Are you dead or not?
Night shifts are always a drag, especially when you're the only doctor available on the block.
The nurses did their best but try as they might, the patients kept dropping in at an unstoppable rate.
'This is ridiculous' he thought as he pulled the thread through another wound to stop a man from bleeding to death. 'It's like a battlefield is raging in Yokohama.'
Trying to ignore the dry rattling of the man in front of him, the young doctor swiftly finished his job and informed a passing nurse to fill in the patient's family.
'Right, next patient.' He thought tiredly stopping at the next bed, shoving aside the green curtain he looked down at what was supposed to be his next job.
Wincing a bit he overlooked the mess that used to be a young girl, she appeared to be about 16 years.
Her long auburn hair was clothed in dried blood, sticking to her face.
Her face had long gashes running from her right temple to the bottom left of her chin, the same marks ran over her chest to her stomach, each gash was about 2 inches wide displaying the red flesh underneath her smooth pale skin.
'Those are claw marks.' He thought with no little shock. 'I don't recall hearing a lion breakout on the news.' Looking at the heart monitor he concluded not much could be done for her.
"Nurse!" he called out, a few seconds later a flustered blonde girl came at his side.
"Yes, sir?" she asked in a sweet demure voice.
"I want to have a look into this young woman's file, we have to inform her family." He said quietly not taking his eyes of the girl.
The nurse shifted through het files quickly but soon looked up to the doctor.
"Um, we don't have any record of her sir, she had no ID on her when she was brought in." She said.
Blinking he turned towards the demure blonde, a blush was rapidly forming on her cheeks.
A sudden beeping startled both of them and they turned back towards the heart monitor.
Wide eyed the doctor saw the steady breathing from the girl that he had perceived dead.
"Seems we have fighter." He murmured. "Quick, bring her to the surgery." He commanded in a clear and strong voice.
A few hours later his young patient was resting while her stitches moved up and down with each breath.
The doctor sat next to her, the wave of incoming patients had thankfully quieted down so he had some time to visit his 'guests' as he liked to call them. Holding one of her delicate hands in his he whispered to her softly.
"I have done all I could but the rest is up to you, I'm afraid." He sighed as looked down at her, the stitches sullied her otherwise lovely face. Even if she survived this, the girl would have to walk around with hideous scars for the rest of her life. "Such a strong soul." He remarked with a bit of admiration.
"Doctor" came the voice of the blonde nurse, shaking him from his thoughts. "Yes?" He answered.
"The patient from room 105 has awakened sir, he wishes to speak with you." She said.
Rising from his chair he politely thanked the nurse, but did wonder about the hard look in her eyes as she looked at the girl.
Observing the clock as he poured himself a cup of coffee, the doctor thanked whatever grace he could think of. "Finaly, in 2 more hours my shift will be over." Sipping his drink contently he gracefully made his way through the hallway. A loud clanking of metal alerted him, running towards one of the storages he looked through the glass door.
One of the refrigerator doors was opened and a small figure was bend over inside the cooling box.
He quickly recognized the hospital dress and pulled open the glass door with great force.
"What do you think you're doing?!" He called out in anger, startling the figure into banging her head into the box.
"Ow! That really hurt." A high voice whined out as she turned around rubbing at her forehead.
He recognized the figure as the girl he had stitched up a few hours around. Then he noticed she was covered in blood.
"What are you doing out of bed, your wounds will re-open like this and why are you going through our blood supply?" he rapidly shot question after question at her.
"Hold on handsome, one at a time please." She answered quietly appearing not to think much of the situation. "First of all I want to thank you for the good care, it would be much harder to heal if I was still bleeding in some filthy ally." A small smile was playing on her lips, it would have been lovely if there wasn't blood caking at the sides of her face.
Taking aback by her politeness in an already absurd situation he took a moment to take it in. Wide eyed he looked over her loose bandages noticing her scars were swiftly vanishing.
The girl continued as if this was a friendly chat in a tea room, "I realize this blood is public property, my apologies for the inconvenience."
He blinked at that. "What were you doing with it anyway?"
