Authors: Ian Haywood
Besides, being in this room under watch was a million times better than being outside living in fear that I could be attacked at any moment to once again face an onslaught of questions from Harran and Short back at the police station.
I watched the nurse as she walked over to a sink opposite my bed where she took her surgical gloves off and placed them in a bin before washing her hands.
She started talking to me again as she dried her hands with paper towels.
“The police did say that when you came round, I was to inform them immediately so they could come in and ask you a few questions, but I can see you’re obviously a little tired and groggy from your fainting spell, so I won’t tell them for another half hour so you can get some rest, okay? Besides, I didn’t like the attitude on one of the policemen earlier when they brought you in. He was in a shirt and tie and kept acting as if he owned the place, barking out orders in every direction.”
I immediately worked out that it was Harran that the nurse was describing to me and I smiled at her as she wrote something in my notes at the foot of my bed.
“I’ll leave you in peace. If you want anything, press the red button behind you.” The kind nurse said as she left the room, gently closing the door behind her.
I could hear a man’s voice outside asking how I was and true to her word, the nurse kept up the pretense that I was still asleep and for the first time I felt a little content knowing that nice kind people still existed in this world.
Even though I was experiencing a lot of pain, I knew that I should heed the nurse’s advice and try to get some kind of rest before the never ending questions began again.
I looked out of the window and the first thing that I noticed was how high the ward was – the view that greeted me was the roofs of the buildings opposite.
A welcoming breeze came through the slightly open window and mixed in with the momentary peace of being alone in the room, it wasn’t long before I shut my eyes.
After all that had happened to me, it was lovely to feel calm for once and I got lost in the rhythmic beeps from the machine beside me.
But even though my eyes were shut, I suddenly sensed that someone else was in the room with me, but thinking it may be one of the policemen from outside wandering in to check on me, I decided to keep my eyes shut to enjoy the peace a little more.
Whoever it was hovered around my bed for a few moments and I could sense each footstep that the person took as they slowly walked down my left side, before returning to the foot of the bed and then over to my right side.
I continued to keep my eyes closed hoping that the person would soon leave the room, but unfortunately this person showed no intentions of doing so yet.
Paranoia began to grow within me, but I fought them off by finding a rational reason – maybe it was a different nurse or doctor checking my notes.
But there was only one way to find out.
So I opened my left eye slowly to take a sneak peek.
It wasn’t a policeman standing at the side of my bed – neither was it a nurse.
It was somebody I recognized.
Every part of me tensed as I sneakily looked up at the very man who had earlier chased me into the police station car park, but instead of getting me killed the Coroner who came to my aid.
The same man who didn’t even show up on the CCTV footage.
And now he’s less than a few feet away from me ready to do God knows what and I am absolutely shitting myself.
I am so scared right now, I can’t even scream.
The only bit of hope I have right now is the fact he hasn’t noticed that I am aware of his presence.
Or is this all a dream?
Every minute of my life is growing stranger and I can’t tell what is a dream and what is reality any more.
Besides, I was led to believe that two policemen were guarding the door into here, so how the Hell did this guy manage to get in here in the first place?
If he didn’t get past them, the only way he could have got in was through the window, but we’re incredibly high up.
But he is here and panic is starting to spread right through my body.
My body is shaking uncontrollably with fear and I’m struggling to catch my breath, which is making the machine recording my heart rate and blood pressure start to beep erratically.
I can do nothing.
I’m certainly not in any fit state to make a bolt for the door and if I did manage to muster a scream for help from the policemen outside, the man beside me may kill me before the door was even opened.
Surely the warning signs coming from the machine would alert someone to come into the room to check, but that hope soon disappeared as the man picked it up and effortlessly threw it out of the window onto one of the roofs opposite.
But, no matter how well I thought I was doing pretending to be asleep, a deep voice revealed that I certainly had not fooled him.
“Mortals may be easily tricked by a disgraceful display of acting like that, but you don’t fool me in the slightest!”
I knew immediately that I had no other choice but to do as he said because I had already witnessed what he is capable of doing first hand, so I fully opened my eyes and looked up at him fearing what he was going to do next.
“Now that I finally have your full attention,” he continued to speak, “I want you to tell me where he is!”
I just looked at him, totally confused at his question.
