The movements of the pendulum were steady, swinging back and forth under the clock to each second that passed. The hands of the clock moved just as slow, now pointing at a quarter past the sixth hour. Benjamin had been watching the hands rotate gradually around the face since the hour of the cockcrow. Just watching. Just waiting.
He had made sure no patients were scheduled for today in case she decided to come in. He could not risk being in the middle of something and having to drop everything for her. All of his attention would be devoted to Emilia and no one else. So there he sat at his desk, waiting–hoping–for Emilia to arrive. If she did come after all this time, it would have made the day's painstaking wait worthwhile.
The faint tinkling of the bell rang out across the empty room and Benjamin's ears perked, hoping the sound meant the arrival of his long-awaited patient. He straightened up, tilting his head to look at the figure in the doorway.
"Dr. Peters?" Emilia inched forward, shutting the door behind her.
"Where were you?" he demanded from his desk.
"I'm sorry. I know I haven't shown up for my appointments, but I was busy." she tried to explain, but Benjamin was having none of her pathetic excuses.
"Busy?" The floorboards under him creaked as he rose up. "You missed several days worth of appointments. What could you have possibly been so busy with? What could possibly be so important?"
Emilia's brows furrowed together. "Work perhaps! I have to earn a living–"
She was interrupted by a sudden fit of coughing. Her body shook as it was overcome a series of heavy, dry coughs. Benjamin merely looked on as she sputtered and wheezed, his gaze filled with nothing but coldness.
"Your condition has worsened, hasn't it?" His eyes narrowed.
She wiped her mouth with a filthy sleeve, averting her eyes. "Yes."
A fire of rage instantly ignited within the man. Emilia was so predictable. "You were meeting with him, weren't you? Weren't you?!"
Emilia took a step backward. "You mean Nathaniel? No, I–"
"Do not lie to me!" He grabbed her arm. "Did you not hear me when I warned you?! He will be the death of you! Just as he has so many times before!"
Trying to shake him off, Emilia writhed in his brusing grasp. "It is none of your business! Now let go of me!"
His grip only grew tighter, squeezing her skin until it turned red. "You daresay it is none of my business after what I have been through? After how I've seen you die over and over?!"
The fire within him burned brighter each time he opened his mouth, growing hotter with every heated word he screamed out. "I am trying to save you! I have been trying to for the past three hundred years! Don't you see that?!"
"Please!" Emilia shrank back. "Let go of me!"
"You!" He pulled her to him. "You never listen!"
Benjamin lowered his head, bringing his face closer to hers until he was only inches away. "You never survive! But it's never the illness that does it, it's that damn Nathaniel!"
"You're insane! Can't you see that? What you're saying makes no sense!" Tears were spilling down her cheeks, leaving clean streaks across her grime-covered face.
He growled. "I have never been more sound. I will not let you die again, Emilia. I refuse to."
She turned her head and coughed into the crook of her elbow. "Please! Just let me go!"
Seeing as this was getting him nowhere, he reluctantly removed his fingers from her skin. She sank to the floor, but no sooner had she hit the ground, she shot up and fled out the door.
He had expected this. With a sigh, Benjamin set off to follow in her wake, curious to see where she would lead him.
A part of him already knew the answer.