Noises. They tried to carry her seemingly lifeless body away from harm, the fires that seem to dance around her, ready to eat her up but never made its way towards her. They moved in an unusual pattern startling the people who helped her up. It was a sight. Yet, they should move fast to keep the victims from possible injury. It felt strange. The atmosphere was neither hot nor cold, rather it was light. It was as if someone's presence has left something so strong it made their hearts beat faster. One of the men braved the oddity of the event and carried her. One step outside the circle, it was like all of the worries in the world went back on his shoulders. The flames went into a frenzy, blazing on the ground like an endless streak of a matchstick.
Embers rained causing further spread of wildfire. It was so bright from the flames yet the black smoke kept the air under dim light. There was nothing but chaos. Cars flipped over burning consistently and broken glass filled the intersection. Screams of help echoed on four corners as the flames extended on the four roads leading to the intersection.
Light flashed before her unmoving eyes. She heard their voices telling her to follow the light. Left. Right. Left. She breathed in heavily from the small mask they pressed on her lips. Something's missing, she could feel it, they removed her necklace for her to be able to breathe properly. Suddenly, she sprung up from where she lay as two men in white assisted her.
"Dad!" She tried to get off the gurney but the two men held her back.
"You're gonna be alright ma'am, please lie down"
"No..no you have to save my dad, please, please, he was in the car.. he was..."
"You need to calm down, everything's gonna be fine, we are doing everything we can"
One held the mask over her face until she felt more calm. The world became another blur in her eyes as she fell down back to rest. The two men had fear in their eyes though their profession tells them not to show any signs of it. One examined her arms, it was clean. Her ripped clothes were filled with dried blood yet beneath it lies no bruises or incision. Not even a single scratch or burnt flesh were found on her skin. The two men looked at each other with doubt. How?
One stepped out of the ambulance and watched the flames from a distance eat up everything in its path. People were running toward him in panic. Wailing sounds broke in the chorus of explosion. Water pumped its way into the grueling fire and smoke. Several firemen have gone out of the shroud carrying seemingly lifeless bodies of the injured. He looked around all the other victims covered in blood, with ashes on their clothes and faces as they were all carried to different ambulances. The flames climbed up to the establishments nearby. In a swirl it unleashed another powerful thunder of explosion.
He covered his eyes as he looked behind, his partner calling him to hurry back inside. Splinters flew to them as if it wanted to drive them away. He ran back into the van and they drove off along with all the others going in their direction, away from the oblivion.
***
It was cold. Slowly, Heather opened her eyes only to see herself lying on a reclined bed. Everything was dim. Outside the clear window was darkness coupled with moving lights from below. She felt weak as she helped herself up. The images of the car crash slipped her mind for a split second. It was painful. It was as if her temples had screws churning into them. The images haunted her. It all happened so fast, she can barely remember anything. It's as if the images are always new to her. As she remembered being thrown through the windshield, it made her flinch. With her face buried in her hands, she cried. She wiped her tears with her hands when she heard footsteps approaching the door to the room.
"Hey, you're up."
A man came in but the light from outside the door obscured his face. He reached for the switch near the door and the light in the hall gave him recognition. He stood at an average height, wearing thick-framed spectacles that fit perfectly with the shape of his face. In his left hand was a yellow rose he tried to hide. Realizing she can already see him holding it, awkwardly wave it on his hand not knowing where to place it. He walked straight past Heather, who was sitting under the covers, then placed his little present in a clear empty vase resting peacefully on a clear white desk lit under a striped lamp.
"I went all the way up the mountains for this little yellow flower, so you gotta keep this one alive until you get…"He boasted shyly but he was suddenly cut off when he felt a tight embrace from the girl before him, "…better." In the silence, he could hear her sob into his dry shirt. Slowly, he reciprocated as he felt the lady needed that comfort. She was trembling. "It's gonna be alright." he whispered into her ear.
With a full emergency room in the morning, energy was sure drained out of all the doctors and nurses that were in St. Caroline Medical Center. Immediate surgeries, screaming patients, countless reporters and nosy investigators were just some of the things they all had to go through. None of this however bothered a doctor who was sitting alone on the bench between the lockers. His hands were buried in the depths of his brushed up hair. The images of the flames kept coming back to him. He could see everything clearly, like it all just happened a moment ago. The flames were alive.
"Doctor, are you alright?"
