Two hours before Jay-Jay went missing
Jare (POV)
I was sitting outside the ICU, staring through the glass window.
Cole Kuya said he had something to do, so he left for a while. After some time, Angelo Kuya disappeared too. Percy got a call, so he stepped away to talk to her.
Cole Kuya told me not to tell Dad anything because his health was already bad, and he did not want to stress him out even more.
So, I stayed in the hallway with Section E. They were loud. Chaotic. Acting like little kids. But somehow, it was funny. They had been here since morning. Without realizing it, a smile appeared on my face.
Then suddenly, someone looked at me.
"Hey… you smiled."
I rolled my eyes and looked at him irritably.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm C-In," he said proudly while sitting beside me. "Jay Jay's younger brother."
He looked at me for a second before grinning.
"I thought you didn't know how to smile. You're the opposite of Jay Jay. She smiles all the time. You look grumpy… like Angelo."
I looked back at the ICU window.
I wanted to see her smile, too.
I never knew my sister was suffering that much. Hearing every word Cole Kuya said broke something inside me.
When I came here, I imagined she would run toward me, hug me, and smile at me.
But she never even got the chance to see me.
Instead, I saw her broken.
"Is she happy?" I asked quietly. It was a stupid question after everything Kuya had told me. But still, a part of me wanted to know. Maybe she was.
C-In smiled softly.
He nodded
"Hmm…" he said while looking through the ICU glass at Jay. Then he answered,
"She was, she always makes people happy," he said. "After she came to Section E, all of us changed. She became everyone's family."
He looked down with a small smile.
"We call her our Muthya. She gave me the kind of family love I always wanted. She was my Ate."
I lowered my head.
"But all of you still ended up hurting her," I said quietly.
The smile on his face disappeared.
He lowered his head too.
Before either of us could speak again, one of the nurses approached us.
"Sir, other patients are complaining that you're making too much noise," she said awkwardly. "This is the ICU ward. You can't stay here if you keep being loud."
"We're not leaving her," C-In said immediately.
The nurse forced a smile.
"The doctor said they're going to transfer Mrs.Watson to a private room," she said. "You can move to the private ward first."
I need to change her name in the register. Every time they call her Mrs. Watson, it boils my blood. She was never married to that asshole.
Even though they were annoyed, everyone grabbed their things and walked toward the room.
A few minutes later, Section E had already settled inside the private ward.
I stayed behind.
Something felt strange.
One of the nurses standing near Jay's room kept glancing toward the hallway.
Another doctor adjusted his gloves even though he was not doing anything.
Then I noticed two nurses whispering to each other.
The second they saw me looking, they immediately stopped.
A bad feeling settled in my chest.
Then suddenly, the monitor inside Jay's ICU room started beeping loudly.
My head snapped toward the room.
Doctors and nurses rushed inside like they had been waiting for this moment.
Her heartbeat on the monitor was going crazy.
Everything happened too fast.
But in the middle of all the chaos, something felt wrong.
The doctors were moving too urgently.
One of them kept looking around nervously instead of looking at Jay.
Another almost dropped the file because his hands were shaking.
Then I noticed one of the doctors whispered something to the nurse beside him.
"Is it serious? Is her condition getting worse?" I blurted out.
The doctors looked at each other for a moment before one of them finally spoke.
"We need to perform another surgery on her," he said, his eyes fixed on the monitor.
I stared at him. Sweat was dripping down his forehead, and for the first time, I could see fear in his face.
Fear crept up my spine.
They pushed Jay's bed out of the ICU and rushed her toward the operating room.
I stood there frozen, watching them disappear.
Then I quickly took out my phone and tried calling Kuya.
The call would not connect.
I tried Percy.
Still nothing.
I ran toward the private room.
Section E was settling inside. Aries was fixing Jay's blanket on the bed they had prepared for her.
"Aries Kuya, try calling someone," I said quickly.
He frowned and took out his phone.
"Nothing," he said. "No signal."
Everyone else checked their phones too.
Nothing.
"I think someone's jamming the signal," Rory said.
The room went silent.
Before we could think, we heard the sound of the door locking.
I immediately ran toward it.
Locked.
I grabbed the knob and tried opening it again.
Nothing.
Then someone behind me spoke.
"Did you smell that?"
I froze.
There was a strange smell in the room.
Sweet.
Weird.
Then Aries started coughing.
At first, it was light.
Then it became worse.
He bent over, holding his chest.
One of the boys dropped his phone.
Another stumbled back against the wall.
"Why do I feel weird?" someone whispered.
"Hey…" C-In mumbled. "Why do I feel sleepy?"
