<knock knock>

“Gabriel? Gabriel are you there?”

In the darkness there is a moan.

“Gabriel?”

There is a flick of a switch, and in an instant, the near pitch-blackness is flooded with bluish white light. It fills every single corner of the small break room, including, sadly, the retinas of the man that was sleeping on the nearby leather couch.

“Gahhhh! Shit!” Gabriel sat bolt upright, shielding his eyes from the sudden onslaught of artificial light. “Ow ow ow!” he declares. His face winces a few times as his eyes squint in the general direction of the sound.

“I’m sorry Dr. Cyrus, but we have an ambulance that just pulled up.” Gabriel Cyrus’ vision was just beginning to come into focus. In the doorway stood Angeline, the head nurse of the evening shift. She was young, tall and thin but incredibly smart. As his eyes adjusted he could make out her small but strong hands and her sheepish look.

Gabriel groans as he stiffly rises off of the brown leather couch. “At this hour? In this weather?”

“I know, right?” answers Angeline. “Between the snow and the cold, we might not even be able to get out after the shift is over. But there’s an ambulance and a metro police car here. The officer said that he wanted to speak to a doctor.”

“Angeline,” replied Gabriel softly. You know I’m not an official ‘Doctor’ yet. I still haven’t taken my exams.” Gabriel stood and walked over, craning and stretching his neck side to side, trying to wake up. “Did Doctor Soliel ever arrive?”

“Nope,” said Angeline as she started walking with Gabriel toward the emergency room entrance. “He couldn’t get here through the snow. He said something about an avalanche blocking the roads from his house. I tried to reach him on his cell phone and at his house, but he isn’t answering.”

“Lines are probably down.” Already the temperature in the air was cooler as they neared the outside entrance to the small hospital. “How cold is it outside Angeline?” he said as the automatic doors slid open. There was a rush of arctic, bone chilling air as the door opened. There was a flickering of red and blue lights reflecting off concrete pillars and walls surrounding the ambulance entrance as they both stepped outside into the howling, snow-flecked wind.

“MINUS -15 degrees Celsius with windchill!” yelled Angela as the ambulance doors opened. On the gurney was a girl. From Gabriel’s initial glance, she looked about or ten or eleven years old with a fountain of blonde hair cascading around her face.

“Get her inside!” yelled Gabriel. Angeline could only nod vigorously, following the gurney and ambulance driver inside as another man walked up. He was wearing the uniform of the local subway security detail. He offered a gloved hand. Gabriel shook it. “The name is Victor!” he yelled in the howling wind.

“Let’s go inside Victor!” yelled Gabriel in response. The two immediately sprinted for the automatic doors, nearly hitting their faces on it before it opened up and both were greeted with a blast of warm air.

“Now that’s a wicked cold!” said Victor as he dusted the snow off of himself.

“What’s going on?” asked Gabriel. He was still shivering occasionally as they stood in the warmer air. He motioned his way deeper into the warmth of the lit building.

“She was waiting for a subway train,” began Victor. “At least that’s what I think. I saw her and she took off and ran. When she got to the platform a train was arriving and she didn’t see it and got smacked by it and went flying. I called for an ambulance and they brought us here. They couldn’t bring us to main hospital, too much snow.”

Victor paused for a moment and continued, anticipating the next questions. “She wasn’t with anyone as near as I can tell. When I got to her she was out cold. She only came to on the ride over here. I asked her for her name and she was too out of it to answer. She didn’t have an ID either. She got hit pretty bad...she must have skidded a good fifteen feet after she was hit.”

“Thanks for bringing her in Victor. I’m just an intern attending tonight. The doctor that was supposed to be attending tonight couldn’t get here. Something about an avalanche.”

“Oh yeah!” replied Victor. “I heard it on the radio. It took out all of Grants pass.”

Gabriel stopped and did a double take. “Wait, did you just say…”

“All of Grants Pass,” replied Victor. “It’ll be days before you see your Doctor again, maybe a week.”

“Swell,” replied Gabriel. He turned back to the nurses station to find Angeline waiting patiently. “Room 5,” she said efficiently. Gabriel motioned his head down the hallway, passing by the exam room before entering in room #5.

