“So our son saved you?” my dad asked in amazement.
“Yes, though I don’t remember ever being outside or anything before. I just woke up with Marcus holding my hand, and even without my memories, I knew I was safe.”
Her nervous murmur melted the hearts of everyone in the room.
“Emily, can Angel barrow your coat?”
She jerked as if awoken from a trance and quickly pulled off her jacket and handed it to me. I put it around Angel and held her close.
I turned to my parents. “All right, let’s go to the hospital.”
With Angel using a pair of my sister’s shoes, my parents and I brought her outside and we got into the car. I sat in the back with her, keeping my arm around her at all times. The drive into the city was silent as the sky darkened with its usual winter speed, and as we maneuvered through the snow-caked city, Angel stared out the window with wide eyes, hoping the scenery would trigger some dormant memory. I didn’t say anything about it, not just because my parents were in the car with us, but because I knew there weren’t any memories for her to recover.
As expected, the emergency room was almost completely filled with people, the majority of them having suffered from car accidents or other injuries brought on by the extreme weather. While my parents dealt with the paperwork at the front desk, I sat with Angel. As before, I had my arm around her to comfort her, and she had her head on my shoulder. I’m not sure how long we waited, if my parents had written a possible rape in the paperwork and it sped up the process, or how many people we saw entering or leaving the ER, but we were all relieved when a nurse finally came up to us.
“Clive?” she asked. I nodded and the nurse turned to Angel. “Please come with me.”
We all got up and followed the nurse. Unlike the people who were just getting casts for broken bones and stitches for large cuts, we were all brought into a hospital room like the one I had woken up in after my first seizure.
“Just wait in here and the doctor will be right with you in a minute,” said the nurse before walking away.
Angel and I sat on the hospital bed, while my parents sat in two chairs. They didn’t take their eyes off of us for a moment.
After a few minutes, a doctor walked in. “Hello, I’m Dr. Anderson. Due to the nature of your visit, the police have been contacted and we’ve been asked to perform certain tests, including a rape kit. This will be an overnight visit. I suggest one of you stays, simply to keep her comfortable and to answer any questions that she can’t. Now, could you please give me a detailed recant of everything that has happened?”
Making sure I avoided any deviations in the story, I retold the lie that Angel and my family had heard: I had found Angel at the back door, naked, covered in blood, and crying for help. I pulled her inside, managed to warm her up, cleaned her off, and let her take a bath. That was all there was to it.
“If that is everything, then I shall go and tell the detectives outside everything you have told me, then we can commence with protocol. I’ll send in a nurse to bring you a hospital gown.”
Once the doctor left, I turned to my parents. “Mom, dad, you two can go back home. I think I’ll stay here with Angel tonight.”
“But Marcus…”
I held Angel close. “Mom, please.”
“Son, can we talk to you outside?” my dad asked, but it was more of a demand than a request.
My parents and I stepped out into the hall.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” my mom asked. “I really think it would just be best if we tried to limit our involvement with her. With everything that is going on… with you… we should try and prevent further complications. You saved her, you protected her, and you did everything right, but we’re all strangers and it’s time to let the state do its job.”
“Mom, dad… she needs me… and I need her.”
“Marcus we should really—”
“I haven’t been in any pain since I met her.”
My parents became silent.
“Ever since I found her, I haven’t had to take a single pill or experienced a single seizure. I don’t know why, I don’t know how, but it’s like my cancer has vanished. When I’m with her… I feel happy, happier than I’ve ever been, even before I was sick. I didn’t just save her, she saved me, and I can’t abandon her to return to my agonizing excuse for a life. I’m staying with her.”
Still not liking my decision, my parents accepted it and left. They would come back the next day. Over the course of the night, Angel changed into a hospital gown and underwent several tests. We learned everything from her age to her blood type. She was both the same age and blood type as I was, augmenting my thoughts about her supernatural existence. During the rape kit examination, I stayed beside her and held her hand, never leaving her side. By the time all the tests were done, it was past midnight and Angel and I were in her room, mentally exhausted. The majority of the test results would be given tomorrow.
I stood by the door and turned off the light. “All right, Angel, you should get some sleep.”
“Marcus, I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done,” she said tenderly, the two of us alone in the darkness.
“You’ll never need to.”
I walked over to the chair beside her bed, preparing myself for the uncomfortable night’s sleep, but before I could reach it, I felt her hand clasp mine. She sat up and leaning against me, her voice a crystalline whisper. “After everything you’ve done, I can’t let you spend the night sitting in that chair. Here, the bed is large enough for the both of us. Besides, I want you close to me.”
“Angel,” I said softly, stroking her long crimson hair and thanking every deity I could think of for allowing me to be with her.
Happier than ever in my life, I discarded my jacket and shoes and climbed into the bed. I lied down next to her and held her as close as I could with her back pressed against my chest and the blanket around us sealing in the warmth of each other’s bodies. I held her so close that we could feel each other’s heartbeats.
“Angel, I promise that I will watch over you forever.”
She rolled over so that we were facing each other and I kissed her on the forehead.
“Thank you, Marcus, and I’ll watch over you too,” she whispered, placing her hand on my chest.
Angel and I were eating breakfast in bed and talking.
“I’ll go call my parents, then we can head home.”
“Home?”
I smiled. “Well, you’ll need to stay somewhere.”
Leaving the room, I found a payphone and called my parents, asking for them to pick us up. My mom sighed when I used the word “us”. As I rounded the corner on my way back to Angel’s room, I saw Dr. Anderson and two detectives by the door. They were both men, late forties with peppery short hair.
“Oh hell no,” I growled.
I stormed over and put my hand on the door before the doctor could open it. “Excuse me, what is going on here?” I demanded.
“Relax, son, we’re just here to ask her some questions. I’m Detective Francis, this is my partner Detective Baum,” one of the detectives said with a pen and small notepad in his hand.
“She and I have already told our story a dozen times, there is nothing left to say. I heard her crying for help at my back door, I found her naked and passed out with blood all over her body, and I brought her inside. I didn’t see anything outside, I didn’t notice anything unusual, and I have never seen her until now. She can’t answer any of your questions; she doesn’t remember anything other than her name, and we aren’t even sure if that really is her name. Now I heard the results from the tests. Her rape kit showed no signs of assault, there were no drugs in her system, and she didn’t have any injuries. There is nothing else I can tell you.”