Devils In disguise

Chapter 3

Charlotte jumped into the taxi.

“San Jose Hospital please.” She directed before sitting relaxed at the back, it was about 6:30 am.

“30 dollars.” The driver mumbled watching her through the rearview mirror.

“Ok.” She said quickly before he motioned the car out of their closeted vicinity into the open streets, that spiraled straight into more complicated road networks up ahead.

She was in her matching blue tunic. Constantly checking her wristwatch as the car moved at a steady measured pace. Her phone vibrated inside her handbag, it was Glenn. She hesitated a bit before picking up, and taking a deep breath.

“Hi.” She greeted and swallowed.

“Where are you.” He asked sounding more sober now than last night.

“Off to work Glenn, your breakfast is in the microwave.”

“Turn around.”

“Why?”

“I said turn the f**k around now.”

“Not possible Glenn, we both know I’m on a 12-hour shift today?”

“You’ve got two choices, me or your shift.” He snarled through the phone.

“I’ll be waiting.” He said with a tone of finality and hung up.

Charlotte inhaled and exhaled again, she wasn’t going to let his shenanigans get to her this time, this was her work, her career, her dream.

Since she graduated and got her eight-month clinical placement at San Jose, Miguel had become all of a sudden more aggressive and commanding. She knew he had always been weird but not this weird. There was no presence of love between them, and there never was. Sometimes at the house when she did the daily chores wearing her usual home wears like the bum shorts and knickers, from the corner of her eyes, she would notice him struggling to restrain himself, trying in vain to mask his horniness, afraid to show his lust, sometimes even rushing out of the house to the club or motel instead in the middle of the night just to satisfy his s****l urge. For some strange reason, he deliberately did not want to sleep with her, and it was almost as though he were under instructions or an oath not to. Even when they quarrelled he would hit her, and even threaten to r**e her, but he never tried to, never dared.

“You’re still young we shall consummate this bond on the night of your 22nd birthday.”

He had had to announce on one occasion, a day when the urge her become too much for him and it became clear that he needed an excuse to sort of explain his mysterious self control around her.

She had been at the kitchen making pancakes, and all of a sudden he had drawn her close, forcefully kissing her lips, then pushing are to the wall and grabbing her by the thigh but had immediately backed off in self realization. Quickly putting on his shirt and hurrying off to the motel.

It was odd but at this stage of her life oddity had become part of her daily routine. It had become an extension of her.

The paranoia of her late teenage years and the certain protection he had offered to her at the most vulnerable moment of her life was why she had agreed to his queer proposal of marriage, because for some reason she knew he could give it. Now she secretly sought for a way out of this maze she was in.

She wanted to leave him and run as far away as her legs could take her. But she was scared of him. His silences hunted her, his hushed phone calls, his hooded friends who never said much, his boss who she never saw but was always in touch with him giving him instructions.

Moreover she was mainly afraid of what he would do to her should he find out that she tried to escape, he was capable of a lot of dangerous things from the little she knew of him. Particularly since she discovered that his boss whom he worked for as a Charlotte, was Miguel Rodriguez, one of the most influential and richest names in the city. Perhaps his billionaire master the CEO, was his sponsor, the reason why he was so confident about getting away with whatever he did.

Since five years ago when she watched him murder Pastor Bryant in cold blood till now, nothing about the true cause of the man’s death had been found, just like nothing about the death of her parents had been found. The little she heard in the news on ABC network was that pastor Bryant had died by domestic accident. Her parent’s own was worse, they had been declared missing on the news, even though she had been there that fateful night, she had seen the bullets flying here and there and the chaos the showers of blood, she had seen it all. She was inwardly convinced that whoever it was, Glenn was working for was just as powerful as the people who had murdered her parents. She would bind her time and when the time was right, she would go back and fish them out she would pay them a surprise visit, a revenge visit that would be paid for in their own coin.

“Madam we are at San Jose’s Hospital.”

The driver’s voice nudged Charlotte back to reality she blinked repeatedly.

“Oh thank you.” Before she got out handing him his money through the window and then making a turn towards the hospital complex.

She passed through the first ward briskly, going through the emergency ward while the glass doors slid open and shut. The tap tap sound of her footsteps on the floors persisted, but later got swallowed up by the moans and gasps rising and falling inside one of the wards.

At the pediatric ward she was greeted by the low volume sound of a Tv channel showing inside one of opened offices belonging to one of the matrons. Nurse Elena immediately made out her figure in the tunic and came approaching hurriedly, with kit in hand.

“Good morning Charlotte, Please go to the next ward, ward 28 and take the patients heart beat and blood pressure”

She instructed passing the kit to her.

“Okay.” She said forcing a smile

“That was quick.” She said inwardly.

She saw the frail looking child sitting on the stretcher with his parents sitting beside him.

She greeted the parents who looked too sad to respond by mouth but instead nodded to acknowledge her presence.

She touched the child lightly on the shoulder.

“you’re going to be okay.”

She muttered.

She was about carrying out her duty when her phone beeped once showing a notification message on the screen. She brought it closer and stared back at Glenn’s text message in terror the slanted text flashing before her.

“Come to the house now or it’s going to be your last day on the planet, you and your colleagues. Take care.”