Eloi
44
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Eloi Chapter Forty Four
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“I feel
terrible for calling so late, Cecilia.”
“If it makes
you feel better,” she yawned, “it’s not so late.
Beast
smiled to himself, cradling the phone between his ear and his shoulder.
blanket taken from Tabby’s knapsack.
help of a massive dose of tranquilizer.
Jean’s soft murmurings were not awakening anyone but Bobby, with his
thrashing and groaning, was threatening to disturb the baby.
a grand gesture… dinner and a movie?”
Cecilia
snorted softly. For Henry McCoy, that
*was* a grand gesture. She knew how much
he hated going out with an image inducer on, how much he would worry and fret
the entire evening, no matter how calm he appeared on the outside.
it even?”
He
chuckled, a low and rumbling sound that made Cecilia shiver inwardly, not that
he realized the effect that it had on her. “It’s a deal… but you don’t even
know why I’m calling… You sure you want to make a deal with the devil, so to
speak?” He leaned around his office door
to frown at Scott, who was trying to talk to Jean.
sinking back into his plastic chair to stare at his wife in concern and sick
worry.
“It’s
I doubt you’re calling just to chat.”
She was coming more awake now, her eyes focusing in the dimness of her
small bedroom. The streetlights had
flickered off some time before, disturbing her sleep near
yellow glow from the city’s lighting system, not enough to enable her to pick
out details of the room but enough to keep her from stubbing her toe if she had
to get up and move around. “Which
student is it? And how bad is it?”
Beast
sighed wearily. “Three right now…but one
I know how to handle. Jean and Bobby
seem to be… Well, if I weren’t a man of science, I’d say possessed.”
crawl down Beast’s spine, settling in his belly.
“Yes… I was
just wrapping my mind around ‘possessed.’
You know as well as I do that most so-called possessions are mental
illnesses, treatable with therapy and sometimes medication.”
“Cecilia,”
he responded slowly, his eyes on Bobby’s thrashing figure, “I mean no offense
when I say that you have not seen some of what I’ve seen here.
medical science.”
“I know,
Henry,” she sighed, pushing her braids from her eyes. There would be no getting
back to sleep now, she knew. She slid
from bed, the portable phone to her ear, and began looking for her clothes in
the dark. “But if you’re trying to tell
me these two teenagers are possessed by evil spirits…”
“I think
maybe you should come out in the morning and see for yourself.
professional tone. “Before I admit
either of them to the hospital for observation beyond what I can provide here,
I’d like your opinion.”
Cecilia
sighed painfully. She knew that
tone. Somehow, she had managed to hurt
his feelings and she would be damned if she tried to apologize for it now.
seem to, just to keep a man happy.
within the hour.” She hung the phone up
a little more forcefully than she had intended, knocking over her alarm clock
in the process. “Shit,” she hissed, bending to set the poor, benighted clock to
rights.
“You are a
Doctor,” a thin voice breathed near her ear.
Cecilia
screamed, a short and sharp sound that seemed torn from her throat as she fell
back, scrambling to her feet to face the intruder.
out as if to show he had no weapons.
“Please leave,” she said shakily.
“Take whatever you want, just leave…”
not make an overt grab for it. The man
before her sighed and took a step forward.
“Stay back!”
“I do not
want your wealth or your body,” he said softly.
“I have someone who needs a doctor quickly.
Cecilia
licked her suddenly dry lips and thought fast.
“Where is she?” _This might be a
trick, _ she thought frantically. _Get
me away from the apartment then kill me…
“In the alley,”
he said quietly. “She is very ill.
Cecilia’s trembling form. “There was an
explosion and she was hurt. She is a
mutant. As are we.”
Her spine
stiffened at the word ‘mutant.’ “I’m a
doctor,” she replied. “I’m just a
doctor. Take me to her.”
A quick
smile flitted across the pale man’s lips.
“Aren’t you worried it’s a ruse?
Aren’t you afraid that I’ll kill you or worse once you’re out of your
apartment?”
“No,”
Cecilia lied. “I’m not afraid of
you.” She reached for her robe, laying
in the chair near the foot of the bed, and tied it on tightly.
“No!”
She
recoiled at the sudden vehemence in his voice.
“There’s only so much I can do!”
“Then she
will die if you cannot fix her.” It was
not a question. It was an order.
Cecilia
nodded slowly, wishing she had stayed on the phone longer with Henry.
following the man from her room, “there’s a hospital nearby she can go to…”
“No,” he
said firmly, “she cannot. That is where
I kidnapped her from. Now hurry.