The doctor jumped from his seat as someone tapped him on the shoulder. He breathed in deeply and composed himself, looking all confused. "Yeah...yeah..I'm fine, I'm just...", his eyes were still. The other nurse was waiting for his answer.
"...Nothing."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah... I'll be out in a bit"
"Alright. Get some rest, you obviously need it." Before the nurse could go out of the locker room the doctor spoke, "How many of them were..."
"There were 12, there were only 12 survivors."
"At least one of them still here?" There was an obvious tone of nervous curiosity in him.
"Ten of them have been let go, we didn't find anything wrong with them, no injuries, not even a single scratch or burns. Two of them however are staying, Mr. Bruce van Aalderen is in ICU and his daughter Heather is in a room on the 7th floor."
The doctor held on to the cross on his silver necklace. He took one deep breath as if he was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.
At the time of the night, the hospital seemed silent, any simple whisper can be heard throughout the corridors. Footsteps. One pair heavy and the other light as a feather. The sound of the steps went further down the hall where the sound of creaking wheels passed by them.
"Heather, I don't think it's the right time for this." the man with spectacles held Heather's arm back as he could see her building tears from her eyes. But she wouldn't let herself be held back, she ran forward to view the large clear window. Beyond the clear barrier was her father lying on a large bed, with tubes fixed to his mouth and nose. Complicated machines were by his side, some monitors displayed his vital signs. There were blue translucent curtains hanging in the air, lit under bright white light.
Seeing her father in this state made her burst into tears. Her cries echoed through the corners of the hall. She held on to the man with spectacles who stood firm in one place. He held her reluctantly, seeing the girl's need for comfort.
"Mr. van Aalderen..." a voice beside them said.
"...he suffered from a severe head and spinal trauma, rescuers found him still seated inside a wrecked Mini Cooper that crashed right into the tank of flammable substances. It's a miracle that he's still here with us. No. It's more than a miracle. When they brought him here, he had no burns, no bloodstains, no broken bones, not even a single scratch from the shards of glass all over him..." he continued, sounding deeper and deeper. The silver cross on his necklace glared when it was hit by the lights. "I'm Dr. Pearson. Colin Pearson. And you are?" He extended his hand toward the man with spectacles. "Damien."
"and you must be Heather van Aalderen." the doctor turned to the girl who was wiping her tears.
"Your father is a lucky man. But unlike you and ten other survivors, you're all awake..." he stepped in closer. Heather looked confused, her eyes moved from tile to tile on the floor. What I he saying?
In a split second, the doctor turned his concern into abject curiosity. "Did you see the flames that time? Did you see them? Noticed how they moved? Did you see? Tell me, please, what did you see? There's a pattern, pattern, right?! Tell me there's a pattern, tell me..." He grabbed both of her arms and shook her from confusion.
The images flashed rapidly once again. This time it was worse. There was clarity in some scenes. There were lights. She remembered being caught in the air by some strong force. But the flames enveloped her. She screamed.
"Hey!" Damien pushed the strong grasp of the doctor away from Heather. Some of the nurses that passed by stopped to see what was happening. Damien held Heather in his arms, away from the doctor who was just as surprised at what he did. She was shaking in fear.
Out of his proper decorum, Dr. Pearson fixed his uniform, raised his arms and looked around, "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, everything's alright, no one's hurt, alright? We can all go back to what we're doing.". The nurses moved on whispering, freaked out by the doctor's actions.
"It would be better if you could take her back to her room, Damien. It's nice meeting you two.", finally composed, the doctor quietly turned his back on them and moved along.
Gently, Damien assisted Heather away from the creepy man. As they walked down the corridor, Damien took a glance back at the doctor, he saw the man scratching his head vigorously as he walked in haste to the opposite direction.
It was 9:02pm. Heather was just standing by the window, peeking through the blinds, letting the lights from below make its way inside her room, which was rather dark, with only the lamp on the table giving light to a single corner of the room. She held the bruised yellow rose with both hands, it already showed signs of wilt on its petals. Things were a bit clearer to her now. She could remember the look on her father when they both realized that the car won't stop accelerating. Red light. The cars from the right side of the intersection have started to move forward. She could hear a car honking behind them. She looked behind to see the car with the guy who smiled at her. The intersection approaches. She gazed in front of her only to see that the view has already reached the side of a flammable gas tank. At the exact moment of impact, she felt her seatbelt snap. She unknowingly snapped the stem of the rose in her hand.