"Drinking." She grinned. The doctor noticed with no small panic that a small fang was glinting sharply from those full lips.
"Drinking" He repeated dryly, raising an eyebrow. The girl's smile widened. An amused glint played in her golden eyes. 'Gold like a cat's' rang a voice inside the man's head.
"May I ask why?" He replied in a much calmer voice than he felt. 'Should I call the mental institute?'
he wondered.
"To feed myself of course, and I wouldn't worry about that." She winked.
'She just read my mind.' He thought, panic rising to a limit.
"Well if that is all, go ahead and I'll inform the nurses not to disturb you." He replied, his voice rising to a pitch at the end of his sentence. "I need a drink… and sleep." He murmured.
The girl had her head cocked at the side, like a transfixed scientist that had discovered a particularly odd specimen. "Thank you very much sir, you are most kind."
Carefully backing away towards the door he did not take his eyes away from the 'dead or alive or something in between' girl.
"One more thing." She called out before he ran outside. Feeling his throat dry instantly the nervous surgeon looked straight into the golden eyes illuminating the otherwise dark room.
"What is your name?" she inquired.
Feeling reluctant but knowing he had no other choice than to answer he answered.
"Shido"
"Shido" She repeated the name slowly, tasting it and seeming to savor the sound.
"Well Mister Shido, I shall certainly remember you, gentleman like you are few.
You may call me Riho."
"Well, good night Miss Riho." He nodded, feeling the cool surface of the glass doors.
"Good night Mr. Shido" she greeted back, sultry.
Running out of the room he couldn't help but look back towards the girl inside the room.
But saw no one.
Feeling stumped and standing there stupidly for what felt like hours he let out a slow shaky breath.
Closing his eyes he leant back against the white hospital wall.
"A dream, that's all it was." He murmured. "A crazy, mind boggling dream."
He made his way to the entrance door, not even noticing the nurses calling after him.
Walking towards his black Cadillac, he felt a prickling at the back off his neck, the feeling of being watched.
Suppressing the urge to look around he quickly stepped inside and with a mechanic roar his car sped off towards the highway.
On top off the hospital building a small figure wearing nothing but a hospital dress smiled.
"Okay, thanks Mark." Closing her cellphone a young woman made her way towards the living room.
Another corpse had appeared at the bay it seemed. Brushing away the dark blue hair that kept falling in front of her eyes, she sat down on the couch.
"Shit, only 4 hours of sleep." She cursed silently.
This case kept haunting her for weeks now, corpses kept appearing at the shore of Yokohama.
No matter how many patrols she sent out, there was never a trace to find of this mystery killer.
The most unnerving about this however where the state of the corpses.
All of them were drained completely of their blood.
"I suppose it's time to ask for my special help." She murmured.
As far as Cain could remember he always had the best of the best. His parents were of an old aristocratic family. One of a few that managed to survive the 20 st. century and keep their wealth through clever investments.
Ever since he was an infant he was permitted every luxury he could dream of. He was a temperamental child and his parents didn't have time nor patience to deny him his wants, after all it wasn't as if they couldn't afford it.
So it was with surprised disgust that Cain found himself sharing a room with 3 other people. Even worse it was common folk. Peasants. The thought itself was nauseating.
The nurses were young and pleasant to look at which was a small comfort in his misery. Still if that wretched horse hadn't thrown him of its back he wouldn't be here in the first place.
'Ah, there comes one now.' He thought with satisfaction, watching the way her short skirt moved around her shapely thighs.
"Good evening Mr. Valtros, how are you feeling today?" the blonde nurse smiled sweetly at the handsome man.
"After seeing such a lovely sight one can't help feeling better." He drawled out noticing his compliment had effect, he smirked.
"You flatter me sir." She giggled. "Doctor Shido will see you shortly to report."
"Ah yes, and could you ask him if it's possible to move me to a separate room? I don't get much sleep here I'm afraid." He continued charmingly.
The girl's eyes widened and she hurried of. "Of course, Mr. Valtros."
'This is always too easy.' Cain laid back, pleased.
