Army of Sin - Season 2 - The Gathering

Episode XVIII - Lost And Found

Location: Marseille, France

The best way to wake up had to be akin to the pouring of molasses - slowly, starting from the toes and moving up the body. Oftentimes, there would be a great stretch as backs were arched and toes curled; enough to draw a sequel of pleasure from adult and child alike. Evangeline would have given anything to wake up that way.

Instead, her ears were greeted by a guttural scream as something burned and dug into her midsection. Strange she thought, fighting the fog of sleep. I am the one in pain yet someone else is screaming.

A surgically gloved hand slapped across her mouth, informing her that the scream had come from her own throat. A bright light had her eyes squinting instinctively as a face covered by a surgical mask came into her field of vision, flat grey eyes staring into her own.

"Add another local!"

"We're almost out of local!" A voice shouted over the hum of a machine. "We should have put her under general and tubed her!"

"We don't have time for general, not while we're on the move like this. We're almost near the drop zone and I have to extract; to remove the tube while the vehicle weaves could kill her. Do you want that kind of heat?"

"Just put her out, add a stronger concentration and put her out now!" A male voice called from near Evangeline's feet as she began to thrash in earnest, eyes peeled wide in horror at the blood drenched hands buried in her flank.

Her body went numb, the pain at her side reduced to a dull ache as the cabin of what must have been a mobile lab grew dark.

"There!" came a triumphant shout as Evangeline felt a deep tug from near her navel, "Where is the transport cooler?" The grey-eyed surgeon asked.

"Close her up, drop zone in ten minutes!"

"Are we taking the eye? Do we have the time?"

Unconsciousness never felt so good.

➖➖➖

Evangeline woke slower this time around, eyes greeted by a wash of white and the sound of electronic beeping reaching her ears. Her neck ached as she turned her head to the side to the display of figures.

"Welcome back, sleeping beauty." Came a cheery voice near her hip.

Looking down, Evangeline saw a petite nurse redoing a bandage, dark brown skin disappearing into a pair of blue gloves. Evangeline gasped as a fragment of memory slid in place, her body trembling at the sight of those gloved hands.

"Hey, hey, easy sweet girl," the nurse shushed, the light brown of her eyes a gorgeous offset against the deeper brown of her skin, filled with genuine concern.

Taking a shuddering breath of relief at the colour of the other woman's eyes, Evangeline closed her eyes, a head that felt three times its actual size.

"Wh... Where... Am I?"

"A Marseille hospital sweet girl, for the past two days," folding her arms, the nurse glanced up at the television, "we've managed to keep the vultures at bay."

"What happened?" Evangeline asked through dry lips.

"Let's wait until the doctor comes. I've already paged him, so in the meantime, have a drink," she offered, holding a freshly opened bottle of water.

On cue, the door swung open, granting entrance to another guest.

A surgical mask came into her field of vision, flat grey eyes staring into her own. Evangeline's sanity danced on the edge of a precipice.

Light reflected into the glasses the doctor wore, shielding the colour of his eyes. His scrub cap however, was the same green as her memory. Everything screamed at her to run. Raising his hands, he unhooked the surgical mask from his face. Peeling off the pair of blue gloves with a snap, he raised his fingers to rub below his glasses frame.

"How's our patient Rissa?" he asked in deeply melodic French.

Biting her lip, the nurse spoke with her back turned, busying herself with tucking in the folds around Evangeline's legs, "BP is one fourteen over seventy-eight, O2 SATs are in range and urine is showing good kidney function. We were waiting on you; she would like an update."

Crossing over to the bed, the doctor gently squeezed the nurse's shoulder before softly ordering her to go rest her feet. Turning back, he peered down at Evangeline as he reached up to remove his glasses.

Flat grey eyes staring into her own.

Evangeline screamed as her sanity took a swan dive.

Dr. Francoise LeGendre was exhausted; only sheer will kept him on his feet at this point. Now as his gorgeous patient's mouth peeled wide, her good eye a huge saucer of horror, he inhaled deeply; here we go.

On the television bolted to the wall in the corner of the room, headlines rolled across the screen of Evangeline's attack over an international news station, an inset of her face to the top right of the screen.

"Get me a psych consult in here stat!" He barked as nurses streamed into the room, "and for God's sake, someone put her under!"

"Put her out! Add a stronger concentration and put her out now."

➖➖➖

Unfortunately we have very little details at this time other than what we already know. Top Female model Evangeline Gervais and her manager Mona Selvin were rushed to an undisclosed Marseille hospital at around six o'clock Sunday evening. It has been forty-eight hours and still the medical staff remains tight-lipped.

"Alesky."

"Sire," the aide responded, going from resting to fully awake, the glow of sunset reflecting off of one side of his face.

"Make preparations; we return to Europe."

➖➖➖

Kenneth Brock could not stop eating. Not that he wanted to at this particular moment between forkfuls of raw minced beef and licks from the ice cream cone he held in his other hand. He had flown in on the British Airways red eye from Marseille to his Dallas doorstep ravenous. The meal the stewardess had offered did nothing to offset the hunger swirling in his stomach. Maybe I should have taken up that chef on her offer of a second serving, he thought to himself. Dabbing at the juices that ran down into the groomed edges of his beard, Kenneth never broke rhythm between forkfuls of beef and ice-cream cone. His jaw ached from the workout he had given it over the past hour, yet his stomach; the bottomless pit that it had become, yowled in response to any hint of a pause. Thank goodness the delivery man was on his way.

Crushing the remnants of the waffle cone into his mouth, the millionaire Texan's eyes rolled back in pleasure as the eighth and final cone disappeared into the black hole that was his stomach.

Where was that bloody delivery man?

END OF EPISODE