The girl was already off the stretcher and sitting upright on the exam table. Gabriel and Victor entered the room. As Gabriel approached her, it was clear that she was more on the side of 10 than 12 years old. Her chest was still flat as a board and her hips were straight. Still, her eyes and her face seemed older to him somehow, but he couldn’t figure out why.

“Hello. My name is Gabriel and this is Victor. Victor found you in the train station. You were badly hurt. Do you remember what happened in the train station?

The girl paused, her eyes staring off at the wall. It was clear she was trying to remember, but it was also clear that nothing was happening.

“I remember the train and noise and light and I remember hearing a squealing, and then I woke up in the ambulance,” she said finally.

“What’s your name honey?”

“It’s umm...”

Gabriel watches as she hesitates. As seconds go by, an increasing sense of alarm fills him. Finally the girl speaks up.

“Elena? I think it’s Elena.”

“That’s a pretty name,” Gabriel replied softly. “Are you sure it’s Elena? What is your last name sweetie?”

“It’s...umm...it’s…” her voice trails off as her eyes flick back and forth, her eyebrows wrinkling as she searches for the sounds and comes up with nothing. “I...I don’t remember,” she says finally. “It’s like, I know it, I should know it, but I can’t seem to grasp it.”

“That’s ok for now Elena. What you were doing in the subway station by yourself?

“I went down there to meet someone and catch a train but...I don’t remember who I was supposed to meet or where I was going…”

“That’s ok sweetie. I’m going to speak to Victor here for a moment, ok? I’ll be right back.”

Gabriel  then walks out of the examination room with Victor . Both wait until the door is closed. Victor speaks up first.

“She going to be OK doc? I mean, she was out cold when I saw her.”

“Amnesia is not uncommon in these kinds of cases. The odds are that she’ll rest here, sleep and remember who she is in the morning. Do you need me to sign something?”

“Yeah,” said Victor , pulling out the small metal clipboard from under his arm. “Just sign here and we’ll release her to the hospital. Someone will be here in the morning to ask her some more questions.”

Gabriel nodded, signing his name and handing the clipboard back. “Thanks for bringing her in Victor.” Gabriel watched as Victor turned around and walked down the corridor, reaching the double doors and watching them swing behind him as he left. Gabriel then went back inside where the girl was waiting, sitting on the exam table.

“Elena, I’m going to ask you a few more questions now ok? Why don’t you lie down and rest while I exam you.” Gabriel pulls out a small penlight out of his shirt pocket. “I’m just going to shine this in your eyes for a few seconds.” Gabriel waits for Elena to give a nod. “Elena, do you remember what day it is?”

“It’s umm...Monday?” she replies hesitantly. Gabriel doesn’t react at all as he mentally clicks off today is actually Tuesday.

“What month is it?”

“Oh, that’s easy, it’s January!” she says more confidently.

“That’s right. It’s January,” replied Gabriel as he took his penlight and waved it across her pupils. Gabriel paused, his lips turning down into a small frown as he danced the light across her eyes, first the right pupil, going back and forth, and then across the left. Something was bothering him, but he couldn’t quite place it. “How do you feel Elena?” he asked finally as he stuffed the penlight in his shirt pocket. He was staring into her face and eyes. He felt like he was missing something, something he should know.

“Well, I feel kinda...foggy? It’s like...hard for me to find...words...for how I feel,” she says. The words seem to be coming to her slowly. “Kinda have...head…headache…” she said finally. There’s a difference to her speech now, an odd extra beat. “Ears...ringing...and...stuffshhhhh.” she replies, he last word slurred and uneven.

Gabriel’s heart begins to pound and he realizes what he’s missed. He tries to stay calm in the middle of his panic. “Elena, I want you to lie down, ok, I’m going to get something and I’ll be right back.” Gabriel exits the room, waiting for the door to close before running down the hall in a panic down to the nurses station.

“Angeline? Angeline?” he yells as he crashes into the nurses station. “Where’s Angeline?” he asks the other nurses. One of the junior nurses shrugs. “Dunno, she’s on break, said she’d be back in half an hour.”

“Fuck!” says Gabriel as he runs back down the hallway. The nurse at the station shrugs and goes back to her computer, not caring as she scans Facebook.

