⸻
The hospital was silent.
Not quiet.
Silent.
That living, breathing kind of silence where the air itself tensed, waiting to snap.
Melinda moved first.
No flashlight. No sound. Just one hand on the wall, the other gripping Alex's wrist tight enough to bruise.
He followed without speaking.
Because even though he couldn't see a thing—she could.
She moved through the maze of hallways like she'd built them.
Past the nurse's station.
Left down radiology.
Back through the med supply corridor.
Under the exit sign that flickered once.
Every inch of this place was foreign to most.
But to Melinda?
It was familiar.
Wrong... but familiar.
Because it was exactly like her house used to be—
Broken angles. Narrow spaces. Sudden dead ends.
He was here.
He was herding her.
She felt it in the way the air shifted behind her, the heat rising in her neck, the pressure building in her gut.
"He's pushing us," she whispered to Alex. "We're being funneled. He's watching the pattern. I know this pattern."
"You're not alone," Alex said, almost desperate now. "I'm not leaving."
"I know," she whispered.
And then—
She stopped.
They were in a wide corridor by the old pediatrics wing. Dim emergency light above them. One busted camera to their right. Just a long hallway and the faint hum of a broken vent system overhead.
Melinda's breathing slowed.
Then she dropped his hand.
"Melinda—"
She turned, shoved him backward—hard.
Alex stumbled into a rolling crash cart and hit the floor.
"RUN!" she hissed.
And then—
She dropped.
Hit the floor like a whisper. Rolled once. Tucked herself against the wall beneath the flickering EXIT sign.
Seconds later—
A shadow passed.
Slow.
Careful.
Boots hitting tile like a heartbeat.
And then—
A glint.
Metal.
A knife.
She didn't move. Didn't even blink.
She let him get one foot past her.
Then—
She struck.
Snapped out like a whip—hooked her leg behind his ankle, pulled hard—
He fell.
Hit the ground with a dull, wet crunch.
She was on him in less than a second.
Her knee drove into his back, her hand ripping the weapon out of his grip so fast it left a cut across her palm. She didn't flinch.
The knife hit the floor and spun once.
And Melinda pressed her elbow into the back of his neck, pinning him down, her face blank, expression carved from stone.
He didn't move.
Not because he was afraid.
Because he was smiling.
Still.
Even now.
"You've gotten strong," he rasped beneath her.
"You made me," she said flatly.
And then—
The lights came on.
A rush of shouts. Boots. Guns.
Voices.
"Drop it! Hands up! Step away from him! Now!"
Melinda didn't blink.
But then she felt the weight shift—someone behind her.
Alex.
Meredith.
Cristina.
Bailey.
Callie.
Webber.
Everyone.
And finally—
The cops.
They swarmed him. Arms, vests, voices loud and clear.
Melinda didn't move until Alex's hands were on her arms, gently pulling her off.
"You're okay. You did it. He's done."
She stood up slowly, face pale, blood dripping from her cut palm, and looked down at the man on the ground.
For the first time—
He wasn't smiling.
⸻
ŞİMDİ OKUDUĞUN
Code A++
Hayran KurguShe came in unconscious with a cracked skull and a past that read like a case file. Melinda Sage wasn't supposed to survive the trauma buried in her bones. But she did. What she didn't expect was Alex Karev. The surgeon who didn't ask stupid questio...
