Don't turn off the lights

When the lights started flashing repeatedly at the Sant Felicity hospital, there was shouting and a lot of uproar. The hall was still full and patients reluctantly waited to be called for consultation. It was an exam scheduling day and the place was a huddle of people who whispered and complained quietly in the stifling heat. Comments on the body found beyond the hill somehow seemed to be avoided.

Richard Walker twitched his mouth in a straight line, looking sideways and bored. A hospital never closed, but the staff there jostled over each other because of the schedule.

Years spent away from the city left Rick with little tolerance for the local superstition of the people. There was, in his opinion, a very real killer and perhaps a sadist to have the courage to kill a teenager like that. For some reason the body had been removed from the morgue and unmarked and taken to a more restricted area away from the inconvenient curiosity of reporters.

That fatally reminded him of why he was there in that emergency corridor when his shift was over. Still wearing his lab coat and identification badge, Rick tried to force his way through an angry and noisy crowd. The infirmary still had patients. His hopes of meeting his fellow classmate there were optimistic.

-Because if you want to know my opinion, I believe what they are saying out there. They found the girl in that motel room and very well accompanied. I wouldn't have minded attending the party if I had invited me. - The voice was accompanied by a vulgar laugh.

Rick stopped with his feet buried in the ground, burning with rage. It was always amazing how quickly news spread in a small town.

- Well, you should be careful and don't keep saying that nonsense. - another voice joined the conversation.

Rick immediately recognized Jock's serious manner by tightening his features. Was there anyone out there who hadn't heard? His anger after twenty-four hours eased, leaving him alert to details he hadn't previously noticed.

Usually Jack hated to double his shift when he left early in the evening. In that last month, the girlfriend's aversion increased with the proximity of the anniversary date of the parents' death. Rick had only met them very quickly and on the same night of the tragic accident. All the free time he got was little to satisfy his longing for Jack while he studied in the big city.

He could still remember very well the first time he had seen his future girlfriend enter the big Wlaker mansion for the local school guild interview. In fact Jack had collapsed on him in the empty hall next to the books she was carrying.

The simultaneous attraction brought inconveniences that Rick tried to solve in any way. And the mayor had no idea that his son's more frequent visits had another reason.

He leaned against the wall remembering that time without holding a smile. Unlike college and school girls who always tried to get his attention, Jaqueline Handall had cost him a lot of work.

Expensive gifts did not attract his attention. Rick hadn't noticed the gleam of greed in those lovely eyes. She was also still the same shy girl she always was.

Want to explain to me what the fuck you did in that fucking motel room, Jack?

For four months Rick had tried to attract her attention in every way. And nothing worked. There was clear, Mary. The dislike was mutual. Rick hated the way Jack's best friend dried his future girlfriend with her eyes, wondering several times if she really liked boys.

And on a providential stormy night they had been stranded in the small town cinema after a blackout over a fire. It was the dream opportunity that Rick could imagine to win over the girl.

I can't believe you did that, girl!

The night wasn't even over and Rick had decided to attack with full ammunition. Jack's fear of the dark was an ally that Rick was not ignoring. And the sensation of that small body next to his made him seriously evaluate his life plans.

Jack's parents were not very fond of his daughter getting involved with rich boys. Rick found it stunned that being rich put him at a disadvantage with these simple people. He knew that the attraction between them was reciprocal and when he overcame the barriers of Jack's conservative education he sighed and groaned his lover's name like an inexperienced young boy with his first girlfriend. For the first time he knew what jealousy was.

Virgin. The astonished surprise of discovering that Jack had never had boyfriends before aroused in him a feeling of possession that he never imagined he had. Within a few weeks, the shy, shy, virgin girl in bed revealed herself to be a demanding lover who made him burn in the hell of lust. And what a passion she had! What a body! Rick could say with complete conviction that he was in heaven and decided to keep his own family away from his girlfriend.

He made bold plans. He was the type of man who liked control a lot and wanted to shout to everyone that the girl was his. And there was a problem. Old Walker and his prejudices.

-What's up man? Do you really think the girl is innocent in all this? The mayor soon saw that the girl wanted only a classic blow from the chest on the most eligible bachelor in town.

Those words left Rick wondering. The father knew nothing about his secret relationship. And Jack had said nothing about it.

Did he find out about Jack? What the fuck! When?

Rick's decision to enter the infirmary was brushed aside and the conversation now interested him a lot.

Few people knew of the torrid and hidden romance between the two. Jock himself had only found out when Jack had started having nightmares and problems with insomnia. As much as the loving lover tried, Jack refused to talk about the subject or the death of his older sister during childhood.

-She is a simple girl. Rick was very rash believing appearances by getting to know his father.

It wasn't the first time Rick had asked himself that question. It made no sense to find Jack naked in a motel bed. The lucid mind outside the outbursts of passion and jealousy began to identify signs that had previously failed to attract attention. There was the impossible smell of alcohol and marijuana not being noticed on Jack's clothes. And she consumed little alcohol. Her disoriented way of getting up out of bed tripping over her own feet ...

Rick saw a strange Jack there, uninhibited and speaking loudly. Her difficulty in chaining her thoughts to the lame excuses while her eyes were glazed and reddened. He had done everything he shouldn't have done in a fit of jealous rage.

Do you want to tell me what's going on with you, girl? I know you're hiding something from me.