Gabriel races down the hall, fumbling with his security badge before managing to swipe it and stumble into the equipment room. He fumbles around, putting two things on a wheeled cart before pushing the cart in front of him down the hallway to room #5. He takes a deep breath and composes himself before opening the door.

“Elena?” he asks hesitantly. He notices Elena lift her head up, dutifully lying down as instructed. Her arm raises up and she waves, but there is a certain clumsiness about it. “Elena, I’m going to hook up a machine to monitor you ok?”

“Okay...will...hurt…?” she manages to say, slowly.

“No no, it won’t hurt. We just have to take some clothes off of you…” Gabriel says, hurrying. He doesn’t wait for a response as he lifts her torso off the exam table. Already she’s gone fairly limp as he leans her against his left shoulder and starts stripping off her jacket, getting it off of her arms before casually tossing it aside. In moments he’s reaching around her waist, pulling out her top from her waist and pulling it up over her blonde hair before he too, tosses that aside. It lands on top of the jacket in a corner on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Elena’s eyes are darting everywhere, looking confused as Gabriel pushes her back onto the exam table, his left hand in the center of her chest. while his right fumbles behind him before hooking the corner of the cart and wheeling it next to her. “I have to monitor your headache…” he says as he leaves her moaning and writhing on the exam table.

“Head hurts...it hurts bad...” she whimpers as Gabriel frantically searches through vials, reading each label until his hand snares on the right one. He tosses it into his left hand while his hand opens up a drawer, fumbling around and finding a syringe. Putting the paper wrapper in his teeth he rips open the sterile package, letting the hypodermic needle fall out neatly into the palm of his right hand. With a practiced flourish, he tilts his right hand to grab the end of the hypodermic at the same time he flips the glass vial in his left hand so that he can stab it with the sharp needle. He draws the clear liquid into the small plastic chamber.

Elena’s eyes look at Gabriel and then the needle. “What’s it for?” she mumbles, her words coming slowly and deliberately, as if she were pondering each sound.

“This is just something to numb the top of your head so I can insert a probe,” says Gabriel. He quickly finds a part in her hair and stabs the needle into her scalp. “It’ll sting,” he says as he plunges the liquid into her. There is a rush and intake of air as it stings her scalp. “Ouch!”  gasps Elena. Gabriel takes the needle and dumps it into a nearby red plastic sharps container hanging from the wall. Gabriel’s panic as continues to climb as he realizes that something is very wrong with this girl. His hand fumbles for the other object on the cart. It’s a squat thing but clean and rarely used. Quickly he takes the end of it and jabs a small red button. There is a whirring, high speed sound as he brings it to the spot where he injected her and then he pushes it down. Immediately there’s a yelping as some of her hair is caught around the rapidly spinning drill bit. “Shit!” yells Gabriel. He had forgotten about shaving her head or sterilizing the site in his rush and hurry. Whatever was going to happen now was too late. He had no choice but to press on as she smell of burning copper and warmed baking bone assaulted his nostrils. Elena cried out in surprise but was not struggling in pain, so at least he knew the local anesthesia was working. Gabriel continued to drill as the probe moved bit by bit deeper into her scalp. There was a slowing, struggling whirring sound as the drill bit dug deeper as he pressed on. There was a sudden increase of pitch as the drill finally made its way through the last of her skull. Gabriel took his thumb off of the red button and then shoved the rest of the housing on the probe, pressing it deep against her hair so that the adhesive would hold it steady. Gabriel took a step back to assess Elena.

Elena stared back, clearly confused, sobbing, her hands moving at her sides listlessly, her legs kicking softly against the exam table. Elena was crying out in pain, rolling her head side to side as the probe stuck straight out of the top of her head. “Head hurtssss, it hurts so bad make it stop make it stoooooopppppp!” was all Elena could say as Gabriel scanned the machine on the cart. It took him several seconds to the the ‘On’ button which he stabbed hurriedly with his thum. The device beeped once, the display registering 88888888888 before displaying ‘CALIBRATING’. “Come on come on,” Gabriel said, hopping up and down as the machine made a series a beeps. ‘MEASURING’ was the next thing to display. “Oh for fucks sake!” he mutters as his heart races. Finally a number and letters display. ‘18 mm HG’

Gabriel gasps as he sees the result. That’s already very high especially in one so young. The reasons for her headache were clear as everything fell into place. Something was wrong in her head. Was it bleeding? Concussion swelling? It didn’t matter as his mind raced to find a solution.

