Misery Saves the Night

by Brittany Allen

  The elevator dinged and he stepped inside, nodding politely to the other employees on their way to work as well. Two floors later and having suffered through the same tasteless elevator music that played each night before, Ian stepped off and went into room A, the last shift conference room. Inside the room, he was not greeted by his regular group of friends, for the girl had killed them all the night before, but a new team.

  “Hey!” Several of the greeted their new team mates.

  “Hi.” Ian smiled a warm and sincere smile.

  Although the last group of men were great and very close friends of Ian’s, in his line of work many of his friends have died and he learned years ago the best way to get past it was to move on and not think about the past. So that is what he did, he pulled up a chair next to who he thought was the Nature Combatant part of the group and introduced himself.

  “Hi, my name is Ian.” He extended his steady hand. “I am the second in command Telepath.”

  The soft orange haired boy just smiled politely and turned his attention to the wall on his left. Not being discouraged, Ian went to try his luck with another one of the men, but a tall muscular man had pushed the door open.

  This man swung the door shut and made it tilt on its hinges. He flipped his strawberry red hair from his ears and took the seat at the head of the table. “Alright!” He commanded complete and utter attention from the group. “I am your lieutenant of tonight and your schedules are as followed.” His deep and loud voice boomed through the room, practically shaking the walls and windows with each word. “Kaze,” He pointed to a young boy with coal black eyes and long cloud white hair. “It says here you are a Healer and as we have no missions schedule for today, you are assigned to floor three, room twenty seven. Um...” His plump fingers flipped through the pages on his clip board.

  “Next is Miuan, the Nature oriented boy.” But the person who stood was no boy, he was every bit a man as their new lieutenant in size and attitude. “Uh, yes well you are to go and check out the several surrounding farms of North Disten and try to quell what the farmers call 'disturbances and unbalances.' And take along Tosum, the Animal ability boy, with you.” He was referring to the orange haired boy who ignored Ian. “And lastly Ian.”

  His heart jumped; finally someone had paid attention to him.

  “You have sentry duty over at the Disten NSSH Medical Center.” And with those words, the boy died a little inside.

  “What?” He was speechless. Not many of his nights were spent out of the safety and familiarity of the Disten NSSH headquarters.

  “Yep, and your charge is classified so you will be notified further once you arrive there.” This new lieutenant turned to his crew. “Now I know the team is only half the size as the one Lieutenant Sean over saw, but I Lieutenant Faitsei will be your leader from now on, so get used to working in the field and by yourself.”

  This night that had started so right had turned so wrong in the one place Ian had ever felt safe and secure in. But, like the good little soldier he was, Ian would take the job watching over a patient who was probably too doped up to escape.

  Trey continued to watch the hospital parking lot and was delighted to see Ian’s sedan pull up and park not too far from where he had stationed himself. From that distance, he could also see that Ian was upset and yelling under his breath, which was not like the boy at all. The Hunters job was not over yet, he would wait just a little longer in the shadows and out of sight.

  Scuffing his feet, Ian waved to the woman behind the service desk. “Hi...” He said through closed teeth.

  Being polite, she smiled and slightly tilted her head. “Are you from the NSSH? Here on sentry duty?” She handed him a file, not bother to wait for a response or checking for his identification.

  “Floor seven...” So far not so bad. “A girl.” Was starting to sound better. “Thank you.” He waved back to her and skipped up the stairs, for some reason the elevator had 'closed' sign hanging on its stainless steel doors.

  Ian did not bother to read the rest of the file and was looking forward to an easy night of watching some unconscious prisoner in a safe and secured NSSH facility. Stepping out of the stairwell and onto floor seven he looked into each room as he passed. Mostly the seventh floor was used for ‘higher risk’ patients, like celebrities, higher up personnel, and…

  “Eek!” He squeaked surprised by what he saw through the cracked door of one room, and then he took off running down the hall in the opposite direction. “Huh, huh, huh.”

  An empty supply closet was opened on Ian’s left, so he took the chance and jumped in it without any hesitation. His breath was heavy and his heart rate increased thirty beats. Ian’s first response was to read the rest of file that he dropped back in the hallway.

  It took several minutes for his fears to subside and then a couple more before he was able to leave the supply closet. He glanced up and down the hallway, to make sure he was alone which Ian could not figure if it was a good thing or not. Creeping down the hallway, keeping on constant look out, he spotted the manila folder exactly where he had accidentally left it. Inside the folder, it confirmed his worst fears. Now knowing he had no other choice but to go back, he prepped himself for this assignment.

  Chapter 3

  Have Wings, Will Fly

  For some reason, the lights in the hall seemed brighter although it did not improve his attitude any.

  “Huh, huh, huh...” Ian had his hand on the door knob and his eyes tried not to look directly in the room.

  “Hum?” The patient on the bed cooed playfully as she watched someone enter the room.

  “Ugh!” By accident, the first thing Ian managed to do was look the girl in her very light silver eyes. His body was without any emotion at the moment. To him she was just another piece of NSSH property and should be treated as such.

