Chapter 2 Olivia
8 years later
It was a rainy day, about three o’clock in the morning. It was a Friday, so London’s streets were full of drunk and drugged people who continued partying on the streets or trying to find their homes.
However, the situation in the major hospital's emergency department worsened every minute. Most of the patients got there with alcohol poisoning, and some of them overdosed on some drugs. Many people got involved in fights, which caused broken bones or stab wounds. It seemed like the night was never-ending.
“What happened to him?” a doctor pulled the curtain open and stepped to the bed—a man lay there, his arm full of fresh and dried blood.
“A deep but clear cut on the forearm, Dr. Flores.” A nurse responded to the attractive doctor.
Dr Olivia Flores was a surgeon in the A&E department. Although she seemed young, her experience and manner of treating people made other doctors and nurses think she had been practising for much longer than she claimed. They weren’t wrong, but they never questioned her further.
Olivia was a fantastic doctor and very attractive as a woman. She had a slender figure but wasn’t too tall or short. Olivia had natural black hair and eyes like the coldest blue ocean. Her skin was white like she had never seen the Sun, but her full lips were red like blood. She was like a living porcelain doll. Many doctors tried to get close to her, but she refused all of them because she didn’t want to get involved in a relationship.
She didn’t seek a partner. Even if she was lonely and missed being loved, she couldn’t let others know what she was. She couldn’t let any human realise her ice-cold skin, her no-beating heart and her actual age. Olivia must have kept a secret that the feared creatures from horror movies, vampires, existed, and she was one of them.
She had a few affairs in her life. She tried to be with other vampires, but their relationships always failed, primarily because of their different eating habits.
She tried to move into vampire communities, but again, she couldn’t bear the barbeque parties, as the vampires called them, where humans were the threats. Olivia would never forget those nights when the group leader brought some innocent humans to the premises. The fear was written on their faces, and to hear them beg for their life and then cry for their mothers damaged her for her long life. He left immediately, and she promised never to try to live again in such a community.
But she was a young vampire, only about two hundred years old back then. How old was she now? She couldn’t tell. She stopped counting it after four hundred years while moving around the world.
Especially after experiencing the fear of human beings, Olivia never wanted to hurt people, but she needed blood, of course. There was a period in her life when she lived with other creatures, living the same life as her. She found a small community where she felt good again. In a few years, she became part of a group of scientists trying to know creatures other than humans. They examined the bodies and helped them heal when all the doctors failed, but the community members also had the chance to do experiments. Her target was to find a way to live without blood, but she was unsuccessful. During these years, she only practised bearing her hunger, but she did that very well. She needed a sachet of blood each half year, which she always took from the hospital secretly. That was why it was so beneficial for her to be a doctor in the human world.
Because she never looked older, she never spent over ten years in one place. Moving was always a lot of work, but it was necessary, as humans couldn’t know their existence. Many believed they existed, but they weren’t allowed to confess that.
One of the communities’ leaders could execute vampires who couldn’t keep the rules. And that was all the vampire’s biggest fear, including Olivia.
“I cleaned the wound. A nurse will bandage it for you, Mr. Rest your arm for a few days, keep the bandage dry and clean. My colleagues will inform you when to come back to change it. If it hurts too much, you can take some ibuprofen.”
“Thank you, Dr.” The human looked at Olivia with gratefulness. Probably, he was involved in a fight, but she didn’t ask. His wound wasn’t serious at all, so there was no need to involve the police.
She closed the curtain and went to the following folder. Then, she sighed and went to see the next patient.
At eight o’clock in the morning, she sat down in the hospital’s restaurant. Of course, she bought a coffee, which she never drank, but she needed a break. Not that she was tired physically. She treated twelve lightly injured people, a very ill little girl, and she had three life-saving operations. Even though she was a vampire and stronger than a human, she also loved to sleep. That helped her mind rest, and she hadn’t slept for three days. She looked around and smiled at the thought that she would miss this place.
“Are you done?” Another doctor stepped at her table. She looked up at her and nodded with a smile. “Yes.”
“Well, I wish you good luck in the new place. Hopefully, it won’t be as mad as this one.”
“Thank you, Laura.” Olivia smiled back. It was her last day here, and she sat at her table with the coffee she would throw away.
After she forced herself to stand up, she took her belongings and walked down the hall. At the main reception, everyone said farewell to her and wished her luck with her new job.
Even though she had experienced it so many times, she still loved the feeling that people would honestly miss her.
She walked out and sat in her car. Then, she turned on the engine and drove back to her apartment.
When she stepped inside, the apartment echoed because of the empty rooms and places, just like usual. Even if she was all packed, that changed nothing in the flat. She didn’t like to buy stuff. Because she moved a lot, she didn’t want to be attached to anything.
She laid down on her inflatable mattress, and she fell asleep quickly.
The following day, she showered and got dressed. Then, she had a last look at the place where she had spent the previous ten years. With a sad smile, she stepped out and walked down with her only luggage in her hand. She put the items into her car and drove to her next home, Middlesbrough.
It wasn’t unfamiliar to her. She used to live here a long time ago.
She rented out the flat a few weeks ago. She knew where she was going. When she arrived, she looked around, satisfied. This was her home for the next ten years. She hesitated a lot before moving here, as it wasn’t too far from London, but she wanted to move to the north so much that she only hoped she wouldn’t meet anyone from her past ten years.
She lit some candles and lay in the bath. Even though her body was naturally cold, she enjoyed the warm water. She loved feeling her body warmed up, and it relaxed her.
The next day was her first day in the new hospital. It was huge, just like the one in London, but this one looked colder. She had worked here before, but the entire building looked different at that time.
“May I help you?” A young blonde receptionist asked her when she stepped to the desk. Olivia smiled at her.
“Yes. My name is Dr. Olivia Flores. This is my first day here.”
“Oh…” the receptionist looked at her surprised. “I call someone to come. Which department?”
“A&E.”
As the woman stood up and walked to another phone, Olivia’s gaze was fixed on someone. He stood there, and he probably heard everything.
When their gazes met, Olivia felt something unfamiliar. She couldn’t describe that feeling, but her heart probably would have beat crazily if her heart had beat.
The man’s gaze remained serious, and he didn’t look away. They were staring at each other for a few moments. The man had black hair and an unusually muscular body, and he was a little taller than Olivia. His skin was white, but probably he enjoyed the Sun a lot, and his eyes were brown. She felt like the air froze, and she could only think of what he was and that they would work in one place.