“HURTS IT HURTS” cried out Elena. Her hands had come up trembling to her skull, pressing against the front of her forehead as she sobbed. Her ears were now ringing and each beat of her heart sounded like a loud echoing thump in her ears. Her stomach felt queasy and nauseous.

“Elena, ELENA!” yelled Gabriel. “Look at me!” Gabriel grabs her hands to clear her face. Elena is sobbing, her head shaking back and forth, slowly. “I need to see your eyes again, ok?” Gabriel fumbles for his penlight in his shirt pocket and pulls it out, flipping it on. Elena’s head is shaking back and forth too much for him, so he is forced to take his left hand, grab her face by the cheek and then hold her head still by pressing it against the examination table. Once still, he carefully uses his index finger and thumb to pry her trembling right eye open, shining the light into it. Gabriel watched in horror at Elena’s trembling pupil. It was still reacting to light, but it was sluggish, confused and hesitant, almost if it wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be doing. “No...nonono, please no,” he begged. Elena was still resisting him, writhing on the exam table, sobbing. “Hurrrrttsss!”

Gabriel let go of Elena’s head and face as she openly sobbed in pain. Gabriel’s eyes looked over at the cart and the device on top, which now displayed ‘29 mm Hg’. Pressure was building in Elena’s head quickly. W Elena tried to sit up now, confused, mumbling to herself, her arms flailing about. Gabriel held her down, pressing on her shoulders. “Elena, stay down, stay down sweetie.” Gabriel turned his head toward the door, yelling. “NURSE! I NEED A NURSE!” Gabriel’s eyes swung back helplessly to the device, the display updating again. ‘37 mm Hg’.

Elena’s words were beginning to get slower, her words of pain melting into a long set of groans as her writhing on the examination started to slow, her arms and legs flapping around aimlessly. “No Elena, stay with me honey, stay with me!” begged Gabriel, shaking her shoulders even as Elena’s eyes looked dreamy and far away. “Stayyyy?….sshhhhh…” Elena groggily replied. Gabriel watched as Elena’s eyes tried to focus.

Gabriel could only watch in horror as Elena’s eyelids began to flutter, her eyes open wide, her mouth open as the pressure slowly mounted in her skull. “Elena? Elena?? You need to focus on me and stay ok? Just focus on...ohshit…” Gabriel’s gentle instruction was cut off as Elena’s eyes suddenly rolled back into her head and she began to convulse, gurgling and choking on her own spit as her entire body went rigid, her arms suddenly at her sides, her toes pointed, her hands clenched into little fists. Her body convulsed, shuddering, shivering, getting sweaty as the pressure kept building in Elena’s skull, her brain being squeezed down into the base of her skull. Gabriel could only hold on to her to make sure that her jerking body didn’t roll off of the examination table.

After several long moments and a few long shuddering jerks later, Elena’s body started to quiet down. Her muscles were still locked in a rigid position, her hands at her sides, her wrists bend backwards towards her back, her toes still pointed. Elena’s eyes were closed now, but her eyelids were fluttering and jerking unnaturally. Gabriel let go of his hug and gently adjusted her back onto the bed, panting as he pulled back. Gabriel stood up and looked at the monitor again, which read now ‘55 mm Hg’. Gabriel knew now that there wasn’t any hope as it climbed up even more. The fluttering of her eyelids stopped as Gabriel watched Elena’s squeezed brain try to send signals to her chest to keep breathing, the breaths coming in fast, then slow, then fast, then slow, then that too eventually began to slow and then eventually stop.

Gabriel stood there, helplessly watching as the pressure climbed to 70. There was no way that her heart could possibly fight the pressure in her skull as her brain starved for blood and began to die. Gabriel shifted uneasily as he took his penlight from his pocket and shined it into Elena’s eyes. The pupils were sluggish to respond and after several swipes of light, didn’t bother to contract. Instead they were steadily expanding as the thing controlling them slowly shutdown. Gabriel wanted to do something to save her but he knew that it would only be a few minutes until she was completely brain dead. He could only helplessly watch it happen.

