Shadow Healer [The Blood Phoenix awakens]

The tragedy of yesterday

Hostel 5, Sun City University.

The moment Akira entered his hostel room, he met his two roommates in a heated discussion.

On hearing the door open, they turned around.

“Akira!” Brad exclaimed, rushing to him.

The other one stood up from the desk he was initially perched on. “What happened to you man? You've been missing since you ran off yesterday morning. It's been twenty-four hours, we were debating whether to inform the police or wait.”

Akira sighed and dumped the bag on his bed, sitting beside it. “It's a long story, Michael.”

“I heard you were fired from the hospital yesterday, what are you going to do?” Brad's brows were furrowed, his hands on his waist. Like Akira, he was a medical student. He knew how important an internship was. Without it, they couldn't graduate.

Now, videos accusing Akira of medical malpractice were flying around the internet and school forums. Getting another internship was basically impossible. Clinching the first one was hard enough, how would he graduate?

Akira exhaled a deep shuddering breath and kept silent.

“Have you seen the video?” Michael suddenly asked.

Akira, who was lost in thought, looked up.

“What video?”

Michael turned hesitant, his mouth opened and closed soundlessly. Next he sighed. Brad stepped forward and patted Michael's shoulder, taking over the explanation.

“Well, Marcel Keith, and your girlfriend, Evelina, released a video accusing you of medical malpractice, stealing research work and that of the security guards beating you and throwing you out. It's all over the students forum.”

Akira's heart skipped multiple beats, his face contorting with rage. “That bitch! She connived with her lover to steal my research work and pin a crime on me. She stole my money causing my mother to die so tragically. I haven't taken it up, yet she had the guts to spread a video?”

His hands trembled, and the tightness in his chest returned. Brad's mouth fell open.

“Your mom is dead?”

Akira pushed past them into the bathroom, his heart burning. His eyes felt itchy and wet. His lips quivered with the effort of trying to hold back his tears.

Three years of devotion, and all it earned him was a knife to the heart. He lost his mother, lost everything.

Yesterday had been the worst day of his life. His life had never been rosy, but that kind of pain was what he had never experienced all his life.

*****

FLASHBACK: What happened yesterday

“I'm sorry, we couldn't save your mother. Accept my condolences.”

The doctor's words struck Akira Luxon like a bombshell, turning the world before him into splotches of black and grey.

He trembled violently and his legs gave out, landing him on the floor with a loud thud.

His mouth opened and closed as he searched for words that failed to form. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks and he looked up at the doctor, his eyes a mix of desperation and despair.

“Doctor please, save my mother. I swear I will pay.”

The doctor sighed and turned to leave.

Akira grabbed his trousers, shaking his head frantically in a silent plea for mercy.

The doctor hissed in irritation, looking down at Akira who was soaked with equal parts blood, dirt and mud. He looked a wreck, like he'd barely survived a brutal beating.

The doctor shoved him away, annoyed at the dirt he left on his white coat. He glared at Akira, words leaving his mouth in a mindless rush.

“By the time she got here, she was in full cardiac arrest, secondary to a massive myocardial infarction. Prolonged ischemic time made recovery impossible. She was beyond salvation!”

He bent down to Akira's face level, his eyes partly clouded by irritation and another ambiguous emotion.

“You’re a doctor too. Why are you asking me to perform miracles?”

That said he left decisively while Akira remained kneeling, his heart twisting in knots, tears rushing down his face in scalding streams.

“Poor guy. I saw him at the payment counter after his mom was rushed in by the kind passerby. It turned out his girlfriend cleared out his account without telling him. When he called to ask, she was so rude to him.” A nurse whispered to her colleague.

Her words were like daggers to Akira's chest, and he dragged in a deep shuddering gasp that set his insides ablaze.

His eyes burned with equal parts hatred, equal parts agony and he clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging into his palm till they drew blood.

“Evelina Drax, Marcel Keith…” The tears multiplied, his shoulders quivering.

People in the hospital corridor stopped to look at him. It made for a strange sight, seeing a full grown man in that state, totally shattered and weeping.

They wouldn't understand his sorrow. His mom was all he had since he was born. And now… now… she's gone because of two heartless people.

“I will never let you off!”

His agonized roar shook the hallway and people scattered like startled chicks, watching him cautiously. He truly seemed to have lost his mind.

Two hours before his mother died, he had rushed to the hospital and pulled out his card only to see his savings emptied. He rushed to the hospital where he worked with Evelina to question her after she repeatedly insulted him over the phone and ended the call.

He had found her nestled in Marcel's arms, congratulating him for a nice presentation. It was then he had realized that she stole his research work meant for his final project defense and offered it to Marcel, the hospital director's son, who was also her secret lover.

Then he had gotten crimes slapped on him alongside premium humiliation. All the delay and trouble led to his mother’s tragic death.

No one could remain fully sane after experiencing all that. Now, all he wanted was Evelina’s blood. He must make her pay for it in the most bitter way possible.