Rouge (2 page)

The familiar siren sounds of
an ambulance blared past her along with the flashing red and blue lights, but
all she heard was
Leo – Leo – Leo.
A shiver of excitement ran through
her at the thought of what awaited her at home. Her husband of two years had
been away for only a fortnight, but for Liz it felt like a lifetime. Not to
mention how worried she was that he and his best friend Joshua Harrison – also
a geologist – were travelling through Mexico into Cuba to explore a volcano.
The two weeks seemed to drag, but she kept herself busy at the hospital,
working more than her body could handle. She was exhausted and still shaken up
from her most recent procedure, but altogether buzzing with warmth.

A car behind her honked
sharply and the cup of steaming coffee slipped from her fingers and fell on her
lap, spilling across her front.

“Shit!” She swerved
dangerously close to the edge of the bridge and gripped the steering wheel in
an effort to gain control. Ignoring the tooting of other cars behind her, Liz
tried desperately to pull her wet shirt away from her skin. “Can this night get
any worse?”

Once she reached the
intersection, she turned left and continued along East River Drive. Their
apartment was just before the Washington Market Park in a quiet suburb. Leo
wanted a small place with cheap rent where he could study in peace. Liz just
wanted a place with him in it.

As she pulled up onto the
sidewalk in front of their apartment building, Liz became aware of a sudden
burning across her forehead.
Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,
she groaned
inwardly.
Am I seriously getting sick again?
Having worked so hard, the
possibility of a flu didn’t surprise her, but it didn’t please her either.

As she locked the car with a
mechanical
click,
her phone rang.

It was Dr. Mark.

“Hey. Got the results
already?”

“He’s clean,” said Dr. Mark,
“except for a substance called
er
… Feucotetanus
.
”

“
Feuco
-what?”

“That’s what I thought.
‘Tetanus’ is a disease caused by-”

“-Bacteria entering a wound,
I know. He did show signs of rigid muscle attacks. I assumed that was a part of
the seizure. Have you heard of it Mark?”

“Nope. I assume it’s a new
recreational drug, though something as strong and rare as that would have cost
a fortune. I have no idea how a guy like
that
got his hands on it.”

Liz rolled her eyes.
Everyone at the hospital knew Dr. Mark became a doctor not because of his
compassion for the sick, but for the title. “Okay… well if you have time, could
you see if the hospital has any record of it?”

“I have all the time in the
world, would you believe? This place is dead.”

Liz climbed the cracked
stairs and fished her keys out of her pocket. “It’s a
hospital
, Mark,
it’s never
dead.
”

There was an elated squeal
on Dr. Mark’s end. He uttered a quick “
shh
!” and
chuckled darkly.

Liz rolled her eyes.
Typical
Mark,
she thought,
taking advantage of the stupid new interns.
“Do
some
real
work, Mark,” she said.

“I am,” he replied. “Olivia
is testing out the efficiency of this wonderful defibrillator. We’re using a
low voltage, don’t worry.”

“I’m gonna be sick,” Liz
groaned. “Make sure you clean it thoroughly. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Roger that, enjoy your
night!”

Liz entered the dank lobby –
which was more like a corridor – and felt a sweat break out across her
forehead. Her palms were already sticky.
What the hell kind of flu is this?
Liz
glanced at the scratch across her forearm and had a mini heart-attack.
Relax,
she assured herself.
There was nothing wrong with the guy. It was just a
seizure, and the cut isn’t big enough to draw too much blood.

Liz swung open the door to
their apartment and dumped her bag on the swamp-green recliner. Leo had fallen
in love with the chair when they’d found it in a garage sale downtown. She
thought it was revolting.

The apartment was cluttered
with junk Leo had collected over the years from expeditions with Joshua. Liz
didn’t mind the artifacts, nor did she mind the messy feel that came with it.
These ‘flaws’ just made it all seem more like home. A lot of it belonged to
Joshua, who lived alone and often stayed with them when his apartment became
too empty. Besides, Joshua couldn’t cook himself instant noodles let alone a
nutritional meal.

