by M. D. Massey
“Get a grip, mate,” he said. He opened his eyes and saw that he had come all over the shower wall. “Perfect.”
Once he cleaned up, he got out of the shower and brushed his teeth. He thought about shaving, but didn’t feel like it. He dressed in a button-down, checked shirt and a pair of dark, distressed jeans. He quickly slipped on his dark gray shoes, and checked his mug in the mirror, adjusting his purposely messy hair. He stared at himself in disgust for a few seconds, then stormed out of his room.
While he drove through the streets like a maniac, Henry hoped the flowers were delivered and the letter would work. A song from Bruno Mars started to play on the radio.
“Fuck me.” He shut it off. He knew any song would remind him of Elaina. He felt self-conscious about the words he wrote. It wasn’t worthy of his Elaina. A letter from the queen wouldn’t be worthy of his Elaina. She was more to him than what he had written, but he had no idea how to put it on paper.
He walked through the doors of the blood bank, seeing several people already waiting. He cringed, knowing he’d have to exchange pleasantries with them, and he was not in the mood. He stopped at Jennifer’s desk.
“You look like shit. How are you this morning?”
“Thanks. Slightly hung over and worried out of my mind.” Henry leaned against the desk. “I drank myself into oblivion at Cam’s last night.” He paused for a moment, then looked her in the eyes. “Jennifer, I might snap if the flowers don’t work.”
“I guess you’ll find out. She’s a lucky woman. I hope she realizes that, but I do have a good feeling that she will come back.” He gave her a sad smile. He wasn’t going to hold his breath waiting for Elaina, though, because he wasn’t expecting the flowers to work.
“Any calls?”
“Actually, not yet. But we could use some help. Steve is backed up already, and Sandy is off today.” She waved her hand toward the seating area. He cranked his head around and looked at the people waiting.
“Right. Let him know I’ll be right there.”
He walked back to his office, dropped his laptop case on his desk, and grabbed his lab coat off the bathroom door. He walked around the back hallway, through the lab area, and toward the draw room. He walked straight to the sink and washed his hands.
“I know you’re busy, bossman, but we’re backed up.”
“Yeah. I’m on it, Steve.” Henry sighed. “Uh, listen, I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday. I’m dealing with some personal shit, but I shouldn’t let it affect me here.”
“That’s all right. We all get a little jacked-up once in a while. Don’t sweat it.” Henry smirked. “Anyway, that’s the pile of the ones waiting.” Steve pointed to the charts.
Henry grabbed the one on top, then headed out to the waiting room. When he called out the name on the chart, a middle-aged, well-dressed woman sauntered toward him. Shit, here we go again, he thought. For some reason, women always threw themselves at him. He never understood it.
“Well, hello, Mr. Phlebotomist,” she purred, looking him up and down. “I think I’m going to come here more often.”
Henry’s face was blank as he looked at her. “Name and birth date.” He had no emotion in his voice. She looked at his left hand for any signs of a ring.
“Dina Emerson, and you know it’s not polite to ask a lady’s age.”
His first thought? Cougar.
“Ms. Emerson, I need your birth date to verify I have the correct chart.” He was all business.
“Oh, fine. 7/12/60.”
“Thank you. Follow me.” He shuddered. He could feel her eyes working their way up and down his backside.
“You know…that lab coat does nothing for you.” And there it was.
“Exactly why I wear it, Ms. Emerson.” They walked into the draw room, and Henry pointed to the chair. “Have a seat and remove your jacket.” Annoyed with the woman, he didn’t want someone old enough to be his mom trying to flirt with him, especially when he only had eyes for Elaina.
He walked over to the supply cabinets and accidentally hit an open container of iodine. It fell over, spilling all over his coat. “Shit.” He gripped the side of the sink, feeling like he was close to putting his fist through the wall.
“Whoa, there. Here.” Steve handed him a bunch of paper towels. “You all right?” He could practically see the steam rolling out of Henry’s ears.
