I was asleep on the sofa and was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

I couldn't get the energy to get up from my comfortable position to reach the door. But a second bang on he door, and the third, gave me the push I needed to get up from the sofa to the door.

And Melly was standing at my doorstep with a furious look on her face like she was about to devour me. she pushed me to the side and entered the house speaking to me with an angry tone.

I knew she was mad because she had been standing out there for who knows how long?.

"Where have you been?"

"sorry girlfriend, I nodded off on the sofa. how are you and how was work today?, I enquired".

"it was good. I hope you had some rest and I got worried when I tried calling your cell phone for some time but you weren't answering your phone".

I thought the worst had happened. That was why I rushed to your house like an insane somebody.

Amazed, I looked at her and asked," you tried calling me?".

Hence I reached out to my phone and saw several missed calls from John and my colleague Anastasia.

Oh no, I exclaimed!. only then did I recollect that John had to get me some groceries and he might have bought them and came to give them to me but met the door closed but decided to call me which I didn't hear ringing.

I immediately tried reaching out to John bit his prime wasn't connecting. I tried a few more times but to no avail.

Then Melissa called out, "Eve" and I was startled by her voice so I snapped out of my dream world and answered, "yes Melly", then she asked if I had already gotten a way to pay the bills at the hospital, but I barely told her that I will try to sell somethings from my house and add to my little savings.

I Asked Melly to excuse me because I had to go change my clothes for us to leave for the hospital before it became completely dark. And I also did not want to be stuck in traffic.

So I and Melissa were headed to the hospital to check on the man and know how he was doing.

on our way to the hospital, I saw some raspberries and apples and I decided to get some for the patient in case I meet home awake when I get there.

It was sunset already and the sky was beautiful, I couldn't imagine I had slept all day.

I was so exhausted from all the activities of that morning, that I slept off like a thief that had been beaten all day long for his numerous crimes.

We finally arrived at the hospital and it was evening already and I could see children playing in the open air and shopkeepers closed their shops for the day.

I could see couples walking hand in hand enjoying the moment and the sweetness and beauty of the streetlights made me realize how precious and important life is.

I could see us approaching the hospital and the security agent opened the gate and Melly drove through. While Melly was stationing her car well in the parking lot of the hospital, I could still see the hospital filled with so many patients.

When I got to the hospital hall that evening, I glanced through the corridor if I could see the nurse in charge that morning but it seems she had finished for the day so she had left and the shift was over for the day.

I walked to the reception desk and asked to see Doctor Scott, and the nurse on duty told me that he had left but there was another doctor that was replacing him for the night and asked if I had an appointment with him. I said no.

I asked to see the new Doctor and the nurse asked for my name and I said my name is, Evelyn Bullock and she asked me for a moment so that she could contact the doctor.

she picked up the phone and rang the doctor's office and I heard her saying, " Hello doctor! there is a lady here by the name of Evelyn Bullock and she wants to see you. She has a patient in ward 5, and doctor Scott was the one who observed the patient when he was brought in this morning.

Looks like she got a confirmatory answer. she dropped the call and gave me the directions to get to the doctor's office, which I immediately followed.

The office was on the 2nd floor of the hospital building.

I told Melly to come with me and we both left for the doctor's office.

I got to the doctor's office and knocked and he asked us to be in politely.

"Welcome ma'am, how may I help you?"

" thank you, doctor. I am Evelyn and here is my friend Melissa. I am here to check on the patient I brought in this morning and he was put in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) I met doctor John in the morning he was the doctor in charge".

"yes, I see, the patient you are referring to. The young man in ward 5 right?"

I answer immediately, "yes doctor". I further asked, " how is he doing now

doctor? is he responding to treatment?" I looked at him.

" I am pleased to tell you that, he is out of danger and he has been stabilized. he is out of danger". the doctor replied reassuring me.

" Is he awake doctor? can I see him immediately doctor?". I asked anxiously, but the doctor replied,

" he is in a coma and until he wakes up we can only wait and pray. The beaten he got left him with so many bruises and some broken parts". the doctor explained asking me to be strong.

"Nevertheless, only one of you can go into the patient's room but do not disturb the patient. Then he further explained to me what the scan had shown after it was conducted". The doctor proceeded.

"A scan was been conducted on him and he has a fracture on his left hand and right knee. Also, he has some torn tissues but like I said until he gets up, we just have to hope for the best", the doctor muttered.

"But I can assure you that he is in good hands, we are doing our very best".

When the doctor was done talking to me, he called on a nurse to take me to ward 5 so that I could see the patient.Melissa went to the reception and stayed there for me to return.

I was finally in the room and I could see how he was battling for his life. The man was on oxygen while his body was covered with a bandage. He had swollen eyes and bruises all over his face.

His right leg was suspended on the bed while his left hand was put carefully on his chest. I could imagine the pain he was going through as I looked at him though I knew well that he couldn't be feeling anything because he was in a comatose state.

I took the visitor's stool that was by his bed and sat by him while I reached out for his right hand.

In pity, I looked at him and couldn't help myself as tears ran down my cheeks.

I lowered my mouth to his ears and said," Hi stranger, I know you can hear me and I believe you can feel the presence of someone in this room".

I want you to fight. Struggle like never before for your life because I know that your family needs you and they should be worried sick about your whereabouts.

