by Tara Brown
I frowned, “I don’t want them to think I’m dead, my dad can’t take any more of that.”
He nodded, “They will think you’re safe. Now we need to get going so let me get this.”
I watched as he took a step and was across the room taking my I.V. out and turning the machines off. He pulled the monitors off of me. His warm fingers brushed along my neckline and skin touching more than necessary to remove the pads. He looked down on me as if I were a snack raising one side of his mouth into a crooked smile, “You’re really very sexy Aimee, did you know that?”
I shook my head mesmerized by his beautiful obsidian eyes.
He bent down very close to my face I could almost taste the musk on his breath, “You’re a lucky girl I need to get going or I would lock you away and savor a hundred years of alone time.” His words made me weak but also more scared of him than I already was, which was a lot.
He turned away from me and walked to my dad and woke him gently, “Mr. James, I need to speak to you.”
I watched as my dad stirred slowly finally waking up. He looked up at Dorian and frowned, “Who are you?”
Dorian looked deeply into my dads’ eyes.
“I’m your daughters specialist, we are transferring her to another hospital. She’s going to be fine but she needs to go and heal alone in this hospital. You need to go home and tell everyone she is going to be fine she just needs some rest. The hospital is in California, it’s a secret celebrity hospital.” I rolled my eyes at Dorian waiting for my dad to laugh in his face.
My dad nodded like a zombie, “Oh okay. That’s great news. Thank you doctor.”
My chin hit the floor as Dorian closed my dads eyes, “Go back to sleep.” My dad fell back into a deep sleep in his chair. Dorian's powers were scary, no doubt about it.
He turned around and held his arms out, “See that’s how it’s done. So easy to mess with their tiny brains.”
I frowned, “My dad is a genius.”
He nodded, “Yeah but he doesn’t stand a chance, watch this one with the doctor.” He smiled like a kid showing off his new toy. He stepped out of the hall and tapped my doctor on the shoulder as he was walking past, “Doctor I am a specialist from California I am taking the lovely Miss James to my hospital where she will recover. Tell everyone it’s fine she left with me; she is going somewhere to heal and be okay. Get rid of any records and fill in the blanks you need to so that no questions are asked.”
The doctor nodded as my dad had like a zombie, “That’s fantastic. I will tell everyone.”
Dorian laughed, “Go jerk off in the supply cupboard thinking about me.”
The doctor walked away smiling a dirty smile.
I grimaced, “You’re the devil aren’t you?”
He gave me a serious look I knew was phony, “Does it really matter at this point? I’m your only salvation.”
I climbed off the bed and walked to Shane. I inhaled the sea air on his skin and kissed his cheek, “I love you Shane.” It was true, now that the option of being with him was being removed from the table I was devastated. I didn’t know what to do in this moment except leave him a note. He had never lied to me, he had never wanted anything but to be with me and he had never done anything but love me.
I wrote quickly,
“Shane,
I’ve been taken to a special hospital that is offering me the best treatment. It’s exactly what I need to heal. I am excited for you to join the Police Force and become a police officer. You’re an amazing person and I will love you forever. No matter how this ends know that I have loved you since grade two when you started to bring an extra huge lunch everyday to share with Nathan Anders, you knew he was poor and never had food and you conned your mom into bigger lunches so you could feed him but you pretended she just packed big lunches and you couldn’t eat it all.
I loved you in grade eight when you were riding your bike past my mom and she had flat tire and you changed it. She had no clue how to do it, she told me you did it. You never told anyone, even me or my sister, that you had done it. I loved you in Eleventh Grade when the Smith girl got sick with cancer and you started that change jar at your parents store to raise money to help pay for the medical bills. You acted like it was your parents but your mom told my mom it was your idea. I know you raised them twenty-five thousand dollars and never even asked for the recognition for the deed. You’re the most amazing man in the world and you will be the most amazing police officer and I can’t wait to see it.
I’ll call you when I’m strong enough.
Love always, and by that I mean I love you Shane Bagley,
Aimee
It broke my heart to write the letter and fold it into his pocket but I knew it needed to be done. He needed to know how I felt and I needed the closure with Aleks. I walked out of the hospital room looking at my dad one last time. I left my cell phone on his lap and kissed his cheek. I didn’t know what kind of danger I could become to my family but I knew I wasn’t willing to attempt whatever it was Dorian had been talking about. I felt like my heart was left in the room as I followed Dorian's darkness down the hall stopping only to look in at Giselle who was completely yellow now. I looked at Dorian for a moment and waited for him to answer the question burning in my eyes.
He frowned, “Yeah, she’ll be fine. She is also very sexy, I might actually be back for her in about a year or so when she is strong again. Mmmmm” He watched her sleeping thinking all sorts of unsavory things.
I snapped my fingers in front of his face, “Hey stop that. Does your brain function on any setting beyond sex?”
He looked at me as if I were a bug he could squash and smirked.