But their worn-through
maroon couch was as lonely as Joshua’s life, and relief washed through her. She
wanted Leo to herself without their awkward friend listening in on them in the
bedroom.

Liz crossed to the study,
the familiar aroma of rich dirt mixed with Chai tea sending her heart into a
frenzy of desire. She could hear muttering and the ruffling of work notes and
suddenly the day – the entire fortnight, even – no longer mattered.

In the doorway, Liz gazed
upon her husband’s disheveled office. Pictures of he and Joshua climbing
mountains, hiking amongst forests and trekking through ancient caves were
tacked all over the brick wall on the right. Liz never had time to go with him;
work was too demanding. But when they were younger and she was only studying,
Leo packed their bags and they went travelling together through the Inca Trails
in South America and across the wintery mountains of Nepal. His backpack lay
unzipped next to the desk and clothes, papers and miscellaneous objects lay
spread across the wooden floor.

A warm feeling as though
someone had trickled hot water onto the tip of her head spread throughout Liz’s
body. Leo was bent over a sheet of paper, scribbling away, so immersed in his
work that he didn’t hear the soft creak of the boards beneath her feet. Damp,
curly brown hair hung over his glasses, which were slipping to the edge of his
nose as he tried to get the last few words down on paper.

“Hey stranger.”

Leo glanced up at Liz in the
doorway and a smile spread through to his amber eyes. He crossed the room,
embraced his wife and swung her around in circles across the dimly-lit study.
She laughed, clung tightly to his thickly muscled arms and kissed every inch of
his face as he lowered her down.

“I missed you,” she
murmured. Her hands gently brushed through his hair.

“Me too,” he said. “Joshua’s
not enough for me. I need a real woman.”

She laughed and kissed him
again. Leo became slowly more passionate, his hands moving down her back to her
hips. She pulled them away.

“What’s wrong?” He joined
his hands and locked her between his arms. “Lizzie, I’ve been hiking up a
volcano for the past week, living in this dodgy shack with
Joshua
to
keep me company. You have no idea how much I want you right now.”

“I can imagine,” she
muttered, her fingers tracing his cleanly-shaven jaw line. He smelled so fresh.
A shower,
she thought,
that’s exactly what I need.
“I’m really
tired Leo. I was supposed to finish an hour ago but the hospital was so busy.
And this last patient was…” she sighed and shook her head. “I can’t even
explain it to you.”

“Is that why you’re covered
in blood? And-” He sniffed her shirt just below the breast pocket and she
chuckled. “-Is that coffee I smell?”

“Long story.” She pulled out
of his grasp. “I’m taking a shower.”

“Can’t we talk? I have so
much to tell you. Joshua and I found this incredible substance formed in a
volcano.” He reached for something on the desk and held up a deep-black stone,
rough and inaccurately round. Liz started at the stone with as much enthusiasm
as a tree, listening to her husband’s jumbled words topple in a rush of
excitement out of his mouth.
He’s so damn cute when he talks about rocks.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before Liz, seriously it’s out of this world.
Here-”

Before Liz could protest, he
shoved the stone in her hands and she fumbled with it unsteadily. The rock was
definitely very artificial looking, with black sandstone crumbling off the
outer surface. As Liz held it tight, the stone began to heat in her grasp. Leo
was watching her with a smile so wide he looked a little creepy. She handed it
back to him and felt a shock go up her arm, as if the stone had some sort of
static.

“It’s wonderful Leo, but-”

“
Ow
!”
Leo dropped it back on his desk. “Shit that’s hot.”

Liz laughed. “Yeah right, you
can be such a pussy sometimes.”

“I-” He peered at her and
then the stone. “You didn’t feel-”

Liz pressed her lips against
his to silence him. “Later, Leo. Can I please take a shower before we delve
into your incredible adventures?”