She flinched by the thought of it, "Can I come in?", she heard a voice from the door. Again, with no lights on the hall to the door, it obscured the face of the visitor. The light from outside added the shadows on his face and figure. "Who are you?"
"Just a shrink"
Hearing this, Heather went back to her view of the window. Listening to the faint sound of the empty street is more relaxing than opening up to a shrink. A voice from outside will not help her get through the whole memory very well, she thought. Technically, she'll be talking to a stranger, a stranger who claims to understand what their subjects feel.
"We're silly little beings, aren't we Ms. van Aalderen?" His voice was deep and brooding.
"We wake up every day without the worries of anything bad going to happen to us. We plan our future when we never know what lies ahead rather than just wait for things to take its course. You didn't see this coming didn't you? We obviously failed at stopping things from happening. But, you see, everything's been laid down for you beforehand. Be contented, Heather. Take this as your second chance at life. Don't ask anymore questions, why or how. Move on. The path has already been placed for those of you 12 who survived. Do not stray from it. You may not realize, why Damien's family came into the picture three weeks before this. Have you ever asked yourself that?" the one who claimed to be a shrink went near the table with the lamp. Heather could only see his figure from her peripherals.
She couldn't look at him. Suddenly, her body froze in fright yet she felt a rather calming presence beside her. As he walked out of her peripheral view, he asked, "Oh Heather, did you find what you're looking for this morning?"
She turned around only to see herself alone in the room. She felt all of her hair stand up starting from the back of her neck. It felt as if the room was curving inwards, things were growing nearer. Forcing herself to run outside of the room, she felt weaker in her thighs. In panic, she looked around when she got out of her room. The corridors were free of any moving object.
You don't want to be late, Heather.
It's as if she could hear the voice of her father calling her out of their home as he waited at the car.
You don't want to be late, Heather.
She forgot something so important to her. She looked for it everywhere. Finally, it was on top of the dining table. Grabbing it with one hand, she immediately clipped it around her neck while she hurried outside of her house.
She placed her hand on her chest. "Mom's necklace", she groaned after realizing she wasn't wearing her deceased mother's necklace with a sparkling silver cross. It was like the world gradually became darker and darker in her vision. The shroud centered in until her sight was almost lost.
Just then, she felt someone hold her arms and shook her body.
"Heather! What's happening to you?"
Hearing this voice brought light back into her sight. From all the blur, a clear focal point found its way to defeat the shroud. Seeing Damien's face, she felt relieved, "Damien, you've got to help me."
"What is it?"
"The doctor... the doctor has my necklace."
"Doctor Pearson?"
"Yes... someone came into my room, he told me he was a shrink and then he began talking.. he.. he began telling me things..things like..like everything's been laid down for me, for us 12..for us 12 who survived. And then..and then, he reminded me... he knew what I was doing before the accident."
"Heather, Heather..calm down, I don't understand, who was it? Did you see his face? Did you recognize his voice? Cause I swear, I didn't see anyone on my way here"
"He left.. he..he just disappeared.. I don't know how or why but what I know is that the doctor has my mother's necklace."
"You think it was him? You think it was him who came into your room?"
"I'm not sure"
Frustrated with her answer, Damien grabbed her arm and dragged her down the corridor, inside the elevator and out to the headquarters. The nurses looked at them from the other side of the desk. "We have to speak with Dr. Pearson, I know he's in there. Is this how you treat your patients? You steal things from them?"
"Excuse me, sir?" the nurse was furious about the accusation. Before Damien could shout another one at all the nurses who were there in this scandalous attempt, the door on the right of the hall opened. It was the door to Dr. Pearson's office, out came the suspect wearing the necklace. "Come in."
"You have something that doesn't belong to you." Damien demanded. The ambiance of the room brought chills down his spine. There were very intricate sculptures of what seems like a warrior with six wings lunging a sword down the throat of a grotesquely deformed creature crawling on the ground like a reptile. The paintings that hung on the walls depicted the same concept.
"Oh, you mean this?" the doctor raised the silver necklace that hung on his neck. Immediately, he removed it from himself and placed it on the desk before him. Heather took it at once and wore it as if someone's going to take it away from her anytime.
"It was standard procedure, we remove everything that may block the patient's proper breathing as first aid. We found you lying on the ground, unconscious, yet it appears as if you weren't thrown out by the explosions. You were lying down as if someone or something placed you there..."
