Chapter Four: The Chosen One

Lucy walked aimlessly throughout the streets and somehow found herself at Cook County General Hospital. She saw a familiar face speaking with another familiar face and coming her way. They hadn't noticed her yet. She hid behind the corner.
"So you see, Dave, I don't know exactly what's going on, Roxanne does."
"But I tried talking to her, she told me nothing!"
"Yeah, she'll leave you hanging. Look, Dave, tomorrow night you will be really weak. You have to stay away from Roxanne, before she can finish."
"Finish? Finish what?"
"I can't tell you. Just run away. I will tell her boss and he will stop the change."
"Change? What change?" Lucy saw the back of Dave and Beth's heads. She stepped out from behind the corner and followed them, silently, making no noise at all.
"If you let Roxanne finish, you will become something unreal, unnatural... you will become like us."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because we too have feelings and I..." Beth stopped.
"What?"
"She doesn't want to see you change," Lucy made Dave jump. Beth spun around, angrily.
"Lucy!" she hissed, angrily, "Go home!"
"Shut up, Beth!" Lucy snapped back, "I can do what I want!"
"You need your strength!"
"Lucy?" Dave stared at the blond girl in front of him, disbelieving.
"Now look what you've done!" Beth screamed.
"He's going to die anyway!" Lucy protested, "He might as well know what's going on! Lord knows, I didn't!" but instead of answering Lucy, Beth just turned to Dave.
"I'm really sorry about this Dave," she said, and punched him.

Dave dreamed. Faces and people he both knew and didn't know swam in his unconscious mind. He was thrown into a scene he had never seen before.

Dave was standing in the hallway in County. Amazingly, he saw Lucy.
"Hey Lucy!" but Lucy didn't answer. She was busy.
"CARTER!" she screamed.
"Sorry, Luce!" Carter called back, on his way to Abby's. Lucy turned and found herself face to face with Paul. She let out a little yelp.
"Come back inside, please," he begged, "It's too bright out here. And cold. It's making my headache worse," Lucy nodded.
"Lucy!" no one noticed Dave. It was then that Dave thought that maybe he was a silent spectator to a scene that had never been witnessed by anyone other than Paul and Lucy.
"Where have you been?" Lucy asked.
"No where," Paul answered.
"OK," he followed her in.
"It's awfully dark in here, Paul. Do you-" But Lucy stopped as she felt something on her neck. Two sharp objects puncture the surface of her skin and into her vain. She felt the predator drink. And he drank. And he drank. He drank until the victim had little blood left in her. He then cut open his vain and held it to her lips.
"Drink," he whispered, holding it to the girl's mouth. Paul walked around and pulled a knife out of his pocket.
"Should I do it now, master?" he asked.
"No, wait," the other said, "I must tell her. She must know," he leaned in close to Lucy and whispered something.
"Now?"
"Now," there was a sharp scream and everything went black.

"Lucy, wake up," an Irish voice came. As Dave opened his eyes, so did a young, pale blond girl on a bed of silk. Roxanne looked kind, though she usually wasn't that kind. It was a face she used to gain trust. It was a face she had used on Dave.
"Who are you?" Lucy asked, confused, "Where am I? What happened?"
"Shh, lassie, one question at a time!" Roxanne told her, "I am Roxanne."
"Where am I?"
"You are safe."
"What happened?" Roxanne paused.
"What do you remember?"
"I remember... I remember seeing a patient. Paul Sobriki. Something happened. Something... Bit me. Scared me. I was scared. Then, I... I fainted. When I awoke again, I saw the knife. He... He stabbed me."
"That much is true," Roxanne vouched.
"What happened?"
"Lucy, try your eye sight. What do you see?" Lucy opened her eyes wider and looked around.
"Everything seems much... Clearer."
"It should," Roxanne took out a small dog whistle and blew. Dave, of course, heard nothing but Lucy turned her head to Roxanne when she heard it. Roxanne smiled.
"Your senses have increased in sensitivity. Your muscles are stronger and fine-tuned. You can run like a cheetah for miles. You are now a supreme being, Lucy, a Goddess. Higher than you can imagine. Higher than death itself."
"What?"
"How old do you think I am?"
"I don't know, early twenties?"
"I am 200 years old," Roxanne told her. Lucy gasped and backed away.
"Don't be frightened, Lucy."
"What are you?"
"I, my dear friend, am a vampire. And so are you."
"I am not a vampire!" Lucy sounded insulted, "I am a medical student! I help sick people! Sick people like you who think they're a vampire!"
"Calm down, lass! Trust me, I will do you no harm! Remember the advantages! The hearing the sight the smells the strength!"
"What are the disadvantages?" Lucy demanded.
"There are none."
"What about blood?"
"You will need it. You will crave it. But you don't live off of it. It is like a sweet, addictive candy, but you can't live without this candy for more than a year, or else, well, you may go insane or die even. You can eat other things."
"I don't want to be a vampire."
"In time, you will see the good it does you. Did you know it was a full moon last night? Valentine's day? And did you know there was a shade of red to the edge of it. Blood on the moon. It's when a future vampire is weakest. One must be bitten in advance to the full moon. Then, we will feed again and the one will drink our blood."
"I thought I was dead."
"Technically, you are and should be," Roxanne admitted, "Your heart stopped. You died... For a time."
"Why didn't the knife kill me?"
"We had to kill your old life. Stabbing is most common. Your flesh heals quickly when you have vampire blood in you. After you die, that is. I was murdered, too, in the early eighteenth century."
"So you bit me once, bit me again, made me drink blood and stabbed me?" Lucy said incredulously. Roxanne nodded.
"You'll get used to it," Roxanne shrugged. Lucy stared in disbelief.
"I... I really am a vampire, aren't I?"
"Not just any vampire, lass," there was a sparkle in her eye, "You are the Chosen One."

