The Best Friend's Contract

KennaCòntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

Dimitri and I sit side by side while we face the two police officers, one a detective and the other an assistant-holding onto a notepad with a pen as I feel Dimitri slowly grab onto my hand, trying to calm me down which causes me to smile up at him, assuring him that I'm alright.

"We're truly sorry for what happened to your husband, Mrs. Ashton. How are you holding up?" He asks, looking straight into my eyes.

My eyes wander to his every features, wanting to take a closer look-he seems to be around my age or probably a couple of years older and it's quite weird to hear him call me 'Mrs. Ashton' instead of just calling me by my name. "Kenna's fine," I mutter.

"Alright, Kenna. You can call me Irwin," He leans forward by placing both of his elbows on the desk before clearing his throat. "We managed to catch the criminal as soon as he tried to get away but he shot himself before we could even respond," He adds, leaving me to frown.

Dimitri shifts beside me, "He killed himself?"

"Unfortunately or fortunately, I really don't know which. The others are locked up in prison for questioning and for their sentences-you can choose to add more to their sentence if you'd like," Irwin continues to speak, glancing up at Dimitri for a couple of seconds before looking back at me.

"I don't want me or my family to get involved. I just want my husband to wake up from coma so that we can get through all of this," I reply slowly, "Whatever you choose to do with those criminals, I want no part in it." I add.

Irwin seems to be slightly surprised, "That's a shock to hear from you, Kenna. Usually, they'd be hiring up lawyers for the criminals to get an awful lot sentence than what they deserve." Then, he frowns, "Your husband's in a coma?" He asks. "I'm very sorry," The other says.

I look down at my hands as I play with my wedding ring, "Can I watch the security tape?" My eyes meet with Irwin, who seems to be slightly surprised at my sudden request before blinking a few times.

"Y-yes, that's possible." He clears his throat, "If it's alright with you, can I pay your husband a visit?" The way he seems to hesitate at first but the words slip off his lips smoothly causes me to nod my head, feeling tears begin to reform in my eyes before wiping them away.

It doesn't take long for the four of us to walk down the hallway and straight towards his room. At first, a couple of nurses seem to have insisted just how they're not allowed to let us in but I manage to persuade them and tell that it'll only take a little while. Now, we're standing in front of Aidan who seems to be 'sleeping' soundly.

Dimitri stands near me instead of standing near Aidan as his eyes are beginning to water which causes me to grab onto his hand before rubbing the back of it; trying to soothe him.

"What exactly happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Irwin asks, turning to look at me.

"Anterior cervical discectomy which is why they had to perform surgery to remove the pain in his neck. The reason why he's in a coma is because of the swelling in his brain," I clear my throat. "Easy to say... brain trauma," I add, leaving me to look back at my best friend, my husband who stays motionless, just like that.

Irwin stands still at his spot while his assistant continues to write the details down on his notepad, leaving me to think that they're obviously running some sort of interrogation but in a more polite, casual way instead of dragging me or Dimitri straight to the police station. Truth be told, what happened to Aidan is still unsure to me as of why I asked to watch the security tape so that I can fully determine or comprehend the whole idea in my head. All I can know as a doctor is that Aidan was suffering from a severe blow to the head and it has caused his brain to go through into this state, leaving him motionless, not being able to respond.

It's breaking my heart to even see him laying there with his mouth slightly ajar from the machine that's helping him breathe as both of his eyes are closed while the rest of his body remains frozen. Imagine being someone who had to go into the operating room to find out the exact problem that is going on with your husband or something, it's quite a pain in the ass.

"When can I see the security tape?" I ask, breaking the silence.

"Tonight at the police station," He replies.

Just like that, my head nods in an approving way, letting them know just how eager I am to figure this whole thing out without actually falling apart.

"We'll take our leave, Kenna. Give us a few hours to get the security tape and we'll see you tonight at the station," He continues to speak. The way he glances at Dimitri's direction as they shake hands before turning to smile at me, then step out of the room leaves me to think that this is not something to be taken lightly-for what reason, I suppose I barely even know.

I turn towards Dimitri, "You have to be there."

