Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) (18 page)

Suddenly, she keeled over. The gasp
that blew out of her lungs didn’t even sound like her. The next few
moments were punctuated by bright lights and strange
sounds.

God, help me.

Scarlet lights swayed around her.
Alarmed voices cried out from above and she could smell the sweet
tang of sterilized equipment. Vivian struggled to peer through her
heavy eyelids as her body floated down the hall on a
gurney.

A medical gurney. She cried out and
swiped at one of the blurred figures. Those figures immediately
seized her flailing arms and pinned them against the
bedspread.

Not even her most potent LSD high
could compare to this terror. Voices echoed in and out of her
consciousness, trickling across her brain.

“
Patient exhibits puncture
in radial vein, unidentified substance…”

“…
high levels of activity
detected in the right hemisphere of the cerebral
cortex.”

“
Restrain her hands, she’s
clawing at her—”

* * *

Vivian could see clearly
again.

She staggered away from the body
curled up on the pavement. She instantly tumbled over several trash
cans, slipping and sliding before ultimately banging her head on
the ground.

A man was lying motionless
in the streets, unfazed by the mayhem.
At
first, she thought he might be asleep, but the scent of freshly
spilt blood told her otherwise.

What was she doing here? The last
thing she remembered was plunging toward the pavement in a cyclone
of berserk visions. Something about this situation seemed all too
familiar, though it was removed from context.

She inched closer, trying to view the
victim’s face. Someone viciously wrenched her away and slammed her
against a dumpster.

“
What the hell have you
done?” a voice barked in her ear. She couldn’t answer him, her
tongue rendered limp from shock.

Gravity seemed to pull her attention
toward the body again. The man showed no evident signs of life, his
face sinking into a pool of rainwater.

Blood lit up the pavement like a neon
splatter show. She blinked and, at once, she realized the victim
was crawling toward her on calloused hands and knees.

Vivian swooned as an unseen figure
patted her down for a weapon.

She was drawn to the victim again. Had
she traced those intricate scars and markings on his flesh? She
couldn’t remember what had transpired only seconds ago. No, she
couldn’t be responsible for this grotesque display… She couldn’t
be.

“
You hurt me…” he
whimpered. He lifted his bloodshot eyes to hers and she could see
his face. “It feels so exquisite.”

* * *

Vivian lurched forward with a start.
She almost tumbled out of the hospital bed had dozens of tubes not
restrained her.

Muffled voices resounded beyond the
walls of her dorm. Shadows fluttered near the bottom of the door,
betraying the presence of nurses roaming the hospital corridors.
The hazy dawn peeped through the window, glossing over an EKG
monitor. A line skipped along in jagged green strokes as it traced
the contractions of her young heart.

“
How did I end up here?”
she asked, balling the edges of her hospital gown in her fists. At
once, she regarded the tangled mess of tubes innervating her arm.
The sight of the IV bandaged to her skin was too much to bear. She
took hold of the catheter and yanked it out.

A machine screeched in retaliation as
soon as the IV slid free. The door swung open and a portly nurse
burst inside.

“
No, no, no! We need the IV
to stay in place!”

“
What am I doing here?”
Vivian said anxiously.

“
Here, let me help with
that.” She averted her gaze as the nurse inserted a fresh IV in her
arm. She worked diligently to replace the bag drip feeding her a
stream of lactated Ringer’s solution and diuretics.

“
Why am I here? What
happened to me?
Please answer
me!
”

The nurse tossed the old IV tubes in
the biohazard waste.

“
You passed out in a
downtown alley. Your cousin saw you fall and called the
paramedics.”

“
The alley?” She vaguely
remembered falling and running away from something, but what? It
took her a moment to register the second half of the nurse’s
statement.

“
My
cousin?
”

“
Yes. I’m afraid I didn’t
catch her name. It was pure chaos when you were rushed in. You
couldn’t stop screaming and lashing out at anyone who got too
close.”

If that unflattering description was
supposed to make her feel ashamed, Vivian didn’t even flinch. She
was far too preoccupied with the danger taking seed in her mind.
Her frayed psyche was unraveling one thread at a time.

“
Where is she now? My
cousin?”

“
She’s waiting for you in
the visitors’ lounge.”

Vivian’s stomach fluttered as she
considered who else might be awaiting her. What if her parents were
just down the hall, wringing their hands and harassing the nursing
staff? Swift resentment bubbled up for her father, but at the same
time, she longed to feel his sheltering arms again. Maybe her
parents had been scouring the city for her ever since.

“
I want to see my cousin.
Could you bring her to my room?”

“
I’ll fetch her in just a
minute. Now leave the IV in. If you need anything, just push this
button on the remote.” The nurse looked over her shoulder as she
left, not quite trusting of Vivian. When her bulky frame
disappeared, Vivian stared at the walls, anxious to see her cousin.
She glanced at the IV drip, trickling incessantly as the minutes
passed by. She pressed the button on the clunky remote.

“
I need to pee,” she
announced, wondering if the intercom was transmitting her voice for
the entire hospital to hear.

The door yawned open, but the nurse
didn’t enter. Vivian breathed a sigh of relief as Camilla wisped
through the door like an apparition of autumn. Swaddled in her
blood red scarf and silk blouse, she looked like just walked off
the set of a fashion shoot. She almost pounced on top of the
hospital bed in her excitement.

“
Vivian, what the hell
happened?”

“
Nice to see you too,
Camilla,” she smiled. “So tell me, since when did you become an
Asian immigrant?”

