BLACK SKY FALLING (Book 2)

Draven's new Audi sped down the freeway, elbow out the window, and sunglasses to block the evening sun smashing through the windshield.

******************

Draven restlessly paced the waiting room of the ICU, it had been over thirty minutes that he had brought Ravana to the emergency room, soon after they had moved her to the ICU. None of the staff leaving the ward told him anything about her condition, he hurried to the doors when he saw Doris come out.

"Doris, how is she doing?" Draven was panicked, the fear churning in the pit of his stomach a constant reminder of how he was going to lose Ravana.

Doris was baffled. "Honestly Draven, I don't know how she's still alive, this beats all the twenty-two years of experience I have in medicine. Hell, even this weather is beating the fifty-two years I-"

Draven grabbed her by the shoulders. "Doris! How is she?"

Doris blinked rapidly collecting her thoughts. "She's alive, well barely. Her pulse is weak and low, she has lost more than ninety percent of her blood volume without any visible open wounds or lacerations, how did this even happen?!"

She wouldn't believe him even if he told her. "She's anaemic." Was the only lie he could come up with.

Doris frowned. "Well this is the most severe I've ever seen anaemia hit so hard. We're going to run more tests to see if whether she had internal bleeding of any sorts."

Draven nodded. "Is she going to be okay?" He needed to hear the reassurance.

Doris was hesitant. "We're doing everything we can, but honestly, it's up to her to fight. We're giving her as much blood and fluid transfusions as we possibly can, the best we can do is hope that none of her vital organs are damaged from the oxygen deprivation."

Draven looked up in helplessness, he had done his best to get her to the hospital on time.

Doris squeezed his shoulder. "Don't worry kiddo, she's been fighting this far, I'm sure she's not going to leave you. Hang in there." She went back into the ICU.

He felt uneasy he could not sit down, he settled for leaning against the wall opposite the entrance to the ICU. He looked to the side when heels clicked furiously on the hard floor, Malvi was hurrying towards him, when their eyes met, fear flashed in them for a second and her steps became hesitant. The fear vanished and with confidence she marched up to him.

"How's she, have the doctors said anything?" She looked around all sides of the hall.

"She's in the ICU, they're doing everything they can for now, Doris we'll be out soon." He watched how she nodded and instantly her pale face got his attention. "Malvi you're wet, go home and change."

She immediately shook her head.

"Look, you're not exactly dressed for the weather.." He gestured to her once white dress that was now pink and clinging to her body, not to mention the lack of length in the material. "Go home, I'll keep you informed."

She shook her head again. "I'm not leaving Ravana." Her eyed shimmered with stubborn tears.

"I know you don't want to, but you won't be much help if you get sick. Don't be stubborn Malvi please go home." He pleaded.

She turned away from him with crossed arms, her resilience didn't last too long, her knees buckled and she fell back.

The moment Draven saw her body sway lightly he quickly grabbed her arms but she still continued falling, passing out in his arms and grabbing the attention of the doctors coming down the hall. Women were going to be the death of him for sure.

*****************

What the hell?! Draven's face was stuck in shock that if someone were to take a picture of him, he'd be a viral meme. The parking lot was like a car dealership, he continued driving until he saw Malvi's jeep and the empty spot beside it that had a reserved sign on it.

He parked the Audi and got out, numerous people seemed to also be arriving, they were headed to the bar, he cautiously walked to the entrance that was now bigger and the door was different.

What had Malvi done to his bar?

When he walked into the bar his mouth dropped, he quickly looked around and his eyes zeroed in on his target. The red highlights in her hair were practically a beacon that singled her out of the densely populated room. He could even hear loud music playing from somewhere, he matched up to her back.

"Malvi." His tone was dangerously low, but loud enough so that she could hear him above the music.

She turned with a wide smile on her face. "There you are, you look great! Is that a new leather jacket?"

"Malvi. What the hell is going on here?"

"Remember when we talked about renovations for the bar, well... I made a few changes."

"A few changes!" He pointed to the two girls that went past him wearing Jezebeel's Nook tshirts "This place is completely different and I've been gone for just a month! Thirty days Malvi, thirty days!" He emphasised.

Malvi rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "Well atleast I did something. Since you bought the place next door, the only renovation plans you had jolted down was 'tables and chairs'." She made air quotes.

"You didn't run this by me."

"I didn't have to, I own ten percent of this place." She said like it was some sort of big achievement. "Come, I'll take you on a tour." She hooked her elbow around his arm and pulled him along. "As you can see, I've made some minor changes."

Draven scoffed at the minor.

"Don't be so grumpy. Look at our new bar counter, it's circular and it has three different sections."

While Draven appreciated her choice in wood for the counter, he wasn't going to say out loud. He continued with the grumpy expression as he took in the three segmented bar counter.

