EpisodeFOUR:The hospital
1197 Words
The hospital smelled like antiseptic and quiet fear.
Nora noticed it the moment the automatic doors slid open. It was the kind of place where pain was hidden behind white walls and soft voices, where people learned bad news in small rooms and carried it silently afterward.
Ethan moved fast.
One hand rested lightly at the small of her back, guiding her forward, while the other held his phone to his ear. He spoke in short sentences, his voice low and controlled.
“Yes.”
“No names.”
“Private room.”
“Now.”
Nora did not ask who he was speaking to. She did not ask how he knew exactly where to go. She followed him through corridors and past nurses who barely looked up, as if he belonged here, as if this place answered to him too.
They were taken into a room at the end of a hallway. No shared beds. No waiting family members. Just a single bed, machines humming quietly, and curtains drawn tight.
“You’re not hurt,” the nurse said, checking Nora’s vitals. “Shock, mostly.”
Nora nodded, though her hands still shook.
Ethan stood near the window, his back to them, shoulders tense. He had not looked at her since they arrived.
When the nurse left, the room fell into silence.
Nora broke it first.
“You shot them.”
“Yes.”
“Without hesitation.”
“Yes.”
She waited for more. An explanation. Regret. Anything.
Nothing came.
She turned her head on the pillow to look at him. “How many times have you done that?”
Ethan’s reflection stared back at her from the dark glass. “Enough.”
Her chest tightened. “You said you fixed problems. You didn’t say you killed people.”
“I don’t kill people,” he said flatly. “I stop them.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It is in my world.”
She closed her eyes. A wave of exhaustion rolled over her, heavy and cold. Everything felt too big. Too fast. Less than twenty four hours ago, she had been a woman taking a job to disappear quietly. Now she was sitting in a hospital room, protected by a man who moved like violence was part of his daily routine.
“I want the truth,” she said softly. “All of it.”
Ethan turned away from the window.
“No,” he said.
Her eyes snapped open. “You don’t get to decide that.”
“Yes, I do,” he replied. “Because the truth is what puts you in the ground.”
Anger flared, sharp and sudden. “You already put me in danger.”
His jaw tightened. “You were in danger long before you walked into my house.”
“Then why me?” she demanded. “Why not someone else?”
For the first time, Ethan hesitated.
That hesitation told her more than any answer could.
A doctor entered the room, breaking the moment. He checked her pulse, asked routine questions, confirmed again that she was physically unharmed.
“She should stay overnight,” the doctor said. “Observation.”
Ethan nodded. “She will.”
The doctor glanced between them, clearly sensing the tension, then left.
When the door closed, Ethan spoke again.
“You’ll be safe here tonight.”
Nora laughed softly, without humor. “You said that about your house.”
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Because everyone here is monitored.”
She stiffened. “That’s not comforting.”
“It’s necessary.”
Hours passed slowly. Night settled outside the window, turning the city into a blur of distant lights. Ethan remained in the chair near the door, his posture rigid, alert. He did not sleep. He barely moved.
Nora watched him when she thought he wasn’t paying attention.
There was distance between them now. Not physical. Emotional. Something had shifted the moment she saw him pull the trigger without blinking. The man who had offered her coffee and quiet protection now felt like a stranger made of sharp edges and secrets.
Her phone buzzed.
She froze.
Ethan was on his feet instantly. “Don’t answer it.”
She hesitated. “What if it’s important?”
“It’s not.”
Another buzz.
You survived. Good.
Her breath hitched.
Ethan reached for the phone, but she pulled it back. “You don’t get to take everything from me.”
His eyes darkened. “This is how people get killed.”
She typed with shaking fingers.
Who are you?
The reply came slower this time.
Someone who watched them erase you once.
Nora’s heart pounded painfully. “Erase me how?”
Ethan grabbed the phone and powered it off.
“That’s enough,” he said sharply.
She stared at him, fury and fear mixing in her chest. “You’re afraid.”
“Yes,” he admitted without hesitation. “And you should be too.”
Silence fell again, heavier than before.
Later that night, as Nora drifted in and out of sleep, voices reached her through the haze.
Doctors. Nurses. And another voice.
A woman’s.
Weak. Broken. Familiar in a way Nora could not place.
“She doesn’t know,” the woman whispered.
Ethan’s voice answered, quieter than she had ever heard it. “She can’t.”
“You promised,” the woman said. “You promised the truth wouldn’t die with me.”
“I promised to protect her.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Nora’s eyes fluttered open, but the room was empty. The chair by the door was vacant. The monitors hummed steadily.
Had she imagined it?
The door opened slowly.
Ethan stepped back inside, his face closed off again.
“Who was that?” Nora asked.
“No one,” he said too quickly.
She sat up slightly, her heart racing. “There was a woman. She said I didn’t know. She said you promised.”
Ethan’s expression changed.
Not anger. Not fear.
Guilt.
“There are things,” he said carefully, “that once spoken cannot be undone.”
“And things that once hidden destroy people,” she replied.
He looked at her for a long time.
“You think distance will keep you safe,” she continued quietly. “But all it’s doing is pushing me toward whoever is texting me. Whoever already knows more about me than I do.”
That landed.
Ethan exhaled slowly. “You don’t understand what Jack Loosa is capable of.”
The name sent a chill through her.
“You know him,” she said.
“I’ve known him longer than I wish,” Ethan replied.
Outside the room, footsteps approached.
Too many.
Ethan’s body went tense.
The door handle turned.
Ethan moved in front of Nora instinctively, one hand already reaching inside his jacket.
The door opened.
A man stood there, tall and calm, wearing a polite smile that did not touch his eyes.
“Ethan,” he said warmly. “I hear you’re making things complicated again.”
Nora’s blood ran cold.
Jack Loosa had found them.
And he was smiling.
- Writer
