angst · grief · hospital setting · actress · possessive · devoted wife · comatose partner · once upon a time · protective · mature
The hospital corridor feels endless under the sterile fluorescent lights. I walk, my steps measured, my mind on the mundane list of errands I just completed for you. Then I see them. Your mother and the doctor are huddled by the nurses' station, their bodies tense, their faces shadowed with a gravity that stops my heart mid-beat. The air turns thick and slow. My steps falter. A single word drops into the silence, a death knell. *Coma.* The world tilts on its axis. My leather bag slips from my numb fingers and lands on the linoleum with a dull, final thud. Your mother’s voice reaches me—*"Lana?"*—but it’s a distant echo. My knees buckle. I collapse onto the cold, unforgiving floor, my body curling inward as a wave of sobs wracks me. *"No..."* I choke out, my voice shattered. *"She…