Smoke slowly started filling the room.
Panic crawled up my spine.
C-In collapsed first.
Then another person fell.
Then another.
Within seconds, almost everyone from Section E was unconscious on the floor.
"What the hell?!" I shouted.
Aries was on the floor a few feet away, struggling to breathe.
"Jare…" he choked out.
I ran toward him.
He was coughing so hard that tears were falling from his eyes.
"I can't breathe…" he whispered.
My own head was starting to spin.
Everything around me felt blurry.
Then someone grabbed my arm.
"Hey, we need to get him out," he said quickly. "I'm David."
Without wasting any time, I looked around and spotted a fire Extinguisher. We exchanged a quick nod, then grabbed it together and smashed it against the doorknob.
After a few hits, the door finally broke open.
The second we got outside, I turned to David.
"Take Aries to the ER, I will, check on Jay," I said.
David nodded and pulled Aries away.
Then I ran like my life depended on it.
This time, Kuya would not be late. Not again. I am not losing you.
I turned toward the ICU in panic.
Through the glass window, I saw doctors rushing into Jay's room.
"Wait!" I shouted.
I ran toward the ICU, but before I could reach the door, someone grabbed my arm.
"Sir, you can't go in there!"
"She's my sister!" I yelled.
I shoved the nurse away and ran after them.
I had inhaled too much smoke earlier.
Everything around me looked blurry.
Then I saw them.
Three doctors are pushing Jay's bed down the hallway.
But they were not taking her toward the operating room.
They were going the other way.
"Stop!" I screamed.
One of them turned toward me.
Then suddenly, something hard slammed into the back of my head.
Pain exploded through my body.
I stumbled forward and crashed into the floor.
My vision blurred.
I tried to get up, but someone kicked me hard in the stomach.
I could barely breathe, but I still forced myself to my feet.
The moment he turned toward me, I swung with everything I had and hit him straight across the face. He stumbled back, clearly not expecting me to fight back.
"You picked the wrong person," I hissed.
He rushed at me again. He wrapped his hand around my throat, cutting off my air, but I refused to give up. then reached for the broken piece of glass near the floor and stabbed it into his shoulder.
He screamed and let me go.
I shoved him away and forced myself up again, breathing hard.
"I am not letting you take her from me," I said, my voice shaking with rage.
Suddenly, something hard slammed into the back of the head.
I collapsed.
I looked down the hallway and saw Jay's hand hanging weakly from the side of the bed.
"Jay!" I screamed.
I tried to run toward her again, but another hit landed across my face.
Blood dripped from my forehead.
I could barely see their faces.
She was right there.
And I could not save her.
I promised Kuya I would protect her.
But I could not even reach her. All I could see was Jay's hand, the bandage still wrapped around the cut from that morning. I felt like my chest was being ripped apart.
"This was the second time in one day that I couldn't protect my sister. What kind of Kuya was I to her?"
Then I heard footsteps.
"Jare!" Percy shouted.
He grabbed me before I could fall.
I saw Percy and immediately said, "Someone took Jay Jay… She's not in the operating room. I tried to call Kuya, but someone is blocking the signal."
Percy looked around in panic.
"But, I just talked to Mom," he said.
He helped me stand.
"I think they planted a jammer somewhere on this floor," I said while staring at my phone. "That's why none of us have a signal."
We ran toward the end of the hallway.
The second we finally got one bar of signal, Percy called Kiefer, and I called Kuya
"Jay was taken," we both said the second he answered.
Then everything around me went black.
---
## Aries (POV)
My chest burned.
Every breath felt heavy.
David was dragging me toward the ER, but my legs could barely move.
My lungs felt like they were on fire.
I could still hear people shouting behind me.
I could still hear Jare screaming Jay's name.
But I could not do anything.
I could not even breathe properly.
I hated it.
Jay was missing.
And I was useless.
I stumbled forward, almost falling.
Then someone grabbed my arm before I hit the floor.
"What happened to you?" Yuri asked.
"Where were you?" David snapped.
"I got a call from Grandfather," Yuri said. "I stepped outside."
I coughed hard.
"David…" I said weakly. "My phone is in my pocket. Call Angelo Kuya. I think there's a signal here."
David quickly took my phone.
He called Angelo.
The second he answered, I forced myself to speak.
"Jay Jay is missing…"
The words barely came out.
Everything around me started spinning.
My chest tightened.
I could not breathe anymore.
Then I collapsed.
Sorry for the delay,, but I hope I made it it worth your time.Hope you liked this chapter. Please don't forget to leave a comment—I'd love to hear what you liked the most.