The world seemed to fracture as Elsa who is Leah stood in the sterile, cold atmosphere of the ICU. One moment, she was enveloped by the warmth of Leo's earth-shattering confession in the mansion; the next, she was pulled by an invisible tide back to the reality of her broken physical form.
She watched in a trance as the doctors moved with clinical urgency. The rhythmic, frantic beeping of the heart monitor was the only music in this room of white light and stainless steel. They were performing an emergency procedure, their faces etched with a grim determination as they fought to stabilize her plummeting heart rate.
"Her vitals are dropping again," one doctor muttered, his brow furrowed behind his surgical mask.
"If we can't get this heart rate normal within twenty-four hours, she won't survive the night," another replied, shaking his head. "The trauma from the accident was too severe. At this stage, it's a miracle she's still breathing at all."
Outside the heavy glass doors, Kayla was a silhouette of grief. She stood trembling, her forehead pressed against the cold pane, her sobs muffled by the thick glass. She looked lost, a girl watching her only family slip away into a void she couldn't follow.
Leah broke down. She fell to her knees, the spectral weight of her sorrow pressing against the tiled floor.
"Leah may or may not survive," the doctor's words echoed like a death knell. "She is too critical. She is experiencing localized panic responses, and her heart is far too slow."
She watched as they administered a jolt of electric shock treatment. Her physical body jerked violently on the bed, a harrowing sight that made Elsa scream in silent agony. It brought the rhythm back, but the doctors' expressions remained dark. There were so few chances left.
Leah looked at her body—wrapped in bandages, pale as marble, and tethered to a dozen humming machines. Then, she saw something impossible. As her soul wept, a single, glistening tear escaped the closed lid of her physical eye and rolled down her bandaged cheek.
"Leo..." she whispered, his confession ringing in her ears like a beautiful, haunting curse.
"I have fallen in love with Elsa. I wish to marry her, Dad."
Leah's sobs intensified. "How...?" she asked the empty air. "How can I say this to you, Leo? That I am just a soul bound to your heart?"
"I loved you so much, and I will always love you from the bottom of my heart. But I cannot give you the happiness you expect. I cannot give you a life."
She remembered her days as a quiet classmate, and later as the diligent employee in his office. She had spent years simply wanting him to notice her, to realize that she existed in his world as a living, breathing woman. That recognition had never come while she was whole.
"Now that I am a soul, I discovered my powers and the threat to your life. I never wanted to be selfish. I didn't want you to fall for a ghost."
"If you learn the truth, it will break you. You told me your parents' failed marriage already shattered your faith. How can I tell you that the woman you love is a spirit who might vanish in days or months?"
She looked back at her body on the bed, her resolve hardening through the pain.
"I am sorry, Leo, but I love you more than my life. I will tell this to myself, here in the dark, because these words give me the strength to fight for us."
"MY SOUL IS BOUND TO YOUR HEART."
"I can sacrifice everything for you. But God, I will miss him if I have to leave this earth."
Outside the room, the lead surgeon stepped out to meet Kayla. His silence said more than his words ever could. As he explained Elsa's critical state, Kayla collapsed into a plastic chair, her face buried in her hands.
In her grief, Kayla's mind drifted back to a simpler time. She vanished into the golden haze of a memory from their college days.
They were walking down a sun-drenched road, laughing and eating ice cream. Kayla had reached out, showing Elsa a sparkling diamond bracelet.
"This is my most precious thing," Kayla had said, her eyes shining. "My mom got it from my grandmother. She gave it to me just minutes before she passed away. When I wear it, I feel like she's still here, giving me her blessings from heaven."
Leah had smiled, leaning her head on Kayla's shoulder.
But as evening turned to night, the mood shifted. As they prepared to head back to the hostel, Kayla's hand flew to her bare wrist. The bracelet was gone.
"I lost it, Elsa! It must have dropped somewhere!" Kayla cried, her voice rising in panic.
They retraced every step, searching every corner of the streets they had walked. They even went to the police, but the night grew deeper and the shadows longer. By 1:00 AM, the streets were deserted and dangerous.
"We have to go back, Leah," Kayla sobbed. "It's not safe for us to be out here in the dark. I can't let us get hurt over a piece of jewelry."
"But it's your grandmother's memory," Elsa insisted. "I know the value of a memory. It's what helps a person live and find happiness. I can't let you suffer this loss."
Kayla tried to pull her away, but Elsa refused to leave. Kayla finally retreated to the hostel, hoping Leah would follow shortly. But an hour passed, then two. At 2:15 AM, Kayla rushed back out, finding Leah still scouring the pavement near a darkened cafe.
"Are you mad?" Kayla shouted, catching her breath. "It's dangerous!"
Leah looked up, her face tired but determined. "You are my best friend. You are the family God sent to me when I had no one else. You gave me true friendship. I won't let my sister live with regret."
Leah's eyes suddenly shifted to a jeep parked in the shadows. A group of goons sat there, laughing as they tossed Kayla's diamond bracelet back and forth. Elsa recognized them—they were the same men who had harassed them at a cafe earlier that evening.
In her innocence, Leah walked right up to them. "Please," she said firmly. "Give me the bracelet. It belongs to my friend."
The goons laughed, their eyes glinting with malice as they began to move toward her. Kayla, seeing the danger, grabbed a handful of stones and began pelting them.
One goon, enraged, pulled a switchblade. He lunged at Kayla, the steel flashing in the moonlight.
"NO!" Leah screamed.
She didn't hesitate. She threw her body in front of Kayla, shielding her friend from the strike. She grabbed the blade with her bare hand to stop the momentum, hugging Kayla tightly to protect her throat.
The knife slashed deep into Elsa's palm and across the back of her neck.
Sirens wailed in the distance as the police arrived just in time to arrest the men. Later, at the hostel, after their wounds were bandaged, Kayla sat on the edge of Elsa's bed, crying.
"Are you mad? You could have lost your life for me!"
Leah just smiled, her hand wrapped in white gauze.
"I would happily give up my life a thousand times for your happiness, Kayla. Because you are my family. You are my sister."
In the ICU, the memory faded, leaving the spectral Leah looking at her unconscious body and her grieving friend. She realized that the strength she had used to protect Kayla then was the same strength she needed now to protect Leo.