Sickening Thoughts

Chapter 4

"James! What are you doing here, are you okay?" 

He looked both happy and concerned to see her. That was exactly how Aurora felt seeing him. "I got the nameless disease... Were you infected too? Are you okay?"

She looked down for a moment, trying to think. "I'm sure there's a way we can fight this off" Aurora said with a partial fake confidence. Even though she didn't completely believe that was true, she had to give them at least some hope. Aurora scooted towards the edge of the cell to get closer to him, leaving them about a foot apart. "...How are you holding up?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't ask her in return. She isn't the kind of person to let on how afraid she was or how much pain she was in, but he could read it all in her face if she made just one wrong move.

"A bit shocked, but fine. At least for now... You?"

Aurora hesitated. He could tell when she was lying but it was worth a shot. "I'm fine. Great actually this and yesterday afternoon has given me quite some time to figure things out a bit". She decided to try and stick on the positive side. 

He must've known that Aurora was lying, but if he did he didn't say anything because he knew she'd just argue with him. Aurora was a very stubborn person, her mom used to tell her I could be a lawyer. After several moments of silence, Aurora turned to him. "Hey, did anything... strange happen to you in the middle of the night perhaps?" she asked.

"No," he began. That spawned some questions in Aurora's head head. Was it only her that felt that piercing feeling then? "But something quite peculiar did happen that afternoon when I went fishing" he continued.

"Like what?"

"I had just caught a fish when I blacked out in the row boat. I woke up from a sharp pain in my arm. Afterwards, I saw a strange figure scurry off, but I never did get his attention". That was exactly what happened to Aurora, just at a different time. So what was this weird pattern? Questions came flooding into her mind, racing around and leading to so many possibilities. But yet, none of them seemed, well, possible! That left her thinking for a while. So long that it was only when the guard opened her door that she had realized two hours had gone by.

"Come with me" he said in his stern, gruff, and mean voice. She obeyed, but still tried to annoy him for a bit. It's the most revenge Aurora could get at the moment, from him dragging her into this cell. Not letting her say goodbye to her father. 

"You don't seem much of a people person" Aurora said, trying to get on his nerves. "yeah you just give off this weird vibe, like you wanna punch somebody all the time, ya know what I mean? Or like you hate children, do you hate children? I bet you do, frown lines that show you never smile, always a stern expression, dirty boots but not scratched or damaged suggesting you have no children. Or dogs, are you not a dog person either? What a s-" he cut me off.

"Shut up, ya bugger". Aurora smiled. She knew she had gotten on his nerves. He deserved it, and even more than that, but it was all she could do at the moment. He fumbled with his keys before opening the door to the doctor's office.

"Please, have a seat" the doctor said. He had scraggly strings of grey hairs sticking out of either side of his head. He had bushy, dark eyebrows and silver round glasses that made him look like he had bug eyes. He smiled to show yellowed and weakened teeth. He had a nasally voice that reminded Aurora of a rat.

She sat down on a large cushioned bench with a thin film of paper on the top. He pulled out a file and looked through it for a while, then put it back. "Ah, Aurora Denze, is it?" he muttered something she couldn't quite hear. "This may hurt a bit, but it will check to see if you're really infected" he injected a large and thick needle; it pierced through Aurora's skin and she bit her tongue to hold back a scream. It had felt like a lifetime that that needle was in her skin. He released it and wrapped it with a dirty rag. "Do you feel any pain?"

"No I feel fine" Aurora lied. Her arms burned and she felt almost... weaker. 

"Perhaps you're weak in the knees. Stand up." he said, pushing her forward onto the floor.

Aurora nearly doubled over from the pain. Her legs wobbled, but she tried her best to look healthy and well so that they would let her go. "I'm fine, see?".

"One last thing" he said. He went behind Aurora and lightly pushed her shoulder. Though he claimed it was a light push, it felt like a hammer came down on her. She collapsed onto the seat in front of her. "She's infected." he said, without hesitation. "Bring her back to the cell, where she'll live out the rest of her life, possibly a rather short one". And with those words, her heart sank, and her hope drifted further.