Cursed (28 page)

My dad nodded like a zombie, “Oh okay. That’s
great news. Thank you doctor.”

My chin hit the floor as Dorian closed my dads
eyes, “Go back to sleep.” My dad fell back into a deep sleep in his
chair. Dorian's powers were scary, no doubt about it.

He turned around and held his arms out, “See
that’s how it’s done. So easy to mess with their tiny brains.”

I frowned, “My dad is a genius.”

He nodded, “Yeah but he doesn’t stand a chance,
watch this one with the doctor.” He smiled like a kid showing off
his new toy. He stepped out of the hall and tapped my doctor on the
shoulder as he was walking past, “Doctor I am a specialist from
California I am taking the lovely Miss James to my hospital where
she will recover. Tell everyone it’s fine she left with me; she is
going somewhere to heal and be okay. Get rid of any records and
fill in the blanks you need to so that no questions are asked.”

The doctor nodded as my dad had like a zombie,
“That’s fantastic. I will tell everyone.”

Dorian laughed, “Go jerk off in the supply
cupboard thinking about me.”

The doctor walked away smiling a dirty
smile.

I grimaced, “You’re the devil aren’t you?”

He gave me a serious look I knew was phony,
“Does it really matter at this point? I’m your only salvation.”

I climbed off the bed and walked to Shane. I
inhaled the sea air on his skin and kissed his cheek, “I love you
Shane.” It was true, now that the option of being with him was
being removed from the table I was devastated. I didn’t know what
to do in this moment except leave him a note. He had never lied to
me, he had never wanted anything but to be with me and he had never
done anything but love me.

I wrote quickly,

“Shane,

I’ve been taken to a special hospital that is
offering me the best treatment. It’s exactly what I need to heal. I
am excited for you to join the Police Force and become a police
officer. You’re an amazing person and I will love you forever. No
matter how this ends know that I have loved you since grade two
when you started to bring an extra huge lunch everyday to share
with Nathan Anders, you knew he was poor and never had food and you
conned your mom into bigger lunches so you could feed him but you
pretended she just packed big lunches and you couldn’t eat it
all.

I loved you in grade eight when you were riding
your bike past my mom and she had flat tire and you changed it. She
had no clue how to do it, she told me you did it. You never told
anyone, even me or my sister, that you had done it. I loved you in
Eleventh Grade when the Smith girl got sick with cancer and you
started that change jar at your parents store to raise money to
help pay for the medical bills. You acted like it was your parents
but your mom told my mom it was your idea. I know you raised them
twenty-five thousand dollars and never even asked for the
recognition for the deed. You’re the most amazing man in the world
and you will be the most amazing police officer and I can’t wait to
see it.

I’ll call you when I’m strong enough.

Love always, and by that I mean I love you Shane
Bagley,

Aimee

It broke my heart to write the letter and fold
it into his pocket but I knew it needed to be done. He needed to
know how I felt and I needed the closure with Aleks. I walked out
of the hospital room looking at my dad one last time. I left my
cell phone on his lap and kissed his cheek. I didn’t know what kind
of danger I could become to my family but I knew I wasn’t willing
to attempt whatever it was Dorian had been talking about. I felt
like my heart was left in the room as I followed Dorian's darkness
down the hall stopping only to look in at Giselle who was
completely yellow now. I looked at Dorian for a moment and waited
for him to answer the question burning in my eyes.

He frowned, “Yeah, she’ll be fine. She is also
very sexy, I might actually be back for her in about a year or so
when she is strong again. Mmmmm” He watched her sleeping thinking
all sorts of unsavory things.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face, “Hey
stop that. Does your brain function on any setting beyond sex?”

He looked at me as if I were a bug he could
squash and smirked.

“You don’t tell me what to do.” He leaned in
very close, “No, this is my only setting.”

He turned away from Giselle’s room and walked
down the hall to the big elevator doors. I walked behind him in my
gown.

“Uhh am I going to change?”

He nodded, “I thought we covered this, yes.”

I frowned at him, “Clothes idiot.”

He laughed, “You’re actually sort of awful
aren’t you. Not fun and flirty as I imagined when Aleks told me
about you. Yes my dear I have this all worked out so please stop
worrying.”

