"Please, make yourself at home" Mrs potter said. Oliver and Maria sat on the velvet colored sofa as she poured them a cup of tea. Maria looked around the living room, taking in the beautiful décor . The tiling was a greyish white colour , accompanied with a beige rug which was put in the middle of the sofas. There was a small fire place which had a vase beside it. The wall behind them had a huge painting on it.
"You are here to see Brandon?" Mrs potter said as she served them a plate of cookies.
Mrs potter became Brandon's foster parent after the incident. She sat down and looked at them with a serious look.
"Brandon has leukemia".
"What?" Oliver said.
"He was coughing up blood yesterday, so I took him to the hospital. The doctor said he's had it for a longtime now" Mrs potter added.
Oliver and Maria were speechless.
"The doctor said they'll start chemotherapy immediately, but he doesn't have much time left again" She said with a shaky voice as she began to cry.
"Mrs potter…"Maria said as she went over to comfort her.
Mrs potter waved them goodbye as she watched them drive off.
"Poor boy" Maria said, a sullen look plastered on her face.
Oliver glanced at her hand, which was had a bandage wrapped around it.
"Does it hurt?" He asked.
"Hm?" Maria gave him a confused look.
"Your hand".
"Oh" she Replied, shifting her gaze to the window.
"It doesn't hurt that much".
"That's a relief" he said.
They headed to the office to get some work done
The view in the distance was filled with vegetation. Buildings were nowhere to be seen. Maria and Oliver followed the map they found, which led them to the outskirts of town. Maria watched the yellowish red sun, as it faded slowly into the horizon. They had been on the road for 2hours, but hadn't still reached their destination. Oliver looked at the map again, to confirm if they were going in the right direction. After a few minutes, they reached a clearing. It was void of trees and grasses. The only thing that stood out, was the large building at the distance. The building had a large sign saying "HOSPITAL" at the top. Although the I and o were missing, it wasn't hard to make out what it was saying. After parking the car in the middle of the clearing, they made their way towards the hospital.
Despite how old and shabby it looked on the outside, the inside looked functional. At the entrance of the hospital were two corridors, one at the left and one at the right. There was an oval shaped front desk at the anterior of the hospital.
"should we split up?" Oliver asked Maria, who was staring at the corridor on the left side.
"Maria?" He said as he moved closer to her.
"I heard footsteps" she said, pointing a finger towards the corridor on the left.
Oliver's heart sank. They weren't alone. Splitting up was not an option. They decided to take the corridor on the right.
The light bulbs illuminating the walkway were very dim, giving the surroundings a shadowy atmosphere. They got to an opening, which had chairs arranged it rows. To the left was a long flight of stairs. Knowing that the elevators wouldn't work in these conditions, they decided to proceed up the stairs. The first and the second floor appeared to be the patient ward. It was filled with rooms having a single hospital bed and an electrocardiogram. As they walked up to the third floor, Oliver noticed Maria covering her nose. That was when he perceived it. He couldn't make out the smell, but it was revolting. The third floor had an operating room at the very end. As they got closer to the entrance the smell got worse. Reluctantly, Maria pushed the door open.
Oliver's eyes went wide with terror as he stared at the scene in front of him. Maria was about to scream when Oliver put his hand over her mouth. "If we make any noise, we could give off our location" Oliver whispered in her ear. His lips brushed over her ears lobes, sending shivers through her whole body. Despite the current situation, she couldn't stop her body from reacting the way it did. Oliver shifted his gaze back to the operating table in front of them. There was a dead body on it, which looked like it belonged to a child. The insides were gorged out , giving the body an unnatural look. From all the information they had acquired so far, it was apparent that the body belonged to a child from the orphanage. Maria began searching the cabinets, while Oliver kept examining the body. Maria pulled out her phone to check the time. It was 11:45pm. It was getting late and they needed to leave.
"Hey, Oliver-". Her body froze as she stared at Oliver wide-eyed.
"O-Oliver, there's something behind you" she said in a shaky voice as she stared at the dark figure looming over him.
Before Oliver could react, he felt a sharp pain at the back of his head. He fell to the ground, his vision getting hazy. He heard Maria screaming his name as his conscious began to fade away.
Oliver opened his eyes slowly. He examined his environment, trying to recall what he was doing here. That was when he remembered. Someone had hit him on head. His eyes grew wide. Maria was the first thing that came to his mind. He got up from the ground slowly, holding the back of his head which was throbbing a lot. He scanned the room searching for her, but the room was empty. He began to panic. He dashed out of the operating room and began to look around. She wasn't on the third floor either. He went down to the second and first floor. He searched every room, but Maria was nowhere to be found.
