I

The sound of footsteps awoke Josh with a start and he bolted upright, startling a nurse when he yelled, “I’m awake!” in an otherwise quiet hospital cubicle. He briefly forgot what he was doing there and panicked thinking his mom might be hurt, then he saw Paul laying in a bed nearby.

The guy looked deathly pale, with a nasty looking bandage taped to his neck, and he was strung up to various machines and drips. Josh sat upright and grabbed one of Paul’s fingers, even if he wasn’t conscious, Josh hoped that subconscious Paul would know there was someone looking out for him.

The nurse watched him with a gentle smile. She was a plump woman with full, glowing cheeks and kinky blonde hair cut to just above her shoulders. She seemed weary, like most nurses do, but otherwise in good spirits. “You know, there's not much you can do now. Why don't you go home and get some sleep?”

Josh shook away his lethargy, he was determined to stay awake. This wasn’t his first rodeo pulling an all-nighter at the ICU and he wasn’t going to fall at the first hurdle, “Did you manage to get hold of any of his family yet?”

The nurse shook her head, “We’re doing our best but we’ve yet to link him to anyone”, she brushed a gentle hand up Paul’s arm to re-stick some loose medical tape, “We don’t even know his name”.

Josh nodded resolutely, “Then I'm staying right here”.

The nurse pursed her lips, but nodded her head, as she put away Paul's chart and left the room. It was outside of visiting hours, and being the ICU, it was extremely quiet. With the gentle hum and occasional machine beeps to keep them company.

Josh hadn’t been in a hospital for over two years, not since he’d torn his ACL during football practice in junior year, although before that he’d been a mainstay. Some of the nurses even remembered him, although they seemed relieved that he was there for something other than domestic violence.

Not that his current predicament was any more favorable. Josh hadn’t even known how to explain what happened when they’d arrived in the ambulance the previous night. He defaulted to saying Paul had been attacked by a wild dog, however unbelievable that might be. Now there was an Animal Control agent out scouring the town for some unsuspecting stray, no doubt.

Josh sat back to make himself more comfortable, but bolted upright when he noticed one of Paul’s fingers twitch, he stood up and squeezed his shoulder in an attempt to rouse him, “Hey, buddy. Can you hear me?”

Paul’s face contorted, like he was having a nightmare, his eyes rolled back and forth under his lids but he didn’t wake up. Josh’s shoulders dropped in disappointment and he pulled Paul’s blanket up slightly to protect his naked torso from the cold. Josh stopped briefly, running his fingers over an odd symbol tattooed on the inside of Paul’s right arm .

It looked like a letter of some kind, but Josh couldn’t say from what language. It almost looked like a treble clef but without the tail, and there was a horizontal line beneath, as well as some other dots and dashes around it. Paul’s skin prickled under Josh’s touch and his chest became covered in goose flesh.

Josh found this oddly comforting as he pulled the blanket the rest of the way up, “Hold in there, man”.

There was a knock at the door and Josh whipped around to the pleasant sight of Halle stood in the doorway, although she had an anxious look on her face, “Hey, are you accepting visitors?”

“Hey, what are you doing–” Josh smiled, rushing to the door to greet her, only for his face to drop when he saw Norah standing behind her looking equally anxious, “W-what’s she doing here!”

Halle shushed him, “Don't freak out, okay, I can explain–”

“Freak ou–!” Josh lowered his voice, scanning the area, “Freak out? You realize she did this?” He shot Norah an angry look.

“I know but she says feels really bad about it”, said Halle.

Norah leaned around her with an apologetic smile, “I really do”.

“Oh, as long as she feels bad about it”, Josh threw his hands up, gesturing to Paul, “Are you kidding me? Look what she did to him!”

“I can explain that”, said Norah, but Josh put his hand up to silence her.

He looked and spoke only to Halle, “And now you've brought her to–” he walked back to the and covered Paul's ears, lowering his voice to a whisper, “Finish the job?”

“I just wanted to see if he's okay” Norah tried to move forward only for Josh to block her. He was so intimidating, his usual smile buried somewhere deep beneath a scowl.

“Well, he’s not”, he was glaring at her, “I overheard the nurses and they’re not sure if he’ll even wake up, thanks to you”.

Norah clutched her stomach like she’d been punched in the gut, so much so she had to lean against the chair to keep herself from toppling over, “I know this won’t mean much to you but I swear I never meant to hurt him”.