We got into the elevator and I thought about
Aleks. “Where did he go?” I asked after a few moments.

Dorian shrugged completely disinterested, “To
cool off I imagine. He’s free now so he will want to figure out the
next step for himself.”

I gasped, “You freed him? How?”

He shook his head, “You freed him love. Not me.
I’ve enslaved him.”

I stepped right into his face, well chest and
looked up at his face. He was a stone cold killer I knew it the
second I looked into his eyes. I didn’t flinch as I thought I
would. I stood my ground.

“Enslaved him how? If you…”

He pushed me roughly up against the wall of the
elevator.

“You’ll what little girl? Kill me?”

He burst into laughter and bent down to my face.
He kissed my neck dragging his coarse whiskers across my sensitive
skin. I tried to push him away but I had no strength even to make
an attempt at him. He ran his hands up my sides pressing harder on
my right side making me wince.

“You’ll do exactly as I ask.”

His cold gaze lifted to mine as he slid his
hands up my breast and into my hair pulling forcefully on the back
of my head making me cry out.

“This is our floor.” He spoke softly hovering
above my face and released me. He walked off the elevator calmly as
I stood shaking slightly. I was scared of him in every way
possible.

Why had Aleks left me to suffer at his hand? I
knew I had offended Aleks and had been horrid to him but I was in
grief after loosing someone and the possibility of dying looming
over me but at the same time I felt like we even in other ways with
the secrets he had kept from me.

Beyond the extreme dislike for Dorian I felt, I
also felt more afraid of him than anything in the world. As I
started off the elevator an idea hit me. I heard the elevator ding
and I stepped back on as the doors closed.

Dorian looked back at me in a panic as the gap
in doors the lessened and he dove back. He was too late I pressed
every button after three floors and decided I would get off at the
first stop three floors above us. I needed clothes. I was feeling
stronger than I had in a year. I knew he could poof himself around
the hospital and find me but I hoped there were at least a few
limitations to his abilities.

Panic filled me as I stepped off the elevator
and looked around me. I saw I was on the surgery floor. I walked
along silently looking behind me and in front of me in an alarmed
state.

I didn’t know where I was going but I figured he
would go back to my previous floor, not that I knew what floor we
had been on before. I assumed it was the fifth floor that Giselle
had been on previously. I walked looking sick and limping slightly
in case I ran into someone. My heart raced as I looked everywhere
for a plan or answer to my situation. I didn’t know where to go, I
knew I needed to stay away from my family, my only guess was that I
would turn into Dorian. I would soon be a destructive force to be
reckoned with. It scared me not knowing what to expect but somehow
in the back of my mind I knew Aleks would find me somehow even if I
weren't completely certain I wanted to see him again.

I saw a door that looked slightly ajar up ahead
of me in the hall. Nervous of Dorian lingering ready to jump out
and kill from behind the small slit I pushed the door softly still
looking around me. I hadn’t been this nervous since the forest when
Mr. Mac had cornered me unbeknownst to him. The room was a supply
closet full of things I desperately needed. I stepped in and turned
on the light as I closed the door peeking through the crack as I
closed it. I didn’t feel smarter than Dorian as he had been around
more than likely since the dawn of time but I knew I was smarter
than the average teenager, well average adult too. I changed into
surgery scrubs, a mask, a cap, booties, and carried a blanket with
me. I tripled my booties to appear as if I had shoes on plus I knew
I would be walking in them and three booties was going to be better
than one.

I sat down in the closet for a while wondering
if he could find me with a smell or was he able to pop to wherever
I was. I was starving but my stomach was starting to hurt in a
funny way almost as if I was going to have diarrhea or my period. I
grabbed a few towels and bandages and wrapped them into the blanket
I carried. I felt my nerves on edge, I couldn’t run into my family
without ruining Dorian's excuse as to where I was and I couldn’t
run into Shane without him dragging me back to the hospital bed. I
definitely couldn’t run into Dorian without him doing horrid things
to me and possibly hurting me in ways I would never heal from. I
shivered remembering his assault in the elevator and slowly opened
the door peeking like a chicken with the lights out.

