15 Minutes [h.s]

two

Anastasia

"I'm sorry, Ms. Porter, but I can't let you use this patient for your thesis."

I immediately sat up from my seat in front of Dr. Banner, who was checking my chosen document. I gave him a confused look.

"Why not? He's clearly a patient who has an interesting back story of getting short term memory loss," I crossed my fingers, displeased at the thought that Dr. Banner wouldn't let me use him as reference for my thesis.

Dr. Banner shook his head as he put the folder on his desk drawer before I could stop him.

"Do you even read the news? This man is dangerous," He worriedly looked at the red folder on his drawer before closing it and looking back at me.

"Do you even wonder why his document was put in a red folder, and not white like the others? It's an indication that he's a crime patient, his documents used as police reference. Police are all over the place searching for him to put him in proper facilities, so far he hasn't been caught yet."

I froze at what Dr. Banner just told me. He's a criminal? "What did he do?"

When I looked at his photo yesterday, I knew something was bothering him. But if you examine closer, you can tell he was once a nice person, probably there was a time where he was normal, a person with no worries, no memory loss.

"That's none of your business," Dr. Banner interrupted my thoughts about that man. "Apparently Mr. Harry Styles is better off without a thesis made by a medical student. Please find another patient in the library, someone less . . . violent."

I knew he wouldn't give me my folder back, so I took my bag and slammed the door as I went out of his office. Blair was waiting at the door, startled at me.

"He didn't let you, did he?" Blair asked, munching on a french fry. "You look mad."

I took a fry from Blair's snack and ate it. "This blows, Blair," I sighed. "He's an interesting patient to study for . . . It's like he needs help from someone. I'm intrigued enough to know about him. Dr. Banner won't let me because he said that man was a criminal."

"What?" Blair almost choked on her food. "You showed me his photo last night, that man didn't look like a criminal to me! What did he do?"

"Even I didn't think of him that way," I agreed. "Dr. Banner won't tell me what he did. All he said was that he was violent."

Blair's eyes widen in shock. "Well, it's best we stay away from that Harry Styles of yours then." Blair finished her last french fry and threw the pack to the nearest bin. "He sounds like a man up to no good. When are you gonna find a new document to study for?"

Honestly, I didn't want to study a different patient. I want to use Harry Styles as my thesis subject. But now that my reference was taken from me, I knew I have no choice but to choose someone else.

"I guess I have to find a new patient," I sighed. I then checked the time which is already 6 pm. "You go on ahead to the dorms, Blair. I still need to buy some extra syringes and masks for my investigatory project."

"Alright," Blair then gave me a hug. "You don't need me to go with you?"

I shook my head.

"Okay then. Don't go too far, okay? It's dark out. The Boogey Man might come for you." Blair jokingly warned me.

I chuckled. "You should watch out for Pennywise the Dancing Clown. He might crawl through the sink and scare you while you take a shit."

Blair playfully punched me on the shoulder and I intently laugh before we separate ways.

I then went outside our school campus to buy my needed things on Holmes Chapel Medical Hospital, which our university's associated with. And also just a walk away.

I went inside the hospital to buy my needed stuff. "Ten syringes and five face masks, please." I said to the nurse at the pharmacy station.

As soon as the clerk handed me my items with my spare change, someone frantically started yelling outside the hospital.

"Help! Help! Someone has been murdered!"

Hospital staff sprang in action. Some doctors, nurses, and including myself ran outside the hospital to approach the witness.

"Where is the victim?" asked one of the doctors.

"I saw him in the dark alleyway a few blocks from here, I saw him getting murdered. I didn't bring my phone, so I couldn't call the police. Please, call the cops! The murderer might be gone from now!"The witness said, panting and all out of breath.

The Hippocratic Oath literally ticked on us all. A nurse started dialling for the local police station.

A few minutes later, the police came along and asked the traumatized witness where the murderer was last seen.

The victim pointed to where he saw the crime scene and  the police quickly ran into the dark alleyway, me and some doctors following behind. Most of them brought their medical apparatuses, holding a little bit of hope that the victim might still be alive.

The crime scene was claustrophobic and dark but all of us can decipher a figure on the ground with his blood sprawled across the alleyway.

"Jesus Christ," one of the policemen said. He then quickly turned on his flashlight so we can all see the body quickly.

It is a sight I can't unsee.

The victim has multiple stab wounds, and his head looked like it was hit by a massive object, causing his forehead skin to split apart.

He's dead. Fresh from murder.

The doctors tried to examine the dead corpse, while the police searched the alleyway for any clues or evidence left behind by the suspect.

Just as I was about to leave the horrid scene, I stepped on something small and quadrilateral. I picked the object off to find out it was a photgraph taken straight from a polaroid camera. Yet I couldn't see what's on the photo due to the dark area.

"Hey, officer?" I quickly tapped on a police officer. I then showed me the unknown photograph. "Mind to point your flashlight on this?"

The policeman then eagerly did so and what we saw was unnerving.

In the photograph was the face of the dead corpse and underneath the photograph was a word handwritten in red and bold: DONE.

Before the police officer could say anything, we then heard the sound of someone tripping over trash bins in the far end of the alleyway.

The policemen pointed their flashlights to the direction of the noise and we saw a man's back turned to us. He was running to the other end of the alleyway.

"Hey, he's getting away!" the policemen ordered each other and they ran to chase the suspect.

"I'm sorry, but you may have to get back to the hospital. This is the police's job. Stay away from this, if you may. Thank you." the police officer that I approached instructed all of us. He then took the poor witness and put him in the police car, probably to take him to the police station to ask for more details about the crime scene.

All of us willingly agreed and everyone hurriedly went back to the hospital, and I to the dorms, in fear that the murderer might be looking for his next victim.

If I'm not mistaken, I swore I saw a scar on that suspect's head.