The ground felt cold and damp, as Maria lay on the it. She tried to move her arms and legs, but there was something restricting her movement. She was tied up. It was pitch black, which made it hard for her to make out where she was. She quickly recalled what had happened. After Oliver was knocked out, the figure began to approach her. The semi-darkness made it hard for her to make out the person face. From the body outline, she could tell that it was a male. She quickly reached for her gun, but the holster was empty. They didn't take their guns with them.
"Shit." She muttered under her breath.
She tried running in the opposite direction, but he was faster. He grabbed her hand and slammed her on the ground. She let out a small cry as he twisted her hands behind her back. She tried to break free, but he his grip on her hand was firm.
" You'll make a good specimen" he said.
Specimen? What is he talking about?, Maria thought. Before she could think about anything else, he pressed a cloth to her nose, restricting her breathing. She squirmed around desperate for air, her consciousness slowly fading away.
Sounds of a metal door being opened filled her ears. As the door opened, light began to fill the room. That was when she saw him. He had a lean body, with long arms. His eyes were bloodshot and had bags under it. He was clad on a nurse uniform, which had smears of a reddish substance on it. His head had a few strands of hair on it. She noticed that he held a syringe in his right hand. Maria suddenly felt helpless. She began to wriggle her body, trying to get as far away from him as possible. He chuckled.
"We're underground, so there's no where for you to run" he said, grinning widely.
He walked over to her and injected the syringe into her neck.
Oliver had searched every floor on the right side of the hospital. He was exhausted. He decided to call for backup to make the search easier. He had forgotten about the investigation and was solely focused on finding Maria. After an hour, he could hear the sirens going off in the distance. Backup had arrived. He quickly explained the situation to them and they began searching. They searched each and every floor in the hospital, but still, she was nowhere to be found. How is this even possible? Did she leave the hospital?, Oliver thought. He was still deep in thought when a police officer called out to him.
"I found a door behind one of the shelves in the storage room on the last floor" he said.
When they opened the door, they found stairs leading below the ground. Below the stairs was an underground tunnel. They walked quietly through the tunnel. As they went deeper, the air became dense, making it hard to breathe. At the end of the tunnel was a big metal door. Without hesitation Oliver pushed the door open.
Maria was unclothed, only clad in her underwear. She lay unconscious on an operating table, while the strange man hovered over her. He turned towards the door to see police officers.
"fuck" he mumbled.
He swiftly ran out the door that was located at the left part of the room. The officers followed suite, running after him. Oliver quickly went over to where Maria lay. She wasn't moving which scared Oliver to death. He placed his head on her chest, checking for her heartbeat. A wave of relief washed over him once he heard her heart beating. He covered her up with his jacket and carried her out of the hospital.
The police officers caught the strange man as he was trying to escape through a ladder. The man kept screaming frantically as he was being handcuffed.
" he made me do it!" the man screamed repeatedly. Paying no attention to what he was saying, the officer put him in the cop car. Oliver and Maria were put in an ambulance and sent to the hospital. After some check ups, the doctors found a huge amount of Tetracaine in Maria's blood.
"Tetracaine is a very strong anasthetic and taking it in huge doses could be lethal." The doctor said to Oliver. " it may take some time to get the chemical out of her system, but she'll be fine" the doctor reassured Oliver. That night, Oliver has a hard time falling asleep. He thought about Maria, about the hospital, about the strange man and the words he kept saying over and over again. The words rang in his head continuously. Everything began to turn fuzzy as sleep overwhelmed him…..
The gentle wind blew, moving the silk curtains upwards. Maria opened her eyes slowly. Her vision was blurry, but everything began to become vivid. Her eyes darted across the room, scanning the area. Memories of the hospital came flooding in. She wondered what the man had done to her while she was unconscious. "How are you feeling Miss Valentina?"
Maria turned her head towards the direction of the voice. A short, plump man wearing a white coat, stood at the doorway. A name tag was attached to his coat. She was so absorbed in her thoughts, she didn't hear him come in.
" I'm feeling a bit tired" she replied.
"Alright, I'm going to run a few tests to check your body's condition" Dr Martins said.
After the tests, He gave her a summary of the substance that was injected into our body.
"Your vitals are all stable, but we still need to keep you here for a little while." He said as he looked at the clipboard in his hand.
"how much longer?" she asked.
Dr Martins looked up at her. "three days should be enough" he said.
Maria sighed. She was relieved at the fact that she wasn't going to spend a long time in the hospital. She needed to get back to work and finish the case. More importantly, she wanted to spend more time with Oliver.