“Oh yeah, one of those friendly neck bitings”, Josh glared at Norah.

“I told you it's... complicated…” she stood up and walked towards the bed, staring down at Paul with a pitiful look in her eyes.

Josh shook his head incredulously, “No. It's pretty simple. You attacked him and now he's here in the ICU”.

“…it was an accident”, Norah looked close to tears, her voice little more than a whisper, “We were attacked… I can’t always control what happens when I change”,

Josh scoffed, “Does this look like an accident to you?” he ripped the bandage from Paul's neck to reveal a deep, jagged, crudely stitched wound.

Halle winced, almost gagging at the sight of it, and shielded her eyes, “Oh my god! You did that?”

“Not only that, but she left him to bleed out in the street”, Josh gave Norah a hard look, “Like some mangy animal”.

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“I thought he was already dead, I panicked, I didn’t know what else to do.”

Josh dismissed this with a wave of his arm, “You could have called the police, an ambulance, anything was better than that!”

“I’m sorry, it’s not like I planned it, Josh.”

“Is that supposed to make things better?”

Norah shook her head, she tried to reach for Paul’s hand but Josh batted her away, she tried to approach the bed again and Josh pushed her back, “Stay away from him!”

Dodging Josh, Norah rushed around to the other side of the bed, and when he tried to block her she repelled them both with a flick of her wrist, “Back off!”

After her shock subsided, Halle bolted upright, “Hey, no fair!”

“I’m sorry…”, Norah gently swept Paul's hair back from his forehead, “…will he die?”

Josh chewed his annoyance then shrugged, “He's in pretty bad shape”.

Norah’s face contorted, she crumbled down placing her head on Paul’s chest and began to sob, “I’m sorry, I'm so so sorry”.

As she lay there, energy began crackling from Norah's finger tips as sparks poured over Paul’s skin causing it to glow red where her hands were touching him.

“What's she doing?” Josh's eyes widen in panic, he tried to bat Norah’s hands away, “Stop that!”

Norah bolted upright, but her hands were welded to Paul’s chest, “I can’t!”

She gasped, trying to ride out the pain, as black began licking the edges of her eyes. The red light grew brighter until it was almost too bright to look at, forcing Josh and Halle to cover their eyes. Sparks crackled, causing Norah’s hair to stand on end. The light seemed to travel through Paul’s body and into the wound on his neck. Suddenly, Norah's head snapped upward and her eyes turned completely black, causing Halle and Josh to leap back in terror.

Energy whipped up the room and the lights flickered as heavy life-support machines began rolling about and a storm of loose papers swirled around them. Norah's breath caught in her throat as her face started splitting from her lips outward, she was about to lose control again.

“Stop it!” Yelled Josh, but she couldn’t seem to hear him.

The light grew even brighter as a maelstrom of energy swirled around the room.

“Norah, stop!” Josh leapt over the bed and shoved her, sending Norah skidding backwards and the chaos in the room instantly ceased.

When she looked up her eyes were normal again and she seemed confused, like she didn’t know where she was, “What happened?”

“You tried to kill him again, that’s what!” said Josh, feeling like launching across the room at her.

“Hey wait”, Halle approached Paul’s bedside and pulled the bandage all the way off, “She… healed him”.

“What?” Josh rushed to the bedside to see that the injury had indeed healed, to an extent, leaving a horribly ugly scar. Norah looked just as spooked when she appeared at the bedside opposite them.

Halle grabbed Norah by collar and shook her, “What the heck was that!”

Norah stared at Paul’s neck in absolute awe, “I have no idea. I’ve never done that before…”

There was a loud gasp as Paul sat up like he’d been awakened by a shock of electricity sending everyone backwards in a panic. He looked at them all with a confounded expression, as if perturbed by their exaggerated reactions.

“He's... You…” stammered Josh, pointing at Paul’s face with wild eyes.

Paul leaned away from Josh, then noticing the wires in his body, he looked around him as if only just realizing he was in a hospital. He stared at Halle and Josh, “Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital, there was an accident”, said Josh, finally having regained his faculties.

Paul flinched when he saw Norah stood beside him, she waved, baring her teeth awkwardly, “Hi…”

Paul stared for a long moment, “We need to talk”. He disconnected the wires from his body, stiff as he rose from the bed and collected his clothes from the nearby cabinet, “Let’s get out of here”.

