Prescribed (The White Coat Series)

by Parker, D. D.

  In a protective sense of course.

  “No don’t worry, you can stick around,” I said, a little out of breath as exhaustion was starting to creep up on me. Ryan nodded at him, giving him the classic “it’s ok, man”. Jason undid his dark blue running sneakers and laid back, an arm thrown lazily over the expensive couch.

  “So you’re saying he was spying on you?” Ryan asked, pouring me a glass of water in a cup that was surprisingly curved, just as I took a seat next to Jason.

  “Yep, pictures of me right under the couch,” I said, a chill crawling down my spine as I remembered the photos that were in there. And then I remembered the Eric I once loved and was even more scared. How could someone that I felt so safe with now be so disillusioned? I honestly had no idea of what Eric was capable of anymore, and that though terrified me to the very core.

  “That’s some twisted shit,” Jason said, adding his input with his head shaking in disgust.

  “Yep. The guy I was with for years has now turned into a lunatic stalker,” I said, the words almost getting stuck in my throat. I still wanted to save him, I really did. I just didn’t know how to anymore.

  “You’ve gotta tell the police,” I heard Ryan say from his immaculate kitchen, his voice always commanding the attention of anyone involved in the conversation. I could hear him pour himself another glass, the water sounding almost peaceful amidst the chaos of the day. I started to wonder when I could actually feel peaceful again.

  “Yeah, I can’t say much but I talked to him and… well he didn’t sound good.”

  That’s right! Jason is Eric’s doctor, he had to know if there was a shot at saving Eric.

  “Was he… sorry at least?” I asked, not knowing what answer to expect but bracing myself for the worst. Jason just stayed quiet, not wanting to breach his patient-doctor confidentiality, which was what I should have expected. I knew I couldn’t pry any further, but I wanted to. It took everything I had in me to not dig any deeper, I knew that Jason wouldn’t keep quiet if it were life-threatening anyway.

  “It doesn’t matter if he’s sorry, he’s a fucking psycho.” Ryan took a seat next to me, handing over the glass of water and putting another protective hand over my shoulders. I leaned into his body and rested my head on his strong chest, feeling his lungs lift underneath me.

  This felt right. The fear I felt with Eric didn’t.

  “Well he’s not being discharged for another week so you’ve got some time to think about what you’re gonna do,” Jason said, his right leg bouncing up and down, causing his black gyms shorts to fall back lower and reveal another tattoo of navy blue koi fish, half wrapping around his thigh.

  With Ryan sitting next to me, I felt like I could finally overcome my ex. I could move on from him, and even though his behaviors were scary, I knew he wouldn’t resort to anything that extreme. At least I presumed I knew. So instead, I looked at Ryan and found a new resolve, one that helped me realize that I was safe. Especially with Ryan sitting next to me, watching over me. It felt good and it felt right and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. There wasn’t much I could do about Eric for right now so I decided to change the subject.

  I looked over at Jason, “did you get all the tattoos after or before medical school?” I asked, genuinely curious. The only doctor I had ever seen with a tattoo was my mom’s psychiatrist who rocked a small Hello Kitty behind her left ear. I only noticed because she accidentally picked up her hair, which she had never done before. It was a particularly hot summer’s day in Los Angeles, the kind that made your back sweaty just as you got out of the car, leaving those embarrassing dark stains that you desperately wish would dry up before walking into anywhere public. Yeah, it was that hot. So naturally, the bohemian psychiatrist, who didn’t like using air conditioning, left the window open and needed to pick up her brown locks before they caused her neck to catch fire. That was when I noticed the tattoo, it was also when the psychiatrist turned to ask me how I was feeling.

  “Most of them I got after, didn’t wanna get fucked up when it came time for interviews.”

  “Didn’t one of the interviewers see your shoulder one?” Ryan asked, taking a sip from his own cup. I felt his muscles moving and noticed the bulge of his bicep as he brought the drink up to his supple lips. This man was something else.

