Hadrian's Wall Read Online Free PDF Page B

words pounded in my ears. “Breathe,
Melissa. You’ll be fine. He glanced at the door a second before it
was flung open by two male nurses who entered pushing a gurney.
    I must have missed something because
suddenly I realized I was already on the gurney with my face
covered by an oxygen mask. I vaguely noticed the IV tubing held
between the nurse’s fingers guiding the colorless liquid into my
arm.
    The malaise worsened as my vision became
blurred with tiny dots that seemed to increase in size as we
entered the elevator where the gurney was brought to a halt facing
a tall, narrow window. At the very moment before the elevator doors
slid closed, my vision cleared and I saw the shadow watching me
with its glowing eyes, its wings beating slowly.
    “Don’t let him kill me!” I screamed,
desperately pointing at the window.
    All three men looked in the direction where
I pointed. “There’s nothing out there, Melissa,” said Dr. Talbot in
a neutral tone.
    I tried to jump from the gurney, but the
nurses held me down. Dr. Talbot grabbed my free arm and applied
something. The sting was quite painful. I could not stop shaking.
The last coherent thought I had was about the idiocy of trying to
jump from a gurney inside a cramped elevator. Actually, it was not
a coherent thought at all.
    * * *
    “Bringing her things was a bad idea,” said a
deep voice which sounded very familiar to me.
    It’s him!
    “Maybe, maybe not,” said another, more
perfunctory voice. “The functioning of human mind is a fascinating
mystery. We will have to deal with the events as they are emerging,
but one thing is real—she cannot remain unknowing indefinitely.
Even though we try to protect her, there will come a day when
she’ll remember.”
    It took me a few seconds to recognize Dr.
Barringer’s voice. Was I dreaming? I felt so groggy.
    “She’s not prepared for this.”
    “For what...facing her fears? Because that’s
exactly what we’re talking about here, isn’t it?” Dr. Barringer’s
tone was sarcastic. “I don’t agree with you. I think she must
confront the truth to overcome her trauma. There are risks, of
course, but we can no longer dodge them.”
    “Are you insinuating that I don’t want her
to recover?” There was a slight change in the first man’s voice,
denoting his annoyance.
    “No, I think you want the best of both
worlds,” the other person acknowledged contritely, “but that’s
impossible.”
    “The triggers of her hallucinations seem to
be very complex.”
    I heard another voice interacting with
them—perhaps it was Dr. Talbot. “I’m researching all the
pathologies that can fit Melissa’s symptoms, but I cannot reach a
fully satisfactory diagnosis. Knowing the facts, we can understand
the source of the winged monster hallucination, but in
neuro-vegetative terms, I need your opinion. Do you think we
should...”
    “She’s awake,” interrupted the first man’s
voice, with a trace of annoyance.
    How does he know? I made no noise.
    The doctors kept quiet. I heard the muffled
sound of footsteps on the carpet and figured that they’d approached
my bed. I could no longer postpone the inevitable, so with a loud
sigh, I opened my eyes just to prove to myself that I was back in
the private room.
    Adrian stood at the head of
my bed, while the other two remained farther away. Even through the
shaded lenses of his glasses, I could see that he looked worried.
Unexpectedly, he grasped my wrist. His touch made my heart race. I
felt surprised... and strangely attracted to him—at first because
his hand was very cold, but then because an electric current seemed
to pass from his cold hand into my arm, dominating my
senses. That’s when I noticed that he was
not wearing gloves. I don’t understand how a simple touch could
produce such tingling, but I think that’s what was happening. I
felt very strange.
    I think he realized what was happening or
maybe the shock hit him the same way, because he quickly let me