Voiceless

Chapter Twenty One

A knock on the hollow door dragged Arturo out of his thoughts. He spied the alarm clock beside him. 11:39pm. Who would be at the door at this time of night? Sensing something wrong he threw the raggedy blanket off his body and shuffled towards the door. Pulling back the latch he pushed the door open, allowing a thin stream of light to enter and illuminate the dark face of Dr Jeffrye's.

"We've got some talking to do Arturo" he snarled with a glare. Arturo, noticing his expression, gulped visibly and forged a yawn. "At this time? Can't it be done tomorrow?"

"You know fully well we can't discuss this tomorrow." Dr Jeffrye raged and shoved Arturo onto the wall. "Let's talk now." His fists tightened on Arturo's shirt and he dragged him to the chair.

"Didn't we make it clear to you before this experiment that your presence should be kept secret?" Dr Jeffrye asked. Arturo clicked his jaw and stared at him pointedly.

"I don't recall you telling me that at all. In fact, it was Dr Paulo that told me about this god-forsaken project. Where is he? I haven't seen him in a long time" Arturo speculated with false curiosity. He crossed his arms and laid back in his seat ignoring the sharp glare sent his way.

"Dr Paulo is currently on leave. He injured his foot whilst on the premises." Dr Jeffrye explained, clearing his throat whilst adjusting his tie that suddenly felt like it was choking his windpipe.

"Bull! You expect me to believe that? I know what you did to him! You know, for a man that has so many secrets you really need to hire nurses that can contain themselves."

"What do you mean?" Dr Jeffrye narrowed his eyes at the man sitting before him. Arturo scoffed.

"Fourth week in, one of the nurses comes in to check my room. Her eyes are bloodshot and she's got a red stain on her uniform. Of course I asked what was wrong and she sobbed it all out."

Dr Jeffrye clenched his fists and sighed. Slowly a sly smirk grew on his face. "Well if you know already... Alex was a good friend. He was the sole mastermind behind Merudoxin. Came straight out of Cambridge with this awesome idea of painless births. I mean he lost his wife to childbirth, of course he'd be driven to a creation like this. But... he didn't see the bigger picture. I tried to persuade him, show him my vision! But the idiot didn't want to hear anything about it. He got further than I ever could" he whispered the end.

"Because your medical license got cancelled" Arturo confirmed and Dr Jeffrye looked up. "You know a lot about me, how?" he asked.

"I guess, you really did choose some bad nurses" Arturo said. The doctor gritted his teeth. "Violent conduct was apparently the reason. But I know they removed it because they were jealous of my ideas. They hated that I was more creative, more knowledgeable! Hitting that guy was the last straw though apparently" he spat out in bitter distaste.

"Hit? You knocked that guy out with a hammer! Splintered his skull and left him brain damaged!" Arturo said in disbelief. "You don't know how desperate I was to leave this place. Get away from you when I learnt that. Heck your own nurses wanted to escape! And when that nurse told me what you did to Dr Paulo... I knew I had to get out now. But then..."

Dr Jeffrye looked up. "Why stop now? Might as well spill" he said with a knowing erratic grin. Arturo looked away. "Before you realised that Hazel was carrying your baby? Is that it?" the doctor laughed out. "I knew you two knew about each other. I was angry but then it was done and I couldn't reverse it. You broke the rules and she's paying the price!"

"Paying the price? What did you do to her?" Arturo shouted. He stood up from his seat and attempted to grab hold of Dr Jeffrye but the man raised his hand and stopped him in his tracks. "I'm not stopping you from seeing her. Go to the staffroom, I'm sure her screams will lead you the way" he chuckled out. Arturo widened his eyes in concern and ran out of the room. The sound of his shoes slapping the steps of the staircase echoed in Dr Jeffrye's ears.