I listened for several seconds hearing only my
own panic stricken heart. I pushed the door open enough for my head
to poke out all the way and looked both ways. I walked out quickly
feeling a sense of alarm build with every step. I was terrified
walking until I reached the elevator. I decided it was not my best
bet and walk past it to the stair well. I walked down the stairs at
first and then started running. I hadn’t felt this good in a long
time and pushed myself a little more. I was bounding down the
stairs taking them several at a time until I reached the bottom. I
looked at the sole door at the bottom of the stairs; it was a
crusty old metal door. Not painted fun colors as the others had
been. It had no window so Dorian could be sitting on the other side
waiting for me, as if he knew this was where I would wind up in the
end. I was apprehensive about opening the door but decided it was
that or be discovered there at the bottom of the stairs
eventually.

I took a deep breath and pushed the old
frightening door open and poked my head out. I was at the basement
level of the hospital. There was a big boiler room and pipes
everywhere. I could see what appeared to be a garbage and
sanitation area. I crept through looking not only for Dorian but
also workers who would wonder about a surgeon at that level. I saw
movement to one side and ducked instantly but crept creeping along
the low metal wall I was beside. It was incredibly warm down there
but I crept quietly hoping I had seen a worker and not Dorian.

A very small part of me wished Aleks would come
and apologize for leaving me with that psycho and explain that
nothing Dorian had told me was true and that his dad and my mom had
never met. He could take my hand and zoom us to our secret beach.
We could be together forever like Swiss family Robinson living off
the land. It felt like the safer option. It seemed odd to me Aleks
had become the safest choice and Shane was suddenly vulnerable. I
felt tears of frustration and fear threatening in my throat.

I wondered what I would eat if I was a threat to
Shane, if like Aleks I would need regular food every now and then
to be strong or if like Dorian I ate something else. I wasn’t sure
why I was so certain Dorian didn’t eat food, the black blood told
me he was not exactly functioning inside quite the same way Aleks
was. Truth be told though I had never seen Aleks bleed it was
possible he was full of molasses as well.

I saw a door in front of me about twenty yards
away there was steam blowing out of a vent of sorts between the
door and me. I felt my bravery coming to a head as I was nearly at
the door. That would be the moment in a scary movie worth its salt,
that the bad guy would show up and smash me in the head with one of
the pipes in the room. My heart raced as I scared the ever-loving
crap out of myself and made my way like a rat scurrying to the
door. I looked both ways as the safety of my wall had ended and
nearly dove out the door when I saw no one there.

The light from outside nearly blinded me as I
made my way up the concrete staircase I was confronted with as I
exited the doorway. I didn’t know where I was but the drizzle of
the rain and cars parked all around me told me I was in the staff
parking area outside and safe. I ran from the building not even
looking. My feet pushed along the cement driving me to the full
parking lot. I walked until I finally saw an unlocked car and
climbed inside of it. I sat there feeling like I was in an open
field surrounded.

I needed to be as far away from there as I could
get. I searched the car for money finding about twelve dollars in
change. I found a pair of black ballet styled flats a half a size
smaller than I needed but I squeezed my feet into them. I found a
blue fleece, which obviously belonged to a woman a lot more rotund
than me, but I put it on over my scrubs to hide that at least. I
felt guilty for stealing her things and imagined she loved the
fleece. I wished I didn’t need to take her stuff but I knew it was
life and death and if she could have been there she would have
helped me under the circumstances. I locked her car for her feeling
it was the least I could do.

I walked along the cars hoping to find at least
one more open. It was tough going and security almost saw me once
but I ducked behind a large SUV and hid for a while. I finally
found another car, which had thirty dollars in it and some granola
bars in the dash. I stole a hair tie, ditched the cap and mask and
locked the car door. I ran from the parking lot into an alley and
ran around the corner. I felt intimidated but decided I really just
looked like a nurse getting off work. I walked casually but
hurriedly to the bus stop. I boarded the bus and finally started to
breath again when finally I was crossing the center of the city on
my way out to the north. I had examined the bus when I boarded but
also when it came time for people to get off and on. I didn’t see
Dorian anywhere but that didn’t mean he couldn’t change into
someone else. I trusted no one. I didn’t know what he was capable
of.