Chapter 3

• I woke up again around 11 a.m., bathed in sweat and haunted by the voices of my victims. I put on my sports kit and went for a jog. The music blared in my ears and drove away the darkness in my thoughts. Exhausted but in a better mood, I returned to my house. Cries of pleasure came from my neighbour's bedroom, drowned out by the moans of two different male voices. I smirked... he had clearly been successful last night.
• I opened my door and paused. Goosebumps came over me and a strange feeling as if someone was watching me. I turned round, but there was no one in the street. I shook my thoughts away and went inside. Showered, changed and equipped with coffee, I left my domicile again for my shift.
• The Tuesday night shift was usually even more boring than Mondays. It wasn't until Thursday that things really got going, when the first people got into party mood. I was working through the report from the unknown redhead from yesterday, when my door was pulled open. Louise came rushing in.
• "We have an emergency, doc. Bleeding wound on the body somewhere around the hip or abdomen."
• "Bring him or her in and then assist me."
• I jumped up and put on a new pair of gloves. Louise came back, followed by 2 men in suits, carrying a third man. They laid him on the treatment bed and the smell of blood quickly filled the room. The man moaned in pain and his hand pressed down on his stomach. I was completely focused on the big man in front of me. He was huge, with long reddish-brown hair and a full reddish-brown beard. He had something southern about him - like the handsome Italians from the mafia films and muscles everywhere.
• "Do you know what happened to him?"
• I turned to his two companions and paused briefly as a familiar pair of brown eyes glared at me.
• "What a coincidence, Doctor. You often seem to have the night shift?"
• "Coincidence, yes? If you say so. So what happened to your friend?"
• The man from yesterday didn't answer. He fixed me with his eyes and his expressionless face. As I received no response, I snorted in frustration and turned back to my patient. I took his hand, which was pressing on his stomach, and held it firmly. He was squeezing pretty hard, it has to be said. A cut appeared, that was bleeding profusely. The area was unremarkable. Not deep, no internal injuries.
• "Louise, please give me the solution to the local anesthetic."
• I turned around to face her, but she didn't move.
• "Louise?"
• She was pale, as if she had seen a ghost. I'd never seen her like that before. I went to the door.
• "Jack. Get your ass in here, now."
• "What's going on, Doc... woah..."
• Jack barely set a foot in the room and was instantly changed. What's wrong with the people here today?
• "Jack, concentrate on me or I'll smack you. Take Louise and bring her out. She looks like she's about to collapse. Jack? JACK NOW!"
• It was only when I shouted at him, that he reacted. Taking Louise by the hand, he dragged her out of the room. Meanwhile, I reached for the anesthetic and drew up a little on a fresh syringe. I went back to the man, who started bawling at the sight of the needle... for a moment he sounded like an animal. I looked him in the eye.
• "This stunned the area so that I can stitch it in peace and you feel not so much pain."
• His hand tried to reach for me, but I dodged it and pressed against his arm with the flat of my hand.
• "Hey friend, another one of those actions and I'll tie you to this bed and I'm very good at tying people up and another one of those pussycat meows and I'll sew without anesthetic."
• A laugh came from the corner of the room... Of course the two of them were still there. I placed the syringe not far from the injury and stunned the area. After a short time, I was able to clean and stitch the wound. Once everything was ready and bandaged to protect it from dirt, I patted the man on the shoulder.
• "You can move freely again. It wasn't so bad for such a big man, was it?"
• "I swear one more line like that and I'll bust their ass, lady."
• "Oh, that makes me panic. You're not the first person to be afraid of injections."
• I took off my gloves, only to immediately put on a new pair. In the meantime, he had sat up and the other two joined him. They all smiled at each other. Where had I ended up? I took the opportunity to take a closer look at my visitors. Mr. Unknown from yesterday was wearing a black suit with a dark red shirt and tie today. The handkerchief in the breast pocket was perfectly matched to the outfit. His long black hair - tied back into a plait - lay over his shoulder.
• Unknown number 2 had medium-length blond hair and green eyes. His facial features looked somewhat similar to those of the black-haired man. A relative perhaps? He was also wearing a tailored, dark blue suit.
• That brought me to number 3, my patient. In addition to his very imposing appearance, he was wearing a dark brown shirt and black suit trousers, although everything looked a little worn from the blood. The three had one thing in common... at first glance you had the feeling you were looking at a series of pictures from Vogue... they were too good for this neighbourhood.
• "So... a cut, clean and smooth, this wasn't a pocket knife from one of the usual thieves on the street here, but something bigger and it was used very precisely. Also you all don't look like you've been robbed. So... will I get a visit from the mafia tomorrow for helping your friend?"
• Three pairs of eyes looked at me. Brown, gold and green.
• "No... No gang power struggle. So you have nothing to fear on your way home."
• "Mmh... good. We're finished here then. Please don't put any pressure on the stitches for the time being. Please have the stitches removed in a week. But you can do that anywhere, you don't have to come back to this area."
• "What do you mean by 'this area'?"
• My eyebrow shot up slightly?
• "You're joking, right? You've already looked around, where we are... Let's put it this way, the three of you doesn’t look like this is their normal environment."
• "But you don't give that impression either, Mrs. Doc-tor."
• I grinned. If only he knew.
• "You're right... you should never judge a book by its cover. Take care of your friend, Count von Fersen."
• I left the treatment room and waited until the three of them had gone. I got myself a coffee and looked for Louise, but she was nowhere to be seen. Jack was sitting at the counter and looked at me, scared.
• "What's going on Jack? What the hell happened to you in there?"
• "I don't know Selena... I walked in and this smell flooded me all of a sudden... I was scared and panicked. I just wanted to run away. I... I'm so sorry."
• "It's okay... we all react differently to blood and emergency situations. Make sure you call it a day and get home. I can manage the rest of the night on my own."
• I then spent most of the rest of my shift just sitting around. There was one drunk man who the police brought in for emergency treatment, but otherwise it stayed quiet. When the doctor came in for the early shift, I packed my things in a hurry and just wanted to go home.