Chapter 404: Chapter 404

"Hey Rocky, what’s up? What’s wrong?" Matt asked the questions successively.

They were in the medical school library. The place was steeped in its usual stillness; the faint hum of the air conditioning blending with the occasional turning of a page were the only sounds from the studious students.

Matt and Nicholas sat close together in a corner private room that had turned to be like their personal room, their chairs tilted toward each other in an intentional lean. After the initial Principal’s issue, Rocky had become almost untouchable in the school, but the good thing was that he did not misuse that privilege. That couldn’t be said about these two, though.

A thick textbook lay open between them, but their eyes weren’t scanning the pages. Instead, they darted toward Rocky’s figure, who was seated a few chairs away. Their group work and project were still pending, but the passing of time seemed to have no effect on them at that moment.

There was no sense of urgency at all. In this time, they were more ’concerned’ that they had not seen Rocky for a while, as he had basically moved out of campus for obvious reasons.

"Leave him be! He’s been since that call hours ago. It’s probably about sister Ava, his new girlfriend... He ceased worrying about sister Shelby since brother Ian came into the picture, so it’s definitely about his new girlfriend!"

Rocky, the subject of their attention, sat hunched over his laptop, his face illuminated by the pale glow of the screen. His fingers rested on the keyboard, unmoving, as if he’d started to type something and forgotten what it was.

His gaze was distant, his brows furrowed in thought, oblivious to the whispers threading through the quiet air behind him. He occasionally would sigh and then pick up his phone, then place it back down. He did not give heed to any of his two friends at all. Rocky could not shake off the notion that something was wrong, especially after he had received Currey’s call earlier.

Rocky had indeed called Ava in the morning and knew where she was supposed to be, but something felt off, and it was especially more so for him as he could not reach her.

"Pinch me, Matt. I can’t believe that Rocky actually hit a home run with sister Ava!" Nicholas shook his head, his amazement still painted on his face.

"Hahaha! Ikr! I thought he would be the last one out of us to get a girlfriend, but he surpassed even you, Nicholas. What are you doing watching all that porn daily if you can’t put it to good use? Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Matt chuckled at that statement, and the two exchanged an amused look.

"Hahahahaha! Rocky’s persistence is through the roof! I can never pursue one person that tirelessly."

"But what news did he receive?" Nicolas lowered his voice to a whisper.

"I don’t know, man... maybe it’s a lover’s quarrel. I can’t do much about that."

Matt added, bringing out his phone,

"If you guys are ready to work on the project, let me know, and I’ll grant you my esteemed presence!"

In all this, Rocky never even glanced at them, as if he was unaware of their words or perhaps too lost in his own inner world to even care about them.

Just, then, Matt, who had leaned back in his chair and placed his legs on the table, stood up abruptly in shock!

This was about an hour back. Matt and Nicholas had no idea how they ended up at the crime scene. A blurry sequence of activities had ensued when Matt had stumbled on the news of the happenings.

Now, standing at the scene, the two friends could only stare blankly at the reality of things. All jokes aside, they could not even begin to comprehend what had happened within that time.

"Sir, you can’t be in here!" A reprimand came from a uniformed man who tried to stop Rocky. This drew Matt and Nicholas’ attention to Rocky, but they were also too late to stop him. They had not been able to stop him from coming to the scene... so who were they to try to stop him here when they felt the exact same way? The two cherished both Shelby and Ava and looked up to them as big sisters.

They did not have to worry though, as Rocky moved like a man possessed, his eyes wild and unseeing, his breaths coming in ragged gasps. The police shouted at him, their hands raised in warning, but their words were swallowed by the roaring in his ears. Without hesitation, Rocky tore through the bright yellow tape marking the perimeter of the accident scene, the flimsy barrier no match for his raw desperation.

"Sir, stop! You can’t go in there! SIR!!!!" another officer barked, stepping forward, but Rocky was already beyond reason. His chest heaved as he pushed past them, shoving aside hands that tried to restrain him.

’Please! Let them be okay! Please!’ He pleaded fervently in his heart. Rocky’s movements were erratic and frantic as if the weight of the world rested on his shoulders and every second wasted was a dagger to his heart.