“
Since it became
convenient. Now tell me what’s going on. One minute I’m heading
home, and the next thing, you stagger into view. You fell and
struck your head on the concrete before I could get close. I called
the ambulance when you wouldn’t wake up.”

She looked down at the IV in Vivian’s
arm as though it was secretly pumping her full of heroin instead of
solution.

“
I hit my head…?” Vivian
lifted her hand to the gash running down her temple. “I can only
remember bits and pieces before I blacked out. My head is spinning
and I can barely hold a thought together. I feel like I could pass
out any moment.”

“
Do you want me to call the
nurse—?”

“
No. She won’t be any help.
Just pass me that blanket over there. Shit, these gowns are more
revealing than anything I wore as a stripper.”

“
What?”

“
Nothing.” She shook her
head as her vision blurred. “I remember running in the streets,
just trying to get away from something.”

“
You went to the outskirts,
didn’t you? Did you find another victim?”

“
I don’t know. Just get me
out of here, Camilla,” she pleaded. “Maybe I’ll remember everything
once I’m safe.”

“
I already checked with the
ER nurse. You should be discharged within twenty-four hours as long
as everything checks out fine.”

“
Will you stay with me
until then? I don’t want to be alone. Not now.” The QRS complex
zipped along the EKG monitor, diving and hiking with every
contraction of Vivian’s heart. A heart that may even now be tainted
with drugs.

Camilla watched as Vivian pulled the
blanket closer to her chest.

“
Okay. I’ll stay with
you.”

The slightest smile creased Vivian’s
lips, feeling blessed to have her company. They sat silently in the
gray room as the morning sun wilted.

* * *

“
Show it to me.” Camilla
recoiled when Vivian thrust her arm in her face. The black vein
glared under the pale skin, pulsing amorphously. “Oh my God… And
you don’t know what he injected in you?”

“
Not a damn clue.” Vivian
pressed a cold towel against the vein in a futile attempt to soothe
the swelling. At least it made her feel like she was doing
something to stem the soreness.

She felt desecrated,
infected, tainted... by
him.

And every time she closed her eyes,
she could see the words crudely incised in his chest.

You cannot hurt me anymore.

The memories of her captor came
surging back as soon as she left the sanctuary of the hospital.
There was no denying, he had to be the deviant wretch responsible
for butchering women. Had she not escaped when she did, he might
have added her body to his trophies.

Vivian confessed every macabre detail
to Camilla as they returned to Vesely Manor.

Camilla dumped some deli sandwiches
out of a paper bag and Vivian ravenously tore into them.

“
I remember seeing strange
visions when I escaped the house,” she said in between bites of
salami and cheese. “I don’t even know how I made it
downtown.”

“
What are you going to do?
What if this thing he injected kills you?”

“
I don’t know. I didn’t
consider that possibility.” She reluctantly set down her sandwich
as her appetite waned. What unforeseen consequences might this
substance reap on her mind? Was this only a foretaste of more to
come?

“
I experienced a flashback
in the hospital,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure what it means. To
be honest, I don’t even know if it’s a hallucination or a
memory.”

“
What did you
see?”

“
I… I can’t remember… I
think someone was dying.”

“
What if you have another
hallucination?”

“
I don’t know. I…” She
glanced out the window and caught her fragile reflection. As much
as she hated to admit it, fear glazed her eyes. “Could you stay
with me at the manor tonight? And just watch over me, in case
anything happens?”

“
Okay… but I’m on deadline
so I need to have my stories ready for print tomorrow. I need to
stop by my apartment to pick up my laptop. Everything’s going to be
fine, I promise.”

Vivian nodded. Camilla clasped her
hand, and what she saw in the young journalist’s face emboldened
her.

“
Remember, Vivian, you’re
not alone in this. I’ll be here until the end. Don’t be too damn
proud or ashamed to ask for my help. Hang tight until I return,
okay? Don’t go anywhere.”

“
Okay.”

Camilla lurched to a stop at the
door.

“
I almost forgot. Before I
go, maybe this will keep you company.” Perplexed, Vivian watched
her trot toward an old world globe. Lifting the top, she revealed
an assortment of beer and scotch whiskey shimmering inside. She
winked mischievously. “Enjoy.”

Vivian grinned with
delight.

“
So that’s where you’ve
been hiding the good stuff.”

“
Just don’t drink it all or
I’ll throw you back into the streets.”

“
I’d like to see you
try.”

As soon as the door closed behind
Camilla, Vivian tossed back a dark beer. Before long, she was
prying into the whiskey to keep the loneliness at bay; anything to
ward away yesterday’s terrifying experience. With Camilla’s
absence, those memories came rushing back to feed on fresh
insecurities. Vivian couldn’t bear the solitude, even just fifteen
minutes. She desperately needed to speak to somebody. Anybody. She
flipped out her phone and her fingers acted of their own will,
dialing a number that was never far from her thoughts.

“
Nikolai?”

“
Vivian, I tried calling
you again. What happened?” His voice was familiar and comforting, a
strange sentiment to associate with a homicide
detective.

“
I—I returned to the
outskirts. I wanted to see my former neighborhood. I used to live
there.”

“
Damn it, Vivian, we don’t
have time for field trips. Our time is rapidly running out to find
this sick, twisted—”

“
I encountered the killer,”
she blurted. “He imprisoned me.” She scanned her surroundings,
expecting the killer to wisp out of the shadows. Would she
accidentally conjure him from the netherworld just by mentioning
him? That statement shut Nikolai up good.

“
Christ… Are you all
right?”