Gabriel felt an odd desire flit against his mind that somehow propels him across the room, going to the door and locking it before coming back to Elena’s softly, occasionally jerking form. Wasting no time, Gabriel begins to undo the girls pants, opening up the button near her waist and feeling the warmth there before pulling down her zipper, exposing her white panties to the harsh light of the room. It’s been maybe half a minute since her brain hasn’t gotten any blood and he has very little time. Quickly he pulls down her pants just enough so that he can reach up through the top and slide his hand underneath her white panties. His fingers begin to probe, hunting down deeper and deeper between her legs, his fingertips touching her soft pubic hair and continuing to move downwards to the slit in her pubic mound. He moans softly as he feels the first bits of hot dampness, his mind registering the slickness. A part of him wonders how she could be so wet.

Not wanting to lose the moment, he took his hand, turned it slightly, took a breath and then stabbed his middle finger deep into the dying girls hot, wet hole. He began to work it in and out of her, his other hand pushing down the front of her pants even more so he could move his fingers in and out of her dying twat. There was a soft slurping sound as he moved it in and out, feeling her cunt clenching and relaxing reflexively every time he shoved his digit deep into her. His finger-tip brushed against something hard and knobby -- her cervix and entrance into a dying womb. Gabriel found himself pushing the front of his pants against the exam table, using the pressure there to stimulate himself as moments passed by. With ticking second Elena moved closer and closer to death as more of her thoughts and feelings suffocated and stopped deep behind her half-lidded eyes. Gabriel continued to finger-fuck the dying girl as he moved his free hand up her hot, shuddering body before finally resting on her face. Carefully, he took his thumb and forefinger and gently pried open her right eyelid so he could stare into her shuddering right eye.

Gabriel was now wildly bucking against the table, frantically rubbing himself against it while his finger stabbed in and out of her cunt as fast as he could, the wet schwick and slurping sounds loud in his ears. He could feel her starting to relax down there as whatever controlled her sexual response dimmed in her dying brain. When he couldn’t feel any tenseness at all down there he knew she was almost gone. Staring into her dilating eye while finger fucking her damp, now useless pussy, Gabriel grunted and began to come, smashing his hips against the cold metal table. He felt waves of pleasure as he spurted right into his underwear and pants, not caring about anything other than his own joy. Finally his own pulses of bliss slowed down and came to a stop.

Gabriel shuddered in pleasure as he slowly get go of Elena’s slack and pale face. Her eyelid stayed open as he withdrew his hand from her cunt with a quiet slurp, his fingers glistening with her fluids as he suddenly had a sense of panic. Would someone autopsy her? Find her disheveled clothes suspect? Gabriel, for all of his smarts wasn’t a cop or a coroner. Frantic to cover up his crimes, he quickly pulled Elena’s underwear up and redid her pants. Would that be enough to cover up his crime? Gabriel felt a coolness around his crotch and realized that the front of his pants were stained. Then he got an idea. Hr put both of his hands together touched her lower stomach, right below her belly button. He then began to press down, hard, right on her bladder. Gabriel was rewarded with a sudden dark stain in her crotch and a sharp smell as he massaged the top of her lower stomach, making sure to empty everything into her pants. Satisfied that would be enough he then tended to himself, grabbing some paper towels to soak up the fluid in his pants as well as untucking his shirt and letting it hang over the front of his pants. Finally, he grabbed a lab coat and put it on, completely hiding the stains. When he was satisfied he went to the door, unlocked it, and tried to find a staff member to help.

--------------

“What’s your name sweetie?”

“Marina,” the girl answered.

“No, your real name,” said the man.

“That is my real name. It’s Marina,” said the girl, clearly annoyed.

“And you’re how old?”

“I’m 12. Or 13. I can’t remember now.”

“That’s good enough. How much?”

“50 for a blow. 150 for half and half. Where do you want to do it?”

“Well, not here,” said the man as he looked up and down the staircase nervously. “How about over there in the corner of the station?”

The girl shrugs. “Sure that will...oh shit.”

The man looks around and sees a cop at the top of the stairs. He turns to look for the girl, but she’s already gone, running down the stairs and towards the subway platform