“Is it like dying?”
The gloved hands paused in their movements and the mask turned to face him.
“You always ask the tough ones don’t you Adam,” she laughed, pulling down the mask to reveal her smiling face. Then her lips pursed and she narrowed her eyes, thinking. “It won’t be, it’s like a second chance.”
“Nothing will be the same though.”
“We’ve been through this before Adam,” she sighed, “it’s the only way.” Her hands busied themselves with organising the gleaming instruments again. It was unnecessary, she’d been doing the same action for the last two minutes.
“No, I know it’s the only way. I just wish—“
“—you wish things could be different,” she finished. “I do too.” And with that she gently slid the slender silver needle into his neck. “Count down from ten,” she instructed, fumbling with her mask.
She turned away and he shifted his head slightly, aware of the chill that was permeating through his body with every slowing heartbeat. She hunched over, her shoulders bowed, to grab at an instrument. Even overalls couldn’t hide her grace. Her perfection.
“Five,” she spoke sternly, beginning the countdown for him.
“Four,” he replied, grimly agreeing.
“Three.” He thought of the beginning. When it all started.
A rapid staccato drew him from his melancholy. He opened his mouth to invite the visitor in, but the door snapped open suddenly.
A woman briskly strode into the room and stopped at the foot of his bed. Her blonde hair was held tightly in a bun, but it seemed to be for professionalism’s sake, rather than preference. She was tall and, from what he could see through her blue dress, wiry. Her muscles deceptively masked by flawless skin and a feminine gentleness. But her face was her most interesting feature. It looked m...
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...eem to disagree with me. In most patient’s minds it’s usually a no-brainer—” she broke off, horrified at her pun. He grinned and sniggered, long and loud and her orotund laughter broke the sudden fear of awkwardness. Minutes later they recovered enough to look each other in the eyes, their ribs aching, and turned the conversation to lighter topics.
As they got up and left the cafe he answered her unasked question. “I understand what you mean, that… if I lose who I am… then it won’t be me who's living any longer. But I’m not ready. And I think that my personality is strong enough to come back like you said it could.” She rolled her eyes at his exuberant grin and he grabbed her hand playfully.
They walked out of the warm courtyard, leaving the rustic cafe chairs askew and the empty cups off-centre in their saucers, with the glow of morning to their backs.
“One.”
“You’re very different.” He spoke in a quiet voice his face eye level with her waist. Her hair fluttered with her nodding head, her lips smashed together knowing she should protest or run or scream, but her body was frozen. The air around them felt very thick, like everything was in slow motion.
The patient was more beautiful than she realized. If only she could see it for herself. The color from her dainty face had drained to a sickened green tint and her eyes widened in fear. The walls of the clinic exam room were ordained in calming colors, but offered the young woman no comfort. She continued to blink rapidly as if she would awaken from the nightmare; her long eyelashes could not fan the health worker’s words away. She thought it was harmless, just a night of fun. It made her feel valuable and attractive. Yet being desired now left her alone, crumpling to the floor screaming between sobs and desperately reaching to the empty air around her. She couldn’t grasp any security. Not only did that harmless night of fun result in her becoming
It took her a long time to catch her breath,but she finally managed to spit out the words,
“I woke up from the nightmares with a cold fear,” she said. “I came to a point where I didn’t want to die, but just wanted to be dead.”
“I’m glad one of us is confident,” I said. I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling, wishing I could sink into the mattress and sleep forever. “It may be too late for me to do anything.”
Her fingers, ghosting over his knuckles “If I did open myself to someone, again…it’d have to be someone I could trust. Someone I knew had my best interest at heart. Who cared about me, and my recovery.” Finally, she met his eyes, still biting her lip. She was so close now, she could practically taste his breath on her mouth. “But I will think about this, doctor. And I’ll try not to do anything too stupid in the
Today was different, Quinn stated, walking through the hospital's doors. He knew what he had to do, tell the receptionist he arrived, get updated on how the night went, get assigned his patient and work with him. It all sounded so easy but Quinn wasn't feeling up for it today. After being out of the routine for a while due to his last
"It's an easy plan, you have ten days to save her. Either you go and save her, or you both die," he laughed
Oliver and Brianna followed. By sunset, the trio had moved all of the small pumpkins under the sheets, except for the three the mice were rolling back to the shed.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t try,” Rachel knew that her voice sounded whiny, but she didn’t care. “I mean, if you’ve lived through on break up you’ve lived through them all. As for the dying thing, you’ve survived this long, haven’t you?”
Behind her she heard the terrified sobs of Olivia. Her own eyes also weighed with tears. But she reached into some unknown strength in herself so that her hands would not tremble
Carol lowered her head in shame and pushed her sunglasses higher up on her nose, hiding the bruises around her eyes. She shivered as the wind whipped around her and pulled her threadbare sweater closer around her battered body, wincing as the movement pulled at her aching ribs. There was nothing she could do about it right now she thought, so she trudged on.
He shut her eyelids and then turned to leave. The stench of corpses, and the low rasping of the Black Wraith accompanied him to the door.
that it is the patients decision because the patient knows how much pain they are in, and if they
"'Never again.' That's what I said to myself. 'I never want to feel your kind of pain again.' Just when I think it's over, just when I think it's through... I find myself back in love with you."