“You don’t tell me what to do.” He leaned in very close, “No, this is my only setting.”
He turned away from Giselle’s room and walked down the hall to the big elevator doors. I walked behind him in my gown.
“Uhh am I going to change?”
He nodded, “I thought we covered this, yes.”
I frowned at him, “Clothes idiot.”
He laughed, “You’re actually sort of awful aren’t you. Not fun and flirty as I imagined when Aleks told me about you. Yes my dear I have this all worked out so please stop worrying.”
We got into the elevator and I thought about Aleks. “Where did he go?” I asked after a few moments.
Dorian shrugged completely disinterested, “To cool off I imagine. He’s free now so he will want to figure out the next step for himself.”
I gasped, “You freed him? How?”
He shook his head, “You freed him love. Not me. I’ve enslaved him.”
I stepped right into his face, well chest and looked up at his face. He was a stone cold killer I knew it the second I looked into his eyes. I didn’t flinch as I thought I would. I stood my ground.
“Enslaved him how? If you…”
He pushed me roughly up against the wall of the elevator.
“You’ll what little girl? Kill me?”
He burst into laughter and bent down to my face. He kissed my neck dragging his coarse whiskers across my sensitive skin. I tried to push him away but I had no strength even to make an attempt at him. He ran his hands up my sides pressing harder on my right side making me wince.
“You’ll do exactly as I ask.”
His cold gaze lifted to mine as he slid his hands up my breast and into my hair pulling forcefully on the back of my head making me cry out.
“This is our floor.” He spoke softly hovering above my face and released me. He walked off the elevator calmly as I stood shaking slightly. I was scared of him in every way possible.
Why had Aleks left me to suffer at his hand? I knew I had offended Aleks and had been horrid to him but I was in grief after loosing someone and the possibility of dying looming over me but at the same time I felt like we even in other ways with the secrets he had kept from me.
Beyond the extreme dislike for Dorian I felt, I also felt more afraid of him than anything in the world. As I started
off the elevator an idea hit me. I heard the elevator ding and I stepped back on as the doors closed.
Dorian looked back at me in a panic as the gap in doors the lessened and he dove back. He was too late I pressed every button after three floors and decided I would get off at the first stop three floors above us. I needed clothes. I was feeling stronger than I had in a year. I knew he could poof himself around the hospital and find me but I hoped there were at least a few limitations to his abilities.
Panic filled me as I stepped off the elevator and looked around me. I saw I was on the surgery floor. I walked along silently looking behind me and in front of me in an alarmed state.
I didn’t know where I was going but I figured he would go back to my previous floor, not that I knew what floor we had been on before. I assumed it was the fifth floor that Giselle had been on previously. I walked looking sick and limping slightly in case I ran into someone. My heart raced as I looked everywhere for a plan or answer to my situation. I didn’t know where to go, I knew I needed to stay away from my family, my only guess was that I would turn into Dorian. I would soon be a destructive force to be reckoned with. It scared me not knowing what to expect but somehow in the back of my mind I knew Aleks would find me somehow even if I weren't completely certain I wanted to see him again.
I saw a door that looked slightly ajar up ahead of me in the hall. Nervous of Dorian lingering ready to jump out and kill from behind the small slit I pushed the door softly still looking around me. I hadn’t been this nervous since the forest when Mr. Mac had cornered me unbeknownst to him. The room was a supply closet full of things I desperately needed. I stepped in and turned on the light as I closed the door peeking through the crack as I closed it. I didn’t feel smarter than Dorian as he had been around more than likely since the dawn of time but I knew I was smarter than the average teenager, well average adult too. I changed into surgery scrubs, a mask, a cap, booties, and carried a blanket with me. I tripled my booties to appear as if I had shoes on plus I knew I would be walking in them and three booties was going to be better than one.
I sat down in the closet for a while wondering if he could find me with a smell or was he able to pop to wherever I was. I was starving but my stomach was starting to hurt in a funny way almost as if I was going to have diarrhea or my period. I grabbed a few towels and bandages and wrapped them into the blanket I carried. I felt my nerves on edge, I couldn’t run into my family without ruining Dorian's excuse as to where I was and I couldn’t run into Shane without him dragging me back to the hospital bed. I definitely couldn’t run into Dorian without him doing horrid things to me and possibly hurting me in ways I would never heal from. I shivered remembering his assault in the elevator and slowly opened the door peeking like a chicken with the lights out.
I listened for several seconds hearing only my own panic stricken heart. I pushed the door open enough for my head to poke out all the way and looked both ways. I walked out quickly feeling a sense of alarm build with every step. I was terrified walking until I reached the elevator. I decided it was not my best bet and walk past it to the stair well. I walked down the stairs at first and then started running. I hadn’t felt this good in a long time and pushed myself a little more. I was bounding down the stairs taking them several at a time until I reached the bottom. I looked at the sole door at the bottom of the stairs; it was a crusty old metal door. Not painted fun colors as the others had been. It had no window so Dorian could be sitting on the other side waiting for me, as if he knew this was where I would wind up in the end. I was apprehensive about opening the door but decided it was that or be discovered there at the bottom of the stairs eventually.