  He entered without saying a word and took the chair furthest away from her bed. Ian was trying not to get too close to the girl, although he was sure his government had his safety in mind when he was given this new assignment he was not willing to take any chances. She was cuffed and harnessed to the bed, not to mention the extra strength force field that had been put in place only moments before his arrival. It was safe to say no one was going anywhere that night.

  The girl did not put any further interest in the man who had entered the room. Many older men had come in the room to read the charts and pump her full of medication. All of these men had left which she was sure Ian would do. She went about brushing her long mauve hair through with her fingers, though the effort proved useless as her harness only allowed her limited movement. Swaying back and forth in the bed in an attempt to reach the back of her head, her slender arm rubbed against an exposed piece of jagged metal.

  “Sssss.” It sliced right through the first layer of her skin. Her skin split and she could see the white meat beneath it. Instincts told her to close the skin and put pressure on it, all of which she proceeded to do.

  Ian took a sly glance out of the corner of his eye as the girl stopped moving and clutched her right arm.

  “Ah!” Through the half inch long cut on the girls arm a single droplet of blood oozed off onto the sheets. Ian could never really handle the sight of blood, but knew what to do. She was his charge and it was up to him to provide her with some kind of first response medical attention. He stood and went over to the cabinets in front of her bed; all the while she never took her eyes off him. This girl thought he was getting another needle to poke her sore arm with. Instead, Ian grabbed a bottle of peroxide, cotton balls, a tube of antibiotics, and a box of butterfly band aids. Without saying a single word, he tossed the items on the metal tray next to her bed and returned to his seat.

  The girl looked questionably at Ian. After two minutes of nothing, Ian gave in and looked at the girl who was still sitting exactly as she had been when he 'handed' her the first aide supplies. She had her head cocked close to her right shoulder, mouth slightly hanging open, and one eyebrow raised.
Almost as if saying 'Are you for real? How am I supposed to bandage myself with one hand?'

  “Ugh!” Getting out of his seat and giving in to this girl, Ian mumbled ever louder, rolling his eyes quite a few times. He opened the brand new bottle of peroxide and handed it to the girl.

  “...” She only rolled her eyes at his lack of effort in helping her.

  “You have got to be kidding me...” Ian continued to speak under his breath.

  He grabbed her arm and pushed it over a tin garbage can next to the back of the bed on the floor. The girl released her hold on the skin flaps and the cut reopened, letting the cold solution that Ian was now pouring, clean out the wound.

  “Sssss.” She hissed at the tingling sensation in her arm.

  “Oh sit still! It is your own fault.” Ian was wound pretty tight on that night. “Justine was right. This is too much for me right now. I should have stayed home with her…”

  Hearing his harsh tone, she took back her arm and made an attempt to finish cleaning her cut on her own. She tried brushing her arm against the cotton balls on the tray to absorb any excess peroxide. This ended shortly after she had tried to start it. Her restraints prohibited her from leaning far enough onto the tray to touch the cotton balls. It was already bad enough that the tube of antibiotic cream had fallen onto the floor when she was trying to make contact with the cotton balls.

  Teary and puffy eyed, she reached out and gave Ian her arm once again although Ian was debating whether he should help the girl any further. After all she did ruthlessly kill all of his friends and superior officers, including the fact that she critically wounded Lieutenant Sean. But then he let it slide when he remembered that it was up to the NSSH's courts to decide her punishment. He grabbed her tan and moist arm and dried the peroxide off with the cotton balls after having picked the antibiotic cream off of the ground.

  “There now.” Ian had applied the antibiotic cream and slapped three butterfly band aides on her arm. “Looks a whole lot better than it did.” He smiled an innocent and friendly grin at the girl.

  But the girl still did not care one way or the other for the man. She merely used him to get her own desired result. Ian still stood over her and she tossed on her left side facing the plain white hospital curtains, turning her back to him. He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his chair. Needed something to do, Ian picked up a news magazine off the nightstand, probably left there by one of the nurses.

  The hours ticked by and neither one made neither any movement nor any attempt to speak. Ian had preferred the silence. It reminded him of his regular nights at the Disten NSSH headquarters. As if the night had just begun, rays of orange sunlight peaked out from the slits in the windows curtains.

  “Uh...” First his left arm and then his right stretched above his head.

  It was time for him to leave and he did not bother saying good bye to the girl. Not like he would ever be seeing her again or anything. Instead he skipped out of the room and took the elevator up one floor to visit a familiar friend. Being the polite thing to do, Ian knocked on the door before entering.

  “Uh?” The gruff old man’s voice shouted right out the door and echoing into the hall way. “Who is it?”

  Ian rubbed the tiredness out of his eyes. “It is me, lieutenant.”

  Sean did not miss a second before inviting the boy in to his room. He was glad to have a visitor that was not part of the hospital staff. “Come in.” Now his voice was more hoarse and strained.

  Ian opened the door, but was not greeted by the same light of the sun from the room he had just left. No, Sean’s room was virtually stark black, with the exception of the blue glow of the television set on the wall.

  “So what brings you this way?” He pointed Ian in the direction of a chair close to his bed.

  Ian stumbled around with possible lies as he knew his friend would have a stroke if he knew the girl responsible for him being in the hospital was only rooms away and that he was babysitting her.

