Chapter 27: Not The Quack
I stumbled out of the elevator and into a beautiful lobby, complete with a security guard.
Fuck my life.
I knew I had blood running down my right arm; I could feel it drying and turning sticky with each passing mont.
"Excuse , Miss?" asked the guard, coming around the desk and heading straight for .
I couldn’t wait around. He would call the police, and I was going away for murder. And if I did, there went my career. No one would hire a doctor who was convicted of murder. There was no way.
No, I had to run.
Before he could get any closer, I bolted for the doors, happy to see that they opened automatically for . I was small enough that I didn’t even have to wait for them.
Squeezing through the narrow crack, I left the apartnt and sprinted down the street. I didn’t know where I was going, and frankly, I didn’t care. I just needed to get away from that place and the man that I killed.
I didn’t have my backpack with
or even my phone, so I couldn’t call anyone, and I had no idea what anyone’s numbers were to call in the first place.
As soon as I got ho, I was going to start morizing numbers. I couldn’t rely on my phone to be there when I needed it.
I could go to the police station and get them to call Mom and Dad, but then they would ask about the blood, so that option was out, too.
I gripped one of the buildings beside
as another wave of nausea and dizziness enveloped . I was running out of ti, and I needed to get to soplace safe.
I had only one option left, and it was very much a hail mary at this point in ti.
I stumbled to the curb and lifted my hand, flagging down a taxi.
When one stopped in front of , I quickly climbed into the back seat and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you okay?" asked the driver. There was a look of concern on his face, and he studied . I took in a deep breath of air and slowly let it out. Balsam. He slled like Christmas trees. He couldn’t be a bad guy if he slled like Christmas, right?
"I’m fine. Can you take
to the Song residence, please?" I knew that if I were taken, Mom and Dad wouldn’t be sitting around the apartnt doing nothing. No, they would have gone to Grandma and Grandpa’s.
"Song residence? As in THE Song residence in Chapel Hill?" The na sounded familiar, but as far as I knew, there was only one Song residence in all of City D.
"Please. They will pay you when you drop
off," I assured him. I closed my eyes as I felt the cab pulling away from the curb and joining the afternoon traffic. Just a quick nap, and everything would be fine.
Just five minutes of sleep.
Technically, I knew that that was the worst thing I could do, but I needed the world to stop moving for a short period of ti. And I was so very tired.
----
"Co on, Kitten, show
those beautiful eyes of yours," ca a soft, soothing voice. I could feel that I was being carried in a set of strong arms, the scent of him making
want to sink deeper into the safety he promised.
"Bai Long Qiang?" I moaned, not opening my eyes. It felt like they were glued shut.
"It’s , Kitten. You’re ho now. Don’t worry about anything. Okay?" I could feel us moving, and the outside air changed to a warr air inside. I took in a deep breath. Coffee and cinnamon. I had made it to Grandma and Grandpa’s. I was safe.
"I killed soone," I said in a soft voice. I needed him to know that I was no longer untainted. I had taken a life.
The arms around
gripped
tighter, and I could feel the chest under my cheek vibrating.
"Are you growling?" I asked, still tired.
"I can promise you that you did nothing wrong," replied Bai Long Qiang, not answering my question. "You were protecting yourself."
"How do you know that?" I pressed, burrowing my face deeper into his chest to get his sll.
"Because you are everything good in the world. If you killed soone, it would be because you were protecting yourself or soone else. There are a lot of bad people in the world. I would much rather you co ho to
than be worried about killing soone."
I thought about what he had said. And to a certain extent, he was right. But I still couldn’t get over it that easily.
"You shouldn’t be carrying . Your ribs are injured, and this has got to be hurting," I muttered as I felt us both sinking into so kind of seat.
"Having you in my arms is actually making them feel a lot better," he assured , adjusting
in his embrace. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"I was waiting in the visitor parking lot when soone bashed
over the head. I am experiencing the symptoms of a Grade 2 concussion and probably should go to the hospital to be checked out. When I ca too, I was tied to a chair inside a nice living room."
"Do you know who brought you there?" ca an older voice. Grandpa.
"Ye i Hui," I answered. My ears were starting to ring again, and my head was pounding. I wasn’t going to be able to maintain consciousness for much longer.
"Need to go to the hospital," I said, not able to open my eyes.
"We called our family doctor. He is going to be here in a minute," ca another voice... one that I only sowhat recognized. Bai Long Qiang’s dad.
"It’s not the quack, right," I asked, turning my face to the boy holding . I really didn’t trust that doctor after he had applied compression to cracked ribs.
"It’s okay, Kitten," muttered Bai Long Qiang as he gently kissed my forehead. "Ribs aside, he does know what he is doing."
My brain went through all of the concussion protocols that my family needed to know, but I was too out of it to be able to speak properly.
Hopefully, this quack was good enough to know what needed to be done.
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