I waited for the patient to sleep before grabbing her stats. Once I was outside her cubicle, I made sure no one noticed me. Everyone was either absorbed in pain or horror, or busy trying to help.
My hands trembled as I flipped the file open. I took a hard look at the information. Nothing indicated anything out of the ordinary. At least, not for an airplane crash. Strange things happened in plane crashes. People who should have died, survived. People who, by all standards and odds, should have survived, died. Randomness in life made perfect sense. I knew this. I lived it. But this particular bit of randomness was dizzying.
That scar on her abdomen...
It couldn't be her.
If it was, why didn't she give me the same secret smile she'd sent me in wartime London, the day we walked away from each other, somehow—impossibly—friends?
If it was her, she'd smile and say, "You became a doctor? I can't believe it!"
Maybe. I never technically knew her. I'd hunted her, yes. For centuries.
The nurse had drawn the outline of the scar, and it matched the one I had a bit higher up my torso. A ragged I-shape. She had to be Aleria.
No, it couldn't be. Phoenix protectors regenerated. They manipulated fire and it couldn't harm them. Not unless someone like me had been actively stealing her life force. This woman was practically a crisp. On the other hand, crisps didn't wake up from induced comas so fast.
I glanced towards her curtained cubicle, running my fingers over scarred teeth marks in the flesh of my thumb. It had to be her. Instinct didn't buy into my rationale that it wasn't.
The suspicion was enough to send an almighty thrill through me. I curled my hands into fists and willed the feeling away. The creature behind that thrill was locked up in the darkest depths of my soul. Forever. It would stay that way, thanks to the woman who could be behind that curtain.
Could she really have changed my life without remembering?
No. It couldn't be her.
I shook my head and snuck off to give myself a morphine injection. Better to be safe.
Yes, yes, I know this is a really short chapter. No worries, I have another one posted right after this one. But remember to vote before you go! ;-)
YOU ARE READING
Endless
Fantasy"First, do no harm." Blake Ryan swore that oath to become a doctor. Ironic, given that he spent most of his thousand year life sucking souls out of other immortals. Things are different now. Using regular shots of morphine to keep his inner monster...
