Hex, Din and Owen were in front of a hospital that Zlyena was showing them.
"This is Gage Hospital, it's family owned by the doctor that has saved countless of my people's lives." Zlyena pointed to the building.
"Should we go inside?" Din asked the others, turning her head towards Hex.
"So we just call the number on the cards you gave us and they'll show up? What does it cost?" Like America, Cluster's for-profit healthcare system made him choose between being bankrupt and living during an emergency.
"I paid for your hospital stay, this hospital here is funded by me, so it's no cost to you," Zlyena said.
"I'm going in, follow me if you want." Din walked up to the front doors and went in.
They followed her into the hospital. There was a man with long white hair and glasses in doctor garb in the waiting area. He smiled as they all walked in.
"Welcome, I'm Dr. Gage, the owner of this fine hospital. I see Zlyena has brought you here," Dr. Gage spoke with a low, aged voice even though his facial features were young and fair.
A groan came from the person in the hospital bed behind him, the boy looked familiar, it was the same boy who attacked him with a knife that one day.
"Oh shit, Zlyena, it's him, that's the guy who tried to stab me." He pointed to what he thought was Glitch.
"That's my son, we're just transferring him to a new room. He had a… Mental problem, but he is fine now. I'll get him to apologize to you later, after his rigor mortis wears off, he just recently came back to life." Dr. Gage walked to his son's hospital bed and started to pat his head.
"You should tell him the truth, this is a magical creature hospital, they'll believe you." Zlyena folded her arms.
"Alright, he was possessed. I took care of it to make sure there wasn't any more loss of life, thankfully Drake is back to normal now." He looked down at his son, relief etched into his face.
"My fingers, I can't feel them," Drake groaned.
"That should go away soon, you remember that happened last time," Dr. Gage said.
A nurse came out of the hallway.
"His room is ready, may I transfer him now?" the nurse asked.
"Yes, make sure to give him a sick bucket next time." he took his hand off his son's head and turned back to the group.
The nurse grabbed the gurney and headed into the hallway with Drake.
"He had another spill I see, I guess he isn't handling food well at the moment," Zlyena said.
"He was like this the first time, the nurse forgot to give him a sick bucket and he tossed his cookies everywhere." he shook his head.
"Let me know if things get bad, I can ask Wira for more parts," she said.
"I'm having them monitor his own organs closely, including the rest of his brain, if there's any need for more parts, I'll ask you, please tell Drake that it is from Nagix and not from Wira, he's much too young to know about his mother," he said.
"Parts? What do you mean?" Hex piped up.
"Some of Drake's organs and parts of his brain failed when he came back the first time, they needed to be replaced, the only parts that his body can handle are ones from the Mainframe, he tried other parts from other places but his body rejected it. He takes after his mother too much, right now he doesn't even know he has one. Dr. Gage has yet to tell Drake the truth about his mother," she said.
"I'm afraid he will hate me when he learns the truth, but I was just trying to protect him." Dr. Gage lowered his head.
"Hex, can you show Dr. Gage your scar?" Zlyena asked.
He flinched, he still regretted hurting himself, he took off his long glove and showed Dr. Gage his wrist, Dr. Gage looked at the jagged red scar.
"This was from a magical weapon, yes?" Dr. Gage looked back up at Hex.
"Yeah, I used my sword." He nodded.
"That means it most likely won't go away, unfortunately, there's not much I can do. I can give you some cream to make it less visible though," Dr. Gage took out a notebook and scribbled some stuff onto it, tore it off and handed it to him.
It was a prescription for scar cream. He reluctantly took it, too used to things not being covered by insurance that it was ingrained into his mind.
"They just wanted to check out the hospital before going with it. They trust me, though, which is good." She smiled.
"So any of us can use this hospital for anything?" Din asked.
"Dr. Gage is learned in a lot of things, he can help you out with pretty much anything you want." Zlyena nodded.
"Alright, thanks for showing us, we should be getting home now," Din said.
They all went home, and Hex decided to still rest after his ER visit, he didn't want to tire himself out by making music at the time. He laid on his bed, and wondered about what happened to Drake, Dr. Gage's son that he would even use a different name, was Glitch and Drake not the same person? He didn't want to press too hard, because Dr. Gage only just got his son back.
Read the rest of the book here: https://www.moonquill.com/book/113