Outside the emergency room, Zeke leaned against the wall while his eyes were fixated on the man sitting quietly in the waiting area.
He was surprised at what he saw a while ago. He had expected a raging Alex to appear before him, looking the same as he looked that time he appeared at the exit of that dungeon, but this time this was far worse than he expected. The state of this man before his eyes was totally different to what he expected and it was hard to believe, even for him.
Alex was tugging on his hair tightly, resting his elbows on his knees as he faced the ground below him. He hadn’t spoken a single word since he came through the hospital doors carrying the unconscious Abigail in his arms.
After a long while, Zeke walked over towards him and broke the silence. “They’ll soon send her to her room Alex so you better go and clean yourself up. You can’t enter her room with all that blood all over you,” he said calmly. “Don’t worry, she’s safe. She didn’t suffer any major injuries.”
Suddenly, Alex stood up. However, he walked towards the opposite direction of where Zeke wanted him to go.
“Where are you going?” Zeke called out. Alex halted in his tracks. He lifted his hands and looked down at them.
“These hands…” he finally spoke, “they won’t stop trembling. I need to calm them down.”
Zeke looked at him with narrowed eyes. He could tell exactly what Alex was planning to do.
“By going on a killing spree?”
“Yes. I will kill them all,” he declared, his voice menacing and cold as ice.
Zeke sighed as he stood up. “Alex, that can wait.”
“No. It can’t wait. I can’t wait! They all have to die tonight!” Alex began to step away. This was Alex’s darkest state, where he was almost like a monster with no humanity left in him.
However…
“So you’re going to leave her here? Are you entrusting her to me?” Zeke said and Alex immediately halted again. He didn’t turn but his jaws clenched upon hearing Zeke’s words.
Zeke put his hands in his pockets as he stared at Alex’s back.
“When did you start trusting me when it came to Abigail?” he asked as he approached Alex from behind.
He heard Alex’s fingers cracking as the man’s fists tightened.
The next moment, a loud thud echoed in the empty hallway. Alex had pushed Zeke hard against the wall, gripping his collar. His eyes were blazing with fury as he glared at him.
“Zeke…” he hissed, gritting his teeth in anger.
But Zeke remained calm, almost unbothered.
He stared back at him and calmly continued. “Alex… I’m simply reminding you what it is that you should be prioritizing right now. And I just want to remind you again, since you seem to have forgotten, that since the very beginning, you know very well that I am one of them, because I also want her dead.”
Alex’s grip on him tightened even more but Zeke simply continued talking. “That’s why… what you need to do now is stay beside her. Don’t take your eyes off her. You need to protect her, especially now that everyone has probably already heard this news. I just want to remind you that Abigail needs you right now.”
As those words left Zeke’s mouth, Alex’s eyes constricted and it was then that the emergency room doors finally opened.
Abi was wheeled out on a hospital bed, lying unmoving as the nurses pushed her out of the emergency room.
Alex immediately let go of Zeke upon seeing her and approached the still unconscious girl on the bed. He was about to touch her hand but he paused midair the moment he realized how dirty his hands were. He currently looked like an actor playing as the main character of a zombie apocalypse or a horror movie. His clothes, hands, hair and his perfect face were all splotched with dried blood causing the nurses to freak out when they saw him.
Zeke then held his shoulder from behind and signaled the nurses to take the girl away.
“Now go. Clean yourself up first,” Zeke told him as they both watched the bed being pushed away.
“Didn’t you say I can’t take my eyes off her?” Alex just mumbled as he followed Abi and Zeke could only sigh.
The duo then followed Abi to the most expensive room in the hospital. The room was big, with an ensuite and even it even had another bed set up for relatives to rest. It also had a kitchenette but Alex didn’t see any of those things because he didn’t take his eyes off Abi’s small figure lying on the bed.
While the nurses were busy checking on Abigail’s vitals and making her comfortable, Alex voluntarily walked towards the bathroom.
“Get me clothes,” he told Zeke before he entered the bathroom and closed the door with a thud.
Once Alex was out of sight, Zeke’s eyes immediately flew to the doctors who had just entered to give their report on the girl’s situation.
Zeke’s eyes narrowed for a moment before he quickly led the doctors out of the room.
“How is she?” Zeke immediately asked as he closed the door behind him.
“Sir, her injuries are very minor but… we discovered that she has an underlying health condition. Unfortunately, her condition has been triggered and she is now in grave danger,” the top doctor of this reputable hospital, said.
Zeke didn’t even look surprised. It was as if he already saw this coming.
“Don’t mention her underlying illness to anyone. If the man inside asks about her condition, just inform him about her current injuries, don’t mention anything about her illness,” Zeke told them decisively, causing the doctors to frown in confusion. In the end, having no power to question this man and his orders, the doctors didn’t protest.
“Y-yes, sir.” They all said simultaneously. “But are we not going to do anything?” One of them asked and Zeke fell silent for a moment.
“Go find out about her condition from her doctor from the lower department. I want everyone to prioritize her condition from today onwards.”
“Yes sir.”
