Chapter 8: The Wary Man

When Gwen thought of it deeply, somewhere within her heart knew that she was indeed learning to trust again and it was because of the mysterious savior before her. Slavica Baldisimo made her feel something that she locked for many years as soon after she lost her adoptive parents. She locked her heart to anything that could make her happy again but with Slavica, she really wanted to try it out again. She needs to. She has to because she couldn't contain the sudden feeling that only her savior, Slavica could make her feel.

And there are some things we don't know

Sometimes a heart just needs to go

And there is so much that I'll remember

Underneath the open sky with you forever

"She's something special to me." Gwen already realized what she was feeling all of the sudden familiarity around Slavica and why her heart was easily reacting to her.

She understood them but she doesn't want to easily jump over them just yet. But she couldn't ignore them as she kept feeling them over and over again each time Slavica's presence lingers around her. It was like the feeling of being marked by her.

"Where did that come from?" Gwen silently thought about it which made her hit Slavica out of the blue with the hospital pillow twice in a row. She was just lost in her thoughts about her feelings toward Slavica who she just met.

Slavica was just having her own time when she didn't understand why all of a sudden she was being hit by a pillow twice in a row by a patient. She just saved Gwen a few hours ago and now she looked worried, confused, and wondering what the young lady, Gwen was thinking when she was being hit out of the blue.

"Alright, care to tell me what's going on in your mind when you hit me like that?" Slavica caught the almost third hit of Gwen's pillow attack as she curiously asked. She really wondered and worried at the same time what made her patient act like that and Gwen released a heavy sigh.

"Not gonna tell. It's personal and if you could read minds, don't do it." Gwen answered followed by a glare after warning her.

"How…whatever…you could sense it anyway." Slavica was about to ask how Gwen could tell about her ability without even trying.

Gwen was about to speak to counter it but she noticed that Slavica went into her silent mode. Slavica began to feel something odd luring around somewhere around the hospital. She let her high senses feel it when Gwen speaks to her.

"What is it?" Gwen asked in her low voice which also sounded like she was whispering.

"Something was lurking around the hospital. I hope it won't put anyone in danger." She answered her eyes glaring into no one because she was trying to sense what was going on outside the room.

"What do you mean?" she heard Gwen curiously ask.

"It was a supernatural creature in the human body and it was looking for something in here." Slavica answered as she tried to locate where it was coming from.

"Can you tell who?" Gwen wondered.

"No. But I don't like the aura it was emitting. It was very provoking." She just answered as Slavica's right eye changed its color to red ones. Gwen gasped from seeing that but Slavica grabbed her hand with her reassuring smile.

"Deadly or not?" she managed to ask after seeing that smile that calmed her.

"Curious?" Slavica smirked as she notice the curiousness in the tone that Gwen used.

"Who wouldn't after what you told me." Gwen shrugged her shoulders as she recalled what Slavica just told her.

"Use your senses then." She told Gwen which made her look back with a shocked expression on her face. Slavica just looked at her as if she was giving her some time to do it.

"How?" Gwen didn't know how to do that as she sounded like she wants to be able to do it.

"Close your eyes and focus on one thing that made you curious. Just one thing, Gwen then the rest should be gone." Slavica carefully instructed which made her do so. She closed her eyes and started focusing.

"When you're feeling it already, grab it. Follow where it was leading you." She added as guided Gwen on opening her sense in a basic manner. She even found it fascinating when she saw Gwen's heated energy begin to flow like a serene air in the nighttime.

"She's remarkable." Slavica whispered to herself while she let Gwen take her time using her senses for the first time.

From Gwen's mind, she did what Slavica instructed her and grabbed what made her act like a curious cat until she saw herself standing in the hallway of the hospital. The hall might be looking the same as the others since it was a hospital but there was something different when she looked around, she knew that she was not on the same floor as her room was located.

"Which floor is this?" Gwen asked until she went to check it over the elevator and she was just one floor beneath her room.

But as finally know where she was, Gwen heard a harsh opening of a fire exit door which made her jolt. She turned to her back and there she noticed a very wary man looking at every corner of the floor. It was looking desperate until she noticed the man was getting closer to her, she could finally agree with Slavica. She doesn't like what she suddenly feels around the wary strange man. Gwen quickly opened up her eyes and she saw Slavica's worried face which made her cup it with her both hands.

"I am okay but I don't like that wary strange man. He's looking at every corner of the floor beneath me. He was like looking desperately for something or maybe a room which he could ask on the nurse's desk." Gwen informed Slavica what she just saw from her concentration.

"I see, if that was the case then, it only meant that he could be lost and didn't know where he was yet." Slavica answered according to what Gwen informed her.

"Is that even possible - I mean, not knowing where to go?" she wondered while Slavica was trying to read the weird energy flow that was coming from that man.

"Hm, honestly, I am not sure what to call it just yet but if we're going to base it on what you've seen around him and the way he moved while nobody took notice of him then, he is turned." She only explained briefly what she knew about it. Yet, she hoped that it was not the kind of monster that every night creature didn't want to deal with - fallen rogues.

"Turned? By what?" Gwen curiously wondered what made Slavica find it amusing and smiled.