  “My shift lieutenant sent me this way for some paper work on you.” Ian tried to avoid eye contact.

  Sean looked deep into the boy’s eyes, sending a series of shivers up Ian’s spine. He knew that the lieutenant was deciding if Ian was telling the truth or not.

  “Um, you know they needed me to check on you.” He scratched the back of his head. “How are you anyways?”

  “Uh huh.” Sean was willing to let Ian slide for now, still not thoroughly convinced. “Well, now that you mention it, I have had better days.” He reached for a cup of water that was sitting on the metal tray over his bed. “You know something,” Sean took a sip from his glass. The water was the only thing keeping his voice from straining too much. His eyes stared straight forward and Ian knew what the lieutenant was about to say was going to be serious. “I did everything right to trap that girl.”

  Ian scrunched his pants legs with his fist. He sure was not expecting Sean to talk about the accident so early after it had happened. “Well, maybe…” There were no words he could think of to add to the conversation.

  “I felt the connection when paralysis completes. It was her energy and mine together as one and I was so certain I held control over her.” His plump hand ran through what was left of his gray hairs.

  “You should try to not think about what happened that day.” The way Ian was talking about it was as if it happened years ago. “When Psychics relive traumatic events soon after they happened… Your mind may never be right again.”

  Sean threw his paper cup at the window towards his right. “I have been conscious for eight hours now and no one here wants to talk about the other night!” Now he stared straight into Ian’s sleep deprived eyes.

  Thinking quick Ian said the first thing that came to mind. “Maybe it is best that you rest, that is all.” He tried to reassure his former commanding officer.

  The vain on Sean’s forehead throbbed. “Don't you lie to me boy! You have better tell me the truth right now, or so help me I will morph your mind into mush!” He pulled Ian out of his chair and held him by his neck.

  “Okay, okay.” He gave in. Sean had multiple psychic abilities, many unknown to both Ian and the NSSH and Ian was not about to go taking the risk. “How much do you already know?” Ian flailed hopping to be released from his grip.

  “That demon girl took control of my body. Ugh.” He shuddered at the thought of having another being, especially a female, commanding his every will. “Then I watched as she tossed me through air and that’s it. What happened after I blacked out? How many of us made it out alive?” Sean finally let go of Ian’s throat. “Could not have been too bad if you are still here.”

  Being nice, Ian threw the remark to the back of his mind. “Well, and don't go telling people where you heard this from but,” He gave a brief hesitation before continuing. Ian wanted to get this subject done with as quickly as possible. “She killed them all.”

  The expressing that Sean had after he had told him that everyone had died was not the one he had expected. Maybe surprised, angry, or even curious, but never admiration for her. It was as if the lieutenant, her victim, was proud of what the girl did.

  “He must be affected by the medication.” Thinking to himself, Ian hoped that was all that it was.

  “Uh?” Seeing how confused Ian seemed to be, Sean shook the thought from his mind. “Oh, um just was not expecting that from such a small woman.” That was all that needed to be said before Ian relaxed. “Well if all the others died, then how is that you managed to live?”

  “Trey saved me.” His answer was just as simple as that. “I was fortunate that he was in the company of a teleporter when that girl began her rampage or else I’d be…” It finally sank in. “I’d be dead too. For the first time since the accident, I finally realize how close I was to losing everything; my life and Justine.”

  Sean knew this to be true and not just one of Ian's probable lies. It was several facts that he knew about the Hunter that made what Ian said be true. One was
that Trey was as reliable and dependable to each one of his allies when they truly needed his assistance. Lastly, Trey and Sean went back many decades and there was no one that knew Trey like he did. Plus the way Ian was selling his joy for being alive was really compelling.

  “That Trey is a good man, very good.” Ian nodded in agreement. “And what of that woman? That murderous winged devil from hell.”

  It was the second time that morning that Sean's words sent shivers up his back. “Winged?”

  Ian had not thought about it until that moment, but he had almost forgotten that the girl had wings. Thinking back to the shift he spent guarding over her, Ian noticed that she no longer had wings. Her back had been covered by a standard green hospital gown but Ian could have sworn that her back was bare.

  “Eh he.” Ian sat there speechless unable to come up with a passing lie. So many possibilities crossed his mind, but his mouth didn’t seem to work.

  Still staring at the boy, Sean waited for an answer. He stared directly to his blue eyes and therefore, straight into Ian’s very own soul.

  “Uh...” Ian wanted to say something so desperately to pass the awkward silence. “Speaking of... Um, women?” Knees shaking and eyes closed, he stood out of his seat and crossed backwards towards the door. “I have to get back to the one waiting up for me at home.” And in the end, Ian managed to come up with a lie after all.

  Still not entirely sold on his words, Sean turned away from Ian and went back to watching the drab television as he had been doing when he was so rudely interrupted. Ian rushed out of the seventh floor hallway and jumped down the stairwell faster than most people could even think. Coming out onto the ground floor, he kept his eyes fixed onto the black double sliding door that lead to the parking lot.

  “Just a little farther.” Ian whispered passing the receptionist.