The images flashed in her head.
"...the flames went around in a circle, they wouldn't dare touch your body from a radius. It was like some form of holy sanctuary. One step inside and you feel as if all your worries have been taken off of your shoulders."
There was a light. A blinding white light that enveloped her whole body in mid-air. The flames were pacified. It was neither a warm nor cold embrace. The light had a strong and firm grasp of her, she wouldn't want to let go. All the pain on her head, her arms and legs were gone in seconds.
"After 25 years they've come once again, I felt that familiar presence right there." Colin's hands clenched on top of a pile of papers with names on them, they seemed like records of patients.
"What the hell are you talking about?!" the confused Damien couldn't comprehend with what the mad man was speaking of. "Ask her what she saw." The doctor looked at them with authority. Rattled by the information he's got himself into, the guy with spectacles finally had enough for the day, "Heather...what did you see?" Her eyes were fixed at the papers on the table.
"What did you see? Heather, tell me, what did you see?" Damien asked her one more time. The images conquered every corner of her thoughts. They were rapidly moving, one scene after the next. It donned her as she opened her eyes to the light.
He was beautiful. His eyes were gently staring down at her, calmly letting her feel that everything's going to be alright. She couldn't tell if it was a smile or a frown. He almost had a blank expression in his face yet she felt so secure when he was there by her side. His hair tossed from side to side as the winds from the silenced explosions have breached her protection. He raised his right arm and an enormous wing flapped behind the light he emitted. The wings covered them from a forceful wave that came from the flames. She felt his skin pressed against her.
"Where there is Death, there they will be also" the doctor declared.
When all is well, he whispered into her ear a language she could not understand. She began to feel her body become numb from a different feeling that climbed up from her legs to the top of her head. He stood a few steps away from her and in his nakedness he spread his wings mightily. A single step back and flew to the air, spinning as the lights went away with him. The flames tried to follow him in a circle until they can no longer reach him from the sky.
"Who did you see? Was it the same person that came into your room?" Damien was furious without any answer from the dazed girl before him. "Someone came into her room?" the doctor suddenly jumped up from his seat. "That's why we're here, that's why she remembered about her necklace" Damien answered.
"Did the visitor come by any name?" He looked at the two who were clueless of what just happened. Both of them only looked at each other. "Come with me.", the doctor ran for the door at once.
Passing through differently lit halls of the night at the hospital, they reached the Emergency room where there were a lot of nurses and patients even at that hour. Beside the busy area was a room with heavily tinted windows, "Security" was printed in bold red on the door.
Several monitors adjacent to each other showed the current movement of an area in the halls of the hopital. The motion of one screen were all going backwards as the number counted in the same manner.
"Stop." the doctor pointed at the screen, it was a view of the hall on the 7th. The door of the room 705 can be clearly seen from the grainy quality of the picture. As they all watched on a single screen, the numbers rose and went back to zero like an endless cycle.
"Look." they replayed the feed from 9:11pm. With eyes glued on the screen, they watched closely as they counted along with the seconds that were running. At the 12th mark, a curved light came out of the dark portion of the slightly opened door of the room, closing the door as it vanished. A few more seconds, they saw Heather running out of the door in panic.
"Listen". Normally, the images that were captured when played emit a flat silent hum, but when they replayed it again on the 12th mark, there was some form of a brief static lasting for a split second. Like something was wrong with the camera, the images captured blasted into pixels.
"Could be a fly or an ant perhaps" A skeptic guard spoke up at the silence that covered the room. "Happens all the time." He pointed at another example from the cameras for the entrance of the Emergency room. The same curved light swirled around the screen.
A sigh of relief were heard from the other persons inside the security department. "We're going to call in for maintenance and have our cameras checked. We're going to investigate as well if there were any visitor posing to be a shrink goes around the hospital, but I can assure you, the hospital's policy of no random visitors passing through the halls are strictly implemented. We watched the feed ourselves, no one came in and out of Ms. Van Aalderen's room at that time. Nothing more to be worried about, Doc" the bearded officer said cockily.
"But someone was there. Someone came into my room. I swear, someone was…" Heather tried to explain until she understood the look people inside gave her. Damien put his hand on her shoulder and held her close to him.