Shido had an awful night, the incident with the strange girl wouldn't leave his mind. How? How was this possible? People didn't heal overnight, didn't drink blood or have golden eyes.
Although there was that one incident at college with that goth girl, paid people to have their blood.
'Probably for some kind of voodoo ritual' and I'm getting of track again.
"Argh, brain stop!" He yelled out, thumping his head against the dining table.
A resounding knock came from his neighbor.
'Grumpy old man' Shido tought sullenly. 'I can't even freak out in peace.'
With great effort he looked up at the clock standing on his desk. And groaned again.
"Oh, dear lord I need a time machine" he prayed…..
No answer.
Damn.
Better get to work then.
"Alright Frank, what do we have?" The dark haired beauty asked the mortician.
Frank was a skinny bald man, always could be found with his nose in a corpse, each to his own I suppose.
"Well Yayoi, it's completely drained out like the others."
'No shit, I have to drive the whole way to here for this?' She huffed and flicked back some of her long hair back.
"Alright, anything else?" she asked a bit tensely.
"Why yes there is, if you look closely at the neck, you will find 2 teeth marks." A glint of interest appeared in Frank's eyes.
Yayoi snorted at that. "What like a vampire? What a psycho." She answered dryly.
"Yes, exactly!" Frank simpered, not seeming to catch on to her disbelieve.
"So now what, I let everyone walk around with garlic in their pants?" she threw her arms up into the air.
"I would let them wear it around their neck."
"Great, thanks for the advice."
The hospital was hectic as usuall, Shido was used to this. The nurses fawned over him, again nothing out of the order. Panicking mothers brought their children in for a broken arm.
There was of course always car accidents and others of the same category.
Still when one of the nurses came running to him in haste he expected a huge disaster.
"Doctor Shido, could you come see someone please? It' rather urgent."
"Why what's the matter?" he asked in concern.
"It's not so much the matter that's important Doctor, rather the person." She answered.
Shido frowned at that, all patients were equally important in his opinion. There was urgent and not so urgent and nothing else mattered.
"Nurse, you know very well that …" "Here we are Mr. Valtor." Shido blinked at that, this was one of the rooms where patients could rest.
In one of the beds there was a man resting, a very handsome one with golden curls hanging well past his waist and a sharp pale face. He was calmly reading an old magazine of gentleman's weekly and dind't seem to be in excruciating pain.
Whatever the doctor was expecting certainly wasn't this.
"Doctor Shido is here Mr. Valtor." The nurse said sweetly. The man put down his magazine and looked up. And immediately locked eyes on Shido.
His brown eyes widened a bit before a wide smile made his way onto is face.
"How are you feeling Sir?" inquired Shido politely.
The man was still staring with a strange light, until after a few seconds a warm baritone answered.
"Absolutely wonderful."
Shido raised a lavender eyebrow at that "Oh really, Nurse Cindy called me here for what seemed to be an important matter."
"Ah yes, I was hoping for a separate room to get my bearings right, as doctor you realize of course the importance of your patients and for my health to regain it is best I should think that I can rest as much as possible." As the man finished his speech Shido felt that familiar twitch in his brow.
"Mr. Valtor," he began. "Please call me Cain." Interrupted the man gracefully
"Cain then, you are right that the health of my patients concerns me greatly."
A pleased smile appeared on the man's face, it soon dropped at Shido's following words.
"And for that reason I do not wish to be bothered by such trivial matters as this, you are in a hospital my good sir and not a hotel."
The man seemed shocked at being denied, well there's a first time for everything. Thought Shido as he continued.
"How dare you! Never before have been treated this rudely! Do you have any idea who I am? What I am capable of?" He spat out.
"I don't care who you are or what you do but you are wasting valuable time." Tranquil emerald eyes met furious brown ones steadily.
"Don't think I won't take this to your superiors, I have fired men for less than this!" the blonde haired man threatened with cold rage.
"If that is all I would like to return to patients that are in actual need of assistance." the lavender haired man answered and turned to leave.
"And I pity the poor souls that have ever worked for you." He cheekily threw over his shoulder.
Not paying any heed to the calls of Cain the doctor made his way out.