(Part 5)

Abby awoke with an uncomfortable feeling. It was hot; too hot. She made her way to her bedroom window and opened it as wide as it would go. The cool air felt good upon her burning body. Why was it so damn hot? Something wasn’t right.

Abby walked into the living room with a growing suspicion and picked up the pamphlet the doctor had handed her yesterday. There it was. Under the ‘symptoms’ headline, there it was. Fever/night sweats. Abby closed her eyes. Oh God. It starts.

Dawn had come. It arrived as a flower blooms; innocent and unknowing of the day ahead. Abby walked to work that morning wondering how the sun could shine so bright when there was something dark lying beneath the surface. At work she encountered suffering and death everyday, and yet the sun had shone down. Yet at times when there was happiness and everyone had forgotten (even if only for a moment) how life really worked, there had been nothing but darkness.

The day was going by quickly, there being only a few traumas and not many people needing medical assistance. A heavy mist had settled upon Chicago in the late afternoon, and by dusk it started to rain.

“Abby,” Carter greeted while walking into the medical supply room.

Abby smiled as she looked up from her medicine checklist. “Yes?”

Carter sighed while rubbing his temples. “I need Haldol. This guy in trauma two is schizophrenic.”

Abby nodded her head understandingly. If Carter was treating a schizophrenic, it was a bad day. It brought back memories of that fatal Valentine’s Day years back. And accompanying those memories, guilt. Abby knew that Carter felt guilty for not saving Lucy, but he was not the one to blame. Paul Sobriki was. The schizophrenic was.

“You can’t save everyone Carter.” Abby whispered out of nowhere. She knew him all too well, and that included knowing what he was thinking.

“I know.” He whispered back solemnly as he turned to leave. Suddenly he turned back around. “Hey Abby, want to go get something to eat later? Believe me- I could use the company after today.”

“No thanks, I’m not hungry.” She answered while checking back to her list.

“When was the last time you’ve eaten? I’m serious. You’ve been losing a lot of weight recently…”

“Carter! I’m fine! Nothing is wrong with me.” It was a lie, but she felt it was necessary. He had other things on his mind to worry about, and she didn’t want to upset him.

“Okay… but if you ever need to talk…”

“…I’ll know where to find you.” Abby finished for him. She gave him one last smile as she walked out of the room.

This couldn’t be. This just couldn’t be. Abby repeated in her mind while shifting through past medical files.

“Hey Frank, did you happen to come across a chart belonging to a girl named Emma? It should be here in last month’s files, but it’s not.” Abby asked the man sitting by the computer.

“I could check the database if you want,” he replied. “What’s the last name?”

Abby thought for a minute. “Well, I’m not sure…”

“Well, what was the date then?”

“March twentieth. The day of the charity ball.” She answered matter-of-factly.

Frank typed in the date and waited for the search results. He then scanned all the names. “Emma? No one by the name of Emma was admitted into the hospital that day. Are you sure that’s the name?”

Abby’s expression showed surprise and confusion. “Are you sure? She came in around eight PM with acute lymphocytic leukemia. Went into trauma one. Check again.”

Frank rechecked the list. “No. No ‘Emma’. But there’s a ‘Laura Diane Swanson’ who was brought in by ambulance 108 with those symptoms. Says here she was released the next day; parents thought it would be best for her to die at home peacefully.”

“Parents?” Abby asked dumbfounded. “That little girl only had a mother, and she couldn’t have gone home. Social services would’ve been called. No one in the right mind should have let that girl go home when her mother stabbed her!” She was yelling now.

“What?” Now it was Frank’s turn to be confused. He turned back to the file on the computer and reread it. “Laura was stabbed by a freak accident. A sharp object fell and hit her in the back. Abby, are you okay?”

People around the admit desk and waiting area were starting to stare at her. The room began to spin uncontrollably. She had never experienced vertigo before. Abby ran out of the hospital and into the ambulance bay, desperate for air. Another storm had arrived. She could barely see past the street it was raining so much. The cold pouring rain drenched her hair and clothes in only a few seconds. She stopped to feel the hard drops upon her flushed face. Falling to her hands and knees, she attempted to stop the fatigue. But it could not be stopped. She soon lost feeling as everything was fading to black. Everything faded into oblivion.