Linda just looked at the kind man through her wet hair that covered her face, also while cradling and clutching her stomach region in pain.
"Are you alright, mam?"
Linda just looked up at the man with gritted teeth and the man instantly understood her condition. She was going through labor and might deliver the baby anytime. The kind man continued while holding out his hand for support to the woman in front of him,
"Let me take you to the hospital mam. It's dangerous out here. You might deliver anytime."
She knew that her time to deliver the time had come and that, she could only rely on this man to help her out. She had to take the risk of trusting this stranger.
As she held out her hand, her stomach ached more and more, until she could feel hot tears streaming down her face. The man gave up his hand and helped pull the woman in front of him, up with her arms and hurriedly took her in the back seat of the car.
He then hurriedly sat in the front seat and accelerated the engine, running his car in the heavy rain.
Linda's painful cries grew louder and louder as each minute passed by. The pain was killing and so was the pressure. The cold sweat she broke out in, covered her face and body wet again. Her breaths became heavy with exhaustion and pain.
The kind man, all the while also kept on speaking encouraging words to distract her from pain. He was internally praying for the least traffic to be on the way. Now that he had taken the responsibility, he should abide by it.
Crossing through many traffic lights, he finally reached the hospital in 10 minutes which usually would have taken him 30 - 40 minutes.
Hurriedly supporting her out of the car, he shouted for help at the nearest person and asked him to help him carry the woman to the hospital door. Having reached the door, the man shouted frantically for the doctor while Linda could feel her world spinning in pain. She was being repeatedly slapped lightly in the face by the man supporting her, trying to let her stay awake. Linda could only remember herself being then carried into the Operation room, while her hand was connected to the IV drip.
After about 5 hours of having waited outside the operation room, Neil could finally see the doctor coming out of the operation theatre, with a smile etched on his face.
"Congratulations sir, you are a father now. You can see the baby in the nearby nursery. Your wife needs rest."
Neil was speechless for a good while.
"..."
After having recovered from the initial shock of being called a father, he tried to let the doctor know that he was just a passerby and nothing more.
Seems like the doctor had misunderstood him for the husband of the lady. But before he could even say that he was not the father, nor the husband of the lady, the doctor had already passed by him.
So he could just sigh with exhaustion and relief, all the while thanking god for the successful operation.
Linda saw it in her dreams.
That man. That man who had taken her virginity and made her pregnant. She couldn't make out his face in the dark but only remembered his strong body pressing her. She could see herself being taken into the highest peaks of euphoria, while also being lost in the moment of pleasure.
Had she known that her birthday party would turn out to be the most unlucky day of her life, she would have never been present there in the first place.
The last time she saw her parents, was when they had disgusted expressions on their faces, while they mercilessly kicked her out of the palace and exiled her into the human world. The dangerous human world where her vampire instincts had to be kept in control.
Her father, who was silent all this time, gave her a disappointed look and said in a very grave tone, "You have let me down, Linda. You've led all my expectations and my dreams to be crumpled into dust."
Her mother, who used to be unusually beautiful, had this sad and worn-out face as if she had aged 100 years more. Her own younger sister just sneered at her from the distance, but she couldn't raise her voice against the people in front of her.
What could she expect from those people, who easily abandoned her, after getting the knowledge of her pregnancy? She was not even given a chance to speak out her side story. All she could remember was the trial being run in the justice court and herself being sentenced to exile into the human world.
When she finally reached the human world, all she could see was a world full of only pollution and fat moving people. Her initial days in this new environment were spent on the street, but when her hunger couldn't be satiated by just begging there, she had to resort to work. She went here and there and finally got a job as a bartender. Thankfully the salary was moderate enough to help her with the food expenses. Thankfully, she also got to make a new friend at the bar, who helped her with her problems. Nora was thankfully always by her side and the only one who understood her problem.
Linda had not shared the fact of her being the vampire princess with anyone. Not even her new human friend. She just told her a made-up story of her being taken advantage of by her ex-boyfriend and how her family abandoned her afterward.
Nora took her in, in her apartment, and helped Linda settle in the new world. Slowly and gradually months passed by and her baby bump increased. Her want for blood also increased but she just had to make a do with the meat. She couldn't possibly ask for blood in this world, nor was she in a condition to even hunt for animals. Her struggles in this new world surfaced like a moving picture in her dream.