Dave woke up. He was in the staff room again. He had a splitting migraine and held his head in his hands. Carter walked into the room.
"Hey Dave," he said without looking at him, "How's that scar?"
"Scar?" Dave looked confused.
"Yeah. The one on your neck?" Carter pointed at his throat. Dave's fingers flew to the wound and he felt the two holes. He remembered his dream of Roxanne and slowly his encounter with her in the small clothing outlet.
"Right, my scar," Dave nodded. There was something he was forgetting. Something important. The key to the door that wouldn't open. The truth. But he couldn't find it.
"Well?"
"No, nothing really," he answered truthfully. Suddenly, he felt frustrated and swore aloud, "God damn it! I'm so damn tired! Roxanne's keeping her damn mouth shut or beating around the God damned bush about it! She won't tell me a damn thing! Damn her! And besides that, I have a damn headache!" Dave threw his hands up into the air. Taking a bite out of a doughnut, Carter answered with a smile:
"I don't think you could have said 'damn' any more times in that outburst. Could you even say a sentence without a swearword?" Dave gave him a glare.
"You're not the one with a scar on his neck!"
"Ah ha! Success!" Carter declared and began to laugh but it ended in a sharp cough as Dave glowered at him even harder, "Why are you in such a bad mood!"
"I have one hell of a damn headache!"
"Awe, Dave, you were doing so well! Why did you have to swear *twice* in that?"
"Shut up about the swearing, Carter!" Dave fell back down on the couch and groaned. Why did this remind him of something?

//"Lucy Knight, get up now and see Mrs. Kent!"
"Shut up about the patients, Carter!" Lucy fell back, wearily on the couch, holding her head, "I am having such a..."//

"...Bad day!" Dave's words brought Carter out of his flashback.
"Huh?" Carter blinked. Was it just him, and his crazy sense of Déjà vu, or did Lucy say the same thing a few days before the accident?
"I said I'm having such a bad day!"
"I can understand that. Seriously, though, Dave, those things worry me," nodding at his neck, "You should get them checked out. Are you sure their OK? Because I could-"
"No, Carter, you can't," Dave interrupted, "I'm fine. Asides from the fact that my head is throbbing in pain, my heart is racing, and-"
"Do you think you're-"
"I'M FINE, CARTER!" Dave yelled. Carter was taken aback. He had never seen Dave in such a bad mood.
"Dave, I don't think-"
"You're right, you don't think!" Dave snapped, coldly, and left in a hurry. On his way out, he bumped into a blond with sunglasses and a long leather coat and muttered a soft 'sorry.'
The black coat-clad woman entered the lounge with her head down low. Many strands of hair fell over her face, shading it over the glasses, giving her a mysterious look about her. She pointed at Carter.
"Sit," she ordered. For some reason, without hesitation or protest, Carter did so. She pulled the collar of her black coat up higher, trying to hide her face.
"I know two things for sure," she told him in a whisper, "One, you are in trouble. I suggest you stay home tomorrow, all day and night. Lye low during the full moon. Secondly, I know Dr. Malucci's in trouble too. But they've gotten to him already and he only has two options left."
"What are those options?"
"That is not of your concern," the woman snapped and Carter shut his mouth, "You must not worry about him. Just stay away from anyone you don't know. Keep in crowded places full of friends. But whatever you do, do not fall asleep!"
"How can I-"
"You can't fall asleep!" she repeated.
"Who are you?"
"A friend," she whispered, "An old friend." Carter looked over his shoulder and when he turned back, the woman in the long black leather coat was gone.