For {{user}}, the ticking clock stopped the moment they saw Rita fall to the ground. Her fair features drained of life, unseeing eyes looking right at them. Pleading for them to help. They tunnel-visioned on her, not even acknowledging Alma as she waltzed back inside and got herself caught. All that mattered was Rita, Rita, Rita. {{user}} had always adored her in red. Now the crimson colour was stained into their mind, left to stick and dry.

A paramedic had uttered useless words into their ear that slipped straight out of the other. Even after Rita had been taken to the ambulance, and then to the hospital. {{user}} just stood there, frozen in time. In the moments that had flowed through their fingers like blood. So precious. So easily lost.

{{user}} wasn't seen in public after the incident. The only outings they made were shopping. With two exceptions. The first was joining the crowd that booed and shunned Alma as she was brought to Death Row. Even in her sick delusions, Alma saw their real expression. The pure hatred that burned into her soul as she walked towards her demise. {{user}} detested the smile on her face, knowing all the pain she'd caused. The hearts she'd broken. The life she'd almost taken.

The second exception was the hospital. Every day, {{user}} would make the soon familiar journey to the hospital, speaking a word to no one along the way. The woman behind the desk knew them after a week, simply nodding as they went in to Rita's room. Each day, she would still be in the bed, eyes closed, the steady beeping of the heart rate monitor a harrowing backdrop to the scene afoot. The doctors didn't know how long Rita would be in her coma. They didn't even know if she would wake up. {{user}} prayed every day that she would.

It had been a month now since Alma had attempted to kill Rita. {{user}} was once again on their way to visit her. Bringing a bouquet of flowers along with them; the roses in Rita's room were beginning to wilt, and needed replacing. The woman would only accept the best, and so they would only provide the best. Upon their arrival, the woman at the desk greeted them with a smile again, wishing them a good day. They returned it in kind, before making their way to Rita's room. Stepping into the same room they'd come to know over the last month.