I took a deep breath and pushed the old frightening door open and poked my head out. I was at the basement level of the hospital. There was a big boiler room and pipes everywhere. I could see what appeared to be a garbage and sanitation area. I crept through looking not only for Dorian but also workers who would wonder about a surgeon at that level. I saw movement to one side and ducked instantly but crept creeping along the low metal wall I was beside. It was incredibly warm down there but I crept quietly hoping I had seen a worker and not Dorian.
A very small part of me wished Aleks would come and apologize for leaving me with that psycho and explain that nothing Dorian had told me was true and that his dad and my mom had never met. He could take my hand and zoom us to our secret beach. We could be together forever like Swiss family Robinson living off the land. It felt like the safer option. It seemed odd to me Aleks had become the safest choice and Shane was suddenly vulnerable. I felt tears of frustration and fear threatening in my throat.
I wondered what I would eat if I was a threat to Shane, if like Aleks I would need regular food every now and then to be strong or if like Dorian I ate something else. I wasn’t sure why I was so certain Dorian didn’t eat food, the black blood told me he was not exactly functioning inside quite the same way Aleks was. Truth be told though I had never seen Aleks bleed it was possible he was full of molasses as well.
I saw a door in front of me about twenty yards away there was steam blowing out of a vent of sorts between the door and me. I felt my bravery coming to a head as I was nearly at the door. That would be the moment in a scary movie worth its salt, that the bad guy would show up and smash me in the head with one of the pipes in the room. My heart raced as I scared the ever-loving crap out of myself and made my way like a rat scurrying to the door. I looked both ways as the safety of my wall had ended and nearly dove out the door when I saw no one there.
The light from outside nearly blinded me as I made my way up the concrete staircase I was confronted with as I exited the doorway. I didn’t know where I was but the drizzle of the rain and cars parked all around me told me I was in the staff parking area outside and safe. I ran from the building not even looking. My feet pushed along the cement driving me to the full parking lot. I walked until I finally saw an unlocked car and climbed inside of it. I sat there feeling like I was in an open field surrounded.
I needed to be as far away from there as I could get. I searched the car for money finding about twelve dollars in change. I found a pair of black ballet styled flats a half a size smaller than I needed but I squeezed my feet into them. I found a blue fleece, which obviously belonged to a woman a lot more rotund than me, but I put it on over my scrubs to hide that at least. I felt guilty for stealing her things and imagined she loved the fleece. I wished I didn’t need to take her stuff but I knew it was life and death and if she could have been there she would have helped me under the circumstances. I locked her car for her feeling it was the least I could do.
I walked along the cars hoping to find at least one more open. It was tough going and security almost saw me once but I ducked behind a large SUV and hid for a while. I finally found another car, which had thirty dollars in it and some granola bars in the dash. I stole a hair tie, ditched the cap and mask and locked the car door. I ran from the parking lot into an alley and ran around the corner. I felt intimidated but decided I really just looked like a nurse getting off work. I walked casually but hurriedly to the bus stop. I boarded the bus and finally started to breath again when finally I was crossing the center of the city on my way out to the north. I had examined the bus when I boarded but also when it came time for people to get off and on. I didn’t see Dorian anywhere but that didn’t mean he couldn’t change into someone else. I trusted no one. I didn’t know what he was capable of.
I watched out the window as my bus made its way to the main transit stop where I could switch buses and head home. I didn’t know what to do but I knew that my best chance of survival was in a place I was comfortable in. I switched buses still looking over my shoulder still unable to convince myself I had managed to out run him. Even when I boarded the bus heading toward home I was skeptical I would make it. I felt surrounded by him even though I couldn’t see him anywhere. When the thirty dollars ran out I found myself hours from home at a random bus stop. I locked myself into
a bathroom stall and sat and waited eating my granola bar slowly. I didn’t feel hungry but I wasn’t sure how I was getting home or when I would eat again.
Chapter Thirteen - AM I A WANDERER OR A BELIEVER, DOES IT MATTER
According to Google Maps a person can drive from the bus stop I was at to my town in around four hours and walk it in around three days. I however seemed to have reacted rather well to Dorian's demon blood and was able to do it in two days. I shaved a day off by running as much as I could. I rarely sweat, I never got hungry and I didn’t have to use the bathroom. My feet never hurt wearing shoes half a size too small and I didn’t need to sleep, not even a little. I didn’t know what to say about that. I felt like one of the terminators. I walked past the sign for our town and felt a small sigh of relief.
Port Mackenzie was my safe haven in that crazy moment. I walked into town seeing the gas station and knew I would have to be very careful, everyone in town knew me. I didn’t know where to go but decided at least my own house might be nice. It was dusk and I knew my dad would more than likely be home.