"I'll be there with you. Don't worry, Kenna. We'll get through this and before you know it, Aidan's going to wake up and everything's going to turn to normal. Just like that," Dimitri replies before he starts to wrap his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer towards his body; leaving me to nod my head a few times.

--

Dimitri and I both walk inside the police station with coats covering our bodies due to the cold weather, leaving us to gaze around the station and see that not a lot are on night duty but Irwin's figure comes into spot as he makes his way towards us. "Come with me," He says.

We both follow him down the hallway and straight towards a room at the back, somewhat hidden as we enter, revealing an unidentified box in the middle of the table with a laptop, specified to be playing the tape or more precisely, the tape in the pen drive. "Are you ready?" He asks, looking up at me.

I take a seat near the laptop as

Dimitri stands behind me with his hand laying on my shoulder,

ет

somehow giving me strength in which I appreciate. Within seconds, Irwin has already clicked play on the laptop, making me look down in order to not miss a thing. "That's him," I mutter under my breath but loud enough for Dimitri and Irwin to hear.

My gaze follows Aidan's figure as he stepped inside the bank with Flynn trailing behind him. To my surprise, he stopped in the middle as he got a little bit off balance which causes me to shift on my seat before glancing up at Dimitri.

"This was a few minutes before the robbery. It looks they have planned it for months because a bank robbery is rarely successful. They didn't succeed but to keep people in danger for as long as they did was quite a threat to the society," He speaks up while I remain focusing onto the screen.

Aidan took a seat on one of the benches before the whole chaos started, leaving him to drop onto the ground as soon as he saw those criminals shooting carelessly onto the ceiling. My heart clenches at the sight of Aidan being pulled up before they started to beat him up, leaving me to replay the images of his bruises from before.

"He was already in pain," I mutter.

"What do you mean?" Dimitri asks while Irwin turns to look at us, somehow wanting to participate in this conversation.

"He stopped earlier and he was holding onto his neck. Why didn't I notice this before? I thought that maybe due to the impact that he started to feel the pain in his neck but it started before he even got hit," I place a hand on my mouth as I try to recollect any moments of him ever being in pain, any severe headaches but none came.

"For fuck's sake," Dimitri breathes

out. "And neither of us noticed this before? Did he even show any signs or were we both plain oblivious?" The way the words escape his lips seem to show just how much annoyance is passing in, leaving him to blame himself for the things that was almost impossible to notice because he didn't show any signs.

My eyes widen at the sight of him being hit by a baseball bat which causes me to close my eyes for a few short seconds before imagining just how much pain he went through. The impact was harsh and it's even a miracle to have him alive yet in a coma but it's better than him being dead.

Irwin turns the laptop around to end the tape as I feel my hands beginning to shake before trying to calm myself down by standing up, running them through my hair but my heart's racing, my lips' trembling and my whole body feels like I've just ran a marathon. "Thank you, detective." Dimitri says, while I close my eyes in order to slightly calm myself down.

"We didn't know... "I blink.

"It's my job." Irwin replies, "Once again, I'm truly sorry for what happened and if there's anything that I can do—"

I cut him off by shaking my head, "No. No, detective. You've done your job. Like I said, I want no part in this investigation-whatever you do to them, I don't want to care. Thank you for showing me the tape and I appreciate that but getting myself involved is not going to wake my husband up from his coma," I answer, clearly. "Of course. Thank you for your cooperation," He nods his head.

We step out of the police station and straight into Dimitri's car as we both let out a deep sigh, as if we have been holding it in for hours. It's such a shame to see ourselves in this situation where everything was alright five months ago but for some unknown reason or luck, here we are.

I lost my dad and it was a shock-he

didn't deserve to die like that. He deserves to die at home where he's old and surrounded by his family, not because of a car accident. Definitely not as tragic as how it turned out to be. "How the fuck did we end up here?" I stressfully lean my body forward before pulling onto the roots of my hair.

I cup onto my face as I wipe away the fallen tears before turning to look at him, "Did we do something wrong to someone to deserve this? Did we unknowingly kill someone?" I frown, seeing him turn to look at me, probably eyeing the redness in my eyes as they get teary but light chuckles are escaping my lips.

Dimitri scoffs, "You tell me."