By the time the group of friends had all finished up their dinner, it was growing closer to their departure from one another.
"But why can't Alex come back with us?" Lauren complained as she stayed glued to the man's side while Nina was already standing in the doorframe ready to head back to the Cave for the night before it got too late.
"Cause he's got to stay here so he can feel better. Like how you did when you were here." The woman said for the tenth time.
"But mama-"
"Lauren please." The woman gave her a firm stare.
Pouting as she hugged the man tightly one last time, Lauren didn't want to let him go. And yet as she did so, she managed to ignore every whimper from Alex as she was pressing down on all the wrong spots.
His recovery was slow but he knew better than to push the girl away. He missed her just as much as she missed him. And he didn't want to waste this hug, even if it did feel like she was crushing his ribs.
"Alright it's time to go now Lauren." Nina called. "Tell Alex and the doctor bye." She said as Lauren sadly walked over to her allowing Alex to breathe deeply in relief from the pain around his abdomen.
"Bye." The girl waved with her eyes glued down on the floor.
"Oh I know." The woman tried to cheer her up as she lifted Lauren onto her hip and kissed her cheek. "But we'll have dinner with Alex again another time. Right now it's late and he needs to sleep, and now that I think about it, you do too."
As Nina spoke to the sad girl who looked like she was on the verge of tears, the doctor and Alex finally had the place to themselves again as the doctor shut the door behind Nina.
"Well that was a nice change of pace." She remarked.
"Yeah...too short though." The man dropped down onto his temporary bed grieving the disappearance of his closest friends.
"You'll see them after your wounds are healed."
"But they pretty much are healed." He said looking down at the doctors bandaging work around his chest. From the looks of the white pieces of material surrounding him, it didn't appear that any spots of red came though. "See. It's not even bleeding anymore."
The doctor sighed as she went behind her desk. "The cuts and slashes on your body weren't the wounds I was talking about." Grabbing a small bottle from out of a cabinet, the doctor held it up to her eyes examining the clear liquid inside of it.
'I think it's time to test you out.' She contemplated before placing the vile of liquid back onto her desk.
Going back to Alex momentarily the doctor had to examine him first before knowing whether or not she was clear to proceed in her plan.
"How's your neck doing?" She asked gently tilting his head before removing the bandage covering the two deep marks Faye had left behind.
Placing the old bandage into his lap temporarily while she examined him, Alex gripped hold of it to relieve some tension as the pain had grew. "It's kinda better." He said between his teeth.
"What do you mean kinda?" She asked while running a finger gently along his wounds. Alex hissed as the sensation made his head stiff.
With the small openings that the bite mark had created, the doctor was able to spot tiny slivers of black liquid sinking into Alex's veins and down into his skin.
Making a mental note she sighed internally knowing the toxin was still producing at a rate too fast for her to contain.
"The pain is still there, like I can feel that virus moving to other parts of my body. I feel it in my fingers and toes, but if I try not to think about it then I don't feel it as badly." Alex described briefly before hissing again. There was a sharp pain that had rapidly shot down his back.
He couldn't take her touching his neck any longer.
Pushing the doctor away roughly, Alex cupped his neck before holding his bandage back up to his open wound. "I'm sorry." He breathed deeply trying to ease his suffering with his eyes shut tight.
The doctor had been pushed back a whole step from the nudge she was given. But even she could see the high level of discomfort on his face. After composing herself, she helped bandage him up in a new cloth.
"I'm going to try something that will hopefully make the pain stop." She said after being convinced that it was time to take things to the next step.
Heading back quickly to her desk, she snatched the bottle of clear liquid and held it out for the man to see.
"This again?" The man sighed. "I thought we were only doing this is the mornings?" He raised a curious brow as the woman began to fill up a small syringe with the clear liquid.
"Are you going to keep complaining about everything I do?" She asked holding the syringe scarily close to his newly bandaged wound as if ready to strike if given the wrong answer.
"Nope." The man sealed his lips fast.
Rolling her eyes playfully the doctor prepped Alex for his next injection. "This isn't the same one I give you in the morning."
"It isn't?"
"That's what I said."
"Then what is it?" He asked wanting to know what strange substance she was about to put into his body.
