#FreakshowFriday

Chapter 13: The Doctor Kills

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The pain in Nathan's body recedes, though the uncomfortable burn of the fiery cold lingers—that supernatural undercurrent from before, returning with a vengeance. Nathan gasps, coming to his senses again as the sound bounces off the worn walls around him. His vision is restored to him and he looks around frantically from the spot where he'd been sitting on the floor; he hasn't moved an inch since that brief blackout.

How long was he unconscious? A few seconds? Minutes? Hours? He makes to check his phone, but refrains when an important realisation hits him so hard it could've knocked his teeth out.

Where the hell is Jamie?

Nathan's heart sinks. Wherever she is, she isn't here, and Nathan knows her well enough to be certain she wouldn't just abandon him in an obvious moment of danger and need. If she's gone, something happened to her. And given their current precarious situation, it can't be anything good.

Nathan almost trips over his own feet while getting up and stumbling forward, springing into action without a moment's hesitation. The aches that plagued him before have dulled, though he'd have rushed to find Jamie even if they hadn't. Please, let her be okay. Nathan refuses to lose her, would go through that excruciating pain from before a thousand times over if that guaranteed she'd return to him alive and well.

Part of his reason for coming here in the first place was to protect her, to make sure she wouldn't have to face any dangers alone. He had one job. Just one, and he couldn't fucking do it. The moment it mattered, he, what, just up and passed out? And now...

Fuck. Fuck. If the worst of the worst has come to pass, he'll never forgive himself as long as he lives.

He rounds the dead end corridor's corner, contemplating whether he's desperate enough to risk calling out Jamie's name, and abruptly halts. There's a man standing in the corridor with his back turned to him, illuminated by the flashlight of Nathan's phone. Nathan wonders where the fuck this guy came from. Did he just arrive on the island for purposes similar to his and Jamie's or was he here all along?

Nathan still feels terribly cold.

But it doesn't matter. None of it does. There's really only one question he wants to hear answered. One person he cares about finding.

"Hey, man." He takes a cautious but determined step forward, never taking his eyes off the man's hoodie-clad back. "I don't know if you speak English, but I'm only going to say this once. If you saw a woman with lavender hair anywhere, you're going to bring me to her, and if I find out you've hurt her in any way, I'm going to do whatever you did to her to you. Capisce?"

The man doesn't reply. Instead, he sprints forward, away from Nathan, and the latter has no idea if he's meant to follow or if this bastard is hoping to escape him. He curses and gives chase, pushing through the last of the discomfort in his body. He still feels a supernatural presence and a suspicion that the man he's running after isn't a flesh-and-blood human being dawns on him.

That, too, makes no difference to him. He'll find a way to fight a ghost if he has to. He will.

"Talk to me, asshole!" he yells after the man as they race through shadowy halls together, past empty rooms falling to ruin around them and piles of debris strewn about the floor. Nathan grits his teeth in frustration; no matter how fast he forces himself to run, he never seems to be closing the distance between him and the man, never has the guy within arm's reach. He feels toyed with, like he's being sent on a wild goose chase across the asylum.

But to what end?

They pass a broken window, the slivers of moonlight creeping in highlighting a subtle translucency to the hoodied man.