The argument had ended with Rick saying countless insults and packing his bags at Jack's house after they broke up. He closed his eyes miserably without wanting to recall the unfair accusations launched at the time of the anger. And to think about how life changed in just a month ... The girlfriend's late menstruation posed Rick an unexpected dilemma. If that result hadn't been negative ...

-Because you can bet it won't be long and this girl will invent that she is pregnant to guarantee a good pension.

Rick shook his head. He knew the townspeople would comment on their dating. Only after two years, he imagined that Jack trusted him enough to look for him in such a situation. Any contraceptive method could fail. Of course, she would never hide something so serious from him."

Did the shit test come back negative, sir?

The sigh of relief at hearing Jack explain that it was just a delay in menstruation was soon forgotten. Residency exams started. Secretly, Rick hoped to graduate and enjoy a few months of vacation, traveling with his future wife on honeymoon across Europe.

-You're defending this girl because of what your girlfriend has been telling you, man.- The conversation returned to draw Rick's attention.

His hand was still in the air and he did not knock on the door, warning that he was there.

What has Jock's girlfriend been saying, my God?

Rick's breath caught in his lungs. The mind wandered on an ordeal of hell. He knew his father too well to imagine what could have happened.

-The mayor offered money for the girl to get rid of the child and leave his son alone.

Rick cleared his throat loudly, advancing through the infirmary with his eyes glazed at his classmate without caring about more people there. He was shaking, seeing everything red at this point. First, it was not pleasant to know that his life was the reason for local gossip. And then imagining Jack hiding nonsense from him made him curse the worst expletives.

"Do you want to explain to me what your girlfriend has been saying about me to you?" Rick spoke loudly and his hands held the collar of Jock's coat, forgetting that it was still his place of work.

-God, Rick! - Jock broke free with a sudden tense jerk. "Are you going to say you never imagined that when you hid Jack from your old man?" I just found out ...

God, Jack! Why didn't you tell me?

Rick stopped livid as if he were punched and gasped. At that moment when reality threatened his illusory peace, the peripheral field of vision captured the rapid and diffuse image of what looked like someone beside him and he shivered with a bad feeling.

It was getting dark. The cloud-covered sky made it difficult for the cell phones to work. This made him assess the urgency of reaching Jack as soon as possible. The sudden darkness illuminated lightning and rays that shone in an air charged with strange electricity.

Tell me, please, that you're not really pregnant, baby.

The lights finally went out bringing new screams and confusion. And there, as the mind coolly analyzed the latest events that drastically changed his life, the metallic sound of strange noises echoed above the altered voices.

There was a freezing cold draft around them. All the heat that had previously been hushed up in the infirmary was freezing and suddenly frightening as the breath condensed in the air, leaving its sultry hot. Rick tried very hard to tell himself that he did not believe in the supernatural. The rational world he knew was made up of logic and consequences. There was the law of causality.

The sound of his tense breathing came loud and his tight, rigid muscles reacted as if he expected liters and liters of adrenaline in the most basic instinct of any living being. In dangerous situations the body assumes its own control with the sole and vital objective of preservation, aiming at escape and salvation. It is more or less like an alert system activated with the red lights shining in prominence. Inevitably, there is an increase in sensitivity to more agile signals and reflexes. The brain begins to interact with what is happening and tries to plan the best solution. The whole body prepares itself. It is a spontaneous fight-and-flight reaction. The brain recognizes a potentially threatening situation and forces the body to respond many times with a rapid adrenaline rush that removes the imminent danger.

-Someone turn on the damn generator! - Rick shouted with the hair on the back of his neck standing on end.

They are more or less danger trails. The body activates neuroception. And it starts involuntarily to have the will and to analyze dangerous situations, environment and people around. It all happens in a fraction of a second and out of consciousness.

- The repair team will solve it! - the nurse's voice answered. - They should call automatically.

Guess what, they didn't care.

-The recovery center with the sick ...- Jock spoke hurriedly, groping in the dark without seeing anything in front of him.

Rick was fumbling in his jeans pockets for the lighter by the cigarette pack when he felt something disgusting pass through him, radiating the most intense sensation of unpleasant cold.

-For the love of God, can anyone check the shit of generators that don't work? - he spoke again.

Nobody expected in the midst of the darkness and the noise at last from the engines of the old generator started and the lights came back dimmer, however, with enough clarity to illuminate the infirmary and the vacant beds again.

And the calm of a certain tired resident after the double shift exploded in an enviable mood. Jock didn't even bother with his colleague's new expletives. His outstretched arm pointed to the walls at the end of the corridor.

A huge, diagonally sloped, deep crack ran across the corridor wall.

All three residents approached in disbelief watching the crack in the building's structure without any apparent explanation.

And at the entrance to the hospital a car stopped, honking its horn.

The city firefighter arrived with his pregnant wife about to give birth after the bag had burst. The contractions were strong and followed. The woman screamed as she touched her bulky stomach, drawing the attention of everyone around her who was slowly starting to walk away.

- I think I need some rest. I am seeing things. I can only be seeing things! Somebody get me a strong, bitter coffee in the cafeteria. "Jock commented in amazement.

Rick stared at him wordlessly. Just yesterday he was giving the couple good news about the pregnancy. Rosi took the result of the euphoric pregnancy test when she was 4 weeks old. Only now at that moment the same doctor was looking at his patient, who without any explanation was ready to have the child.