819 words"No," Alicia said as a thought occurred to her that made her change her mind. "Back to the hospital. In case Martin's still waiting for me." She looked down. "I hope he's not too worried."
Back at the hospital Martin was getting worried. Alicia was supposed to have met him after her conversation with D. Allowing time for it to have gone into deep topics, he still didn't expect what was supposed to have been a few minute discussion to run longer than, what, half an hour? Maybe an hour? After he had been waiting much more than an hour, he decided to go get Alicia. It was getting late and he needed to be getting home.
He wasn't up in the intensive care ward for more than a couple minutes when one of the staff intercepted him. "Sorry sir, you can't be here," Martin was told.
"I'm just looking for a friend of mine," Martin replied apologetically. "Alicia? Do you know her?"
"No sir," the faculty member answered. She held up her arm and began corralling him down the hall. "Now if you could-"
"Have you seen any woman walking around up here?" Martin pushed. "She's a volunteer. I'm supposed to pick her up."
"I'm sorry sir, I haven't seen anyone who's not supposed to be here but you," the woman replied. "If you would please leave...." She let her statement trail off, but Martin knew that the threat of having security called was implied.
"Alight," he agreed. "I'm going."
She watched him as he walked away, to make sure he was leaving.
Martin looked around as he headed out. For a moment he mused on whether or not he'd like to be able to see and talk to D like Alicia could. Then, at least, he would be able to ask what had happened, where she'd gone. But then he'd also have to deal with being able to see and hear D all the time, and that he really had no desire to contend with. He didn't envy Alicia that ability. To Martin, D was passive only when he wanted to be, aggressive by nature, and basically downright scary. It seemed to Martin that Alicia perceived D differently. Martin wondered if D treated Alicia differently because she was different. D had called Alicia his curse, but yet he had acted protective of her. It was a confusing situation in and of itself, and then throwing on top of it that D had some sort of a personality, well things became as complex as real life situations.
Martin next checked in Alicia's department. The staff on duty there told him they had not seen Alicia either, and where sure she hadn't been around in the last hour or two. Martin sighed. Where then could she be?
He headed back down to the hospital's entrance, in case he had some how passed her and she was now down there waiting for him. She wasn't. Martin didn't know what to do next. He couldn't keep waiting all night, and it was starting to get late. If only he had a way to contact her, to make sure she was safe. It was really odd that he couldn't find her, that it had been so long. He was becoming very worried by this point. He looked up at the ceiling, and randomly wondered if there was any way he could have her paged. Having no other ideas to work with, he headed over to the information desk to ask.
Just then Alicia walked in, from outside the hospital. She looked annoyed and somewhat frazzled. Relief swept through Martin. But annoyance of his own was right on it's heels. Why had she been outside? Why didn't she tell him that's where she was going after she had talked to D? What had taken her so long?
"What happened?" he asked to cover all his concerns and questions at once.
Alicia motioned him away from the information desk. They fell into step next to each other as Alicia headed back outside.
"I'm sorry," she said first once they were out of everyone's earshot. Then she frowned. "It's high time I had a cell phone. I'm buying one tomorrow," she commented.
Martin turned a partially confused and partially worried face her way. "A cell phone? Alicia, what happened?" His tone was concerned now where it had been strained before.
"I was kidnaped," she told him. Before he could voice anything to match the shocked expression on his face she shook her head and added, "Everything's okay, for now. Apparently there's a religion based around this whole thing." She gestured off into the distance. "Around me, that is." She sighed heavily. "I'm tired. Can we go home?"
Martin nodded. "But you'll fill me in on this later, right?" he asked in a manner that indicated he expected it whether or not she agreed.
Alicia agreed.
Labels: BoD, NaNoWriMo 2005, Story