  “Yep. She asked me what made me special, so I took off my shirt and showed her,” he said, confidence apparent in just the way he spoke. A mischievous smirk grew across his features as I could see him recalling the memory. I imagined it playing out in my head, a pointed business woman interview potential medical school candidates, sitting there with a file in front of her, lips pursed and nails tapping away at the desk. Here comes Jason, a tattooed Adonis for practical purposes, and gives this woman a strip tease. And he still got into medical school.

  Either he had really good grades or gave really good strip teases.

  “Oh? What was that?” I asked. I saw him smile and get up, pulling his shirt over his head and revealing a body that rivaled Ryan’s. He turned around to show me the tattoo on his shoulder. It was a bright red and orange phoenix bursting out of an open red and blue pill capsule. The flames that trailed behind the mythical bird seemed to start setting the pill on fire, its edges melting downwards.

  “I got it when I was eighteen and got over some personal stuff,” he said, pulling his shirt back on. The way he said personal stuff lead me to believe that Jason was a deep man, the kind that has years and years worth of experiences beyond his own age. Something about him made me trust him, I knew he was a good guy. Like Ryan, sitting next to me, making me feel protected. Nothing could hurt us in this moment.

  Or so I thought.

  “Wow, that’s beautiful. What did the interviewer say?” I asked, drawing my attention back to Jason’s chiseled face.

  “She said congrats but that the medical school wouldn’t be the right fit for me,” he scoffed, “better for me, I ended up in a top ranking program. Plus I got to go to school with this asshole,” he said, punching Ryan’s shoulder over my head. I could tell their friendship was as deep as the one I shared with Courtney.

  “How long have you guys known each other?” I asked, genuinely curious about their histories. I wanted to know more about Ryan, explore the people in his past. I wanted to sit there and listen to the stories about how he used to rollerblade through the park on his way to some pick-up basketball games, and something maybe a little less 1990s inspired, how he used to cause trouble with his classmates and still stick up for the little kid being bullied in the corner. I wanted to hear all of those stories.

  “For way too long,” Ryan quickly replied, smiling down at me. His smile still made the butterflies in my stomach swirl in a flurry, I looked back up at him, squeezing his hand.

  “We might as well have drank out of the same bottle.”

  “I was breastfed,” he said.

  “Well then let’s forget about sharing that food source,” Jason declared. I thought that he missed a great opportunity for a “your mom” joke but I was also a little happy that he let it slide. Someone had to be mature in this room.

  They both laughed, Ryan tightening his arm around me through the chuckles. I laughed with them, my whole body finally feeling good. It was like all the stress around me was being lifted and carried away, taken to a far away land where little stress balls live in small towns. Something like that. I melted even more into Ryan’s shape, feeling his breaths underneath me, his laughs resonate in his strong chest. He sounded so powerful yet so kind, such a rare mix.

  Then there was a knock at the door. A hard, urgent one. Like someone was running from something and they needed shelter, whatever was after them being right around the corner.

  Everything changed after that.

  “That’s weird, I’m not expecting anyone,” Ryan said, confused as he got up to go open it, leaving me behind on the couch, holding myself up on the spot where Ryan was sitting.

  “Yeah they didn’t buzz up ei
ther,” Jason noted, directing his attention at the Twitter feed displayed on his new iPhone.

  Ryan cracked the door open and asked whoever was outside if he could help him.

  “Yeah. Is Jason there?”

  The voice froze every fiber in my being. My heart immediately stopped beating as fear coursed through me, running through my veins in a blinding fury, stopping me from making even the smallest of moves. My vision blurred as my consciousness threatened to give after the rush of blood that was sent straight to my head.

  I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

  It was Eric.

  “Yeah, do you need something?” Ryan said, still talking through the cracked door.

  “Yeah. I need to fuck him up.”

  “Wha-“ before Ryan could finish, the door was thrown open with a force that he wasn’t expecting, throwing him down to the ground, slamming his body against a small table that he kept near the door. The shoes that had previously lined the top came crashing down to the floor and scattering around Ryan as the small table collapsed underneath his weight. Eric stepped in and immediately locked eyes with me, his fury rising as he saw me sitting next to Jason, his skin a paper pale that was beginning to flush with a furious red. My throat dried up, stopping me from pleading for my life.

