Father Returns

A chapter from Creature Counselor (working title) - an urban fantasy novel I work on. It's about a psychotherapist treating supernatural beings.

Note to Readers:

The entire novel is written in first-person past tense from the perspectives of multiple point-of-view (POV) characters. However, I have chosen to write a few chapters from the perspectives of secondary characters in the third person. This stylistic choice was made to present important events as seen by onlookers.

The events depicted in the following excerpt take place near the end of the first book. I do not always write in chronological order.

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Dr. Violet Corby, the chief anesthesiologist of St. David’s Medical Center, Austin, Texas, was alone in the operating theater. Or, to be exact, she was the only person alive in the room. Her colleagues and the nurses had left a couple of minutes ago, leaving her with the thirteen-year-old girl who had died during the heart surgery. Soon someone would come to collect the body to prepare it for the family.

Dr. Corby reached for the sheet that covered the dead girl. She pulled it down just enough to see the girl’s face. She knew her name, of course. Lidia. As she looked at Lidia’s pale face, a pang of sadness and regret filled her heart. The girl on the table was so young. Her braided hair lay in neat coils against her shoulders, framing her face like delicate strands of jewelry. Her lips were parted slightly, the faintest hint of a smile lingering on them. They seemed to shimmer in the now dimmed surgical light. She was so beautiful. So innocent. And now—so dead.

Dr. Corby wouldn’t admit it to anybody, that she cherished this moment when the only sound in the room was the flat line of the life-support monitor. They turned it off when Dr. Olson declared the patient dead, but she switched it on again when everyone left. It was comforting to her. Even if it shouldn’t have been. After all, the sound meant someone was dying or was already dead. It should’ve been terrifying, especially for the anesthesiologist responsible for the patient’s well-being. And it had been that. Until it was too late to do anything. Then the sound became something else: the fanfare accompanying the soul on her way to the afterlife, the homing beacon that let the soul reach eternity.

If souls existed, that is. She wasn’t sure about that. She wished they did. But then, what about Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Where would the soul go after leaving the body? Another body? One that hadn’t been born yet?

As a doctor, she was a scientist, trained to rely exclusively on the empirical. Yet she couldn’t banish the image of a soul drifting into the vast unknown, the mournful sound of life monitor slowly fading into silence.

She had seen too many deaths—fewer than recoveries, but still enough to make her weary of her work. The ones that tormented her most were those of children.

She thought of her kids: Diana, still in kindergarten, playing doctor with her dolls; Patrick, trying his first steps in Little League, always cheered on by his loving father.

What if it were one of them on this table, eyes shut, apparently asleep, but never to wake up again?

Impossible. She pulled the sheet over the girl quickly. Her children would live forever, never to hurt or die. Even though a lie, it was still comforting.

She turned away from the table and reached to the monitor to turn off the no-longer-comforting sound that predicted a horrible future. But before she touched the switch, the sound changed. The continuous beep turned into a series of regular ones.

Beep... beep... beep... beep...

It had to be malfunctioning.

She turned to the girl and removed the sheet, pulling it down to her navel this time. The cut across the girl’s chest was neat—doctor Olson had a good hand. Yet something was wrong with it.

“What the hell?” Dr. Corby closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to banish the strange sight. The skin couldn’t seal itself together as if it had never been split. She’d been overworked and should've gone home hours ago.

But when she glanced at the girl again, not only was the cut gone, but her chest moved rhythmically up and down.

The doctor staggered away from the now-breathing girl. “My God, that’s impossible,” she whispered as if fearing to wake up the girl.

Before she could convince herself it was a nightmare, and she probably had fallen asleep exhausted as she was, the mouth of the girl moved, and her eyes snapped open.

“Where the hell am I?” The girl’s voice sounded different, as if more mature.

The girl pushed herself onto an elbow and looked around. “What is this place?” She moved her legs over the edge of the table and jumped to the floor, the sheet sliding off her naked body. “Operating theater? Did I have an accident?” The girl's eyes scanned the surroundings, finally focusing on Dr. Corby. “Who are you?”