"It's part of the next phase of your treatment. I'm hoping to go from daily morning injections to just one a week. If I'm right this should help with the spread of the virus in your body by killing it."
"Should?" The man gulped.
"Well probability speaking there's a chance it won't do what I predict. But then again there's a chance it will." She said making Alex more nervous by the minute as she brought the sharp end of the stick close to his neck.
"Are you trying to say that this could kill me?!" His eyes opened wide. But before he had any more time to protest against her treatment, he grunted in pain as the needle pushed through his skin and down into his veins.
"No, I'm certain that this won't kill you." The doctor finished as she pulled the needle out, leaving Alex as a panting mess.
"However, it does have the possibility of actually helping the virus spread in your body." She commented after disposing of the needle. "But that's the worst it can do." She shrugged off.
"What the hell doc?!" Alex threw both of his hands over his tensed neck. First the pain Lauren had caused on his ribs, then the pain in his back, and now this. Alex was hating his stay here.
"Oh please the chances of that happening are extremely thin."
"Yeah but that's still a possibility! What if it-"
"It won't." She assured. "I've done a good amount of testing before I just went putting it into your system. Don't worry about it."
Having no say in the matter considering the deed was already done, Alex just hung is head and nodded.
He breathed deeply while rubbing his neck softly. He was glad that he was able to at least give himself a little comfort in this place.
"It should start working within the next few hours or so." She mentioned while taking notes on everything she had seen so far with his behavior.
Watching every little movement from the way he blinked to the way he wiggled his fingers, the doctor needed to be sure that when she inspected him later after her serum had taken affect that it didn't affect any of his normal functions.
After finishing a quick rundown for her notes, the doctor closed her book with a loud thud. "I suggest you try and get to sleep while you can. I don't know how nice it's going to be trying to sleep when the serums going around killing Fanger toxin in your blood."
"Wait so is this going to hurt? I mean like when it works on killing the things inside me?"
"It more than likely won't be the most comfortable thing but we won't know til it happens. You're our first actual test subject." She said making Alex feel less confident in her serum by the minute. "But you know what the saying is, first times a charm." She grinned lightly.
Her attempt at easing his mind only made Alex cringe. "Better be right about this." He grumbled to himself while he took on her suggestion and got himself comfortable on his bed. He crossed his fingers, hoping that he was going to at least be able to sleep for a few hours tonight.
Seeing as he was about to take her advice and sleep before her treatment could show side effects, the doctor silently made her way into her room in the back of the hut where Lauren resided during her stay.
"I'll be checking up on you throughout the night to see how this progresses." She wanted him to be aware of the situation.
"Alright." He answered before turning away from her room and closing his eyes.
Separated from one another for the next hour, Alex hadn't even slept a blink yet. The pain that he initially felt after the doctor injected him was one thing—but ever since then it had just doubled.
He felt paralyzed.
He cursed her treatment every second his eyes stared up angrily at the wooden roof unable to move or speak.
It wasn't until he saw a crack of light shine through his dark part of the hut when he felt like he was going to finally be relived from his status.
He could hear the doctor making her way over to him slowly.
As soon as her face finally revealed itself over his, Alex felt a strange sensation of joy wash over him. With a clipboard in hand, he thought surely she was going to save him.
When that wasn't the case he felt like the light creeping out from her room wasn't even there. All he felt was darkness eating his body alive. A little bit at a time.
To her defense, Alex knew he was laying as still as a board and his eyes were only partially open. He could see if she mistook him for being asleep, but that didn't make his pain any easier to deal with.
Doing as he had expected, she inspected the injection site on his neck searching for any signs of physical effects. When her search turned up empty, Alex hoped she was going to examine him further to help him out of his prison.
But instead she yawned and placed her clipboard down on a stool besides him. "I don't get paid enough for this." She said coarsely rubbing her tired eyes.
Rather than inspecting him further Alex cursed loudly to himself as she began to slowly creep away back to her room.
"No! Come back!" Alex shouted but no words came out. Just a small puff of air easily mistaken as a deep breathe. "Please!" He tried again but only got the same response. A single tear dropped down from his eye.
Seeing the light that once held hope to it fade away as she shut her room door, Alex felt as cold as ever as he was locked away in his own body with no escape.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off