Throwing his soiled shirt over his shoulders, Paul scanned the room for a moment then signaled them to follow him out of the ward. Satisfied the coast was clear, Paul dipped out, followed by Norah and then Josh – no questions asked.

Halle remained in the room uncertain whether to come or go, “So, we’re gonna pretend nothing happened, huh?”

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II

Paul led them out to the hospital parking lot, where he ducked under the cover of an empty bus shelter so that he could dress himself fully, while the others stood guard. He tossed his hospital clothes into a trashcan with indifference, as if this was a regular occurrence in his strange and cracked life.

Paul fastened the buttons on his shirt, then paused seeing that it was stained with blood. He removed it and turned it inside out.

“So, I know we tried to kill each other already”, Norah glanced into the shelter, but seeing Paul was shirtless, she quickly turned back around, “but what was your name again?”.

Paul glanced up as he was putting his shirt back on, “It's Paul”. He dipped out of the shelter to join them and began riffling through his belonging and patting his pockets looking for something, “I had a knife”.

“Ah, yeah…” said Josh, “The cops took it for evidence, sorry”.

Paul clenched his eyes closed and sighed, “Harri’s going to kill me”.

Halle, who was hiding behind Josh, arched up on her tiptoes so she could be seen, “Ugh, probably a stupid question but who’s Harri?”

“It’s not important”, said Paul, his attention focused elsewhere as he collected his things, he looked thoughtful like he was running some strategy through his head. The three of them watched Paul with bated breath, not sure what their next move was.

“How's the neck?” said Norah, wanting to break the unbearable silence.

Paul reflexively touched the scar on his neck but then gave an earnest smile, “Better”.

Josh and Halle winced as Paul pulled a cannula from his hand and flung it into the trash can. He seemed distracted as he collected up the rest of the hospital pieces and disposed of them.

“So... like, this is all normal to you guys, huh?” said Halle, still tipped up on the balls of her feet.

“Absolutely not”, said Norah.

Paul couldn’t help but smile, “I have some experience with the weird, yeah”.

Halle furrowed her brow as Paul openly inspected a blade he’d had secretly stashed in the sole of his boot. She flinched as he snapped it into a sheath on his belt, “What's your deal? Are you some kind of spy?”

“Demon Hunter.”

“Sure, and I’m Lana Condor”, Halle laughed, but Paul’s expression implied he was serious. Halle cupped her ear, “Excuse me, a what?”

Josh rolled his eyes, “What did you think was going on?”

Halle slapped Josh on the arm, “Oh, I’m sorry, you’re right. I should get with the program”.

Halle narrowed her eyes at Josh and they began bickering like an old married couple.

“Is that what brought you to Hogarth?” said Norah, feeling like she was getting a headache.

Paul nodded, “I was sent to investigate a string of supernatural deaths”, weirdly he seemed happy, “I must admit, I didn't anticipate quite this much excitement on the first day”.

Norah felt a chill up her neck, “That thing that attacked us? You know what it was?”

Paul pursed his lips, “I have my suspicions. What I'm less sure of is why it was after you... I wouldn't be surprised if there were more coming”.

Josh perked up at this comment, “More to come? More of what? Things that make Norah go all–” he waved his hand at her unable to summon the right words.

“Carrie at the Prom?” offered Halle.

“Yeah, that.”

Paul stared at them without amusement, “Very possibly.”

“That sounds nicht so good”, said Halle.

“It’s not”, was Paul’s blunt reply.

Norah rolled her eyes at them, “So, what do we do? How do we stop them?”

Paul frowned and rubbing his face exhaustedly, “Not here. We should get somewhere safe first…”.

Paul led the way and Norah followed.

Josh gestured for Halle to follow but she shook her head, “Absolutely not!”

Unwilling to argue, Josh turned and followed after Norah and Paul, “Hey, guys – wait up!”

Once again Halle was left alone, but as they got further along the road, she sprinted after them not wanting to be left out.

As soon as they were out of sight, Braran emerged from the shadows where he’d been watching them. Norah’s energy trail around town was like lit gasoline and it’d gone nuclear once she’d reached the hospital leading Braran directly to her. Seeing her leaving with that demon hunter made his guts twist. How could things have so spectacularly backfired?

Something would have to be done about this, he thought as he shimmered away.