them out of their deep thoughts. The beeping became erratic, not from the danger of life this time, but from the rapid and inexplicable change.
• Stunned, Deen took two steps backward to get a proper view of what he was beholding. “oh wow!” He exclaimed.
• Zara, still stunned about the mysterious healing, couldn’t speak as she watched her skin knit itself back together, as the painful swelling in her wrist deflated, and as the stiffness in her chest melted away like wax. “such things aren’t just miraculous; it is impossible. How is this even real?” She thought to herself as she locked eyes with Deen. “What is happening to me?” She whispered as if hoping for a very tangible explanation as to why this happened.
• “I don’t know,” Deen said as he shook his head slowly, his voice shaken but low.
• Deen’s body rooted to the floor as his mind reeled while he watched Zara, alive, conscious, and healing in a way even science cannot explain. His thoughts spiraled into chaos as a mess of questions and instincts created an unlooseable knot he couldn’t unravel. Zara, on the other hand, was quiet as her eyes glazed over slightly with a bright beam, her breath still getting caught in short gasps as her mind wandered between reality and confusion.
• The ward door busted open as Daniel charged behind it, flanked by two nurses. “I heard the monitors frantic be……” His voice is sharp with urgency as it pauses midway through his sentence.
• He stopped, and everyone stopped. There she was, sitting upright, wide awake and alive, as everyone stared at her in utmost awe. The entire room froze for a beat, and the nurses gasped audibly as they slowly took in what they were witnessing.
• “Zara!!” A masculine voice rang through the ward as he stormed in, with his eyes fixated on Zara like a man who had just seen a ghost come back to life, blurring out other presences in the room.
• “Micheal,” Zara said softly as her head jerked towards him.
• Rushing to her side, he grabbed her hand in both of his as he trembled with tears welling from his eyes to his knuckles. ”I-I thought---I thought I lost you.”
• Zara plastered a weak smile on her face as her eyes, full of uncertainty, flickered across the room to Deen’s face, where he stood motionless, and back to Michael’s face. Deen stood watching everything unfold before his eyes like a man stuck in a dream he couldn’t step out from.
• As Daniel’s doctor instinct kicks in, he breaks the silence. “Check her vitals; I need a full blood work scan.” He said as he motioned towards her.
• The nurses moved swiftly, one rolling a cart of equipment into position while Michael leaned in closer to Zara, brushing a strand of hair behind her ears. He froze as his eyes narrowed to her arm, then back to her face, then her skin. “Where are your scars?” He asked, lost in confusion.
• As Zara blinked, not giving her a chance to answer, Michael spoke again. “You—your face, your arms.” He turned to Daniel, his eyes conveying confusion. “I thought she had stitches and bandages…..what is this?”
• Daniel steps closer to have a better view of Zara’s body with a crease in between his eyebrows. Even he hadn't processed it as Zara looked down at her body again; her skin was smooth and unbroken, and every trace of an injury had gone. Michael looked at Zara, awaiting a response from her expression. “Zara…What happened?”
• She glanced at him, then at Deen, and back at him again, completely short of words. “I don’t know.” She whispered.
• The tension in the room grew beyond the measuring point, as the silence became loud when everyone became lost in their thoughts. Michael finally noticed Deen’s presence and straightened his sitting posture as his gaze narrowed in suspicion, making the tension in the room thicken even more.
• Deen met his stare but stood with restraint, saying nothing as his calm yet alert posture passed a territorial message. Daniel noticed the crackle in the air and the weight of the unspoken words. “Alright,” Daniel said firmly, as if stepping in as a shield to the unforeseen war arising. ”Let us give the nurses space to cater to the patient. Everyone out now!”
• Michael wanted to protest against what Daniel had just said, but Daniel didn’t waver. “Move everyone, NOW,” Daniel said as he pointed to the exit.
• Without saying a word, Deen walked out of the ward, while Michael reluctantly released Zara’s hand and walked out of the ward.
• Zara laid back slowly as her mind raced, yet to comprehend what just happened. Even if she didn’t know what was happening, she knew this was a new beginning.
• Outside the long corridor of the ward, the cool evening breeze rolled in through the window, brushing against their skin as they walked past in utmost silence, their silence too heavy to be mistaken for calm.
• “I will be leaving,” Deen said, his voice low and instant.