  In his hand was a shiny, silver, dangerously lethal gun ready to blow someone’s head off. And it was aimed straight at me.

  “What the fuck?!” Jason said, immediately standing up. That’s when the first shot went off. The sound of the shot left my ears ringing as I instinctively screamed and covered my head. I heard a loud thud as Jason fell to the ground, a growing spot of red emanating from somewhere on his chest. I dropped down next to him, trying to slap him awake but he wouldn’t open his eyes. He just wouldn’t.

  “Eric! Please, stop it, Eric! Please!” I cried out. I tried to apply as much pressure as I could on the bright red spot, hoping to staunch the bleeding. I looked down at my hands.

  They were soaked in dark crimson.

  “You were cheating on me this whole time,” he spat, a blind rage overtaking his features. He didn’t see when Ryan came up behind him and grabbed him by the neck, bringing him down to the ground. I saw the gun flash again in his hand, pieces of plaster from the roof raining down on the cruel scene. My ears were ringing to the point of hurting. It must have startled Ryan because his grip loosened, allowing Eric to wiggle free and position himself on the opposite end of the room. He now had his gun pointed straight at Ryan.

  “Get the fuck over there,” he said, motioning towards me. His other arm was still in a cast and for the first time, I noticed he was still in his light blue hospital gown.

  I sat there on the floor, my body shaking.

  Fear paralyzed me.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Something is going to tear me away from this man. And that something was Eric. I looked straight at him, his eyes devoid of any soul as he aimed that gun, barrel pointed straight at me like an archer aiming his arrow true and through a bullseye. The air in the room felt heavy, sticking to my lungs, sinking to their depths, much like if I were drowning in oxygen. But my head felt so light, as if it were free floating, trying to reach the highest heights and run away from here. It made the whole scene have a hazy, nightmarish effect. Almost as if I was watching it all through a jar of golden molasses.

  At least that’s what it seemed like.

  I’m sure it was something completely opposite to what Ryan was seeing. I noticed him in the side of my vision. His muscles looked tense and his jaw was clenched extraordinarily tight. He also had a laser-beam precision focus on Eric, but Eric wasn’t paying any attention to him.

  He was paying all his attention to me.

  “You’re really gonna go fuck both of those pieces of shit?” he spat, lifting his gun and motioning towards both Jason and Ryan, his eyes still boring holes through me. I saw the speckles of saliva propel through the air. His chipped bottom tooth clacking with the crooked top one. The deep, black pupils getting wider and then narrowing back down.

  It was what you noticed when you’re waiting for your life to flash before your eyes.

  “No,” was all I could whimper, my voice cracking with fear. I felt my cheeks get wet from the tears that I didn’t even know were falling. I didn’t think I was crying, or at least I didn’t feel like I was, but my cheeks were still soaked.

  “I fucking loved you. You were my everything. We had everything. When my mom,” he paused, his finger tightening around the trigger, “when she left, you were there for me. How do I know you weren’t being a fucking slut and lying to me?”

  “This isn’t you,” I said, trying to regain a semblance of my composure but failing miserably. I could start to feel my hands shaking, my knees following suit. The gun was pointing too long at me.

  He was pointing the gun at me for far too long.

  Why was he pointing the gun at me for so long?

  “How did you find us?” Ryan asked.

  “I followed that douchebag straight here. It wasn’t hard sneaking out of your hospital,” Eric said. I tried searching for a shred of humanity in him, but it was all gone.

  “And the pictures?” I asked, fear coloring my voice. My body felt loose, like a wet piece of spaghetti slapped hastily against the wall, shocked and weak.

  “You were inside our apartment?” he asked, a hint of shock lying underneath his anger. I saw his face flush even redder, and I noticed his left eye twitch just the slightest. It was something he did whenever he would get really stressed, a little tick that I always thought was endearing.

  Now it was horrifying.

  “Answer her.”

  “You shut the fuck up!” Eric yelled, waving the barrel of the gun straight at Ryan’s forehead.

