***
“Hey.” A soft voice said from behind me. I was taking a patient’s blood for a mandatory check-up, and both my patient and I looked at the window when we heard that voice. He was hiding by then, because he had been unaware that there was someone in the room with me. I bit my lip, trying not to smile, and when my patient asked who it was, I said that it was probably just some silly kid. After my patient left, though, I opened the window all the way, reached down, and whacked Akio hard on the top of the head.
“Way to go, loser! You almost got busted.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that you were actually working? Half the time when I come by here, you’re sitting around doing nothing.”
“Yeah, that’s because I only get work when we’re overrun with people like we are today. There have been seven new cases of the Blood Plague. You do not even want to come in here. Thank God Lucy is Lucy, because she gets work regardless of the fact that she has a vagina, shockingly, and honestly, she’s going to be the only person who can do something about this thing.”
“Well, she was the Top Medice on Pangaea for a while there.” He hopped up with ease into the window despite the fact that it was six feet above his head. We both used our powers when we knew they weren’t around to see, because suppressing them was almost as difficult as suppressing the natural instinct to breathe. The evolution that had taken hold when the world we had known was dying was enmeshed in our DNA now, and just because the Old Spirits had outlawed showing any signs of that evolution, we could not resist when it was just the two of us.
“Try, like, one hundred years that she’s been Head Medice. Maybe more.” I corrected him as he laid down on the bed where my patient had been laying and outstretched his arm to me.
“What did you need to take his blood for, anyway? Was he near the church when that…” He visibly tensed, “Since it… You know, exploded into red?
“‘Exploded into red’ is an understatement. It spread in thirty minutes, and by the end, every man and woman in that place had bled out completely through their mouths, noses, and eyes. They think that asshole, Sanct Phillip, had it, and when he was preaching, he coughed onto someone accidentally, and that started it. But thirty minutes, babe. No disease in either Earthean history or Pangaean history has ever had an incubation period of thirty minutes. God, it’s fascinating.”
“Oh, is it? I’m pissing in my pants right now, and you’re fascinated.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure Lucy will handle it. I just want to know where it came from. That’s why we’re checking people’s blood. We’re trying to catch it early, so we can study it, so we can get samples from each stage of the virus, if there even are stages. There might just be the ‘Holy-fuck-you’re-bleeding-out-of-every-orifice-in-your-face’ phase. This is a legitimate medical crisis, and we have no idea where it came from. Again, it is fascinating.”
“Again, it is terrifying.” He told me. Suddenly, his eyes bugged, and he grasped the sheets beside him but then immediately pulled his hands away from them. Very gingerly, he sat up, his back rigid, turned so that his feet were on the floor, and stood up.
“Tell me I did not just lay on some infected bed-sheets.”
I giggled hard at that and covered my mouth to make sure that the sound was not too loud.
“You did not just lay on some infected bed-sheets.” I told him, “The only reason why they think he has it is because his pupils are really dilated, and the whites of his eyes are red. He might just have allergies. Or he might be using Phantasm.”
“Oh, God, I love Phantasm.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I know.” He sighed, “So, when will Lucy and Macie let me sneak up to see you again?”
“Well, according to Lucy, you can never come to our house again.”
“Not even to fix the window?” He asked, and I gaped at him, “Yeah, I heard. Word travels quickly among us blue-collar lugs. The mines we work in are dark and deep and full of secrets.”
“Well, it’s not much of a secret.” I said bitterly, “They came up this morning right after Lucy got released and threw a huge rock through the window. Then they ran away screaming ‘Idem slits! Idem slits!’ Fucking hicks.”
He reached out and took my hand, all evidence of his joking mood totally vanished.
“I’m sorry, babe. It sucks.”
“Yeah.” I said, still just as bitterly, “It does. It sucks even more now that Lucy won’t let you come over.”
“She means well. You know she does. She’s trying to protect us. Your paramour would probably kill us both if he knew that you were seeing me behind his back. I still have my scars from the last time he found out. Plus, I still have the deal I made with him hanging over my head.”
“Don’t talk about it.” I told him, because my throat was clenching, and I could feel the tears rushing into my eyes. My hand came up to wipe them away as he sat down beside me. He took my hand in both of his, brought it to his lips, and kissed it. When I looked into his eyes, I saw that he was smiling, and even though two tears escaped from my eyes, I found myself smiling, too, in expectation of what he was about to say.
“Maybe he’ll get hemorrhagic fever and die.”
I couldn’t help it; I burst out laughing. It was so simplistic, and it was obviously very wishful thinking on our part, but it was just the blunt way he said it. Like he was wishing for something innocent and childish, like a pony, and not wishing for someone to die a terrible, painful death.
I kissed him before pushing him back on the bed.
“Whoa! I do not want to have sex on the potentially infected bed-sheets of a man with the Blood Plague. Not romantic, babe!”
“Oh, shut up and stop being such a stereotype of a woman.” I said, and I reached out, pulled the cord for the blinds, and in the second it took for the room to go completely dark, I managed to feel and recover from the full pain of using one of my sister’s old expressions.