• Daniel, with a curt nod, acknowledged what Deen said, knowing full well Deen was far from done with his situation and was just choosing to step back for now. Without another glance at the ward, Deen turned and walked towards the exit of the hospital.
• Not even making it ten steps across the corridor, Michael approaches Daniel, his face tight with lingering stress. “Can we talk?” Michael asked.
• “Yeah, come in to my office,” Daniel replied, making a hand gesture down the hall.
• Once inside the office, Daniel shut the door behind them as he exhaled. After a day full of chaos and disbelief, it had come to the part where everything had to be documented.
• “We need to revoke the DNR,” Daniel said quickly.
• “Yes, the plus pull and whatever form I signed, I think it's not valid anymore since she is awake,” Michael added.
• Daniel moved to his desk as Michael sat on the chair opposite. Flipping through files, he found the one labeled with Zara’s admission details. “I will handle it,” he said as he pulled a pen from the pocket of his coat.
• As he was penning something down on the document, Michael cleared his throat before interrupting. “But she can’t know.” He hesitated with his eyes wide open. “Please don’t tell her I signed it; if she finds out, she will never forgive me.” He said, softening his face.
• After watching him closely, Daniel gave an intentional nod, acknowledging what Michael had just said. “Noted.”
• As Michael let out a long, contented exhale, Daniel continued to pen down a note on Zara’s file.
• “She is going to need all the rest she can get; even though she miraculously looked fully recovered, we still need to monitor her in case she experiences anything weird or uncommon. This means you would have to go home and prepare for her return, just in case she is discharged soon. We would monitor her for a while and wait for the test result. And if nothing odd shows up, then she would be discharged in a few days.” Daniel said.
• After frantically listening, “Thank you, Doc.” Michael responded as he stood up and motioned towards the exit of Daniel’s office.
• “One more thing, doesn’t she have any close relatives, just in case we need to do a blood transfusion, so we would have their details to fill in the form for contact reasons?” Daniel asked, making Michael halt in his steps.
• “Oh, no, none that I know of,” Michael said briefly and hurriedly exited.
• As Daniel returned to aligning the revocation documents, barely five minutes after Michael had left the hospital, Daniel’s phone buzzed as the screen lit up with Deen’s name popping up. Daniel answered. “Her vitals are strong, showing no sign of being in a critical condition. The healing is well—still there, even though it is unexplained, and most importantly, she is awake.”
• After a brief silence on Deen’s end of the call, he muttered, “And Micheal?”
• “He did ask me not to let Zara in on the fact that he already signed the Do Not Resuscitate form. And he revoked them for now. ”
• “I always knew something was off about him, and this just proves me right. I can feel it.” Deen said.
• “Shed more light.” Daniel chipped in.
• “Why was he even so quick to sign her off like that in the first place? I mean, it's so scheming. Not just that, he even wants to drag you into this pawning game by asking you not to let her know he already signed her off.” Deen said, letting out a slow breath, the kind that sounded like a disappointment and showed a lack of high expectations.
• “He also said something about not knowing any of Zara’s relations. I do think that is strange for someone who is your fiancé,” Daniel added.
• “Danny, I knew it; he is a fraud. Does he even know her?” Deen yelled.
• “Of course he does, she recognizes him, plus he already proved they knew each other, but it is definitely strange he claims to not know any of her relations, or maybe she is not on good terms with any of them,” Daniel responded.
• “You do have a point, but he is too suspicious for me, so I will have to rule that out. I don’t trust him at all, and something does feel fishy, which I will definitely find out.” Deen said firmly.
• Daniel rubbed his forehead, processing his conversation with Deen and everything that had just happened. “This whole thing has gone beyond what makes sense. I will say, tread with care, and always reach out to me if I could be of any assistance to you.”
• “Exactly why I won't be walking away—everything feels like it has a deep connection to me, and I will definitely find out the link.” Deen’s voice was calm but intent.
• Inside the ward, the soft air was filled with hums from machines and a quiet rustling of documents. The two nurses did move around Zara with full professionalism, but under their extreme calmness, there was a confused unraveling. The atmosphere was full of thick, unspoken words despite being calm, full of unease that neither Zara nor the nurses could explain. Standing in front of the monitor was Nurse Claire, scanning the vitals on the screen as she blinked profusely, thinking the numbers might change.
• “Her vitals are perfect.” She murmured to herself in utmost disbelief.