"Over here we have our beer counter, then next we have our cocktail counter, and..." she did a drumroll with her fingers. "..our wine counter. That's right, we're now serving over fifty varieties of wine."

Wine was a good idea, he had to give her that.

"I even had those drink guard cubes that you open with a finger print installed around the bar counter and almost everywhere!" She turned him left and right so he could see.

Atleast, she kept the booths. Was the only thing Draven actually noticed. Plus a pool table, and a dart tournament was going on, on the other side of the room.

"So, what do you think?" Malvi asked turning him back to her.

Draven was distracted with the people who seemed to be heading to the back and the obvious cheering he could hear. "What's going on back there?"

Malvi grinned even wider. "Come take a look.." She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hall, past the bathrooms and out the door where his mind was literally blown away. He looked around at all the activity, all the changes around him.

"Excuse me boss,"

Malvi pulled him to the side so the guy carrying crates of cold Heineken and a 'tshirt' with the bar name could go past.

"Explain yourself." He folded his arms.

Malvi disregarded his clenched jaw and went on cheerfully. "Okay, so at first I wanted to build around this space we had to the next building, but after much deliberation with you in an imaginary meeting, we decided to close off one side," She pointed to the wall. "then we put a short fence on the other side so we could see the street and the cars so security huh?" She pointed to her head.

Draven was not impressed.

"Then I-"

The cheering drowned her out and she stopped talking. Draven turned to the wall where a huge flat screen tv was mounted to the wall and a lounge area was set up where people were watching a live basketball game.

"Since we opened two days ago after renovations, those guys come and they actually buy actual crates of beer." Malvi gloated as the guy who had gone past them handed out the beers. They heard them order some Bud light as well, the seats were completely filled other people were just standing by.

"Come on," Malvi continued her tour, she led them past the lounge area, past a dance floor, the DJ was at the wall. People were waiting in line at the other side and he immediately understood why when the aroma hit him. "Check out our barbecue area." She pushed through the people to the front. "We have grilled pork ribs, sausage and chicken wings. These two brothers are from Iowa and they make ribs to die for."

Draven followed the long setup of smoking meat, people were literally buying stuff like crazy.

"Hey Daniel!" Malvi called to one of the guys flipping the ribs, he looked up at her. "Make the boss a juicy platter." She threw an arm around Draven's shoulders.

"You got it!" He reached behind him and slid a glass cabinet open and grabbed a large plate, he filled it with the juiciest pair of ribs on the grill, he handed it over to his brother who topped it off with sausage and chicken wings before handing it over to Malvi with plenty of napkins.

Draven noticed another bar counter on the other side opposite the grilling area, by the short fence they had tall tables and bar stools which were all occupied.

"Come on, let's see what I was up to in the other building." She led the way past the grilling station with the plate in her hands. She opened the glass door "I kept the bathrooms on the other side." She pointed down the hall to the left. I moved the ladies in here, and the gents are still back there."

On cue, two giggling ladies came down the hall, they eyed him like a pair of ribs while going out the door, they whispered to eachother clearly very intoxicated. Malvi led him down the hall and turned right, she pointed to the right.

"The cold room for the grill stuff is through that door." For the next glass door, she produced a pair of keys for. "And over there, is my little office space!"

"I wonder who brought that up during our 'meeting'."

Malvi giggled in guilt. "Your office is up the stairs." She pointed allowing him to go up first.

Draven went up the single flight of stairs and open the half glass, half wood door. He had to admit, he liked the office setup, it was kind of modern unlike his old one, he went to the windows that overlooked the open bar area outside.

"How was the job?" Malvi asked setting down the plate.

"Jobs." Draven corrected going to sit down in the executive chair, it actually supported his spine.

"It was a double?" Malvi went to the chilled cabinet and grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass and walked to his desk.

"A triple actually." Draven rocked back and forth in his chair as Malvi let out an impressed whistle.

"You bagged it real quick." She poured a full glass of wine and handed it to him. "So, how do you like the new layout?"

Draven hummed and made an exaggerated thinking face. "Mmmmmm, it's kind of nice, like thiiis bit.." He measured a quarter with his fingers.

Malvi laughed out loud. "Get out!" She was still chuckling when her phone rang and she answered. "Yes?....I'm coming." She hang up. "I'll be right back, enjoy." She hurried out the door, he could see her go down the stairs through the glass section of the door.

Draven sipped his wine and looked down at the plate, when he looked at the sausage his mind immediately wandered...

**********************

Draven nearly dropped the small cup of coffee he had in his hand when he heard her cry from the hall, outside the door.

He

ran inside, and quickly set aside the cup on a table, he hurried to the bed. "Stop, stop it you'll hurt yourself.." He gripped her hands but she had already yanked out her iv's.