Mark, the orderly, stopped by the nurse's station. He flashed a charming smile at the hot blonde I would have loved to get together with back before I'd died and flirted a little. She gave as good as she got, her interest in him rising off her in waves.
There was more than a little resentment brewing in my gut as I watched them.
I liked girls.
It was that simple.
There had been several girlfriends before my death, and while I had – admittedly – cheated on most of them, I had enjoyed being with each and every one of them. I'd loved being looked at the way the hot nurse was looking at Mark, and I knew that I wouldn't experience that again.
Thanks to Orryn.
Prick that he was.
In sullen silence, I waited for them to finish flirting and then Mark wheeled me off the ward and out to the elevators. He leaned on the chairs handles as we waited for the elevator, whistling some half-remembered pop tune.
The elevator was empty, and I braced myself, waiting for an attack that never came.
I began to question whether I had seen his face change and if it meant anything at all. For, Mark, it apparently didn't. Or he hadn't noticed. Either way, he wasn't acting like anything other than an orderly.
The hospital corridors were quiet, darkness pressing up against the windows as cars sped past bathed in the glow of the streetlights. Visiting hours were over, and most of the staff were readying for shift change.
When we reached the room that held the MRI machine, one I had already visited not long after my 'miraculous awakening' we were stopped by a nurse sitting behind the counter. She barely glanced at me as she shook her head.
"Sorry, hon, just had a crash victim in. You've been bumped."
"Oh, come on!" Mark whined. "You can't be serious. This is my last one of the day."
The nurse gave him a 'what can you do' look and shrugged her shoulders, while Mark muttered and swung me about. He crouched to face me, fixing a smile in place that softened his face and made him approachable and even inviting.
Which disturbed me, as that was not my typical response to a guy smiling at me.
At least not before I was Chloe.
Shit.
"Sorry, love. We're gonna have to wait for a bit." He swept a hand through his hair and jerked his head towards the nurse who was ignoring us. "Can sit here and wait with her, or we can go to the canteen and grab a coffee."
A place full of people who would ensure he didn't try to hurt me! Sign me up. "Coffee sounds good to me."
Which was a lie.
I hated coffee. It was bitter or too sweet or sickly, depending on which type you got.
Still, it was better than sitting in a small room with just him and the nurse who had no interest in us being there.
So, off we went. A short distance, back up one floor in the elevator and along two worryingly empty corridors before we entered a well-lit room filled with tables and the burble of chatter from the staff grabbing a coffee before they started their night shift.
Mark parked me at a table and headed over to the counter. He flirted with one of the nurses waiting in line, smiling while she laughed at his charm, and returned shortly after with two cardboard cups with lids.
"Got you a latte."
"Thanks." Great. "I'd offer to pay but…" I spread my hands and gestured at the pyjamas I wore.
He grinned.
I felt fucking ridiculous wearing them in public, but they didn't raise an eyebrow from the people around me.
"You're the girl who was in the coma, right?"
"Ah… yeah."
He nodded, smile fixed in place, though his eyes remained curiously dead. Devoid of anything remotely resembling human emotion.
A chill ran down my spine, and I took a sip of the coffee to calm my nerves.
"Holy crap!" I muttered and took another sip. "That's really good."
"Glad you like it."
I did! Which was disturbing. I hated coffee. Or at least my body had. Chloe's, apparently, really liked the taste. I had to wonder what other differences I would find. There were foods that I detested, would I like them now?
Hell, would I dislike foods I had previously loved?
That would be upsetting.
"Tell me about yourself." Mark leaned back and sipped his coffee, his eyes fixed on me as he ignored the glances that some of the women, and at least one man, sitting nearby were giving him. "You live near here?"
I had no idea, so I just nodded and sipped the coffee.
God, it was really good.
"Those your parents that were with you earlier?"
Crap, he'd noticed them in the room. Had he noticed me seeing his face change?
"Yah."
"Must have been excited to see you wake up." He seemed to expect a response, and I just nodded. "Way I hear it, they weren't expecting you to wake up. Was talk about turning off the machines."
There was? That explained how one of them was desperate enough to make a bargain with Orryn.
"Glad they didn't," I said, smiling back at him, trying to play along and be as normal as I could be.
Mark placed his cup on the table and leaned forward, resting his elbows on it as he dropped his voice. "What was it like?"
"Huh? Being in a coma?" I shrugged, how the hell would I know? Best option. Lie my ass off. "Just like a deep sleep."
"Yeah, but you were, like, almost dead." His grin never slipped, those dead eyes never leaving mine, and I felt the first touch of fear. "No heading towards the light or out of body experiences? I hear that happens."