I continued crying as though it was my father or sibling that was on that bed in that state. I told him, you have to same up to get justice for what happened to you.

Life is a "war front", so you have to fight don't give up. I passed my fingers through the strands of his hair, while I caressed his head gently in order not to disturb him.

I further said, I know you will be okay and I hope to see you wake up to life pretty soon, stranger.

Then I got up, stared at him one more time wished him a fast recovery, and left the room. As I walked through the corridor of the hospital to go meet Melly, couldn't stop weeping thinking of what his family might be going through not knowing his whereabouts.

I finally joined Melly in the reception and she asked how he was doing, I told her he was still in a coma.

I can't begin to explain why I was so persistent to back the man in this difficult journey of his, I just had the intuition that it was fate and that I had to do it for him, same as someone could do it for me as well.

I didn't notice time had passed when suddenly, my phone began to ring. I reach out to get it in my bag, and it was Mr. Anthony my boss at work that was calling.

It was the for me to get to work but I didn't notice because of the many troubles I had encountered.

I had to ask Melly to help drop me at my apartment so that I could pick up a few things and head straight to work.

which she accepted and we left the hospital.

I got to my apartment, showered, and got dressed for work. I took a cab to work and here was I at work sneaking to the ladies lounge to change to my service outfit before I get caught by my boss for coming late to work.

The Cave was a great source of income to my manager but he was a grumpy and authoritative man with little or no sense of compassion at all. He was a tall big man in his late 50s with grey hairs and beards and a large stomach with a despicable sense of dressing. He was a wealthy man and he had so much affluence but his love for money and women was uncontrollable.

He was so bossy and wanted me in his bed that he could do just anything for me. "When I say anything, I meant anything at all".But I was persistent in rejecting his offer that he got pissed and started giving me unnecessary trouble and spiteful behavior but one day after work, I had danced and sweated so much while doing my rounds at the bar, I went in to shower before going to my house. I don't know he had followed me and while he bumped into me at the ladies lodged taking my bath, his eyes were all over me and I could see that if he was given a chance that night, he would have eaten me raw.

In the midst of all these, I was happy just with one thing about him, he was an excellent employer when it came to paying our wages on time.

that was a part of him every of his employee liked about him. His punctuality in paying us our paychecks.

I was changed and it was time for me to work. I went directly to the bar to get the instructions for the night and to start getting the orders from the customers.

Dickson was the one in charge of the bar hence he was the one in control of the drinks and he took the orders from the waitresses and served us the drinks.

Janine was his assistant, she was in charge of recording every bottle of drink, and glasses of cocktails that left the bar. She was in charge of the money too.

We were four girls who served as waitresses I and the 3 other girls by name:

*Anastasia(Ana),

* Bethany( bright),

* Elizabeth(Elly).

They were understanding colleagues and we got each other backs. As I was teasing Dickson, Elly came and startled me from behind.

" hey Eve, you are late again today, what is your excuse this time around?, Elly inquired.

" I had some problems to figure out before coming to work. I am here now. What about the other, I can't seem to find Ana", I said to her.

" she is in the restroom, she will join us any moment from now". Elly uttered.

While we were still chatting, Elly announced, there she comes . we exchanged pleasantries and she asked me why I hadn't answered the phone calls or even returned them.

" Eve, hi". Ana whimpered.

"Hi Ana, How are you today?", I inquired.

" I am doing great. what about you"?, she babbled.

" I am fine just had a stressful day." I muttered.

" I see, was that why you didn't pick up my calls or return them?" ana grumbled.

" I am sorry Ana, I haven't been paying attention to my phone the whole of today". I whispered.

while we were catching up, a voice stopped our conversation. It was Dickson's voice asking us to go to work before we got into trouble.

I glanced over and saw some clients coming into the bar. I went immediately towards them and with a smile on my face, I asked them if they had made reservations, or if they needed a private space for them.

I could see that they were strangers and they were new in town. probably they had booked their rooms in the resort and wanted to cool down for the night.

" Hello sir, welcome to the Cave bar. let me show you a table",i uttered.

" thank you, beautiful lady", the first gentleman said as he followed me with his friends to the designated table I was taking them to.

This girl is a bomb, damn look at her curves". said one of his friends.

" I get all wet with what I am seeing dude, touching his trouser". the other friend muttered.

I was more focused on what I was doing than paying attention to what they were babbling about behind me. so I quickly showed them their table, got their orders, and headed for the bar to order their drinks.

I got their orders from Dickson and I went back to serve them. While I was serving them, one of them asked me to come and join them so that we could have a good time.

" baby, do you care to join us?" The gentleman whispered.

" common beautiful lady don't say no, join us so that we can have fun". The other friend said.

" no thank you, but I have work to do". I murmured. I was in a rush to serve them so. that I could rapidly finish on their table and attend to other clients that were coming in. Then I noticed that one had slide down his contact into the pocket of my skirt and he was smiling lustfully at me.

After serving the rest of the clients, I went into the lady's lounge to hide the tips I got from serving drinks, I suddenly remembered about the man who was in the hospital and I got unhappy again for a minute lost in my thoughts.

Till I got some commotion outside. I ran out and saw some fellows in a conflict and smashing bottles all over the tavern.

it was a mad scenario and unpleasant to the eyes.