Chapter Six

I tapped my foot impatiently while staring at the wall clock above the front desk. It was 9:30 PM. Although my shift ended a while ago, I couldn't help but feel antsy.

My coworkers were probably wondering where I was with their coffee. My phone had died, and there was no way for me to contact them. I left my charger on my desk back at work, and no staff had an extra one I could borrow for the time being.

Anger coursed through my veins. I admitted that strange man who I hit with my car over an hour ago, and the staff strongly encouraged me to wait for the man's guardians to come. And when I say that they "strongly encouraged" me, I meant they were threatening to call the cops and report me as the suspect of a hit and run.

I felt like my life was ebbing away quickly the longer I waited here in this hospital. Watching the small hand of the clock tick one at a time didn't help me. I stared at one of the nurses who was typing away on the computer.

I knew she felt my eyes on her, but she was purposely ignoring me. I cleared my throat loud enough for people down the hall to hear, and she finally shifted her gaze.

"Excuse me, how much longer do I have to wait?"

The nurse shrugged. "Who are you waiting for?"

"The guardian for the strange man admitted earlier. He has long black hair and a burgundy robe. I'm asking how much longer I have to wait for someone to see him. I have to leave."

"Let me check for you." The nurse pressed her lips together and lazily moved her eyes back to her screen. She started typing and after a few minutes, she leaned on her fist. "The Doctor will be out in a second."

I groaned. "Seriously, I can't wait any longer. I have to go and prepare for work tomorrow." I glanced at the clock. "Is it okay if I leave my ID and phone number here?"

"That's not how it works, Ms. Brown." A deep voice in my ear caused me to jerk forward. I span around quickly. The same Doctor from earlier, a blonde and short man smiled at me and put his hands in his coat pockets. "Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything about the man you hit with your car."

I felt my face get hot when he uttered what I did loud enough for everyone to hear. "What do you mean?" I bit my lip.

"He doesn't have a cellphone or any existing records in our system. All we can do right now is wait for the man to wake up so you can handle this matter yourselves."

"And you couldn't tell me this an hour before?" I whined, and the Doctor shrugged.

"Oh!" He raised his index finger high and then rummaged through his pocket. "But he did have this in his robe. I'm not sure what it is." The Doctor pulled out a purple crystal-shaped gem. It was slightly smaller than his palms. I observed it in detail while he extended his hand forward to give it to me.

The gem was glowing. I reached my hand out to touch it, and my fingertips felt the warmth radiating off the crystal. I took it into my hands and immediately saw an image flash in front of my eyes. The Doctor was no longer in front of me.

I saw various clips and pieces of an army marching toward a wall that surrounded an entire village. Leading the men was a general dressed in heavy black armor. Their swords and shields were the color of obsidian, and they were sharp.

Suddenly, I felt the heavy wind and the army before my eyes disappeared. Violet-colored liquid oozed all over the dirt path where my feet were. "W-what?" I stammered. I reached down to touch it but stopped when a foul smell reached my nose. "This smells like... blood!" I whipped my head around and saw a plethora of bodies sprawled all over the battleground. The wall to the village was crumbled and the land looked devastated.

Then an orb of purple light hovered in front of me and I instinctively reached for it. But it quickly moved away from my hand. I reached for it again, and it quickly whizzed to my right. Somehow, I couldn't stop myself from trying to catch the orb repeatedly. My body wasn't listening to my mind.

I felt rage in my heart. It was a heavy feeling, and it weighed me down. It was like it was hard to breathe. No matter how many times I tried catching the light, it kept being snagged away from me. I wasn't sure what emotion I felt now. Was it anger? Or was it greed?

It didn't matter. All I wanted was to keep this purple orb in the palm of my hand. I jumped high and finally managed to graze my finger across the orb, but then the face of a vicious reptile appeared before me. I screamed when I saw the creature expand its massive wings. Then it eyed me and snarled. Fire came out of its mouth and engulfed me.

I squealed and all the images went away. I had dropped the purple crystal onto the ground, and the Doctor held me up by my arm as I pressed myself onto the desk. I panted heavily and felt heavy sweat cascading down my face.

"Are you okay, Ms. Brown?"

"W-what... just happened?" I blinked at him and tried to steady myself. "Did you see that?"

"You started screaming suddenly." The Doctor frowned. "Was it because of this?" He bent down and picked up the purple crystal I tossed away.

"You... you didn't see what I saw?" I gulped.

"What are you talking about?"

I snatched the crystal out of his hands, waiting for those disturbing images to come out in front of us, but nothing happened. "What the?" I flicked the crystal and even tried shaking it. Nothing happened. "I know I'm not seeing things!" I mumbled.

"Ms. Brown, I understand that you're tired. It's been a long night for you, I'm sure. But if you have any mental health issues that include having delusions, just say so instead of wasting my time."

