Author's Note:
Hi. This is something that I wrote while I was editing the last chapter. It did not quite fit, but I thought it was too good to just toss aside. I don't know how often I'll post outtakes, but they will all go here. This one introduces another OC, while confirming the fate of dear old Nellie.
Canon characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. OCs and plot is all mine and all that copyright jazz.
Summer 1918
"Dr. Cullen, Dr. Cullen! Another patient has been brought in showing flu-like symptoms!" The nurse's shrill voice grated on my ears as she ran down the corridor toward me with the patient's chart in her hand. She could have whispered and I would have heard her. I was on my way to meet the new doctor that would replace me starting the next day.
"That makes seven so far tonight," I replied. I knew the flu pandemic would make its way to Chicago sooner or later; it had devastated New York City in the spring, after laying waste to large swaths of Europe and the rest of the Old World. The war did little to help because soldiers brought the flu virus with them wherever they went. I took the chart from her and kept walking; I would read the report later, eager to get to my office to talk with the new doctor. It was rare to meet another doctor that willingly wanted to work nights at a hospital. Most of my colleagues over the years had been men on their way out of the profession, or who were working nights as a form of punishment.
As I walked toward my office, I skimmed over the patient's chart. Her name was Nellie Elizabeth O'Grady, a retired housekeeper with an almost spotless medical history. If she were lucky, she would last a few days, maybe a week or so, before succumbing to the flu. As of tomorrow, I would no longer be the doctor here, seeing how I had enlisted to join the war effort. What happened to Mrs. O'Grady was out of my hands and in the hands of the new doctor.
I froze as I neared my office; there was another vampire present in the hospital. As predators, we were hardwired to protect ourselves from any possible threat. I swallowed the venom that flooded my mouth in preparation to defend myself. I did not smell any blood in the building, besides the stale, sick blood of the patients. If they were still here, they had not fed yet and this bode well for them, since it offered a chance to talk to them without resorting to violence.
"So you are the animal drinker that I have heard so much about." The door to my office opened and out stepped the vampire whose presence I had felt. His accent took a while to place; he was definitely from the Old World. Perhaps he had been French or Italian during his human life. Accents were tricky things when it came to us vampires. The more we traveled, the older we got, the less we sounded like our former selves. I was startled to see his eyes were red—not the deep rich crimson that I have come to know all my life, but a soft, muted red. Was this man seeking me out because he wanted to try my way of life?
"You drink from humans," I said, looking behind me to ensure we were alone in the corridor before stepping inside my office and closing the door. A hospital reeked of death, of decay and mostly of blood, and vampires found this place to be irresistible. If it were not for the Volturi and their laws, hospitals would be a buffet for our kind.
"I do, but only those close to death. It explains the color of my eyes; the current pandemic has been a feast like one I have not seen in centuries," the man replied, smirking. "My name is Gregorio Romano, and you must be Dr. Cullen. I am amazed that you work among the humans daily and do not drink from them."
"You are not the doctor replacing me, are you?" I asked him.
"I am. I start tomorrow night," he replied.
"You cannot! You drink from humans, I protested
"I was a doctor in my former life, Dr. Cullen. The love of medicine was one of the few things that I carried with me from my human days, and I have long practiced my particular diet."
"Why the dying?" I asked, curiosity eating at me.
"To taste death," he replied. "Its touch on us is fleeting. Only beheading and the flames will bring us true death. Humans face it every single moment of every day. A part of me envies them, while the other is like a small child, wanting what I cannot have."
"You drink from them because you want to die?"
"Yes and no," Gregorio replied with a smile. "I have no desire to die, and if I did, the Volturi would kindly give into my demands after I broke one of their rules. I am like a moth to the flame. I am engrossed by death, by its movements, its strange dance among the humans. Look at this plague for example; it is killing this generation's youth. In twenty years, the humans will write about how this pandemic targeted those that should be better suited to resist succumbing to the disease."
Oddly enough, his words made sense, and after all, his reasoning was his own. It was clear that healthy humans did not entice him. The rest of the night was spent doing rounds with the doctor that was to replace me, making sure he was a competent doctor. We talked at length about medicine, about this pandemic that was killing humans by the thousands every day globally. His skills far surpassed my own, and as the night gave way to an overcast dawn, I left the hospital content it was in good hands.
What I read in his comments was that he was like me. He was lonely. Centuries of solitude had marked us, making us different from our peers. As I raced home to pick up my belongings, I thought about my reasons for joining the war and the promise I made to young Edward Cullen. I still did not understand what compelled me to offer my assistance. It was almost certain that he would die if he managed to make it to the train and depart with us. With no training or knowledge of the war, the boy was just cannon fodder to be used and forgotten. I was determined to make sure that he returned home. If Gregorio was fascinated by death, I made life my companion. I wanted humans to live their lives. A finite life, one with a beginning, middle and an end so different from our own.
Thanks for reading & reviewing!