Chapter 1: 001 - From the ashes

*Beep* *Beep* *Beep*

The white hospital room had nothing extravagant about it. It was simple and not too big, with only one bed inside. On the latter was a man who was connected to the monitoring devices around, and to the IV drip that was not far from running empty. Half of his face seemed wounded, as the left side was covered by a bandage.

A nurse came inside and seemed stunned, maybe from seeing the patient alone. Someone more observant would see traces of a transparent liquid on his arm. Maybe there had been someone with him previously, and maybe the liquid was in fact tears that had been shed for him.

The nurse was of average height, and she looked below thirty. She looked at the rest of the patient's face that was exposed and lamented:

"Ai, you are so handsome. It's a pity. I'm sure you would have been even more handsome if not for the scars that will remain on the side of your face. Sigh, I feel sorry for your face. But you have a good girlfriend who didn't leave you, instead coming over every day to take care of you."

To do the job that she actually came into the room for, the nurse went to check the IV bag.

She held it up, and saw in the dim light that it was about to run out of its content. She was about to take it off when suddenly, she jumped at the sudden tightness around her throat.

A hand had appeared there at some point, and it was clamping the important part of her respiratory apparatus. She felt a sensation akin to death assaulting her, her life about to start flashing in front of her eyes.

'Oh, God…'

_ _ _

A few months earlier.

It was night time, around 10 PM, and a woman could be seen leaving a bar in a high-class neighborhood, the door closing behind her to swallow the noise from the music and the crowd inside.

She was leaving from the back door, and soon she left the alley to arrive at the front of the bar. Her clothes, compared to the people waiting to enter, were not as trendy, nor of a noticeable quality. So, the bar might not have been a place where she came to enjoy herself.

She had dark brown eyes, and short brown hair sweeping her shoulders and framing her face. She had her fringe descending on her forehead, her beauty unmarred by the traces of tiredness she was sporting.

After looking at the time on her phone, she was about to put it back into her bag when it vibrated from a call.

She frowned because the number was an unknown one, but she still answered:

"Hello?"

"Hello. Am I talking to Mrs Evelyn Softsnow?"

"Yes. Who is asking?"

"Madam, this is the General Hospital. We have a patient named Damien Peak who has just been admitted while in critical condition, and your number is the one to be contacted in case of an emergency."

Evelyn was surprised at first, before her expression changed as a feeling of anxiety took over her heart. She had been hoping to hear about Damien, but she never thought it would be in that kind of circumstance.

Where had he been? What had he been doing? And what had been the reason for what he had done? So many questions she wanted to know the answers of, and now he could be…

"I will be there soon."

She hung up after that line, and ran to the side of the road, forgetting the pain from her feet that had supported her throughout the whole day.

Ten minutes later, she was getting down from a taxi before the hospital after paying the fare.

She hurried inside, and stopped before the front desk:

"I'm here for Damien Peak."

"Alright, madam. Are you a relative?"

"I am Evelyn Softsnow, his emergency contact person, his… ex-girlfriend."

The nurse paused for a moment, before checking her file:

"Madam, he has been taken to the operation room. It's that way."

"Alright, thank you."

She took the direction that had been indicated to her, and was about to arrive at her destination when a group of people passed by her side, with most of them in black suits, with straight backs and rhythmic steps.

There were about a dozen of them, the ones in suits looking threatening and feeling like bodyguards, while the ones in the middle, more advanced in age on average, looked more scholarly.

She was surprised to see them stop at her destination, and after chasing away the doctors that had been doing their jobs, the ones that had not been wearing suits among those mysterious people stayed inside, while the others came out without the big suitcases they had been holding, but with a bag in the hand of one of them.

Evelyn panicked and went to them:

"Hey, what are you doing? Why are not letting the doctors do their job and save his life? What you are doing is against the law. Hey, do you hear me? I will call the police…"

Seeing the men keep a stoic face and not care about her, she was about to barge inside when she was stopped by the leader of the doctors that had been chased away earlier:

"Madam, please calm down. Are you a relative of the patient?"

"Yes. What is going on? Why are they stopping you from treating Damien?"

The doctor instead of answering asked with curiosity:

"Don't worry, madam, they are taking care of him. But out of curiosity, what does your relative do?"

The reaction of the doctor caught her off-guard, but it seemed that the situation was different from what she thought, so she stopped making a fuss.

"I don't know. He used to be in the army, but we lost contact, so I don't know if he left later."

The doctor didn't press for an answer, as his curiosity was just momentary, and he didn't think he would like to know too much about the situation that can move the kind of resources he was witnessing.

"Well, you don't have to worry. Those people have better equipment than what we have here at the hospital. And I suppose the ones inside are even more qualified than I am. No matter what your relative does for a living, his life seems important, and there are people to help him keep it."

The statement of the doctor left Evelyn confused. She could not fathom what the man she used to know had been through.

"Since I'm not needed here, I will go take care of other patients."

The doctor left, and Evelyn looked at the stern men guarding the place with sharp eyes taking in all the details of the surroundings, with a few chilling glances grazing her from time to time.The only thing she could do was go to the side and take a seat while waiting, uncertainties filling her stomach.

No matter what, she hoped that Damien would be okay.

She suppressed a shudder, and looked at the people coming and going. The night was advanced for those like her who were not night owls, so it didn't take long for the weight of her weariness to come crashing down on her.