"Not to me." I smiled brightly and glanced at the plastic clock on the wall above the door. "Shouldn't we be heading back for the scan?"
He didn't blink, I realised, all of a sudden. Hadn't the whole time we'd been talking, as though that was a human action that he'd been purposefully doing to appear normal.
My eyes flicked down to note the rise and fall of his chest, and I exhaled a soft sigh when I saw the movement.
Maybe it didn't mean anything. Maybe he was just really, creepily, intense.
With what he thought was a teen girl fresh out of a coma.
Shit.
I wasn't getting good vibes from him, and he hadn't spoken or even moved for what seemed a really long time. I finished the coffee and carefully set the cup down before I tilted my head towards the door. "Maybe, we should…"
His smile widened, and he blinked! Finally. "Sure thing, let me clear away your cup."
He moved smoothly, weaving around the people headed out into the corridor without touching a single one of them. His movements assured and confident, his stride purposeful as he headed for the waste bins.
But it set my teeth on edge.
It didn't feel natural.
Like the blinking, it looked like a practiced movement from someone who was trying real hard to be human but wasn't.
"Orryn," I whispered. "If you can hear me, I need your help."
No immediate reply and my heart sank.
Mark stopped to answer a question from a woman who stood too close and casually placed a hand on his arm.
He wasn't that attractive. There had to be something else at play for them all to be so enamoured of him.
"Orryn," I hissed. "Answer me you ass!"
"I'm not some djinn to be summoned at whim," came the languid voice of my… whatever the hell he was. "Why do you call my name?"
A quick glance at Mark, he was still talking, and no one was paying me any attention. Good. "I think that guy is going to try and hurt me."
There was a pause that hung pregnant in the air and then a snicker. "Why would that be of any concern to me?"
"Your deal!" I snapped back, ducking my head and covering my mouth with my hand so that I didn't look like some loon talking to myself. "If he kills me your deal…"
"Will have remained complete." His voice was mocking, which irritated the hell out of me. "The deal was to bring her back, not keep her alive forever."
"Okay." A fair point. "How about our deal? I can't owe you a favour if I'm dead."
"Of course you can, though it would be admittedly limited."
Mark was headed back towards me, the woman he'd been talking with following him with her eyes.
"You gonna help or what?"
"It will cost."
"Yeah, no shit. Deal. Help me."
"You ready, love?" Mark didn't wait for an answer, just grabbing the handles of my chair and immediately pushing me towards the door.
We turned right as we left the canteen, which was wrong as we'd come in from the left. I twisted in my chair, turning to see that all the staff headed to start their shifts were headed the other way.
"Those elevators will be packed," Mark said, as if reading my mind. "This way will be quieter."
Which didn't sound dodgy at all.
Not that there was much I could do about it. I'd barely managed the few steps from the bathroom to my bed earlier. Sitting in the damned chair was just about the best I could do right then, and I was entirely at his mercy.
We moved through a maze of corridors, lit by light strips set into the ceiling that had been dimmed to create shadows in the empty rooms we passed. Those lights flickered and buzzed as we passed each in turn, and Mark began to whistle once more.
No pop tunes this time. Instead, a slow, haunting tune that spoke to my soul and created images of lonely glens and ancient places lost to time. Of a people long gone, and times past. Tears sprang unbidden to my eyes, and I tilted my head back to look up at Mark, wondering at this.
Those dead eyes of his met mine and he smiled widened, face twisting and contorting like it had earlier and his tune abruptly stopped.
"Ah," he breathed. "You did see me, earlier. I wasn't sure."
My tongue darted out, wetting my dry lips nervously. My hands were twisted together in my lap to stop them shaking as true, very real, fear gripped me.
"W-what do you mean?"
We'd stopped beside a door, and he reached for the handle and pushed it open, revealing a dark interior. I could just about make out rows of shelves, and he grunted, before backing through the open door and dragging my chair with it.
"What're you doing?"
His laughter was a low, rumbling, growl from deep in his chest and a tear ran down my cheek.
I didn't want to die.
Again.
"I'd ask what you are and why you could see me," he said, stepping down on the chair's brake and holding me in place. "But, I really don't care that much. The fact is, you can."
"P-please…" I hated the way my voice sounded, weak and filled with my fear.
Mark took slow, measured steps around the chair until he was standing in front of me. That twisted caricature of a face was all I could see as burning embers were born and died in those saucer-like black pits in place of his eyes.
"You saw through the veil. That makes you a liability." His hands, each bigger than both mine combined grabbed my shoulders with crushing force. He leaned in, voice breathless with excitement as he held his lips by my ear. "This is going to hurt."