Dying to be Dead Part 1 - Chapter 7 - The Searing Light of Day

With his renewed vigor Gabriel was back at his hacienda within minutes. He rushed in to find Lana sleeping right where he had asked Isaac to leave her. She looked like a china doll in the satin gown he’d laid out for her to wear. He yearned to hold her, to feel her frail human warmth. She was fast asleep, asleep like the dead. Her breathing was shallow, her heart audibly slower, and not the slightest stirring did she make. It was becoming obvious to him that the small blood kisses he’d been taking from Lana were really starting to have an effect on her health. He didn’t regret answering her call. Her thoughts told him what needed to be done. Her mother was no more. Her stepfather was predictably easy to pin the blame on, and even easier to dispose of. She would be all his soon enough.

The first morning rays of searing sunlight cut through the blinds of Lana’s hospital room like an axe through wood. She felt the burn immediately. The pain was so excruciating, like poking hot needles all over her body. She did the best she could to muster up the strength to pull the cover up over her head. All she was able to do was scream in utter agony. Suddenly an alarm sounded and the pitch of the noise shot through her ears like bullets. She sensed several people nearing her room. She had no idea how she knew this. She hadn’t heard anyone coming. She just felt them. When two women entered the room, she pleaded with them to close the blinds securely. They were two nurses who had probably come to sedate her. The nicer of the two conceded. The meaner and older of the two stuck a needle in Lana’s thigh faster than Lana was able to stop her. Lana instantly felt her eyelids getting heavy. She was struggling to win a losing battle for consciousness. The old nurse glared at Lana and was relieved to see her eyes rolling back as she fell back into deep sleep. Lana awoke to a darkened room. She was restrained across a gurney. Suddenly, a bright light shone above her blindingly. It reminded her of an operating room light. This light didn’t burn her like sunlight had been lately. The way the light was shining directly above her made the rest of the room around her look very dark.

Dr. Bradley gave the orderlies the go ahead to attach electrodes to Lana’s body. The doctor was still groggy from the fainting spell she had the night before. She thought about the last thing she remembered doing that night. She remembered looking in on Lana and noticing the most peculiar mist seeping in under the doorway where Lana was at. Then she remembered feeling very cold after that, and she noticed that the mist was rolling in under the door of the room she was in. It got very thick, like a dense fog, and she could no longer see into where Lana was or anything that wasn’t directly in front of her. She tried to move towards the door and that’s when she blacked out. She recalled how embarrassing it was to be discovered laid out cold on the floor by two orderlies at the change of their shift. She feared there would be talk of it all over the hospital facility. It was even more disheartening for Dr. Bradley to learn that Lana turned up missing from the secured observation room, and was found in the early morning asleep on the roof of the facility. Dr. Bradley was at a loss to figure out how Lana was able to escape the locked observation room. She had the key on her the whole time, and there had been no sign of forced entry in or out of the room. She shuddered to think of what Lana was planning to do on the rooftop. Dr. Bradley was determined to save this girl from the hands of suicide. The doctor knew from personal experience what it felt like to be left alone in this world. She knew the feeling all too painfully well what it meant to have no one left to love or care for her. The calm and collected Dr. Bradley was orphaned early on as a young child herself.