'AM I at the right place?'
Kaelee checked the piece of paper she was holding. When she lifted her eyes again, her forehead creased.
She stood in front of a much-depreciated building. There were black patches on its ashy gray cement walls, possibly caused by fire or smeared coals on it. The dark-tinted glass windows were closed, looking white with dirt for years and no one even bothered to clean them up. Graffiti covered the gray metal gate by the entrance of the building. The graffiti read, 'Demonic Surgeon,' 'Surgeon Sin is Sinful,' and other remarks that pertained to the terror doctor.
Before Kaelee's mother died, she often said that she should just take any blessing wholeheartedly. With the word 'blessing,' her mother meant everything that destiny throws at her. There were blessings from every pleasant experience that she would have in life, which was the same with every challenge that she would go through. Her mother meant what she said because she set an example for her. Kaelee grew up without hearing her mother complaining. For her mother, problems were also blessings because it taught a person to be more patient, more determined, more enduring, and more
So, from what Dr. Alfred's residence looked like, Kaelee could sense that the accept-all attitude she inherited would bring her closer to danger. Common sense said that she should secure herself and run away. But her upbringing, which shaped who she is, made her stay standing at the front of the gate.
Dr. Alfred said that his shift at the hospital ends at seven in the evening. That meant she had to wait for another hour for him. He also told her that he would try to leave the hospital earlier because he 'didn't want to make a bad impression on her.' That made her only roll her eyes because he sounded boastful instead of thoughtful when he said that to her at the cafeteria.
Kaelee approached the gate and leaned her back against the graffiti-covered gates as she waited for the doctor. Her eyes roamed around and she noticed the intrigued stares from passers-by and also from the doctor's neighbors.
"You are here," Surgeon Sin exclaimed when he caught sight of her. He was walking, still a little too far from her, and yet he was already greeting her until he got close to her. "I am glad! And guess what? I am half an hour early! See? I'm early! I made a very good impression on our first day of work together."
Kaelee stood straight and made sure that the doctor would follow her line of sight to see the graffiti at the gate. "Well, Doc, I think you made a good impression."
He laughed nervously as his eyes scanned the graffiti. It seemed like he did not even bother to read what was written there. Maybe he got them memorized already because they had been spray-painted at the gate for quite a long time. "Yes, little girl. You seemed interested in graffiti. Do you really want to be a nurse or an artist?"
He stood by the cemented post beside the gate and flapped a little box open that revealed the password-activated lock of the gate. He pressed some buttons that made the gates automatically click ajar.
He pushed the big and heavy gates to widen its opening. Then, he glanced at her. "It's open. Come in, little girl."
Kaelee took a deep breath.
'Welcome to hell,' she thought sarcastically, imagining that the building looked worse inside.
That's where she got it wrong.
Upon entering the gate, Surgeon Sin closed them. They heard a clicking sound from the gate's automatic lock system. Next, Kaelee stopped at the entrance of the building. There, she saw a three-step stair with a clear glass sliding door ahead. It looked like a hotel entrance that even had a jar of plants on either side of the door. She watched the doctor's straight and precise strides toward the automatic door that slid open for him. As soon as she recovered from her amazement, she followed the doctor inside.
Black, shiny tiles laid out all over the ground floor and covered the walls. They looked glossier because of the huge chandeliers hanging overhead, their brilliant lights reflecting as sparkles on the tiled floor. The space was clean due to the lack of furniture. There were two elevator doors on the right side of the room, and two more on the left side.
On the north side of the floor, there was another glass door. Unlike the transparent ones on the building's entrance, this door was black-tinted. She wouldn't even recognize that it was a door if the doctor did not walk straight toward it and walked through the moment the door automatically slid open.
Kaelee followed. Eventually, she let out a gasp when she finally saw his clinic.
It was a run-down building, or better to say, a building construction left unfinished. The three lower floors looked acceptable. Their hollow block walls were visible—unpainted and unplastered. While the fourth up to the highest floors were not fully walled. Rebars even stretched out from these floors, dancing a swing of two along with the wind. There were no windows as well, only a few square cutouts on the available walls.
The clinic had a huge door made of wood. It was secured by a padlocked chain. Surgeon Sin pulled out a key from his slacks' pocket and unlocked the padlock. Next, he pulled off the chains that wrapped around the handles of the two-door and carried them with him.
"Come," he glanced at her.
The unusual odor made her flinch as they walked in. "Ugh! What's that?"
Surgeon Sin rolled his eyes. "You want to be a nurse, right? You watch cannibal movies and boast that you can handle gory sights."
'I just lied about the cannibal movies!' Kaelee covered her nose and mouth with one hand as she scanned the place with her eyes.
It was dark inside the clinic but Surgeon Sin's steps were filled with precision. She followed him as he made a quick turn to the right and walked into a hallway that lined the whole wall with a shelf of organs. He placed the padlock and chains on a hook beside the shelf, then scrambled by the shelf in front of him with transparent glass doors and bright white backlights so that the jar of organs in each shelf could be clearly seen. Kaelee saw him place something on the narrow across the shelf before he pushed a button that opened a fluorescent light that hovered on top of the table.
"This is your clinic?" Kaelee could not help questioning the doctor. "There are tons of sanitary violations in this place! It stinks, the walls are dirty—"
She stopped her litany and gasped at what she saw a lot of jars of human organs!
She took a step back and gave him a horrified stare. "What kind of place is this!?"
The flickering light shone on Surgeon Sin's sinister smile.
"My clinic," he replied. "And this is no ordinary clinic, Kaelee."
Without any second thoughts, Kaelee made a run for it. She quickly searched for the wooden door, her only way out of this creepy place. She needed to get away from this place. The graffiti and the snobby nurses were right!
'Surgeon Sin is a psycho!'
But she clashed against a person.
Or a creature.
The darkness of the room only made her imagination run wild. Kaelee thought she just saw a strangely-shaped silhouette; a creature with its hard hairs that stood on a high pointy spike and a face full of pointy triangular spikes. Her knees melted and wobbled as she spun around to step back from the creature. At that exact moment, Surgeon Sin caught her weakening body in his arms as his eyes rested on the creature that stood in front of them.
"W-What's that?!" she asked, hugging the doctor shakily and forgetting for a second that she believed he was a psycho. All that her mind could focus on was the creature in front of her. It felt like the end of her world for she will be devoured by it.
'I don't want to die yet!' she thought, teary-eyed while waiting for the monster's next move.
The doctor finally answered her question with a small smile. "One of my creations."