"Delusions?" I scoffed. I threw my finger forward and in his face. "You're the one wasting my time! You've kept me here for lord knows how long! All to admit a man I don't even know, a man who doesn't have any visible injury! When I hit him with my car, he was perfectly fine, I checked!"

"Then why did you bring him unconscious?"

"Because he attacked me! I slapped him and he passed out!"

The Doctor snorted and laughed.

"I should report you. You're right, maybe I am tired. I'm exhausted. But that doesn't give you a right to insult me, and on top of that keep me here by threatening to call the police. I've got things to do! Do you view me as some sort of criminal or something? Do you think I'll just run away and not own up to my mistake?"

"Calm down." The Doctor rolled his eyes at me.

"My calm demeanor left the building an hour ago, punk." I hissed.

"Sir! Doctor!" A nurse with ginger hair jolted to a stop beside me. His face was red and his hands were trembling. "The patient brought in earlier, the one with the robe. He's awake, and he's wreaking havoc in room 11."

"What?" The Doctor gasped. "Why?"

"I don't know! He managed to knock out Jack!"

"The heavy-set nurse?" The Doctor's eyes widened and the red-headed nurses nodded frantically.

"He keeps screaming about lapis. I don't understand what he means."

"Crap." The Doctor looked at the nurse at the front desk. "Hey, call in security and a nurse to bring some Propofol."

The nurse at the desk nodded and the Doctor and redhead jogged away from me and turned the corner. I paced after them. I hadn't even turned the corner yet when I heard screaming and shouting. I peeked around and saw that the strange man from earlier was fighting off at least 4 nurses.

However, he knocked 2 of them off and shoved one into the wall. The man looked furious, and I watched as one of the nurses snatched off his robe while holding him back.

"Oh my gosh." I opened and closed my eyes when I saw his muscles on full display. The way he flexed his arms and the way his shoulders moved almost made me swoon. I quickly shook my head and snapped out of it. "No, no, no, get those thoughts out of your head, Casey."

The Doctor stepped forward and held his hands high in defense. "Sir! Calm down! We are here to help you!"

"Get out of my way." The man growled.

"You've faced a traumatic hit, so you have to lie down and rest. Legally, we can't let you leave."

"I, royal of Elvanor command you to take your..." The man eyed the redhead in disgust. "Soldiers... and step away."

"Uh..." The Doctor coughed awkwardly. "As I've stated before, you're not in the right mind so I can't let you leave the building. We have tests to run and—"

"If you will not make way, then you will perish by my hands." The man grabbed onto the Doctor and tossed him to the other nurses. The Doctor quickly pushed himself up and pointed to the redhead nurse.

"Don't let him leave!"

"But—"

"If you let him get past you, you're fired!"

The redhead grabbed a nearby can of Lysol and held it up high. "Halt! Stay back!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on." Yeah, that redhead was gonna join the pile of nurses sprawled out if he didn't move out of the man's way.

"Is this some sort of form of weapon?" The man laughed. The redhead started spraying the Lysol all around him and the man started coughing. He snarled and grabbed the redhead by his neck before hauling him off the ground. "I am not sure what sorcery you are playing with, but I will not be fooled. You and your men better answer me. Where the lapis you stole from me?"

The redhead coughed and swung his legs. He was begging for air.

"Lapis?" I gasped and looked at the crystal in my hand. I looked back at the man and redhead and waved the crystal high in the air. "Hey, you!" I called out to them. The man whipped his head to examine me, and he caught sight of the gem. "Are you looking for this?"

The man discarded the redhead and jogged over to me. "You have it—" He reached for my hand, but I snatched it before he could take it.

"Ah-ah! Just because I have it doesn't mean I'm going to give it to you!"

The man narrowed his eyes at me. "Phoenix, I don't have time to play games with you. I hand it over. I command it."

"First of all, don't call me that." I spat. "Second, no." I screeched when he grabbed onto my arm and yanked me forward after my response. "LET ME GO!"

And just before he could touch the gem, a hoard of security guards tackled him to the ground. He fought some of them off, and the nurses quickly gathered around him.

"Inject him now!" The Doctor hollered.

The redhead grabbed a needle from another nurse and stuck it into the man's skin. The man roared and struggled against all the security guards. But the injection did nothing. He was still able to move around.

"Give him another dose!" The Doctor instructed.

And they did, but the medicine wasn't working.

"Jesus! How many injections does it take for this guy to fall asleep?" The Doctor panicked.

They gave him the third dose and I noticed that the man was starting to slow down. His movements were sloppy, but he was still able to push one of the guards off. Then, they injected him one last time with another dose, and the man started to calm down. In a matter of seconds, he was unconscious.