With things cleared out, the officer opened the door for them to leave. Disbelief reigned in the heart of the doctor. He insisted that the light was from some supernatural force, he had years of research to back this idea up. But he kept silent, his actions may once again put his credibility as a doctor in jeopardy. He escorted the two young people out of the room and back to the halls of the center.
The doctor breathed in heavily, "You need to get some rest, as one of the living witnesses to the accident, the police are sure to come by in the morning to investigate. You're gonna need strength to get through that. They can be very probing when they're searching for details." he told Heather then turned to Damien, "Take care of your friend." he said briefly to the confused face of the guy with spectacles, who's clearly spooked out by the sudden change of moods of the doctor. With this said, Dr. Pearson left the two wiping his head with a handkerchief, he didn't seem well from the way he walked down the hall.
At the security room, one curious guard was still curious by what he saw. He decided to replay the feed himself while the other guard and the head officer were away from the monitors. He had a dusty blond hair that he kept on fixing while he watched on the screen. To his shock, he couldn't contain himself from what he saw and blurted out, "No...we didn't watch the whole feed. We only watched the Exit." He pointed at the screen. With the Head officer pissed off, he went near the monitors while holding his coffee. They watched the feed starting from 8:38pm. In the screen they saw the guy with spectacles escorting the girl into her room while he stayed outside to answer a call. He ran off screen after he closed the door, holding his phone to his ear. At exactly, 8:40pm, the light coming from down the hall where the guy on the phone ran to, went up in front of the door. No, it wasn't just a bend of light. It had shape. It was a figure of a man. A bright deformed shape of light that resembled a tall man. It stood for seconds in front of the closed door. Suddenly, the doorknob spins to a torque, opens the door. They watched closely but then the top part of the light that resembles a head turned and the light glared at the screen.
The three guards were thrown back out of their seats with what they saw. It beamed at them with glaring eyes. The feed became blurry, even more grainy then the whole room became dark with no power. In just a second the lights were turned on again and the monitors one by one continued their feed of the current movement outside. But the one at the 7th floor did not turn on anymore. It was broken.
Freaked out, the guard panicked and scrambled on his keyboard. With a powerful tap on his head, the Head officer got his attention. "Boss, didn't you just see that?!"
"I KNOW WHAT I SAW, I saw a light show. I saw lights that has been scribbling around our cameras for years. They're bugs for heaven's sake."
"You heard the news, that girl before us was in the middle of the accident early this morning that killed 52 people. A few hours later she stands here right in front of us without any injuries, and what's weird? There were 11 others who survived in the same condition. We all saw the flames and the repeated explosions, it was Hell right there on the intersection. And now these strange lights come to visit her room at this time of the night?"
"Boy you are thinking way too much on this, I'm not up for some fairy tale or crazy myths about your religion and it's long contradicting history, what we're here for is to ensure the safety of the patients from Physical beings that may induce threat or harm to the lives our doctors have been saving. Now did you see anyone come in and out of the room like what those traumatized victims of the event have been babbling about when they came in here?"
Realizing that he didn't really see anyone from the feed but a strange light, he answered,
"No... it was..." but he was cut short.
"THEN THERE ISN'T ANY... alright?! Get yourself back together, get the repairman and fix these monitors." he dropped his coffee on his table mad and pointed out of the door.
***
The two were both silent as they walked the blind hall of the 7th floor. Before they got to the door of the room 705, a woman carrying a huge set of wilted yellow roses passed by them. Noticing it, Heather turned and watched as the woman walked off in the opposite direction.
"Oops, you caught me, I didn't really go to the mountains just to get that single rose" Damien admitted shyly. Heather only smiled. "Alright, tomorrow I'm really gonna get you something that I didn't just steal from the halls," he promised.
"Thanks."
"It's nothing. Today, we're supposed to meet in the university, look where we are." he laughed. His phone rang from his pocket. "Yeah..so goodnight, you know I'm just a call away if you need anything. Rest up. I'll see you in the morning. And I really need to take this call" he said awkwardly as he sidestepped his way away from Heather. She could hear him trying to speak lightly on his phone as he walked down the hall.
The images still bothered her. She wanted to know more about what she saw, who came into her room and what the doctor tried to tell them. She remembered the records on his table. There were 10 more who survived without a scratch from the incident. It became clear to her, if she wants answers, she's gonna have to get to them herself. Especially, now that she knew she wasn't the only one who saw what transpired.
As she walked to the window and to the table near the striped lamp. She noticed the yellow rose.
It was new as spring.
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