Henry took a few deep breaths. “Yeah. Sorry. I’m just stressed beyond belief.” He peeled off the lab coat, realizing the iodine had drenched his shirt, too. He groaned.
“You have a change of clothes in your office? If not, I have an extra set of scrubs in mine.”
Henry let out a loud breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I think so. I have a t-shirt, at the very least. I’ll be right back.” He ran out of the draw room and back to his office.
He walked into his bathroom and pulled the white t-shirt off of the door. He realized it was just a white fitted undershirt. “Christ,” he said in a whiny voice. There was nothing else he could do. After changing, he went back to the draw room, pulling out everything he needed to do a draw on the Cougar.
Steve whistled. “Damn, bossman. I see you’re still spending all your free time at the gym.”
“Yeah, and maybe more if Elaina doesn’t take me back.”
“Ohhhh, I see. That bad?”
“I don’t know. I sent her flowers. It’s going to eat me alive until I get a response from her. If I get a response from her,” he mumbled.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He looked at the number, hoping it was Elaina, but it was Roger. Rubbing his chest, a sharp pain made him feel like someone punched him. He groaned again. He hit the IGNORE button, and went over to the Cougar. It was starting off to be a shitastic day.
“Wow.” She quirked a brow at him. “Looks like you took my advice.” Henry sighed as she tried to make herself look seductive, adjusting the neckline of her shirt to expose her cleavage.
“I spilled iodine on my coat and shirt.”
“Flustered?”
“Nope,” he lied, shutting her down.
“Oh.”
Henry put the supplies on the table, then sat on the rolling stool. He turned away from the Cougar to put on gloves and open the packages.
“Wow. That’s a nice tattoo.”
“Huh?”
“Your tattoo. From what I can see, it looks nice.”
He looked down at his shirt, remembering what he had on. “Right. Thanks.” He powered up the machine. “Ms. Emerson, are you ready?”
“Yes. This isn’t my first rodeo.”
Henry hooked her up, having the machine running in record time. His skin crawled, knowing the Cougar eyed him like a piece of meat.
Peeling off his gloves, he stepped around the curtain…and felt her. Elaina? He looked up and there she was, standing in the doorway, looking like a wreck. Bloodshot eyes and trembling lips, she looked just like he felt. He didn’t spare another second and ran to her.
-November 2014-
The door opened to the guest room. Henry looked up, hoping it was Elaina. The sobs tore from his throat when he saw Sophie.
She sat on the floor next to Henry. He held Elaina’s ring between his fingers, thinking he had lost the love of his life. Sophie held him while the endless sobbing tore through his body.
“Shhh…it’s going to be all right. I’m here for you.” She inwardly smiled, hoping Henry would fall back into her arms. Then she could take him back to the program as originally planned.
“I can’t live without her.”
“Yes, you can. You will be able to move forward.”
“I can’t, Sophie. I fucking can’t! I’m lost without her.” He pulled away. “She’s the only thing that makes me feel good.” His voice was riddled with sobs. “And I couldn’t deal with seeing her move on. I can’t fucking do this!” He dropped his head into his hands. His heart ached. He felt alone and confused. If she moved on without him, he would surely pull the trigger.
Sophie moved away to let him try to collect himself. His sobs jarred his body. Eventually, the tears stopped flowing, but his breathing was still staggered, making his body shake. She sat beside him again. “Well, what do we do now?” She reached over and ran her fingers through his hair.
“I don’t know. She does deserve to know the truth about us. At least about me.”
“She does, but we can’t. You know that. It will compromise everything.”
Henry shoved her hands away. “I don’t give a shit about compromising anything! The only fucking thing I care about is her! You know that I’m no longer continuing with the program. At this point, it’s all about survival.” His eyes swam again. He looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep his tears in, but his efforts were unsuccessful. “I cannot lose her. She’s the only thing that keeps me sane.” Henry jumped up and punched a hole in the wall. “Damn you, Roger!”
