I'LL HAUNT YOU BY SAMIRA LUZ

Chapter One - First Meeting

"Were you listening?"

Clarice Jones's stone-bitter voice conquered the hallway, as she saw one of the practitioners' eyes looking behind the window glass. As he received the summons to his death note, Mark Stein was taken aback by an unfriendly, or one that sounded a hostile tone. He twisted up his full attention toward Clarice.

"I'm sorry."

Mark bowed his head. And he quickly apologized to Clarice, one of the senior physicians who will most likely supervise him during his three years specialty training at this hospital or probably tend to be longer.

"A very first day on a proper field, and the mind is already wandering around?" Clarice barked, 

shooting death glares at the golden-haired guy.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Jones. It won't happen again. I promise," Mark begs from the bottom of his heart. He apologized for his mindless aversion to attention—because of a distraction.

"You. Follow me."

Clarice took a step forward, not looking back, not even for the summoned man, Mark. Mark, who was obviously confused, glanced at his other colleague from the group, and turned back to Gideon, searching for an absolute reason he was being summoned. Gideon only smiled, encouraging him.

"I am not waiting until you register your brain," said Clarice, turning around to look at a stupefied Mark.

"You better not make it on her bad list then."

Gideon recommended, giving a brief nod and glancing over his shoulder to look at Clarice. She had already gone far by now.

"I better catch her up now. I'll go first before I lose her then," said Mark, quickly striding over to be ahead of Clarice. Thanks to Mark's tallest and firmest figure, as his legs were longer than hers, he could compete easily with her steps, running after her quickly until he was next to her. After a few moments, he glanced back, looking at the previous place as if the same distraction would be there all over again. There was no strange presence, for sure. He left from there, which was confusing.

Have I imagined things? Mark thought.

Mark squeezed his temples by shutting his eyes, sitting on a swivel chair in front of his desk, taking a brief rest for a while. On the first day, Doctor Clarice Jones had already done much to relieve his headaches. There's a long way to go, sigh—

"Rough start?" Someone appeared beside Mark and asked him a question. His senior, Gideon Halt, welcomed his sight when he opened his eyes. A skinny guy whose height was almost as tall as his. Gideon went to his medical school as well. After completing a residency, he already had his license. He shook his head, responding with a shrug.

"You can tell me, Mark. I probably know how much Clarice's pests could live up to, believe me," Gideon joked, leaning back in his swivel chair, but his gaze was fixed on Mark.

"There's nothing to be concerned about for the time being. And it was indeed my fault that I hadn't paid attention to Doctor Jones's briefs this morning."

Gideon clicked his tongue, sighing at Mark's response, knowing better when not to poke into something fruitless. So he got up from his seat and walked away. He knew Mark was hardly a responsive guy, as everyone had been saying about him in medical school. This guy certainly had a reputation.

"Well, anyway, you can always come to me if there's anything you want to ask. Or if anything is bothering you, come all the way to your practice here. Just pop up at my door then. I'm simply looking out for my juniors. That's all." Gideon stated as he patted Mark's shoulder as he exited a staff room for all medical practice in this hospital.