14

Instead of driving home, he decided to go to the hospital instead. He needed to talk to Sandra and ask her what he should be aware of during a woman's pregnancy. He reached reception and asked the man about Sandra's whereabouts.

"Good day, I'm here to see Dr Lee."

"She's currently in the maternity ward, Sir," the receptionist replied.

"Please page her. It's kind of urgent. My fiancée is having complications with her pregnancy and she's her doctor," he explained.

"Sir, she just came out of performing a cesarean section. I don't think she's available at the moment," he kindly replied. "But I can get you another doctor-"

"Only Dr Lee is suitable for her case. Please inform her that I'm here. I'll wait in the lobby," he said and the nurse nodded, already making the call.

***

The pain subsided a while ago so she got up and put a kettle on to make some tea. Feeling too weak to keep standing, she went back to lay on the couch while she waited. Soon after, the doorbell ring and thinking Nate had returned, she yelled for him to enter.

"Good to see you again," a voice she dreaded called out as it approached the living room. She closed her eyes and hoped it was all a dream. She opened them again and looked back at the devil incarnation.

"What are you doing here?" She asked as she sat up. Her heart started racing when she saw the evil glare Nadia gave her.

"Usually when one best friend is pregnant, they tell the other. Isn't it so?" She asked with fake concern as she sat down on the couch as though she owned the place.

"We're not friends," Jane said, reaching for her telephone on the coffee table. She wanted to call the police and report an intrusion.

"Tsk tsk, not so fast," Nadia smirked as she smacked the telephone off the table. "Careful now, we certainly don't want anything bad to happen to your baby."

"Are you threatening me?"

"Who?" Nadia asked, looking around. "Oh, me? No, my darling best friend," she said as she came to sit close to Jane. "I'd never do that. I love you. So much," she whispered in Jane's ear, who moved away when she smelled the strong Gin on Nadia's breath.

She tried to get up but felt Nadia's hand tighten around her wrist. She looked at her and could swear she saw a reflection of death in them. Her heart started racing and she was scared for her life and that of her baby's.

"Let me go."

"It's simple, really."

"What is?"

"Either it dies or you do," Nadia said as though it was the most simple thing on earth.

"What?!" Jane shrieked as she stood on her feet and Nadia followed, looking mad that she even had to be discussing this.

"You took everything away from me! I cannot give birth because of you! Now either you kill it or I will!" Nadia yelled, about to lose control.

She remembered that night like it happened yesterday. It was in their last year of high school and they decided to get drunk.

After a wild night, Nadia said Jane should drive because she was the less drunk one between them. So, Jane got behind the wheel and they were both fooling around. Nadia playfully shoved Jane's arm as she sang which caused Jane to accidentally swerve the car and they got in the way of a van. Because of the collision, their car rolled over a couple times and hit a tree, badly injuring the two. Luckily for them all, nobody died.

The truck driver got away with a few major injuries like a broken knee, Jane had a damaged rib, ankle and wrist which didn't heal for months, and a lot of blood loss. Nadia got the worst of it all because the van drove into her side of the car.

Apart from the blood loss, she went into a coma and was told that due to the puncture she suffered when a piece of the door's broken iron sliced into her side. Apart from her liver and lung being damaged, she was told her uterus also took a hit and giving birth would prove to be fatal.

After that, she has said she didn't want kids anyway, but clearly she lied to hide the pain of not being able to carry one.

"Nadia, I cannot begin to imagine how painful it must be for you but you cannot blame me for what happened," Jane said calmly, taking a step back warily. Nadia was highly unpredictable and Jane wasn't going to take chances now.

"You're sorry?" Nadia laughed maniacally and Jane took another step back. "You're sorry? That's all you're gonna say? After the pain you put me through, you being sorry is supposed to be enough?"

"What else do you expect me to do?" Jane asked. When she was close to her cellphone on the counter top, she grab it and secretly unlocked it.

"Then I'm also sorry, Jane!" Nadia yelled as she launched at her with a knife in her hand. Jane didn't know when or how she got hold of a knife. She grabbed Nadia's arm that had the knife and fought to keep it away from her stomach where it was intended to stab.

"I'm going to kill you!" Nadia yelled as she bashed Jane's head against the wall and the phone fell to the ground, sliding under the chairs. Jane lost her eye sight for a nanosecond before she recovered and kicked Nadia's leg who screamed in pain when she fell down, the butcher knife falling beside her as her eyes rolled back.

Jane looked at her and figured she blacked out so she took the knife and put it on the table. She then reached for the phone and noticed that the screen was cracked. The glass sliced her thumb but she kept trying to type in a number she knew off by heart. While it was ringing on speaker, she looked around for a way to defend herself.

The kettle.

She had just barely lifted the plug when she felt her hair being grabbed back forcefully. She kicked and screamed, scratching at Nadia's hands when she felt pointed heels connect harshly with her stomach.

Twice. One to kill and one to make sure.

"God! No!" she cried, wanting to protect her baby with all her strength even though she had none left. When Nadia aimed for her face, she caught her ankle and pulled, causing Nadia to lose balance and land on her behind. Jane then crawled to her and smacked her countlessly before falling to her side, the pain in her stomach unbearable.

Nadia savagely used that moment of Jane's weakness to get up and straddle her, wrapping her fingers around Jane's throat and pressed down tightly. She smiled in victory when she saw all the blood drain from Jane's face while her nails scratched her hands to let go.

Jane could hear Nathan's voice from her phone on the counter so she punched Nadia's side of the head and pushed her off of her, grabbing her phone from the counter. She yelled into the phone as loud as she could. "Nate, please help me! Nadia is-"

She didn't get to finish her sentence because her phone was thrown against the wall, the screen breaking into fragments of glass. She stood straighter, leaning against the counter and feeling an obvious dead weight but ignored it for the time being.

She held onto the other counter and stared at Nadia, wondering who the person standing in front of her really was because she didn't recognise her any longer. She watched as Nadia gripped the sharp slim knife tighter and she frantically looked around for a way to defend herself. Right on time, she felt the vapour from the kettle hole on her arm.

Her heart was racing faster than ever before when she watched Nadia approach her in full speed. She reflexively grabbed the kettle, pressed the button for the lip to pop open and threw the scalding liquid on Nadia's face and chest.

She had to cover her ears when Nadia's body fell to the floor and a high pitched scream escaped her mouth. Jane knew how gruesome it must have burned because a few droplets of the water landed on herself as well. And that alone burned like hell.

She heard her door burst open and a voice call for her. She looked down on the kitchen tiles, a trail of smudged droplets of blood leading to where she stood. She looked around her self and saw the pond of blood collecting under legs.

It quickly hit her like an emotional train wreck what that could only mean. She instinctively covered her quivering mouth as a muffled scream of agony escaped her and darkness swallowed her.