Chapter 4

According to the people around me, B1 was the hospital's morgue. Two security guards dragged and hauled me there, throwing me inside.

The heavy iron door slammed shut with a bang. The world went quiet at once, leaving only the roar of the industrial AC. I curled up beside a metal cabinet, clamping my left hand tightly over the wound on my right. It was so cold that the blood seeping from my hand quickly grew thick and sticky, then clotted.

"Natalie… where are you… It's so cold…"

I shivered in the dark, my whole body trembling as my consciousness drifted in and out.

I didn't know how much time had passed when there was a loud bang. The morgue door shuddered under a violent impact. Someone outside was hammering at it with something metal.

After a few tries, the lock snapped under the force, and the door was shoved open. A wave of hot, sweaty air rushed in.

"Colin!"

It was Natalie's voice!

She rushed in and threw aside whatever was in her hand. Judging from the sound, it was the trash shovel that she used every day to scoop up garbage.

The moment she saw me huddled in the corner, covered in blood, she let out a pained sob. She tore off her cotton jacket that reeked of cheap laundry detergent and wrapped it tightly around me.

"Don't be scared, okay? I'm here. I'm taking you home."

She grabbed me and took off running. But just as we reached the hallway, I heard a group of people stop before us. Natalie told me it was Andrea with more than a dozen security guards. They formed a solid wall that blocked our way. I didn't know what things looked like, but I felt a suffocating pressure bearing down on me.

Eugene was with Andrea. He looked at Natalie and snarled, "Where did this filthy beggar come from? You think you can just barge into a hospital like this?"

I sensed Andrea's gaze lock onto Natalie's hand, which gripped mine tightly. I felt the rage pour off her, colder and sharper than the air in the morgue.

"Colin, you'd rather cling to some ugly street sweeper with a birthmark on her face than apologize to me?" she hissed.

I didn't understand what she was talking about. All I knew was that Natalie was nice to me. I buried my face against Natalie's back and muttered, "Nasty lady. Don't talk to her."

That pushed Andrea over the edge. She snapped, "Fine, then. Since you refuse to come with me, break that beggar's hands!"

The security guards surged forward as one. Natalie had grabbed her trash shovel before leaving the morgue, and she now swung it around, trying to fight the guards off. She was only one person against a dozen men, though. In seconds, they had her pinned to the wall.

"Let him go, you monsters!" she shouted.

One guard raised his rubber baton high over his head. It came down hard on Natalie's shoulder, and she screamed in pain.

They were going to beat her to death! She would be in as much pain as I'd been when those rocks had rained down on me all those years ago!

Only one thought remained in my five-year-old mind—I had to protect Natalie.

I didn't know where the strength came from, but I lunged forward like a wild animal, ramming my head into the guard holding her down. "Don't touch her!"

I threw myself in front of Natalie, shielding her with my body.

Andrea let out a short, furious laugh at that. When she spoke, her voice was ice-cold and devoid of emotion. "You two aren't walking out of here today unless you leave behind a pair of bloodsucking hands."

Her words dragged up an old memory. When I was little, I'd broken someone's window and had to pay with my own things.

The nasty lady wanted hands. If I gave her my hands, then she wouldn't hit Natalie anymore.

I squatted down and groped blindly along the floor. My fingers soon touched something heavy and solid. It was a lead block, one that had been wedged under a wobbly table in the hallway.

Without a second's hesitation, I laid my left hand—the one that hadn't been cut open earlier—flat on the cold concrete. With my injured right hand, I struggled to lift the lead block up into the air.

"Colin, no!" Natalie had guessed what I was about to do. She thrashed wildly, screaming.

I bared my teeth in a grin in Andrea's direction. "Miss, I'll pay you back."

Bang!

I brought the lead block crashing down onto my own left hand. With a crack, the crisp sound of shattering bone echoed through the hallway.

The hand that had once belonged to a brilliant young surgeon was destroyed in that single brutal blow. Every bone in my fingers was crushed to dust, leaving behind a mangled ruin of blood and flesh.

The pain shot straight through my nerves, yanking a violent tremor through my entire body. I bit down hard on my screams, then, shaking uncontrollably, held my twisted, bleeding hand out toward Andrea.

"Here, it's yours now… Don't hit Natalie…"

The words left my lips in a broken laugh. Then, my vision went black, and I collapsed into Natalie's arms, finally losing consciousness.