The Cursed Doctor

Part 6

I lick my thumb a third time.

"Open door," I command. "The one I desire is beyond and I need to end his suffering."

The door unlocks and even opens wide without me turning the handle. I race to catch it before it slams against the wall. A deep breath and a quick rub of my face to relieve some of the heat, and I enter. It's a room where a secretary would likely be if he had one— ready to take names, make appointments, lead patients to a specific room. The lights are off but I see a warm glow further in. As I close the door quietly behind me I wonder if I should find some way to relock it. The purpose of the see-through keyhole is to allow the door to be locked from both sides but I obviously don't have the key. Should I waste time looking for the right command to relock it? Maybe I could guess?

I lick my now rather grimy thumb again and place it on the lock, now on the inside.

"Lock door?" I ask, unsure of the command. "My privacy with him is mine and his alone."

Unlike when it opened, nothing special happens this time. I'm assuming my guess at the command is incorrect and when I try the handle, my suspicions are confirmed. I sigh, most of the earlier pride at success now lost.

Among the furniture in the small room are a few chairs. Placing the basket on one, I take one of the others and prop it up against the door handle. It seems a bit foolish. I doubt anyone besides myself would come looking for him, even if they were sick. I snatch the basket up, rebalance the heavy bag on my shoulder, and pass into the familiar hallway of his closet clinic.

I pass by the room he treated me in, door open, the stairway I'd glimpsed once through the crack of the door, now closed, and follow the hall deeper towards the warm light at its end. It feels like I should be sneaking, but I don't want to frighten him, or have him think I'm someone here with malicious intent. Despite the light, there's no evidence of inhabitation. Has he already run?

"D-Doctor?" I ask nervously, just as I pass into the light of the doorway.

The lit room is where he usually operates. A table long enough to hold a tall man is on the right, a stool beside it, a few tables with wheels, a white cabinet hung on the wall and another on the floor below it. The left side wall holds a variety of equipment that would look sinister if they didn't shine cleanly with perfection, carefully organized to almost appear as a display of metallic art. My eyes don't linger too long on them though, there's a flock of lustrous black feathers peppering the table and below.

I slowly enter the room and reach for one of the familiar feathers.

"Ahiru." His voice quickens my blood.

I pause, fingers just above the biggest of the cast off corruption.

"Care to explain why you are breaking and entering?" my doctor asks from the doorway I just entered through. One hand holds the door frame and the other holds up the pants he seems to have hastily put on. The rest of him is uncovered, except his face of course. Not even smallclothes beneath the unbuttoned waistband.

I look away as my face heats up, holding the handle of my basket a bit tighter. "I didn't break anything."

"You broke my right to privacy," he growls, crossing his arms, his attempt at decency apparently abandoned.

I risk looking up at him again. Five days and the curse seems to have used every minute to further taint his body. The feathers cover his entire forearm, I can barely see the dark skin beneath. They also shadow his shoulders like soft vengeful pauldrons. His skin shows little pink and mostly gray, with the dark veins beneath looking like spiderwebs.

I step closer to him, wishing I felt comfortable enough to reach out. "I haven't seen or heard from you in almost a week." I swallow nervously. "I was worried."