Part Seven: Doctor, Doctor

Chris understood some basic phrases, but for the life of him he couldn't form a simple sentence in Korean and say it out loud. Being dumped in a foreign country by his parents, surrounded by relatives who meant well but shook their heads at him, knowing far less than a six-year-old, Chris thought he'd never learn better. No matter which way he turned, his spirit was crushed.

 

And yet, maybe because of it, he thought he was getting rather good at reading people. Chris could understand part of what was said by the tone of voice, their faces, by body language, and putting it together with what Korean he did know. To some degree Chris could understand people very well.

 

“ What I've done?” Suddenly he had never been so scared. Chris had no memory of how he'd gotten to shot in downtown Dae-gu or why he'd been there to begin with, so for all he knew he had done something terrible. He could have. However remote a possibility, it was still possible that he had. What if he had hurt someone or even killed them? What if he had done something he couldn't even begin to imagine?

 

 

“ What I've done?” Fear and horror dissolved into anger. “ How would I know what I've done! I don't remember! I don't know anything. You probably don't even know what I'm saying!”

 

Jack gave a grin that told him nothing. Surrounded by blood, guts, and what seemed like every odor that the human body possessed, Chris let his self control slip out of his hand.

 

“ For the love of God!” He struck the wall with his fist and destroyed a melon-sized portion of it. In the darkened halls of the hospital Chris's eyes burned a furious metallic red. “ What the hell is going on! I've got...fangs....” By now he was used to saying words that made him feel stupid, but he never imagined saying that he had fangs. “ My eyes turn red when I get emotional. I'm, like, super strong and fast, I eat a lot. You threw me into something that exploded and I'm alive. You just tore those people to pieces! What are you, some psycho killer nut? What's all this stuff about vampires! Omigod, there's dead bodies! You just killed people! Somebody call the cops! Where IS everybody?” All this noise and not a body was stirring. “ Leave me alone!”

 

Jack and Chris snapped up their heads at a dull click.

 

“ Please calm down,” a voice said in English. The man's accent made Chris think of his grandmother, a woman who had never gotten rid of a heavy Korean accent despite forty years in the US. “ I only want to be sure of my hypothesis.”

 

“ Oh, I'm sorry.” Sarcasm dripped from every word and burned like acid. “ Who the hell're you!”

 

“ I'm a doctor.” There was no inflection in the man's voice as though he felt nothing. “ You are Chris Jae-min Bak. Your friend is, according to you, Jack.”

 

His stomach doubled over and refused to relax. Strangers should not know his full name and the last sentence implied that someone had been eavesdropping when Chris met Jack on the roof. Had someone been following him? But with his enhanced senses Chris should have known.

 

“ You can leave the mess,” said the doctor. “ Go back to your room and I will clean it up.”

 

“ Oh, hell no.” Chris was verbal when using English. He wasn't as quiet as everyone thought he was.

 

“ I'm...I'm calling the cops.” It was the only thing he could think of, the one action he thought even he could do.

 

“ I have you recorded.” The entire planet came to a dead halt, or it did for Chris anyway. “ I have proof that you're not normal any longer. Expose me and I will do the same to you.”

 

You b*****d! The doctor was nothing more than a voice on the hospital's intercom system, but he was also under Chris's skin. Someone was wriggling about inside his body, doing whatever they liked, and his mind refused to budge, because then he'd have to feel the full force of his revulsion.

 

Jack chuckled softly under his breath. “ 'Oh ho,'” he said mockingly. “ 'Blackmail! Extortion. A sorry need to manipulate. Whatever you want to call it. You want to know about vampires, don't you? You know that they exist, the real ones.'”

 

“ Vampires?” said Chris. “ All this is about vampires?” He was being violated by a fan of the Twilight movies? If this doctor person was a fan, he was going to find that he really was capable of murder!

 

“ 'Marvelous! I can't wait to find you then,'” said Jack. “ 'Let's see what your own personal hell could be.'”

 

“ I want to know about vampires,” said the doctor. “ The real ones. I want to know about you.” There was no sign that Jack was being paid attention to. “ The ones that Jack killed are draculas, humans mutated by a blood disease that renders them vulnerable to sunlight and gives enhanced physical abilities, a prolonged life span. They are not vampires, devils, or creatures of darkness, that is merely a delusion. 'Real' vampires are rare people such as yourself, humans who somehow evolve through near-death experiences and have no weakness as far as anyone knows.” There was a pause. “ Other than the metaphorical heart.”

 

“ Lemme guess. You want to be one!” Chris snapped. He had the horrible feeling that he was on the edge of a cliff, and at any moment now he was going to lose his balance.

 

“ I don't know.” That was a surprising answer. “ I want to know how changing into a vampire transforms the body. I want to know what else it can transform, either by natural process or by choice. True vampires are rumored to be capable of great biological feats.”

 

I don't care. Chris wished he was dead. South Korea was turning out to be hell after all, not purgatory. He could feel his body begin to collapse, starting at his knees where the strength was being drained away. He was about to faint, wasn't he?

 

 

Chris did fall, but it was out of surprise when a small speaker burst apart at the ceiling. It was one of the intercom speakers and it had been destroyed with a cup holder snatched from the nurse's station.

“ 'Is that all there is to this?'” Jack snarled. “ 'So far your game isn't fun at all! It doesn't even feel as though you've thought it through, but anyone should be able to get down the basics. Where's the monsters that the player has to fight? Are some drugged draculas all you have? Where's the challenge? The purpose? Come on, you're the game master. Show us the lure of this game!'”

 

“ I'm not playing!” Jack was jabbering on about a game and Chris didn't understand, one reason being that he didn't want to. First vampires and now a game? This was not a joke!

 

“ 'We could just kill him',” said Jack.

“ We? Kill?” Chris gaped at him. “ No!”

 

 

“ 'Dracula or not, blood and death is a part of our lives. It's going to be part of your life from now on.'”

 

 

“ No!” Jack was saying that 'blood' and 'death' was now his, and Chris wasn't going to accept that! His insides had turned to jelly and his mind was about to literally spin out of his head. He needed people to stop putting him in situations that he didn't want to be in, as though he could only exist in places they put him in. No! Wasn't his life bad enough as it was? How could he begin to fight back when more and more problems kept popping up?

 

“ I don't want it. Leave me alone!” A small voice in his head wouldn't shut up. It went on telling him that there was no leaving this or him alone. If he wanted out, he had to act. Sitting around with the hurt on his chest wasn't an option anymore.

 

The intercom system crackling to life made him flinch.

 

“ Please go down to the morgue,” said the doctor. “ I have others waiting for you.”

 

 

I'm not your toy! What more was the doctor going to do with him?