Sophie jumped up and grabbed him by the arm, tugging him toward the bed. He sat and put his face in his hands again. Sophie sat and held him, gently stroking his back as he cried even more.
“I know, Henry. I don’t want you to lose her, either. She’s a piece of work sometimes, but I do know you love her. As long as you have love, there’s hope.”
“Hope?” Henry threw his arms up in the air and hysterically laughed. “Hope? In this mess?” He shook his head. “I’m trying to hang on to hope, but it’s dwindling.”
“I know.”
Sophie laid Henry back on the bed so they faced each other. She held him for a few minutes, much like she used to when he was so injured from a beating, he couldn’t move. She stroked his hair, touched his face, and ran her fingers up and down his arm until he settled enough to talk in a calm manner.
“I’m going to need to go back out soon. I wasn’t able to get my fix, and I’m feeling it.”
He noticed her eyes were graying. He was too busy trying to hold himself together and worrying about how to get Elaina back to notice Sophie’s problems.
“What happened anyway? How did Jacob get you?”
“He took me by surprise. When I saw him come out of the building, I hid so I could sneak up on him. I figured I would knock him out from behind, or just cut off his air supply to make him pass out, then do a quick draw. I tried to reach into my vest for my needle, but the zipper was stuck and I couldn’t reach down far enough to grab it. I lost track of him. He came up from behind, put me in a headlock, and covered my mouth with his hand. I raised my leg to kick him in the bollocks, but he grabbed my Sig out of the back of my pants.”
“Jesus, Sophie,” Henry murmured.
“He jammed the Sig up against my head and dragged me to the café. I couldn’t let him give me a true death, then go after you two. He would have taken you by surprise, making things worse than they actually were.”
“Right.”
“I knew you would head to the café eventually, so I decided to stay in check. And that’s when you walked in. It happened so fast.” They both stared at one another. “I assume you were able to get a decent fix, hence all the blood on your face earlier? You were so angry about Nate not complying beforehand, I figured you were past ready.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I think I’ll always have issues staying in check when I’m hanging by a thread.”
“As always.” Henry rolled onto his back, rubbing his face with his hands. “Henry, do you think this has spread down the coast?”
“I think it’s more than a safe assumption to say it has spread across the country by now. Obviously, we don’t have the ability to contact Gunther or anyone else. I wonder how he is faring, the asshole. I hope we can find him.” There was disdain in his voice.
“I don’t know, but we need to get out of here. We have only secured a few spots around us. Roger will be pissed.” She realized what she had said the moment she said it.
“Fuck him!” Henry snapped. “I don’t give two bloody fucks what he thinks.”
“I didn’t mean that.” Sophie recoiled. “I’m still in program mode, I guess.”
“We’re doing what we can with what we have. I should have never rescued Nate and Nick, but I felt horrible for Elaina and Claire. It tore me apart, seeing their pain. I wish I could have just come back, grabbed my supplies, then took off with them.”
“I understand. This is why we cannot get invested in people. They will be with us one minute, trying to put a bullet in our heads the next. It will compromise us. We cannot afford to be taken by surprise by a group of undeads.” Sophie stood and headed for the door, looking over her shoulder at him.
His sorrow-filled face made her heart ache. She wanted to get him back and make him feel loved again, but she knew he would refuse her advances. She held onto hope that he would run back to her at some point.
“Are you heading out now?” His voice cracked.
“I have to. We can’t trust the blood bank now, can we?”
“No. Definitely not. I wasn’t there for a week prior to my wed—” He stopped himself. “Besides, the power has been out for an extended period of time. Any blood would have gone bad.”
“I was hoping to get there and check it out. There must be backup generators.”
“There are, but it’s simply not a good idea. We don’t know if they’re working, or if they held up the coolers. I had electrical issues. I was prepping for a major overhaul to the circuitry on the back end for all the coolers. And we don’t know what’s lurking behind the doors now.” He knew there was no stopping her once she made up her mind, much like himself.