The doctor froze. The no-longer-dead girl was talking to her! As if it wasn’t enough for her to be alive. Dr. Corby looked around in search of something sharp, like a scalpel. In this situation, she’d rather be armed.

“You speak English, don’t you?” the girl asked again. “Or am I in some fucking third world country, where—”

“You’re in Texas, USA. And… I’m a doctor. I took part in your surgery.” She barely uttered the words, her lips strangely unwilling to part.

“Fucked it up, haven't you? Or I wouldn’t be dead.”

“I’m just an anesthesiologist.”

“And that justifies your failure? Not that I mind. Entering a dead body is so much easier than a live one.”

“We tried to save you.” Dr. Corby rushed with explanation, just in case the no-longer-dead girl would want revenge. Then the full meaning of what the girl had said got to her. “Entering a…. Are you a demon or something? Animating this corpse?”

“A demon? Are you insane?" The girl padded closer on her bare feet, and being shorter than Dr. Corby, looked up. Her large green eyes grew wide. "At least you didn’t call me a zombie. And why are you so fucking tall? You a genetic aberration or something? Or is it me?” She examined her small hands. “Damn it. How old am I?”

“You’re thirteen.”

“A child? Bollocks!" The girl hung her head, peering down. "Where's my… Fuck me! I'm female? Again?"

"You're a beautiful girl."

"Are you kidding me? Menstruations, PMS, mood swings… What a shitty life ahead of me.”

“It isn’t so bad,” Dr. Corby said. “There are certain compensations.”

“Like what?”

“Um…” 

“That’s what I thought. Nobody in his right mind wants to be a woman.”

“That’s pretty biased and sexist. You shouldn’t be—”

“Give me a break. I’m a man, for goodness’ sake. At least I have been in most of my lives."

“So you’re not… Lidia?” She asked just to make sure.

“Lidia?” The girl frowned. “Is that the girl’s name? Wait. There aren’t parents waiting outside to take the body, are they?”

“Actually—”

“Damn it. I have to run.” The girl’s eyes scanned the doctor from top to bottom. “Strip.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Take your damn clothes off.”

“My scrubs?”

“I can’t walk out of here naked.”

“I’m not your size.”

“It’ll have to do for now.” The girl glared at the doctor. “What are you waiting for?”

Dr. Corby backed away. “I can’t give you my clothes.”

“Why not?”

“Because…” She tried to find a good reason—there had to be one. But she came up with nothing. So, she changed the subject. “How are you alive, anyway? Your heart shouldn’t work at all.”

“Magic.” The girl put out a mysterious expression.

"Magic?"

“Kidding. I’ve regenerated the heart. Easy-peasy. Though for you, it probably looked like magic.”

“Regenerated the heart? That’s impossible.”

“It’s so frustrating to deal with people like you. How stupid can you be not to believe in something you’ve just seen with your own eyes? And take off your clothes, for fuck’s sake. It’s cold.”

“How old are you, really?” 

The girl snorted. Then she moved closer, raised her head, and looked deep into the doctor’s eyes.

The being that looked through the girl’s eyes seemed ancient. Not a little girl. Not even a grown-up. Dr. Corby’s grandmother, who died a couple of years ago. felt similar when she looked into her eyes. The feeling of boredom and knowledge, as if she had seen it all.

“Who are you?” the doctor whispered, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

“Let’s just say, we’re not even from the same millennium. So, lose your goddamnit clothes, or I’ll make you.”

Her hands shaking, dr. Corby started to undress. She’d give the alien what it wanted, then go back to Diana and Patrick, cuddle them to her chest, and pray it was a bad dream. If the thing that presided in the no-longer-dead girl would ever let her go. “Are you going to kill me?” The words escaped her before she thought them over. Now, she had just given it a suggestion!

“Kill you? Whatever for? You’re cooperating.”

Dr. Corby exhaled, her body deflating like a pricked balloon. There was a chance she could get away.

The girl pulled on the pants which were obviously too long for her, but the top mostly fit. If she did something about the pants legs, she’d probably make it out from the hospital undisturbed.

