Sally woke up with her head in her hands and punched the alarm clock shut. She cursed herself as she realised that she had failed to keep an eye on Lauren overnight, who was gently sleeping beside her. “Looks like I got overconfident again”, Sally sighed as she regretted her decision to down 6 shots like usual instead of 4 like she had initially planned. Sally looked around and blinked her eyes a few times and let out a combination of a groan and a yawn, or, as Anna liked to say, a grawn. She glanced at the alarm clock which was somehow still functioning despite sustaining a Herculean punch from Sally just a minute ago and her eyes were now open wider than an expressway. “Oi Lauren!” Sally screamed. “Wake up! Its 10 fucking AM! LAUREN!” Sally shook Lauren who was drooling in her sleep. Lauren was facing the other side as Sally shook her once again, to which Lauren quickly turned around and grabbed Sally just above her left breast with her nails. Lauren’s eyes were still closed and Sally blinked. “What kind of a lewd dream is this bitch having? Didn’t know she was a homo in her dreams!” Sally said as she shook Lauren again, but in vain. Sally thought that maybe she should get Lauren a cup of coffee before trying to wake her up again.
Sally headed into the kitchen and took out two large coffee mugs. She felt an itch at the point where Lauren had grabbed her and her hand automatically went straight inside her top to satiate her itch. Sally stopped in her tracks immediately. Although she didn’t feel it earlier, but her skin was slightly pierced by the nails. She was about to resume making coffee when another thought flashed across her head : the target wasn’t her breast but her heart.
Sally’s headache was far from gone, but she had to be the one to drive anyway. Lauren’s driving licence was in the glove compartment of her car, which was still parked outside the pub. Lauren seemed quite chirpy despite having lost to Sally by just a single drink. “Winner, winner, Fidget Spinner!”, Lauren had exclaimed when Sally corrected her, “its chicken dinner, Senorita”, to which Lauren responded saying, but that doesn’t represent your head, does it?” as she chuckled a short and mean chuckle. A grey Mitsubishi conveniently glided next to Sally’s car, and Sally, who was already familiar with the pattern, decided to change lanes reach the hospital via an alternative route.
“Where have you guys been? I thought you would take responsibility of bringing Lauren early, Sally!” Anna said to Sally, who wasn’t in a mood to be lectured, but had to bear with it because Anna was too pure and fragile to take a jibe from her seasoned tongue. “Well, lend me your sister next time round”, was all she could manage to say. Both Lauren and Sally signed on the registers and then looked at Anna. “So, what do we do today? Now that the medicines are gone? What does the schedule say?” Lauren asked Anna. Both Sally and Lauren knew that if the boxes were really stolen, their schedules would still involve working on the medicines. “Well, its sort of a bittersweet news, but, those medicines aren’t on your schedule anymore”, Anna said as she printed a copy of the schedules of both Lauren and Sally. “So it really was Wilson”, Sally muttered angrily. “Its ok, Sally”, Lauren said and gave a pat on her back. “No its not! Je made the two of us fight!” Sally said as she got ready for giving Wilson an earful. “Hey! Snap out of it! Its his hospital. He can do whatever he wants here”, Lauren said, her words failing to comfort Sally even a bit. Lauren noticed that her words failed to make a dent and made another attempt to bring Sally’s temper, “Besides, now that we don’t have that boring task on our heads, even we can do whatever we want! Wanna grab something to eat, Sal? I’m already starving”, Lauren said casually, and Sally nodded, her anger slowly dissipating and being replaced by pleasant thoughts of food. “The treat does the trick!”, said Anna as she bid them goodbye.
“Sally! Lauren!” Anna tried to scream scream, just a second later, shattering her periwinkle like vocal chords in the process. “What is it?” Sally screamed back?” Anna tried to scream again, but her throat was already battered. She called Sally on her phone and said, “Wilson has asked all the staff members to give blood samples, so, keep a test tube ready”, Anna said, to which Sally screamed an okay back, damaging Anna’s eardrums via her phone. “Couldn’t you have called us in the first place?” Lauren asked Anna. “Well, I… Someone is here”, Anna said as she hung up and attended a person who was not even close to a foot of the reception counter.
“How much is that for?” a man asked Yusuf who had just opened his shop of flowers. “Irises? 35 Blichens. 60 for two bouquets and if you want them in a beautiful bamboo basket, that would be another 8 Blichens”, he said without looking at the man. “Keep the change”, the man said and the bell at the door of the shop dinged when Yusuf turned around. A crisp bill of 100 Blichens on his counter, a couple missing iris bouquets and baskets, a swinging door and a fleeting glimpse of a tall man with a black fedora and an overcoat was all he managed to see.
“Remember Sally, yours is the right one and mine is the left one. Label them before submitting it at the reception counter”, Lauren said to Sally before exiting the laboratory to go and check on her patients. “I’ll remember that”, said Sally, who was studying the reports of the victims of the Feli-City vampire. “Remember, L for left, L for Lauren”, Lauren said as she exited. After Lauren was out, Sally entered the bathroom and stripped her upper body. She compared the mark on her body with the photographs. She started sweating when she noticed that the mark was exactly where the victims had it. It was just smaller and shallower. Sally didn’t like where this was heading.
Sally exited the bathroom and put on an extra layer of clothing to drive her fear away. She reached the test tubes which contained her blood samples and the blood sample of Lauren. She was about to label them when she stopped, “Now, which left was Lauren talking about? Mine or hers?” After being in a dilemma for a whole three seconds, Sally labelled the test tube on her right as ‘Lauren Hart’ and the one on her left as ‘Sally Harper’. She was still confused if she had labelled them correctly. After giving it a thought, she added the title ‘Dr.’ to both of the labels.
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