"Not sure what, but the forcedly turned ones lose their memories and changed into the supernatural creature that made them. But not everyone who turned was indeed turning up into a night creature. Most of them died instantly." She answered but there was something that she noticed changed in Gwen's aura as if it was being swayed by the air.

It was serene air that seems like it only showed when Gwen was in deep thought because she noticed it before she was hit by a pillow. It was the serious side of Gwen that sometimes caught Slavica off guard.

"If this creature was turned, how can you tell if it's a good turn or bad one if you won't check on it?" Gwen wondered and she has a point for asking that to her.

"I already sent someone to check on it." Slavica was taken back but she smiled proudly at her before she took her mask and was about to wear it when Gwen managed to stop her.

"Why not you?" she wondered which made Slavica look back at her and sigh.

"Because I'm your personal bodyguard and surveillance remember." She reminded Gwen what they had just talked about so that Gwen won't lose control while she was still thinking about the offer of their organization.

"Oh, I thought it will be applicable once I am out of the hospital." Gwen rolled her eyes as she smiled showing embarrassment from almost forgetting about it.

"Now that I'm getting interested in you, so no, not a chance." Slavica winked at her before wearing her mask again. Gwen blushed from it until she noticed Slavica wore her mask again.

"Why wear it?" Gwen wondered as she pouted playfully but there was some taint of blush over her cheeks.

"I have to do something. Wait here and if something comes here and you felt threatened, called me as you called me from your dream." Slavica sounded as serious as she instructed Gwen to wait for her and be wary of her surroundings.

"Okay…you sound serious." Gwen gulped as she felt some uneasiness around her heart.

"Always am." Slavica partially took off her mask and let Gwen see her left eye.

Slavica took notice Gwen's expression was uneasy which made her sigh and went closer to her. But what made Gwen caught off guard was when Slavica leaned down to kiss her forehead before putting her masked on.

"I'll be right back." Slavica stated before she opened the door and left Gwen in her jaw-dropped moment.

Gwen really felt the heat over her cheeks which made her cup her own face as she tried her best to settle down her rapid heartbeat. It was like wanted to jump out from her chest and went after Slavica's whereabouts. But upon realizing where her thoughts were leading her, she slapped her face from thinking that.

"Too soon. Too early…" She reminded herself which made her sigh.

"…but it's literally there already." She continued which made her look to the window from her bed.

As for Slavica, she went on her way to deal with that lurking man in the hospital that Gwen sensed earlier. She felt the familiar presence coming from each side of the hospital that made her click her tongue in annoyance since she wanted to be beside Gwen and talk. But the danger was lurking around and needed to face it before it escalate. Anyway, what she was sensing was coming from the fire exit to the left and another one from the right fire exit then lastly, on the elevator. She smirked beneath her mask as she just waltzes into the hospital hallway on the second floor as if she owns it until she saw three familiar faces coming her way but then vanished. As she kept walking toward some corner of the floor, she finally senses it. The negative energy of taunting that the wary strange man was emitting without his knowledge.

"Looking for something?" Slavica asked in her commanding voice echoed through the empty hall and made some static around the lights.

As the man heard her voice and some static happened through the lights at the ceiling, he slowly turned as his heartbeat was increasing in such fright. With his slow turn, Slavica took the liberty to make some glide to come closer to his spot. But to the eyes of the wary strange man, it was like a horror film especially when the person wore pure black attire which she was indeed wearing.

"I'll ask again, what are you looking for?" Slavica repeated more clearly than earlier but she was suddenly in front of the man.

The wary strange man suddenly peed over her pants and fell down on his ass while quivering in fear telling her not to kill him over and over again which caught Slavica's interest. She leaned closer and offered a gentle hand to him. the man took a peek and he saw that helping hand that Slavica just offered her then he also noticed some clear faces standing beside her. he took it very cautiously.

"Tell me, what you're looking for?" Slavica repeated her question to the man with more gentleness yet firm in her tone as they start walking.

"I am looking for a patient named Gwen Daae…I can't find her even though I was told not to disturb her rest. They won't let me enter the third floor instead, they took me to the four floors or the second floor." The wary strange man answered in his quivering voice. He felt intimidated and frightened by Slavica's presence.

"Why you're looking for her?" Yui asked in her childish tone suddenly appearing out of nowhere beside them.

"There's something I have to tell her." the man answered with a careful smile at Yui.

"Can you tell us?" Tacker wondered what it could be the message that this man was carrying for their rescued lady.

"Sorry but I can't." the man only answered with his very cautious voice.

"Alright, we'll take you there." Slavica informed the man that made her team look at her in disbelief.

"Are you sure?" the man noticed the disbelief in the other three people that his with.

"Yes. In fact, she is the one who sent me to check on you." Slavica reassured the man as she patted his shoulder for him to relax.

"Alright." The man sighed in relief then they all headed to the elevator which has the third floor on it since that said the floor was only designated for the DIP's patients.

As they got closer to the floor, Slavica cracked her stiff neck which was exactly like they were already on the third floor of the hospital. Then they went to the nurse's desk to ask for some spare pants since the wary strange man need some. Once they got the pants, they all headed to Gwen's room but when they got there, it was empty.

"Are you sure this is her room?" the man asked Slavica as they got inside the room and when she was about to answer him, a sudden opening of the door from the comfort room of the room opened.