The Hidden Truth

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Black Death

Pacing the small waiting room, pausing briefly any time the hospital staff walks by the doorway. I expected one of them to be wheeling Sara back to her room any minute. The anticipation has my mind running around in circles. Phoenix sits quietly in a chair in the corner watching me closely as if he's thinking the same thing as I am but doesn’t want to admit it. I empty my water bottle and toss it into the can next to the trash as I turn around and ask, “How long does it take to do a PET scan!”

I creep towards the doorway more as he replies, “It takes time. Just sit down and wait.”

I shake my head. Obviously he’s not all that worried about her as I am. Edging my way out into the hallway I watch as people pass the room without so much as stopping in to give me any kind of news. I look at my watch again noticing it's been forty minutes since they took her back. Shortly afterwards I see the same man that took Sara from her room round the corner, I grab his scrubs in my fist as I ask, “Anything yet?”

“Sir, calm down she's on her way back to her room now and the doctor will be with you shortly to go over the results.”

I release him apologizing for my rude behaviour. He then leads us to her room to wait for her to arrive. A few seconds after he leaves they bring her into the room. Her condition hadn’t changed since she left the house but that didn’t matter to me as I sat in the chair beside her bed. As peaceful as she looked I worried about what was going on inside of her body. She was fine when I left the house earlier that day and when I came back she had suddenly taken a turn for the worst. With everything that the poor girl had to endure growing up I knew she was a fighter and this little mishap wasn’t going to stop her any but I needed to know what she was dealing with to know what action if any I needed to do to help her along the way. 

When the doctor finally comes into the room  he has a grim expression on his face as he opens a file and says, “Mr. Morgan, there's no easy way to tell you this so I’m just going to give it to you straight. You daughter has metastatic cancer and at the rate it's growing there isn't much we can do to stop it. We can start her on chemotherapy and hope that it will slow the progression down some but without having a clear view of where it originated from we are only taking a guess.” he pauses while shifting papers around as if he’s looking for something as I stare at her face thinking. Soon he continues, “You said she was healthy up until you called the ambulance, right?”

I’m so focused on my thoughts that I barely heard the man until Phoenix shouts, “Michael answer the guy!”

I shake myself from the ideas floating in my mind, “Yes that's what I said. Why?”

“Well, in all my years as a doctor I’ve never seen cancer progress this fast nor manifest all of a sudden like this without some warning signs beforehand.” he pauses again as he closes the file then adds, “How about I let you two talk it over for a little while and decide how you want me to proceed. I’ll be back in a few hours with the papers for you to sign if you decide to move forward with the option I’ve given you.” 

After the doctor leaves the room closing the door behind him I continue to recall where I’ve heard this same thing. The man's words were all too familiar to me. I then turned my attention to the necklace in a small plastic container that the paramedics took off her as they loaded her into their vehicle. I turned the receptacle around in my fingers over and over trying to put the pieces together. 

By the time the doctor comes back into the room with the papers for me to sign he hands them to me as he says, “Mr. Morgan, we can't wait any longer. You need to either sign these or make arrangements for how you want the body to be disposed of.”

I look directly at the man as I reply, “Neither. I want her on your next flight to Los Angeles General.”

“Sir, I don’t think you understand the seriousness of this. She's not going to survive the flight there and even if by some miracle she does make it over the four hours it takes to get her there, they won’t be able to do anything more for her.” he blurts out as I leave the room. 

It didn’t matter if she arrived there still breathing or not. The point of it was to get her there as quickly as possible to hide her before she could resurrect herself. Walking down the hallway I made a brief call to Kenneth to let him know that I needed his assistance and where to meet up at. I gave him a small explanation of what I ordered so as to not give away my intentions too soon. 

The second I snapped my phone closed, Phoenix caught up to me just as I crossed over into the parking lot area and asked, “Are you crazy? Didn’t you hear what the doctor said? She’s not--” I turn around cutting him off as I retort, “It doesn't matter one way or another. The point is to get her there as fast as I can.” 

“You're not leaving without me. I already told you once before where she goes I go.”

“I can’t take you with me, your home is here. Besides why does it matter to you anyway?” I reply as I continue my way towards my car in the back of the lot.

“She’s my soulmate!” he says stopping me in my tracks halfway there. I turn around to face him standing a few cars away. As I close the distance he continues, “I’m 16. I’m entitled to leave if I choose to do so and no one can stop me.” 

“Does she know?”

“No.”

“Come on then. We need to get going, now!”

I'm not pleased with his words but there is no way I can deny what’s in his heart. I once had a girl I fell in love with many years ago when I was a little younger than him. Although, I never got the chance to tell her how I really felt before she was ripped away from me within a few days. The sad thing is that both girls were victimized by the same potion and worst of all, I knew only one person devious enough to try taking out both of them. 

As we climb into my car I head to the house to grab a few items for the trip as well as stopping by Phoenix’s for him to grab a few things before making our way back to the hospital. On the way I ask, “What do you know about Black Death?”

As close as I knew him and his brother were I figured he would have taught him the same thing as he did me but I wasn’t for sure.

“What kind of question is that?”

“It’s a logical one. Do you know anything about it?”

“No.”

“It's a slow acting poison that enters the body through the bloodstream. The initial point of impact can be compared to a bee sting or any small insect bite that punctures the skin. From there it flows with your blood invading one organ after another. Scans will show it as dark black cancer spots and it also acts much like cancer does as the cells take up the needed space and nutrients that the healthy organs would use. Doctors will diagnose it as cancer every time but be puzzled afterwards when their treatments don't work. Normally it slowly renders a person unconscious but because of her immune system being low it works at a much faster rate. The potion itself is a clear thick substance that when added to the blood it comes out thick and tar like.”

“Then what is the cure for it, if the normal treatments don’t work.”

“The only way is to flush it out and hope that you got it all.”

“What would happen if you leave some behind?”

“Leaving even a drop behind will kill her. Eventually.”