“Don’t play games with me!” he threatened. “I can tell he’s been near you – your body stinks of him! Now, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and stress by tell me where that son of a bitch is hiding! I will hunt him down and destroy him where he stands and I will deal with you afterwards.”
I finally managed to speak.
“Who the hell is this guy that you’re after?” I asked. “I really don’t have a clue what you’re on about.
“Stop your lying to me!” he shouted, “Tell me where Lucius is hiding!”
I have never met anyone by that name ever in my lifetime and I certainly wouldn’t forget such an unusual name if I did.
“You know exactly who I am talking about and if you don’t tell me soon, you may never see another sunrise!”
The anger that was building within him was immense and I stared in horror as his eerie dark brown eyes suddenly turned to a blood red colour and I knew that my life was definitely under threat.
So, I tried desperately to get out of the bed as quickly as I could, fighting back the never ending shooting pains throughout my body as I did so.
But as I placed my feet upon the floor, the man had managed to block me off and with his muscular build, I was no match for him.
So, I was trapped on the edge of the bed completely helpless, staring up at the towering figure over me whose face was now contorted through pure anger, but his crimson eyes just looked back at me as if they were burning into my very soul.
I really thought he was going to kill me and in a moment of desperation, I managed to build up enough energy to hit out at him.
But no matter how hard my punches and kicks were, they had no effect on him whatsoever and it wasn’t long before I started to tire until I could hit out no more.
I had no other choice but surrender.
But, just as all hope seemed to have been lost, the window behind us smashed sending shards of glass flying through the air.
We both spun round to see what had caused such a commotion and standing next to the window was another man – a lot younger than the one threatening me.
“Lucius!” the man blocking my way spoke to him, “So nice of you to turn up! It’s been such a long time since we last met up. It seems that you have got to her already – she even denied ever knowing of you.”
“Let her go Zephal!” the man demanded, standing up to him.
I turned to get a better look at who was defending me and to my complete and utter shock, I saw the same man who was wounded in the wooden cottage in my dream earlier.
Not only did the same man save my life last night, he was now once again coming to my aid.
Now I knew his name – Lucius.
I couldn’t help but notice his captivating blue eyes again and I knew that I had to look away or I could end up passing out again.
Luckily, our gaze was broken as the other man Zephal hit him with such force that the two men went flying through the air until a concrete wall brought them to a sudden halt.
Zephal seemed to be winning the battle and he sat on Lucius with his hands tightly clenched around his throat.
As the grip tightened, I saw Lucius’s face change just like Zephal’s had moments before and amazingly, Zephal was thrown across the room.
I knew now was my best chance to run out of the room and get help so as the two men continued their fight on the floor, I opened the door and ran into the corridor, screaming as loudly as I could.
Incredibly, there were no policemen keeping watch outside as I was led to believe and I froze in an empty corridor – had Zephal already got to everyone before he came into my room and killed them all?
But my fears were ended when a policeman came running out of a room a couple of doors down and immediately ran past me to be greeted by the sight of two men fighting in the very room he was supposed to be guarding.
I heard a noise coming from the room the policeman had just burst out of and I headed there to warn whoever was in there of what was happening.
As I got there, I discovered the other policeman who pushed past me red-faced to join his colleague, but when I stepped inside what I thought was a vacant room, I discovered what had made the policemen leave their post.
With no shame, the kind nurse who had been caring for me, was inside putting her underwear back on.
She looked across at me and smiled as she picked up the rest of her clothes and I caught a glimpse of a tattoo on her arm – the same tattoo that I have seen a number of times over the last few days, but before I could ask her where she had it, the two policeman ran down the corridor, one of them stopping as he saw me.
“You two stay here!” he shouted.
“Are they still fighting?” I asked.
“Not right now!” he answered, “They were a few seconds ago, but when we tried to break them up, they fell out of the window!”
The nurse behind me gasped.
“But we’re on the 6th floor!”
I instantly ran back into my room and headed towards the window expecting to see two lifeless bodies on the ground below, but to my amazement all that I could see was a police man looking around in total confusion.
As horrible as it may sound, I was hoping to see the worst below because it may have brought an end to all the hell that I had gone through over the last couple of days.
I held back tears as I realized that my nightmare was going to continue.
CHAPTER TWELVE
The two policemen who had supposedly been watching guard over Naomi now found themselves standing in an empty car park which should have had two bodies lying in it after they had both fallen out of a 6
th
floor window directly above.