The matron was in a hurry. It was now 9:15am. She was already late and there was a lot of work to do before 10am when the Douglas and their delegation will be arriving to witness the painful process of their daughter and only child being taken off the life-support equipment and techniques. The matron kept greeting her colleagues on her way to the ICU. The moment she stepped into the room, she froze. The bed was empty and the life-support equipment was nowhere to be found. She checked the bathroom and found it empty. She was hyperventilating like she was going to have a heart attack when she used the intercom in the room to call the reception but the receptionist confirmed that there was no record of a Claudine Douglas being checked out of the Lagos Island General Hospital (LIGH). Using the intercom again, she called the morgue but the response she got was that they had no record of a Claudine Douglas. Finally the matron stormed out of the room to alert security and the m
Ara brushed his hand through her hair. Claudine looked peaceful and beautiful as always but she also appeared exhausted. She was still lying on the gurney he had used to wheel her into the old abandoned equipment room at the apex of one of the buildings at the LIGH. The brightness from the LED light he was holding radiated her skin. She was putting on a hospital gown and she still looked beautiful in it. The old equipment room was dark and stuffy with no source of light and though the electricity connection and the switch in the room were still working he couldn’t turn on the lights because he was going to attract attention he was not looking forward to. If he was going to execute his task without flaws he needed to remain Isolated and untraceable. Breathing was not easy in the old equipment room but that was the least of his problems. Ara felt relieved that the digital flow meter on Claudine’s oxygen cylinder that was connected to her ventilator showed that there was still
2016 Back at the hospital, Ara’s parents were seated in the office of the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of LIGH. Before them was the CSO and a Police Inspector. Claudine’s parents were influential figures so law enforcement officers were taking the case of the missing girl serious. It was 3hrs since Ara’s dad found out his ID card was missing while getting ready for work and 30mins since he was invited to the Security Division of the hospital. On his arrival at the security division he had been alarmed to find his wife Maryam seating nervously inside the office of the CSO. About 2hrs ago he had personally dropped her off at work at the private clinic where she worked that’s why he had been shocked to find her seated inside the Security Division. At first, he thought that he was being invited to the security division due to the complaint about his missing ID card that he had forwarded earlier on his arrival at the hospital. The news of the missing Douglas girl was a mystery t
2038 When the third nail went into his right knee, he screamed but his voice could not be heard because the gag was still in his mouth. He tried to move in pain but he was still naked and strapped to the chair with his hands and legs bounded. His dead colleague’s corpse was still lying inside the bathtub in the bathroom. Ara picked up another nail and pointed it directly at the left ankle of his naked victim bringing up his hammer ready to pound the nail into it. The fear in the eyes of the man told him the canary was ready to sing the song he has been dying to hear. “Sometimes to catch a monster you had to become one yourself,” Ara thought. On Ara’s way home from the office, he had noticed the two strange men in the black Mercedes SUV still following him. On his arrival at his apartment he had switched off every single lights in the house and make things appear like he was asleep. As expected, the two men had expertly picked the lock on his door and gotten access into
2016 Back at the hospital, the police and security operatives were busy going over LIGH searching for Ara and Claudine Douglas. Sterling International Secondary School was also under the scope of law enforcement agencies. Trained security dogs have also been introduced into the search and the governor was turning on the heat on the state CP who was also making his subordinates feel the steam. LIGH was now a scene carved out of a Hollywood thriller because officers were all over the hospital. One of the security cameras had picked up Ara walking into the hospital disguised as a staff. The fact that he had not been seen leaving the hospital with Claudine had left them with the impression that the girl and him might be hidden somewhere inside the hospital. The time was now 12:48pm and Ara’s parents were now back at home after calling their attorney. They were aware that if the girl was not recovered soon, the SSS might also end up being involved in the case considering the
2038 Torn between two worlds and living in the reality of the confusion of his current situation, something told him the timing was bad. Staring at the screen of his mobile device, the news Google search engine was relating to him was a bad one. His parents had been reported missing at 1:48pm on the 28th day of October 2016 by their attorney who had arrived at their residence to find their home empty without a single soul inside of it except for a broken lock at the front door signifying forced entry. Their mobile devices had been found in the living room but they were still missing till date along with a police patrol car and four police officers. Ara did the maths of going back to 2016 but the result he got wasn’t encouraging. Going back at the moment will leave him exposed to The Drifter who was obviously out on the hunt for his soul. He knew he needed to get back now more than ever but the fact is he couldn’t yet identify The Drifter and if the killer got to him while h
Ara was dejected when he put down his binoculars and turned away from the window of the old equipment room. He knew he couldn’t get to his parents either within or outside the hospital. The whole place was swimming with police you might as well call the hospital ‘Police Academy.’ Even if he somehow did escape the sights of the police officers, he wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with their German shepherds roaming the hospital. The sight of Claudine lying on the gurney while a machine became the lifeline between her worldly existence and eternal extinction made him feel guilty. The headache he was feeling since he returned from 2038 was getting worse by the seconds and he felt famished. After helping himself to some snacks and aspirin, he lay down and focused his attention on the clock. Slowly he lost his mind to the impossible destination he had chosen to visit. This time the whole process felt more draining and slower as he kept focusing his mind on the hands of
When he got back to 2016, he was exhausted. The headache inside his head was not helping matters but he picked himself up and checked on Claudine. She was still asleep but she was perspiring profusely and her body temperature was high. Ara used a wet towel to wipe the sweat off her body. When he was through, he checked on the oxygen flow meter and he was relieved there was still more than 60% of air left inside the tank. He ate a bar of chocolate and drank a can of energy drink before he swallowed some painkillers he had stolen from his parent’s drug cabinet. After resting for a minute, he fixed his sim card back into his mobile phone and switched it on. His plan was to call his parents and let them know he was in an undisclosed location within the hospital. It was best he got his parents to the hospital as soon as possible before The Drifter got to them because at the hospital they would benefit from being around the police. He was not planning on telling his parents that