Chapter 63

The police station felt quite empty today. It was as though most of the officers had gone to a
vacation, or they were probably on a patrol. It could have also been a mission, who knows?

Tricia’s department was still lively. Most of the officers were undercover agents, so it was
reasonable that they wouldn’t embark on missions everyday. In fact, they were only called
upon during special cases that involved expertise.

Tricia bumped herself into a chair right in front of Boyle. Boyle was another undercover
agent in the department who was known by everyone as a workaholic. Even when he wasn’t
needed, he would bury his head deep into some very old files, suggesting to his colleague
how they should look into a suspect again because he had a hunch he or she was a criminal.

“You’re working again?” Tricia asked, picking up the can in front of her to pour herself a
drink. Boyle briefly looked up, and dug his head back into his work.

“Yeah, of course. One has to catch…”

“The moment, right? I expected that.” Tricia said, then chuckled. ‘Catch the moment’ was
Boyle’s catchphrase. Whoever hadn’t heard him say it have probably not been with him that
much. It was something he was likely going to say five times in a day. He shrugged at
Tricia’s sly response. He knew she was pulling his legs, but all he was concerned about was
the pile of documents in front of him.

“Don’t pull my legs.” He said, curtly, not batting an eyelid.

“You know, I kinda feel like going to a prom party after work today. I can feel it in my
jellies. It has been straining my neck since these days.” Tricia emphasized, wiggling her neck
around.

Boyle shook his head vigorously, and focused on Tricia. He locked his arms into each other,
placing them on the broad brown table which separated both of them.

“Is that all you can think about while your friend is in a coma?” He asked, landing a dead
gaze on Tricia. Boyle was not the type that jokes around, so Tricia knew he was serious.

“What are you talking about? Which friend?” Tricia inquired, feeling a sensation of shock
run all over her veins. To increase the suspense, Boyle ushered in a moment of silence that
angered Tricia. She was keen at hearing whatever he had to say, and there he was staring at
her like a dead dog.

“I see you didn’t know.” Boyle said, breaking up the tension that paraded the room. He
adjusted his collar, calmly watching as Tricia raged at him because of the way he was holding
back, but he didn’t care. “Your best friend is in a coma. What’s her name again? Is it
Thema…oh, yes Thelia?”

“Don’t mess with me, Boyle. This is not something to joke around with.” Tricia re-
emphasized. This time she dropped the can clasped in her hand, and gave Boyle a very
serious look.
“When have I ever joked around?”

“How did you know what you are saying? That can’t be true. If anything happened to Thelia,
I would definitely be the first person to know.” Tricia asked while panicking about if Boyle
was really not joking around, and if something had really happened to her best friend.

“That’s one of the things catching the moment does. She got into a coma after the death of
her uncle. You really are clueless about everything, aren’t you?” He asked, and it got on her
nerves that she flared up. She banged the table angrily and stomped out of the department,
calling Stephanie to confirm which hospital Thelia was at.

Having confirmed Thelia’s location, Tricia took her car and raced directly to the hospital. She
went straight to the counter where she told one of the nurses she found there that she was
looking for her friend, “Tricia”.

“May we know who you are to the patient, please?” The matron asked, wanting to be sure of
the way Tricia was related to Thelia.

“I’m her best friend. Here is a picture of two of us together.” Thelia hurriedly said, opening
up different photos with both of them hanging out together. The matron brought out a form
she asked Tricia to fill and sign in as a form of evidence of their acquaintance. She complied
with her, and raced to the ward immediately after she cleared the form.

Thelia opened the door to the ward to find her best friend lying unconsciously on the sick
bed. She dragged her feet towards her, tears forming in her eyelids like clouds ready to break
into an outburst of rain.

She moved closer to her, and clasped her hand in-between her own palms. Tricia blamed
herself for being the cause of her unconsciousness. She believed that Thelia might not have
been in her unconscious state if she had not started investigating her uncle in the first place.
Not knowing how to hold herself up again, she started sobbing into Thelia’s hands.

***
Thelia was in the living room with her family. She had accepted the life of fantasy she was
living as the best already. To her, it seemed as though not waking up from the long dream she
was in was the best option. At least, she had her family in it with her. Here was everyone she
had lost to one situation or the other laughing out loudly with her. For the first since a very
long time, she didn’t feel lonely.

While others were concentrated on the movie, Thelia started to hear some noises coming
from downstairs. She wondered who was there, and was about to check when someone
suddenly sprang up at her, holding a gun right at her face.

Thelia looked into the face of her supposed assailant. It was Cohen; she couldn’t mistake her
for anyone. But what he was doing in her dreams was not entirely clear to Thelia.

“Put up your hands where I can see them or I blow off your head.” He barked at her, pulling
the trigger. Thelia did as she was instructed and raised her two hands in the air. Cohen pushed
her to the living room where her family was, and they were all as shocked as Thelia when
they saw Cohen.
“Now, you, you, you and you, stand together.” Cohen commanded all of the family to stand
together. He held Thelia tightly by her arms, letting her face her whole family who were in a
single row.

Cohen started the shot from her father. It was a clean and direct one. Thelia watched how a
bullet drilled a hole into her father’s head, and how he slumped down dead. She tried to run
towards him but was stopped by Cohen.

“That’s not all.” He said, smirking mischievously at Thelia who was crying her eyes out. He
shot all of them one by one, and made sure that Thelia watched as they fell down dead.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Thelia barked at Cohen who still held her tightly at the arms.
He shook his head gravely, flashing Thelia with his white teeth.

“Not when I kill you first.” He said, and shot Thelia right in the chest.

Tricia noticed how the machine was beeping. Thelia was fast with responding to the
treatment. Although everything was happening so fast that Tricia herself didn’t know what
was going on, she could only pray that whatever that was happening should continue. She
wanted her friend back.

All of a sudden, Thelia jerked back to life, conscious. Tricia jumped up in bewilderment,
happy that her friend was out of coma, but something was off about her. She stared blankly at
the wall as if she had just experienced a huge trauma.

“Are you okay?” Tricia asked her, while still holding her hand. She swiveled her head
towards Tricia, tracing her eyes down to Tricia’s hand on hers.

“He killed them. Cohen killed all of them.” She said, slowly.

“What are you talking about?” Tricia asked, confused about what Thelia was talking about.
Suddenly, she bolted up and started to draw at the needle that was in her arms which was
passing the fluid of the drip through her. Tricia was so afraid that she rushed to the phone to
call the nurses in.

Thelia didn’t stop. She started to remove every single thing that was plugged onto her one
after the other. Tricia tried to calm her down but she shot her down with a dead gaze that she
quickly backed off. She knew something was not right with her best friend. She concluded
that it must be because of the long time she spent in her coma.

The nurses rushed inside the ward, asking Thelia to step aside so they could attend to her.
Two of them held Thelia down with all their strength while the last one gave her a shot of
sedative, and she fell asleep immediately.