The Bad Guy's Doctor

TWENTY ONE

Nothing happens. Absolutely nothing changes as she crumples to the ground, a bloodcurdling shriek rising through her open mouth. She writhes on the ground, curses and blood spitting out of her teeth. "You—" She snarled, Emilia's eyes are suddenly far more clear than they were before. "A monster—" She crawls over to us, her hand gripping onto Arsenio's ankle. "How could you—I am your mother!"

I back away, goosebumps rising all over my flesh as Jasper knocks shoulders with me. Nothing happens. None of the memories that I've lost came back. None of the emotions. There is no grand gleam of light that grants me a new outlook on life—no, everything is the same. Emilia is bleeding out o the ground, her son's eyes colder than the winter breeze. "Jasper," I whisper, grabbing his arm.

"You shouldn't have messed with her." Arsenio spat, raising the gun once more.

"Let's go." Jasper pulls me along, before stopping, angling himself in front of me.

"Leave her here." Arsenio has the gun pointed toward him. Pointed toward us, eyes darkened, the shadows on his face sharp. His golden eyes train onto Jasper, bloodlust radiating from him. Possessive.

"Do you want her to see this?" Jasper growled, placing a hand on the door. Arsenio grits his teeth. "Go." He says to me. Arsenio lowers the gun, pleading with his eyes.

"Please, love, don't..." I did not want to see him kill her. Her chest was rising and falling in shallow bursts, soft groans escaping her unconscious body. There was no hesitation. No empathy, no regret in his eyes. Arsenio has created a corpse of his mother without a second thought.

"Come with us." I muse, calmly and simply. The blood beneath my skin feeds heat into me, but I fight it. Whoever I was doesn't matter anymore. That piece of myself is gone, but I am still whole. Ice cold until the end. Arsenio sighs, before nodding once. He steps over Emilia as he follows us, Jasper pushing open the door as he joins us.

Nothing has changed. I step over a pile of broken glass tubes, shattered windows and dislodged cabinets studding the inside. Losing my emotions didn't make me broken. I am still the same Althea who runs the clinic. Cold like ice. I smile and open my mouth to speak. "Burn it. Burn it all to the ground."

- - -

"It's cold." I murmur, and Arsenio sits on the edge of my bed. He gazes out of the balcony, his hand sliding under the covers to brush against my fingers. He's warm. Just like always, he's warm.

"Do you want me to get some more in the morning, sweetheart?" I nod, having gone through my last pack of cigarettes. Arsenio looks like a mere silhouette in the moonlight. Golden eyes gleaming in the dark, hair illuminated by the full moon. He looks down at me, studying my face with enough attention to make my skin crawl. He doesn't look human in the dark. "I want you to be mine."

"I'm tired, Arsenio." I deflect, glancing away.

He slides over me, planting his hands at either sides of my head. Looking above me, shadows fell deeply against his face, his jaw clenched. There was no wavering in his resolve. It was quite obvious he wanted to make a point. Or have me acknowledge it. "Please," Arsenio lowers his head against the crook of my shoulder, and I sigh. I was too exhausted to deal with this.

"I'm tired."

"I want to be yours, darling." He kisses me gently, soft and quick. I reach up and push him away, sitting up as I glared at him. Arsenio sits back on his heels, not moving to dislodge the hand that I had on his mouth.

"Stay and be quiet or leave, pretty boy." He looks down at my hand, before back up at me quickly, almost taken aback by what he was doing.

He kisses my palm, sliding it away as he lowers me down once more. "Sorry, darling, sorry," Arsenio pulls me to him, entering his immediate warmth. He smells soft, earthy and sweet. "Sleep well, pretty." My eyelids droop and I succumb to the darkness of his chest.

- - -

"Morning, love." Arsenio has a plastic bag in his hands, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to the nape of my neck. I pause from arranging the bandages, before raising a brow. There's some missing.

Did I miscount last time? I pick up the card stock, tipping my head at the total that I had written down and recounting the ones that I had set into the kit. I'm missing some.

The bag is set down as Arsenio peers over my shoulder. He takes the paper from my finger and we make eye contact. He knows.

Even with everything going on, he knows that I don't make mistakes. Not for something that I do repeatedly, never for something this simple. "Let me deal with it, Althea." I move my hand away from the kit, before nodding.

Someone has been through my supplies. I knew the kits weren't sorted normally. I overlooked it. But this... "I think that they took some painkillers too." I had glanced momentarily at the stack and saw that the stack looked unusually lowered.

"I'll deal with it. Do you need more now?" I shake my head, narrowing my eyes at the half filled compartment of the kit, before closing the lid. He raises his brows at the sound of the clamps clinking together, tucking the paper into his pocket.

"I don't like it when someone touches my things." Arsenio's lip quirks and he chuckles, raising my knuckles to his lips.

"I know, sweetheart."

- - -

The air feels humid and gloomy, the fat raindrops splattering against my umbrella as I walk through the street. The streetlights don't do much to illuminate my path, some already blinking out in the weather. I wrap my arms tighter around myself, the coat, albeit thick, still exposing me to the cold and wet. My boots splash against puddles as I head toward the pharmacy. I had no shortage in supplies for the clinic. No, those could be bought tomorrow, but this...

This was for me. I enter the store, the dim lights directing me to leave my umbrella in a bin by the door. I rub my hands together discreetly as I step into the aisle, picking up a jar of melatonin. I head to the cashier counter, setting the bottle down. "On your tab, Althea?" I shake my head as Polly, the main night shift worker, scans the product.

I pull out some bills and hand it to her. "Rough night?"

"Something like that." I mumbled, taking the bottle and waving away the change. "Thanks." She smiles and I leave the store, standing beneath the cover of the overhang for a few seconds.

I open the umbrella just as I heard a loud crash in the alleyway beside the pharmacy. Tipping it up, I glance at the sky. The rain didn't look like it'll let up any time soon. I move, the pattering of the rain on my umbrella immediately filling the air.

I walk onto the sidewalk. Another crash and the sound of cursing, and then the shattering of glass. "—did you take from houses?" I could barely make out the voice in the rain and I glance down the alleyway, pausing as I stared into the dark.

"I-I didn't do anything, it was a one time thing! It was just a few stores, I didn't mean to shoot nobody—" A man on the ground, hands raises defensively, face already swelling in multiple places and his leg bent at an odd angle. "Please, man, I didn't want to hurt her—"

The threat.

I didn't even see him in the darkness, he was conjured of shadows and rain, emerging and towering over the other man. Gloved hands grabbed the man's collar, lifting him out of the crouched position he was in.

"I don't fucking care, if it wasn't you, who the fuck would be stupid enough to—" The shadow's phone rings. They pause and let go, the thief crumbling to the ground with a groan. They pick up. "Are you in bed yet, love?"

"You're going to catch a cold, you idiot." Arsenio tilts his head, before turning around. He locks eyes with me, a smile spreading across his face immediately. The edge in his voice is gone.

It was as if he had completely forgotten about the man on the ground, who was currently trying to crawl away. "I'll come to you, lovely. Is that okay?"

I look down the street, before shrugging and ending the call. He pushes the wet locks of hair out of his face and I tilt my head ever so slightly, before walking away. He understands. Arsenio always understands.