He sighed. “You’re a tease,
aren’t you?”

She gave him a cheeky smile.
“I’ll be five minutes.”

Gratefully slipping into the
bathroom, Liz stripped and moved under the hot flow of water. The entire room
steamed instantly. As she washed away the blood, coffee and stress of her week,
a nervous energy rose inside her. They had the entire weekend together to stay
in bed.

She glanced down at her arm.
The blood had cleared away, leaving a pathetic cut emitting a slight sting.
There was nothing unusual about it, no infection. She sighed in relief. Now she
could relax.

There was a knock on the
door and Leo entered. Liz took one look at her husband stumbling blindly around
with glasses as foggy as the mirror behind him and cracked up laughing. She
wrapped herself in a towel before Leo found her and hoisted her over his
shoulder, marching them to the bedroom.

“You’re gonna get it now
Lizzie.”

Liz laughed uncontrollably
and screamed with mock annoyance. “Leo, put me down!”

“Yes ma’am.”

He threw her onto the bed
where a pile of his papers were scattered across the sheets. In seconds, Liz’s
towel was on the floor next to Leo’s sweatpants and T-shirt. His arms encircled
her body as his kisses explored her and the heat Liz felt earlier in the lobby
began to burn inside of her. She knew what was coming and she welcomed it,
relief and comfort washing away every other stress-related feeling inside of
her.

Leo grabbed her waist and
threw her passionately against the headboard of the bed. It creaked loudly like
the springs on the mattress, and Liz threw her hands out to cling onto
something. Her vision blurred and she gripped the bedhead, about to burst like
a balloon with passion and ecstasy.

It was then, when Liz felt
as if she really would explode in every cell of her body, that a hard, hot
object on the bedside table toppled to the floor and cracked open.

A pool of bubbling, red
molten-lava spilled across their bedroom floor. At first the noise was ignored,
the couple so enriched in their passionate embrace that they didn’t see the
trail of red liquid squirm towards them, as if it were embodied by something
living. The lava shimmied like a snake up the bed sheet which dangled to the
floor and onto the mattress, where it wriggled its way through the creases and
began wrapping itself around Liz’s legs.

Liz let out a gasp. Not
because she had seen the strange liquid snake making its way up to her knees,
but because something inside her reached breaking point and an enriching warmth
exploded around her.

Breathing heavily, Liz
smiled, opened her eyes and became instantly blinded.

A fire had started on the
bed. She felt her lungs fill with smoke and gripped Leo’s shoulders.

“Leo!” she shrieked. But the
sticky sheet wrapped around him was already alight.

Leo jumped back in shock,
twisting over and staring, horror-struck at the blaze that surrounded him.

All her years working in the
ER should have prepared her for this, but something about the sight of Leo
writhing in contorted agony froze all her muscles as though they were cemented.
She watched the flames lick up his legs, his stomach, his chest, his face...

A scream of pure torture
fell out of Leo’s mouth and Liz snapped to life. She leapt from the burning bed
– dodging flames that crawled across the floor – and threw open their wardrobe,
wrenching from it a thick throw rug. She jumped back to the bed and began
slapping the flames from the bubbling flesh on her husband’s body.
Call 911,
a calmer voice in her mind ordered, reminding her of the steps she had read
in her college textbooks.
Get him to the ER before the burns become
irreparable.
Liz threw down the pillow, her breath coming out in short
bursts and reached for the cordless phone. That was when she saw that
everything on the besides table was ablaze.

Liz stepped back and turned,
watching as the room around her transformed so suddenly, it was as though her
life had been put on fast-forward. All she could see now were flames. Golden,
deadly, blinding flames. She didn’t cough, she didn’t cry. She simply stood
there.

“What’s happening?!” she
screamed, either to her dying husband or to herself. She looked down at her
naked body, flames of death wrapping their fatal ropes around her, but felt no
pain.