  My heart raced so fast it felt like it was going to be torn to shreds.

  Then he turned to me, a sudden placidness overcoming him. I knew what was coming. It had to be.

  “Emma,” he said, and for a second I saw a flash of what once was.

  “I’m sorry.”

  And then I saw the third flash of light.

  My body felt like it was flying through the air, the impact taking me completely by surprise. The weight from the blow knocked all the wind out of me, emptying my lungs of any oxygen they once laid claim to. My shoulder felt shattered as I heard the crack of what was probably a broken bone. And then I saw drops of crimson. I felt the pooling of warm, red, sticky blood collecting around me and I tried to cry out. I tried to open my mouth and scream as loud as I possibly could but nothing came out of it. All that I could muster was a dry heave as the adrenaline coursed through my body. I saw Eric, still through the same nightmarish haze that clouded my vision, crumple to the ground, the gun falling feet away from him. He had a horrified look on his face, as though he realized what sort of terribly horrendous act he just committed. But that was impossible.

  Monsters don’t realize.

  Suddenly the weight on top of me shifted as Ryan rolled to the ground next to me. I could see him gripping at his own shoulder, blood spilling out through a bullet wound that tore right through him. His face twisted in pain, blood falling from a gash in his forehead, as he applied more and more pressure to stop the bleeding that was showing no signs of slowing.

  I suddenly forgot about Eric. I needed to make sure Ryan was ok.

  “Ryan, hey, listen I’m here. We’re getting through this ok?” I said, finally finding the strength to speak. I lifted myself up using my other hand, the slightest movement that affected the right shoulder shot waves of searing pain straight through the fiber of my being. I reached into my pocket, got my phone and dialed 911.

  “They’ll be here soon,” I reassured Ryan, sitting next to him on the floor. His head was on my lap, his color getting more and more pale. It was an odd pale too. Almost like a gray stone color. It could have been my shock painting him into a statue, but I knew he was slipping. I kissed him on the forehead, the same way he lightly kiss
ed me over and over again after the first time we made love. After the first time I found the one who was perfect for me.

  And now he was being taken away.

  I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream at the very loudest a human can possibly scream. I began to feel as though my body was a cage and I just wanted to tear right through. I wanted to slam my fists in a wall and feel my knuckles crack through the plaster.

  I felt so helpless.

  “I love you,” Ryan said, his eyes looking up at me but losing their focus. The wound on his head was starting to bleed even more now.

  No, no, no, no, no.

  “I love you too,” I said, trying my hardest to stay as strong as I could but feeling myself break. I felt my whole spirit crack under the menacing presence of death. I was about to lose the one chance I had of ever finding true love again. The one shot I had at being happy again in a way that made everything feel perfect. Ryan was about to lose his life. Everything he’s loved, everyone he’s known, his parents.

  Oh God. Please make it stop.

  I wanted it all to just freeze and rewind back to the beginning. A time when I could have picked up on the warning signs and saved Ryan.

  “Don’t leave me,” Ryan said and all I could do was nod, because I knew that the moment I opened my mouth a sob would come out in the place of words. Time slowed to a crawl as each passing second felt like a year of torture.

  And then I heard a click behind me. My whole body froze anew. I couldn’t turn around to what I was sure was my death. I knew Eric needed to finish what he started and this was that moment.

  “Mam, what happened here?”

  Wait… that wasn’t Eric.

  There, right behind me, was a team of EMTs along with a police officer who was handcuffing Eric while he was face down on the floor.

  I let my body fall loose as tears rushed to my face.

  “Please, just make sure he’s ok,” I said in between my shallow intakes of breath. One of the EMTs helped me up and sat me down on the couch. The other EMT worked on stabilizing Ryan, but I couldn’t tell what was going on. I heard one whisper about him needing hospitalization and experienced a wave of panic course over me, joining the crushing mountain of panic that was already racking through me. They worked quickly with him. Before I knew it, he was already loaded into the back of the ambulance. Same with Jason, who had a perforated lung and was also bleeding out fast.