A noise, a crash, the shuffle and thud of many feet spun me on my heel. Things were blurry, my eyes watering as my shocked pupils fought to catch up to the onslaught of now harsh fluorescent light. I found Daniel beside me, feet wide, his hands clenched by his hips. The Man in Black stood where he had before, impassive in his agitated coat. At the end of the room the two doors had been thrown wide. Four figures stalked toward us. Three of them were nurses, dressed like the guardian who had tried to stop us. They shuddered as they moved, each of them a white shimmy through harsh light that bounced off polished tile and chrome bedrails. They followed a man dressed in pale green scrubs. “And so we are welcomed, victims of hospitality and prey of reception standing meekly in the lair of the beast,” the Man in Black said. I could hear the smile on his face even though I wasn’t watching him. No, my clearing eyeballs were locked on the leader of the procession toward us. He was handsome.