“Besides…” The girl checked if the ID badge is still attached to her chest pocket. “You’re a doctor. You’re useful. Who knows, maybe you’ll save one of my children one day.”

“You have children? But… if they anything like you, they wouldn’t need a doctor. They would regenerate.”

“Finally, you started using your brain. You assume it’s genetic. Well, it helps I’m the father. But they’re not like me yet.” The girl added the final touches to her clothes. “Not immortal. But they can be trained. If they live long enough.”

“You’re immortal? But then—”

“You already know too much. I’ll have to wipe your memory before I leave.”

"My memory?" The doctor backed away, shivering in the underwear the girl      had graciously let her keep.

“It won’t hurt. And it will affect only the last thirty minutes. Or so one would hope. Speaking of which…” The girl took a deep breath and stood still. “Shut up now. I forgot to check what options I have. I need to concentrate.”

“But my memory…”

The girl hushed the doctor by raising her hand, then an expression of deep concentration filled her face.

At once, all the little hairs on the doctor’s body stood up, as if an electric current flew through her. She stepped back from the girl until she was flat against the wall. The temperature dropped in the room. Her breath created clouds of white vapor as she exhaled. The lights on all electronic equipment blinked off, followed by the overhead light in the room, which flickered once and died.

Despite the sudden darkness, the little girl was clearly visible. Her face and hands glowed with a faint light, as if she were painted with a fluorescent dye.

“It works!” The girl grinned. “The bastards thought if they cut me off, I wouldn’t be able to do anything. Amateurs.”

A barely visible ring formed in front of her, shining with a reddish light, about five feet in diameter. Then the ring solidified, and everything grew still and silent. It hung there, a foot above the floor, its reddish light giving everything in the room an eerie glow. A membrane-like substance filled the ring inside. It shivered slightly, as if breathing in and out.

The girl examined the glowing circle and nodded with apparent satisfaction. “Kind of small, but so am I. Looks like I won’t have to go through the hospital after all.” She looked at the doctor and frowned. “Are you OK? You look pale. I didn’t use you as a battery, did I?”

The doctor didn’t reply.

“You know… the life force. Well, you wouldn’t know, of course. Still, I need to save energy, so your memory correction will have to wait.”

A sigh of relief escaped the doctor's lips. She had no idea how the memory thing would’ve been performed, but she didn’t want anyone to tinker with her brain. She was very fond of it and rather proud of her reasoning abilities. She didn’t want to lose them. “Thank you,” she whispered.

The girl only yawned. She detached the ID badge from her blouse, glanced at the name, silently mouthing the words, then tossed it to the doctor. “I don’t need it anymore. I have my escape route now.”

The doctor caught the badge, then she gestured to the glowing circle. “What is this… thing?”

“An interdimensional gateway. Nothing too fancy.” The girl pursed her lips. “So, dr. Violet Corby. I bet even if I don’t wipe your memory, you won’t remember anything that has happened here, right? If anyone would ask?”

“I’ve forgotten already.”

“That's what I thought. After all, you don’t want to spend the rest of your days entertaining patients in a secure ward of this hospital. As one of them, that is.”

The doctor could see it, too. She’d have to come up with some explanation quickly before they found her here, almost naked, with the dead girl’s body missing. Perhaps some terrorists who collected bodies of young girls and had a fetish for women’s clothes? Anything but the truth would be more believable.

“Goodbye, Dr. Corby. Have an enjoyable life. As short as it may be, anyway.”

The girl cast a final look at the room, gave the doctor a reassuring smile, then stepped inside the glowing ring, disappearing behind the membrane. The membrane solidified, and the entire ring vanished.

Doctor Corby stood unmoving in the complete darkness. What did the girl mean by ‘as short as it may be’ while talking about her life? Did she know something about her incoming death? Or was it just relative to the girl’s immortality? 

The door to the room opened, the light from outside illuminating part of the room. Someone’s head peered inside.

Dr. Corby grabbed the abandoned sheet from the floor and wrapped it around herself, forming a nice-looking robe. If she was going to die soon, she needed at least a little dignity.

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