The Divine Nerve: Healing And Ecstasy

The Girl in the Towel

Warm steam still billowed from the bathroom, framing the figure of the towel-clad girl like a dramatic effect in a cheap movie.

Mrs. Higgins was the first to react. Her face, previously flushed crimson from passion and Silas’s massage, now turned a deep beet-red from utter mortification. She scrambled to fix her disheveled dress and jumped off the bed as if the mattress were on fire.

"This... this isn't what you think!" Mrs. Higgins shrieked, her voice pitching high with panic. She pointed at Silas, then at the girl. "He... he was just massaging my back! He was treating me!"

The girl, still holding her toothbrush, raised a single skeptical eyebrow. She looked at Silas, who was a mess, and then at the rumpled bedsheets.

"Sure," the girl said flatly. "And the moans of 'Don't stop, Silas' that I heard through the bathroom door were just part of the healing incantation, right?"

Mrs. Higgins looked like she was about to explode. She snatched her handbag. "I... I have to go!"

Before she could flee, Silas cleared his throat loudly. "Martha."

Mrs. Higgins froze in the doorway. She turned back, looking fearful.

"Our agreement," Silas reminded her calmly.

"Yes! Yes! Free! Free rent for life!" Mrs. Higgins yelled quickly, then bolted out of the room, slamming the front door so hard the walls shook.

Now, it was just the two of them.

Silas Thorne, a former nurse who had just come into a lot of money. And a strange girl wearing nothing but a thin white towel.

The girl didn't scream. She didn't run. Instead, she walked casually over to the dresser, picked up a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, and put them on. She looked Silas up and down with an appraising stare, as if he were a specimen under a microscope.

"So," the girl said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You’re Mrs. Higgins’s new gigolo? I have to admit, her taste has improved. Usually, she picks up brainless muscle-heads."

Silas let out a long sigh, massaging his temples. “Damn it, Victor, you’re laughing too loud,” he scolded the voice in his head.

"I am not a gigolo," Silas replied wearily. "I’m a nurse. She had back pain. I cured her."

"By pinning her to the mattress?"

"It’s an advanced chiropractic technique," Silas lied effortlessly. "Look, Miss... what is your name?"

"Nova," the girl answered briefly.

"Okay, Nova. I don't know why you are here, but this is my room. I’ve lived here for two years. So, could you please..." Silas gestured toward the door. "...get out?"

Nova scoffed. She walked over to a pile of backpacks in the corner of the room. "Can't do that. I already paid this month’s rent in full to that old witch. Cash. Non-refundable. And I am currently... avoiding a situation out there. I need a hideout that isn't listed in the residential database."

Silas frowned. "Are you a fugitive?"

"Maybe. Are you?" Nova shot back, her eyes narrowing sharply.

Silas fell silent. "It’s complicated."

"Great. We both have problems," Nova shrugged. Her towel slipped slightly, but she adjusted it with practiced indifference. "We’ll share the room. You sleep on the floor, I take the bed. Don't touch my stuff, especially my laptop. And if you try to peek while I’m changing, I’ll tase you with a homemade stun gun I keep in my bag. Understood?"

Silas stared at this small girl in amazement. She had guts.

"Understood," Silas said. He was too tired to argue. Besides, sleeping on the floor of an apartment was still better than sleeping in a jail cell.

One hour later.

The awkward atmosphere had thawed slightly thanks to the one thing that united all of humanity: Pepperoni Pizza.

Silas used some of the cash from the thugs to order two large pizzas. They sat on the floor, separated by an imaginary line down the middle of the room. Nova was dressed now, an oversized vintage rock band t-shirt and loose shorts.

Nova chewed on a slice of pizza ravenously, as if she hadn't eaten in days. In her lap, a laptop covered in stickers was glowing, displaying lines of code that Silas couldn't comprehend.

"So," Nova said with her mouth full. "You said you’re a nurse. Why does a nurse carry a roll of cash and make the landlady kneel?"

"I... had a lucky day," Silas answered diplomatically. "Won a small lottery."

Nova typed something on her laptop with lightning speed. "Lottery, huh? Interesting."

Silas ignored the girl's curiosity. His mind drifted back to the events of the day. He had been fired, gained strange powers, made a nurse orgasm in public, saved a CEO, and beaten up thugs.

Suddenly, Silas felt a strange vibration in his chest. A feeling of unease.

"Hey," Nova called out, her tone shifting to serious.

Silas looked over. Nova’s face was illuminated by the blue light of the laptop screen. She wasn't chewing anymore. Her eyes were wide, staring at the screen.

"You said your name is Silas Thorne, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you said you’re just a regular nurse?"

"Why?" Silas became alert. He put down his slice of pizza. "Are the police looking for me? Because of the incident at the hospital? Listen, that woman... Chloe... she started it. It was just an accident, I didn't mean to harass her..."

Silas started to panic. He was convinced he was being hunted because of the "embarrassing" incident with Chloe in the hospital hallway. Accusations of sexual harassment or malpractice must have spread.

Nova laughed softly. A laugh that sounded terrified.

"Harassment? Silas, if the cops were looking for you for groping a nurse, your name would be in the local police database. At most, you'd get a fine or a week in jail."

Nova turned the laptop toward Silas.

"But your face isn't on the local police site. Your face is on The Black Ledger."

Silas squinted at the screen. The background was pitch black with red code scrolling. It was a Dark Web site, a forum for hitmen and professional criminals.

In the center of the screen, a photo of Silas was displayed, taken from a street CCTV camera, blurry but clearly him.

And below the photo, there was a number that made Silas’s heart stop for a second.

BOUNTY: $100,000 USD TARGET: SILAS THORNE CONDITION: ALIVE & INTACT (PRIORITY ALPHA)

"One hundred thousand dollars," Nova whispered, her voice trembling. "Silas, you have a price tag equal to a cartel leader or a state defector."

Silas’s jaw dropped. "What? This is insane! Just because I made a nurse... you know... moan in a hallway? They put a hundred thousand dollar bounty on me?!"

Silas was utterly confused. He thought the world had gone mad. Was a "pleasurable touch" considered an international crime now? Or was Dr. Harrison so vindictive that he hired expensive hitmen?

Nova looked at Silas with a new expression. Fear mixed with awe.

"I don't know what you did to that nurse, Silas," Nova said quietly, closing her laptop slowly as if afraid it might explode. "But nobody pays a hundred grand for a harassment case."

Nova swallowed hard.

"The client who posted this bounty is using military-grade encryption. They aren't cops. And they aren't regular gangsters. They want you alive and intact."

Nova scooted back a little, distancing herself from Silas.

"Who are you, really? And what kind of monster is hunting you?"

Silas stared at his own trembling hands.

“Victor,” Silas thought in panic. “What is actually happening?”

Inside his head, Victor’s voice sounded serious for the first time that night.

“I do not know. I am inside you; I cannot wander around like a ghost.”