05. Heard Yet Unseen

It's been a month since the accident on New Year's Eve happened, an accident that has claimed many innocent lives because it was caused by the brake failure of public bus number 7, which was also carrying many passengers at that time. Much grief was created due to this incident, not least for Ethan, who survived the accident.

Luckily the rescue team arrived quickly so a few lives could still be saved, including Ethan. The man managed to survive after being in a coma for three days. Now he is still recovering, although he is no longer hospitalized. Ethan often comes to the hospital to check on his condition, but there is one more reason why he still comes to the hospital often.

Elena, his lover, is still in a coma even after a month.

"Ethan, go home first. You've been in the hospital since morning. I even doubt you've eaten."

Ethan shifted his gaze from Elena to Simon, who was busy peeling an apple for him to eat. Ethan shook his head briefly. "I don't want to go home. What if Elena wakes up and I'm not by her side?"

"Gosh, Ethan. You've been living like this for almost a month!" Simon said in a slightly raised voice, his friend was already furious with Ethan's stubbornness. "You only want to go home if Elena's parents ask, when they're both gone you'll go back to the hospital. Are you going to live like this forever?!"

"I just wanted to wait for her to come to her senses, Simon."

"Yeah, I know it's Ethan. Everyone is waiting for Elena to come to her senses, not just you. But I mean you shouldn't spend much of your time here. No one can say for sure when Elena will wake up. You need to be patient because there will be time for the girl to open her eyes. On the sidelines of that patience, you must continue to live your life as normally as before. Even though Elena had just been in a coma, you were already acting like a very desperate person. What if she wasn't there? Are you also going to follow her to die?"

"What are you talking about, Simon!"

"I'm just making a parable, don't be angry just yet!" Simon panicked when he saw Ethan's reaction just now. But he was still trying to stay calm. "I'm telling you it's for your own good too, Ethan. Elena would also be sad if she knew you were waiting for her so uncertainly like this. She must want you to remain normal as usual while Elena is struggling with her coma. We don't know when Elena will wake up, but there will always be magic Ethan, you need to be patient."

Ethan wasn't listening to anyone, so he immediately looked away and ignored Simon on the couch. His focus fell back on Elena, asleep on her hospital bed. The girl seemed so calm, but Ethan needed her to wake up, Ethan needed her beautiful eyes to open again, and Ethan needed the girl to convince him that this was all a bad dream.

Ethan hasn't had the chance to propose to Elena, he hasn't given the girl happiness yet but the universe has already given him a trial like this. Is the universe punishing him for making Elena wait too long? So this time it was Ethan's part that was required to wait for the girl.

'He-help me… please….'

Ethan suddenly froze. The voice came again, the voice that for the past month has haunted him anytime and anywhere.

"Ethan, what happened?" Simon immediately approached when he noticed Ethan's movements were strange. His friend shook his head slightly as if he was disturbed by something.

"It's coming again," said Ethan, clutching his head.

Since surviving an accident one month ago, Ethan has had a hearing loss where sometimes he would hear the voices of people screaming for help. The doctor diagnosed him that it was a trauma that occurred after an accident because it is a common occurrence, the doctor advised Ethan to come still and consult with the doctor to get the proper treatment. It is hoped that Ethan can recover completely.

At first, Ethan agreed that this was just an ordinary trauma because he remembered that at the time of the accident, he had heard the whispers of people asking for help. However, getting here for some reason Ethan felt that this diagnosis seemed wrong because all the voices he had heard for the past month felt very real and bothered him deeply.

If he think about it, at the time of the accident, was it possible that Ethan could hear other people's moans when his car was not that close?

"I'm out for a bit." Ethan immediately stood up and left Elena's room without another word.

The voice still sounded occasionally in his ears, heard asking for help interspersed with small sobs. If Ethan listen carefully it seems that this voice is a woman's voice, but the voice is very foreign and Ethan has never heard this voice before.

'Please, get me out of here... anyone, please.'

Ethan started wandering to find out where the voice came from. Even though apart from him no one else heard the voice, the voice was heard without any visible form. If it was confirmed that Ethan was hallucinating from his trauma after the accident, then his head should be aching right now and Ethan should be bothered by the noises.

But instead of being annoyed, why was Ethan so curious now?

Armed with instinct, Ethan continued his steps down the deserted hospital corridor. If look closely, this part of the hospital looks like it's currently under renovation so there are very few people walking around. The voice was still in his ears, sounding more desperate and louder than before.

Ethan stopped right in front of a worn-out door belonging to this hospital, not knowing what was inside but Ethan could hear the girl's voice more clearly. Ethan had time to look around to see if there was someone other than himself or not in this corridor, but the corridor where he was standing now had no one else, only him and maybe the girl behind this door.

Sensing something was wrong, Ethan immediately shouted to make sure. "Hello?! Anyone inside?!" He was just afraid that some prankster would purposely lock up a girl in this room in front of him.

But there was no answer from the call earlier.

'Help ....'

What came instead was the same low cry for help as Ethan had heard earlier, but he could listen to it more clearly this time.

Without further ado, Ethan immediately opened the door, he thought the girl was too tired to speak so she couldn't answer the call and could only say 'please' in a small voice.

"Hello?! Can you hear me?!" Ethan looked inside, he found several empty cupboards and some furniture that seemed to be no longer used, if Ethan wasn't mistaken this place was a storage warehouse for items that were no longer used.

However, there wasn't a single human inside, the one he believed was trapped in this room didn't seem like a jungle. Then what made Ethan even more confused was that he had also just realized that the voice that had previously bothered his ears was no longer heard.