Chapter 2: Today Is Only Yesterday's Tomorrow
My name is Eric; I am a 35-year-old physician. I have, until recently been a rational man, believing only in facts, science and test results. Fantasy, speculation, superstitions and the occult have never been apart of my beliefs…that is until now. I recently discovered that the tales of vampires draining the life out of helpless victims, the stuff of books and movies, are indeed true. No Anne Rice Novel, no Bram Stoker legends prepared me for the events that have changed my views of life and death.
Evanna, her image still haunted me. Day and night I see her face her body, the emerald green eyes piercing my very soul. I could not sleep. I could not eat. While at work I treated dozens of people in a small community emergency room, only to find my mind wandering to that day when fate destined me to meet the woman whose beauty I have never had seen before, nor have seen since. Had I done her tortured soul justice? Did I indeed free her from her earthly eternal bonds? Or did I imprison myself, to wallow in a sea of self-pity?
I was just winding up my shift at the ER, the graveyard shift of course, when I saw out of the corner of my eye a gurney sitting in the trauma bay, with a covered body lying lifeless. I thought it odd since no major traumas had been treated tonight. I quickly walked over wanting to see for myself, what an unannounced arrival was doing here. As I drew closer I saw blood at the region of the sternum oozing thru the white sheet, and heard a faint gasping. The body was covered head to toe, as if the poor soul had been pronounced dead and left.
I quickly called out to the person under the sheet and at the same time withdrew the bloodstained covering. As I gazed upon the body I felt a coldness overtake my body. A sharp pain filled my chest as if I were the one with the wound. I gazed in total horror, stunned, as the words that haunted me for over a year rang clearly in my ears. "Eric, are you willing?" It was her, Evanna. Her blood soaked body lie on the gurney, a hole just below her breastbone pumping bright red blood, the wound that I made, that released her soul, or so I thought.
"No, fuck no, this isn't happening again!" I clenched my eyes and covered them with my hands refusing to believe what lie before me. I finally after a few moments opened my eyes only to find the gurney vacant as it had been all night. I let out a sigh, a whimper that only a child could manage to exhale. I straightened myself and composed myself quickly before someone saw me. "Eric, are you willing once more?" I turned and there she stood, Evanna, eyes cold, dull and blood red, fangs protruding from her mouth. She walked toward me. I backed up until I found myself against the wall. She reached out her hand toward me as if to plead and beg help. The hole from the steak of bone that I thrust into her she held covered as blood permeated from between her fingers. "Eric, please help me." I reached my hand out toward her and grasped her hand. The memories of her flesh filled my mind. Our bodies mingling intertwining as one, the ecstasy we shared if only briefly would last any man a lifetime.
"Eric, what the hell are you doing?" The words broke my mind for a second, and she was gone. Instead, before me stood Jerry, the dayshift doc had arrived. "You look like shit Eric, like ya seen a ghost, go home get some rest." I nodded in agreement and walked out of the trauma bay. I glanced back for one more look. Nothing. No sign she had ever even been here, no blood stained linen, nothing, except Jerry looking at me, shaking his head like I needed a psych consult.
Upon my arrival home, I collapsed into my recliner with the thought of her on my mind. I had thought it to be over, a thing of the past. The scar on my neck was still there as a reminder, I would never forget. Why today? Why today? Why… I finally succumbed to fatigue and drifted to sleep.
