DARK QUEST (Sample)

Chapter Three

Evelyn Klein marched into the large theatre with the other students. Each was handed a white coat and a pair of hand gloves. The surgeon stood by the entrance of the theatre which was more like a room connected to a morgue. He was giving out details about what they were about to embark on.

The students were at least up to sixty and they had been told to group themselves into five each.
This was the time to face the reality of the course they had studied for years. They had been summoned into the theatre and they were going to experiment on the internal organs of the human body.

"Each group is given a cadaver and be careful not to cause more damage to the body. You don't want to evoke the anger of the spirit of your various cadavers, trust me!" Doctor Clint stated.

Evelyn couldn't possibly get her eyes off the large fluorescent room. There were large experimenting tables and beside them were trays of surgical tools for each group and at the far end of the large theatre was a steel door with a plated inscription above the door which stated the word 'MORGUE'.

"Out of the way!" A harsh female voice came from behind her. A girl roughly brushed past her almost knocking her forward. When she turned, she wasn't surprised to see it was the 'almighty, I'm the most sexiest-Laura.'

"Surgeon coming through." She gloated to Evelyn with a snicker and gave her a mocking wink with her group of friends trailing behind her laughed. "Unlike a group of misfits we have to tolerate all the time..." Then Laura breathed out an audible sigh and said aloud so everyone could hear. "No wonder Ramsey called it quits. Heard she's frigid and has no idea in the ways of pleasing a man."

"You...crazy bit..." Evelyn who had been trying to act unaffected by the girls suddenly lost it and flared as most of the other students who had heard Laura began to snicker.

"Evelyn!" Doctor Clint called out in a strict tone. "Mind your choice of language in the theatre under my supervision, it won't be tolerated!"

Evelyn swallowed hard and tried to calm herself. She hardly ever got angry but Laura just knew just the right strings to pull to infuriate her. "Yes sir." She simply replied, a bit sheepish.

"And Laura is there a problem?" Dr. Clint asked, noticing that the girl still lingered close to Evelyn's table with mischievous smiles on their faces.

"Oh! Not at all sir!" Laura suddenly said and focused a sly gaze on Evelyn. "We were just wishing our friend here good luck!"

Thankfully, Laura continued her walk and joined her group at a table with a cadaver already lying on it like other experimenting tables. Her gaze strayed to Laura's table where she and her friends had gathered around and still laughing, glaring at them, she slipped on her gloves carefully. As she averted her gaze, she caught Sharon staring at her keenly across the table.

"What?" she shrugged a shoulder, anger still written all over her face. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"And why are you glaring at..." Sharon glanced over her shoulder at Laura's table where she and her friends were now chattering away and slipping on their gloves too. "...Laura and her friends like that?"

"That bitch gets on my nerves all the time...she is really pushing me to the wall!" Evelyn said icily.

"You don't despise her as much as I do, Eve, but don't let that bitch get the better of you." Sharon warned.

"She is almost succeeding...soon the dam won't hold it anymore and all hell will be let loose, no holding back!"

"...And..." Sharon leaned forward so the other students in their group, a blonde girl, Anna and a guy, Kane busy discussing the cadaver wouldn't hear her. "...How am I sure you ain't just mad at Laura because of Ramsey?"

Evelyn stared at her for a while as tears stung her eyes at the mention of the name. she kept the tears at bay, swallowed hard and glanced at nothing for a brief moment, trying to digest the question to see if Sharon was right or she just naturally couldn't tolerate Laura but she wasn't certain that was just it.

Of course, Sharon might be right, maybe she despised Laura the more because she blamed the bitch for Ramsey's breaking up with her and then keeping him for hers. By the time she looked up, Sharon was still leaning forward waiting for a reply. "I am getting over it." Evelyn uneasily replied.

"Yea, right!" Said Sharon, knowing Evelyn was lying. "He broke up with you two weeks ago, such a short time to get over him so easily, I'd say."

"Could you give me a break?" Evelyn snapped. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Okay." Sharon whispered unhappily with a short sigh, looking away. Evelyn noticed she had hurt her best friend. Trying to do away with her unreasonable anger and pride, she reached out across the table and gave Sharon's hand a gentle reassuring squeeze. "I'm sorry!"

Sharon fluttered her eyelashes. "...It's okay...I understand." She nodded with a tilt of her head, briefly gathering air in her cheeks and exhaling a bit aloud. "...I understand how you feel Eve, I've been there before." She managed a reassuring smile.

Evelyn smiled back, withdrew her hand and took a deep breath as she slipped into her surgical uniform like the other students. "So..." she began, trying to resume her position as the group leader. "We ready?" she scanned the faces of her close colleagues and who were also her friends.

"Pretty much!" Anna the blonde replied.

"Kane?" Evelyn turned her gaze to the guy.

"Why not, Eve?" he answered with a grin and a nod of approval.

Evelyn glanced at Sharon, besides the sparkling white teeth, Sharon was an extremely beautiful young Black-American woman and they had been friends since their first year in college and now they were in their last level and would soon be graduating medical doctors.

The task laid before each student in the theatre right now was to practically learn about the internal organs and how to carefully and expertly perform a surgical operation.

Evelyn's smile slowly faded as she noticed they were just four instead of five. "Where's Jalil?"

Anna shrugged, Kane answered. "Should be here soon." Just then they turned at the sound of the fast approaching footsteps hurrying towards the theatre. Jalil appeared at the entrance of the theatre, adjusting his surgical uniform and putting on his surgical cap. Doctor Clint turned at his approach.

"Doctor Clint." Jalil acknowledged him with an awkward nod.

"Mr. Rakhah?" Doctor Clint began, his face tensed.

"I'm sorry sir! The huh...alarm rung at the wrong time..." Jalil gibbered.

"I won't tolerate lateness in my class..." He said, then turned and said aloud to the others, his hands behind him. "...and that goes to every one of you, time is one important thing doctors heed to, lateness is an incompetent trait that shouldn't be tolerated for it can cost you the life of a patient." He glanced back at Jalil and granted him passage into the theatre room with a slight nod of his head.

Quickly, Jalil grabbed a pair of hand gloves from the glove compartment and hurried to his table. "Hi guys!" he said, nervously slipping on his hand gloves in a hurry.

"What happened, Jalil?" Evelyn gave him a questioning look.

"Sorry!...woke up late!" He answered in his usual Indian accent. "Did I miss anything?" He glanced at each one of them.

The ladies didn't answer him, Kane did. "...Was just about getting started.

Jalil gave a relieved sigh. He was an Indian who had spent most of his teenage years in America, he didn't really cherish schooling in his own country. He spoke nice English language but his Indian accent was always there having merged with the English language. He was tall and slim, quite handsome, had a little bit of low self- esteem but very trusting and brilliant too unlike Kane who had a flat brown top for hair, handsome face, charming smile and two or more girlfriends.

He had made advances towards Sharon who had bluntly but politely turned him down.