“Tell me how to get there and give me a quick layout. I want to check it out anyway.”
Henry let out a heavy sigh, then reluctantly gave her directions and told her how to navigate through the building.
“Please take Nick and Nate with you. I don’t want you going on your own.”
Sophie nodded and walked out, leaving him to deal with his sorrow on his own.
Chapter 11
Sophie went out to the living room where Nick and Nate sat quietly, staring at each other. Nick’s jaw was clenched, and he cracked his knuckles as he stood, anger written all over his body. He was ready to beat Henry down if need be. “What the hell is going on?!” he barked at her.
Sophie sighed. “Oh, you know. Dealing with love in this crazy, mixed-up world.”
Nick narrowed his eyes at her. That stung, considering he just lost the love of his life. “Seriously. What the fuck is going on? That’s my baby sister. And if he did anything—”
“Ugh, not you, too. Elaina is just having a hard time dealing with everything.”
“Right.” He was worried when he heard her yelling, but he figured it was some sort of quarrel between her and Henry. Unless he knew Elaina was in harm’s way, he wasn’t going to interfere, but hearing her so upset made him irate.
“You are much like your sister, aren’t you?”
“You should have known their mother. Mega-controlling bitch,” Nate said with annoyance.
Nick snapped his head around and his lip curled up in a snarl. He jumped toward Nate and grabbed him, picking him up by the throat. “You little pissant!”
“Ladies, ladies, ladies…” Sophie placed her hands on her hips, watching Nick choking the little bastard. “Let’s calm down a bit, shall we?” Nick glowered at her and let go. Nate fell to the floor, coughing and rubbing his throat. “I need both of you to come with me.”
“Where?” Nick and Nate said in unison.
“Where do you think?”
“Now is not the time for your psychotic games!” Nick yelled.
“Oh my, did I hurt your feelings?” No response. “Good. Get a couple packs. We’re going out.”
Nate didn’t argue. He got up, still coughing from Nick’s hands being wrapped around his neck. They both grabbed the packs off the table, then checked them and the weapons in silence. Sophie put her pack on.
“Okay, boys, off we go.” She headed toward the door and stopped, rubbing her temples.
“Are you all right?” Nick was genuinely concerned. She irritated him to no end because of her run-ins with Elaina, but she had come through when they needed her to.
She shook her head. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little headache.”
“Well, let me say goodbye to Elaina…just in case.” Nick started to head down the hall. Nate walked to the door behind Sophie.
“That might not be a good idea. You know she will argue and come up with something like ‘It’s too late’, or ‘You need rest’, or whatever other shit flies out of her mouth.” Sophie needed to get the hell out of there, and she knew if Nick found out about Elaina’s and Henry’s argument, there would be no hope of leaving anytime during the next century.
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Nick’s shoulders sagged as he walked back toward the door. Once again, he felt like Elaina didn’t need him anymore.
“We’re taking the truck. It’ll be better at night. Plus, we can take out some undeads with it.” Sophie chuckled like it was going to be a good time. Nick and Nate just looked at each other.
“You are one fucked-up person,” Nick muttered.
“Why, thank you for acknowledging my rather fantastic personality.” She curtsied, flashed that big, toothy grin, and they headed out. If she weren’t a woman, Nick would have punched her.
“What are we going to do, Claire?” I had buried my face in Henry’s pillow, inhaling his scent like an obsessed teen. He smelled so good. Just one more thing I would miss about him. “I’m so confused. I can’t handle any more of this.”
“I know. I’d love to help, but nothing I say will make you feel better.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“I don’t know. There’s something going on besides the obvious, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Right.” I sulked. “I miss my old Henry,” I whispered to myself.
“Oh, hon. I understand.”
I let out a soft laugh, then found the energy to roll over to face her. “Listen to me! I’m so self-absorbed. I should be consoling you! You lost Marc.” Claire sucked in a sharp breath when I said his name.