Matt and Nicholas stopped just beyond that perimeter and looked at the back of their friend. The chaos of the scene—the flashing lights, the murmurs of the crowd, the sharp commands of the emergency responders—was nothing but a blur to Rocky. The two had never seen Rocky behave like that... ever! However, they could understand him, because this potentially involved both his sister and his girlfriend.

Rocky’s focus was singular, his goal unwavering.

’They’re somewhere amid this acci- ... no I mean, this wreck!’ In that state of mind, no line, rule, or authority could hold Rocky back b.

"Sir, you can’t—" another officer tried to grab his arm, but Rocky wrenched free with a strength out of sheer adrenaline. His voice, raw and hoarse, broke through the noise as he yelled,

"Sissy! AVA!!!!" ... each syllable trembling with anguish and hope,

"Leave him..." one of the officers stated,

"That’s the brother-"

That was enough for the other to let go as he let out an ’Oh’.

That was when a loud shout jolted all around,

"Over HERE!!!! We have found someone! Over here!!!!!!"

The world around Rocky seemed to dissolve as he pressed forward, his gaze darting desperately across the chaos.

The looks of those around him—police, medics, onlookers—shifted from irritation to unease, as though they, too, felt the unbearable weight of his grief driving him to madness, as well as the hope that someone was found alive. The police surrounding the person opened up to let Rocky in. He stumbled and then fell on his knees with a loud thump sound that was muffled by all the noise around.

He reached out to brush the little hairs from her face.

"Please, please, open your eyes. Please..." His voice cracked as tears blurred his vision. He reached out and cradled the person on his lap. Rocky raised his head and let out a loud cry.

Rocky leaned down and cradled her bloodied body. The blood around her on the scene was too much for him to take in, and as the realization sank in, his world crumbled. The cliff might as well have swallowed him, too, for nothing would ever matter again without her. The space around them seemed to stretch endlessly, cold and merciless, and he clung to her still form, wishing he could take her place.

"Ava, please... wake up!" He whispered to her, but there was no response. However, despite this, he pressed his ear against her chest, and a surge of hope surrounded him, ’She’s alive!’

"Sir! We need to take a look at the patient!" A medic shouted from the side. In as much as Rocky did not want to let go, he knew that they needed to do their work. He finally relented, and Ava was carried out of the place on a stretcher.

He stood frozen, his heart hammering against his ribs as the ambulance wailed into the distance, its piercing siren fading into the chaotic hum of the accident scene. Rocky’s breath came in shallow bursts, his mind torn in two. This day was just too much for him to handle.

’How had this happened? Should I follow them?’ The thought burned through his head like fire. Every instinct screamed at him to chase after the ambulance, for that was where the love of his life was.

He needed to be there when they arrived at the hospital to make sure everything was okay. The thought that he was not a fully practising doctor yet eluded him. But his feet stayed rooted to the cracked asphalt, his gaze darting back to the wreckage behind him and the stretch of darkness where the land dropped off the cliff.

Somewhere in that mess of twisted metal and shattered glass was his sister, too. Rocky’s pulse spiked. What if she’s still there? What if sissy needs me now?

Rocky turned toward the scene, his eyes scanning desperately for her familiar figure, whether lying down or smiling at him, but no such person was there.

Meanwhile, the paramedics moved briskly, their commands sharp and efficient, while the dull murmur of onlookers and the flash of emergency lights created an overwhelming blur. Every second felt like a lifetime, his indecision gnawing at him, tightening his chest.

"Where is she?" he whispered to himself, his voice trembling.

"Officer? Where is my sister?" He turned to the nearest officer but then, another glance toward the ambulance, now a distant speck, sent a wave of panic crashing over him.

Because of this, Rocky did not notice the weird look that crossed the officer’s eyes at that question. The man hesitated a bit, wondering how to answer the question, but then, he noticed the faraway look on Rocky. They did not know how they were supposed to tell him that his sister was nowhere to be found at the scene, especially as the short video footage of the reporter chasing her car had captured her in the car.

Rocky clenched his fists between running after it and diving into the chaos to find Shelby.

Time seemed to stretch unbearably thin; every choice was weighed down by the crushing fear of making the wrong one, but then another thought penetrated everything,

"Where is Brother Ian?"

It did not make sense that Ian nor his assistant was at the scene then. They always held Shelby in such high esteem. So, what was really going on?

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