Created

Chapter 3

He was still sleeping, that man. Only now, his face didn’t look as perfect, or peaceful. His face was turning a sickly, greyish colour and his cheeks were sunken. He looked almost dead. The sight of such a beautiful person looking so dead and broken shocked me. For a second, it stole my breath.

“A man brought him in last night, around midnight. Said he was running down the streets like he was being chased, screaming for help. He passed out of fatigue, and was found by a nearby store owner who had been closing up the shop. The shop owner brought him here, and that’s basically all we know about him. We want to wait for him to wake up before we perform any tests, so we can get his consent, the Board said. It can’t be long now before he wakes up.” Nurse Weedman said. I stepped up next to the hospital bed and stared into his face. He almost looked… afraid. A chill ran down my spine. This man held deadly secrets.

“He looks more sick than he was in his profile picture,” I thought outloud.

“Yes, he’s been getting worse and worse overnight, we’ve really be…” Slowly, I tuned out her voice as high pitch tone filled my ears. I turned my attention to the man on the hospital bed and I thought of when I fix my laptop or school computers. The tone that filled my ears was all too familiar and my brain switched to computer mode. A computer that was breaking down was usually an over-worked computer. Most of the time, all you needed to do was shut off the computer and let it cool down. Other times, it was a virus. Viruses needed to be cleaned out as soon as possible before they killed the computer completely. If this man’s illness was like a computer virsis… then he only had a few hours left to live!!

“He’s going to die,” I whispered quietly.

“What?!” Nurse Weedman looked over, alarmed. I turned to her, eyes ablaze, as a new part of me I’d never known burst out through my words.

“He is going to die!!!” I shouted and began moving in an adrenaline-fueled rush to save his life. I took control, ordering that Nurse Weedman call in the best doctors and nurses to his aid NOW. We neede to get him awak ASAP, and hook him up to something that would KEEP him awake. There were tests to be done, medicines to be prescribed, what were we doing just standing here when his LIFE WAS IN DANGER?! Move, move moooove!!!!!

Before too long, the small hospital room began to fill with doctors and nurses. While the doctors were waking up that man, I frantically questioned a group of nurses.

“What’s wrong with everyone?! People could see he was sick, he was dying, why was nothing done?!?! What was different from any other patient!?”

“It was the Board!” One nurse cried. “The Board told us not to do anything to him unless he woke up!”

“And no one questioned this?! No one thought it was the least bit strange?!”

“We don’t question the Board, Head Nurse!” the girl told me.

“What do you mean, ‘We don’t question-Wait. Did you just call me Head Nurse?” I asked, shocked. The little nurse nodded.

“Yes, Head Nurse.”

“I’m not Head… Oh well, forget it. I’ve got more important things to deal with.” I looked back at the girl, who was still standing there, still thinking I was the Head Nurse.

“Dismissed,” I told her.

I turned and pushed my way through the crowd of doctors and nurses surrounding the man’s hospital bed.

“The medicine should be working. He should wake up any minute now,” I heard a voice behind me say. And that’s when it happened. He opened his eyes.

The man’s eyes were green. A dark, beautiful, foresty green that matched his woodsy hair. Those eyes met mine, and instantly, I forgot my powerful Head Nurse act. All of a sudden, I was just little, scared Claire Brummer, volunteer nurse and the Board’s plaything. A girl who had no idea what she was doing. Instantly, I felt this man’s pain, his fear, and it was fierce.

Luckily, his gaze didn’t rest with me for long. His green eyes traveled around the room, meeting each person’s eye. The room was silent. No one dare even breathe. All eyes were on this strange man, so no one saw. No one saw his hand slowly move over the hospital bed sheets. No one saw him grab the nearest doctor’s wrist and squeeze tightly. They did notice, however, when that doctor fell over in a dead faint.

Pandemonium broke out. I turned and ran to the other side of the room, away from that man, away from the screaming crowd. I watched the man jump up and run through the crowd, delicately tapping someone’s neck here, pressing someone’s wrist there. Before the minute was over, every doctor and every nurse, including Nurse Weedman, were knocked out cold. The only people left standing were me and him. Crying softly to myself, I cowered in my corner. I can’t do this, I can’t do this!! At the sound of my crying, the man turned around to see me. So cared, so terrified I looked up at the man, fearing his next move. But, instead of the anger, the insanity I expected to see in his eyes, I saw shock and horror as he looked at me. No, those aren’t the right words… Hmm… mortification! That’s what he looked like, that man looked absolutely mortified.

“Oh…” he breathed. “I made you cry!!” he said, sounding so sad, so regretful. In an instant, he was by my side, holding my hands, his face, his beautiful face, so close to mine.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m SOO sorry I made you cry.” And he was. He looked honestly sorry. But, I was still scared, still scared of him. I jerked by hands away from him and ran to the other side of the room. The man stood up from where he’d been hunching to be eyelevel with me. When he stood up, he was a good foot taller than me, and definitely much stronger than me. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the tears fall.

“Did you kill them?” I asked through my tears.

“Huh?” I heard him ask.

“The doctors!” I cried. “The doctors and the nurses! Are they dead?”

“No, no!” the man cried. “Not at all!! I’d never KILL them! They’re just knocked out. They should be up in a few hours, I promise.” I swalled, my tears drying, at least a little. Well… he didn’t seem as dangerous after all. In fact, he acted like a child. A little boy, feeling so sorry for something he’d done.

“Why?” I asked suddenly. “Why did you do that to them?”

“They were going to do something horrible to me,” the man answered simply, his shoulders sinking. “Like they always do. She caught me, and now she’s going to torture me even more.” Tears began to gleam in his eyes.

“Could you get Arta for me?” he asked quietly, falling to his knees. “Could you bring her here? I want to tell her I’ve given up and I’d prefer if she’d kill me.”

My mind raced as I watched this broken man on his knees across the room. What was he talking about? Did he even know where he was? And, who on Earth was Arta?!

“Who… who are you?” I asked breathlessly. The man looked up, and his green eyes looked dead.

“That’s a long story.”