Trace A Drop Of Blood Through The Heart Novels & Stories

Chapter 10 Stella I never expected it to turns out like this. I mean, how can I possibly betray my friend because of a sudden lust in my system right? I felt hatred towards myself. But what can I do? It already happened. “The primordium of the heart forms in the cardiogenic plate located at the cranial end of the embryo. Angiogenic cell clusters which lie in a horse-shoe shape configuration in the plate coalesce to form two endocardial tubes. These tubes are then forced into the thoracic region due to cephalic and lateral foldings where they fuse together forming a single endocardial tube.

The windows were smashed in, and I stopped in my tracks when I saw blood. There were thick drops of crimson blood along the carpet like a trail. I couldn't help the chill of terror that ran down my body. I followed the trail to the bathroom and pushed the closed door open with a hand.

I let go of everything around me and this time it took me longer. It wasn't easy to just shut everything around me off and start hearing even the way the haemoglobin rolled in the plasma that was my blood. After a while, the noise faded and I could hear my heartbeat and the acid in my stomach sizzle. It was almost scary and fascinating at the same time. "Now, use your inner senses and follow the flow of your blood. Once you do that, follow the silver rolling in it," she said and I tried. I couldn't and I guess she noticed.

Nodding, I tip the vial and let a single drop of it to fall to the center of my sternum. ... And everything around me goes white.

But Alex isn’t regular. He’s never been. “Dose?” I ask. “0.8 ml, as calculated based on his weight and cardiac rhythm.” “Prep the syringe.” The metallic click echoes louder than it should. A part of me wishes I could stop time right now. Just keep him like this alive and still reachable. But hope alone won’t restart a failing heart. I take the needle and steady my breath as I insert it directly into the myocardium. A split second of silence follows.

I took a sharp breath, my gaze sweeping over the room again, before I turned and walked back out. Then I saw it. A trail of blood leading out of the room. My heart pounded harder, the sound echoing in my ears as I followed it. The trail led me through the hallway and I took the stairs two at a time, going out of the building. Then I stepped outside. The rain hit me instantly, it was harder than I expected as I stepped into the night. My eyes were on the ground, searching for red against wet earth, for any sign of where she had gone.

“Is that real? Does the blood really come out like that? In, like, a… spray?” He didn’t tell me to look away. He didn’t change the channel. He just shifted on the couch, pulling me a little closer. “Yeah, buddy,” he said, his voice calm, matter-of-fact. “It can.” His finger, warm and calloused, touched the side of my neck, right under my ear. “See, if you cut right here, where this big pulse is, it’s like hitting a water main. It gushes.” He traced a line down. “Here, it’s slower and messier. Here…” He pressed a spot near my collarbone. “that’s a real bad one. Takes longer.”

Ribs spread under metal hands, opening like the pages of a book that had stayed closed too long. There it was. His heart. It thudded between his lungs, encased in pericardium she quickly nicked and peeled back. Muscle flexed, contracting and releasing with stubborn, imperfect rhythm. The lesion she’d seen on the scan had a physical counterpart now—slightly thickened fibers along one part of the conduction system, pale and wrong. She slipped her fingers in, gloved fingertips cradling tissue that could end a dynasty if she let it stop. “Mapping catheter,” she said.

I gasp when the knife yanks itself out of my chest and whizzes into the trees. I chase again but each step I take makes me feel dizzy and disoriented. There isn't any scent to follow when I lag behind. It's like trying to track smoke and for a moment, I collapse to the floor from the way energy flows from me like water in a broken pot. I lie on the ground, breathing hard and my chest bleeding. My heart pounds so violently I can hear it in my ears, but only one thought is running through my mind. It's not possible. What I saw right now... That couldn't be Tracy.

Sizzzzzz. The drone drove the copper wire straight into the petrified heart valve. The needle didn't just pierce; it bored. My quartz heart gave a sudden, violent lurch, the gold static spiking so hard it blinded my internal retinas. I felt the 14-B virus shriek as the copper suture established the first manual ground.