Albany by Night: Chapter One

It should have been a simple job. I had proven myself quite capable of being able to put pace a speech to text program with minimal errors. The doctor I had been working with recommended me to take emergency room dictations. It was fast paced, it was necessary and it felt good to be of use. Honestly the hardest part of it was flipping my sleep schedule since they really needed emergency dictation on the night shift. 

I was assigned to follow one doctor and write the notes as he spoke. I didn't think much about him at first other than 

1) He was very intelligent, borderline Neurospicy with hyperfixations and tangents 

2) He had an awkward charm 

3) He was handsome. 

From what I was able to glean, also unmarried. My guess was people didn’t appreciate his idiosyncrasies or his late schedule.Constantly being on call if something terrible happened in the middle of the night, weekends being needed to kept clear. 

It was a couple weeks in and I was eating my late dinner in the cafeteria when a couple of nurses joined me. They were surprised that I had lasted as long as I had. Apparently most people had quit for one reason or another. “Normally he scares off people.” one laughed over her salad, the fork spearing crunchy romaine lettuce.
“That or they can’t take the late nights and his ramblings. Like they drive them mad.”

“It’s not so bad, you just need to be able to decode the crazy. My former employer had an accent and would jump topics so you either adapt or suffer.” I shrugged. “It’s not so different.”

“Yeah but he’s like…crazy right?” One of the nurses leaned in. 

Ah. 

They were looking for gossip. For insight that they wouldn’t get unless they worked closely with him. 

The last thing I needed was to say something that would get back to him and ruin this job. Ruin our working relationship. 

“No more or less than any of us. I mean, look at where we are.” I gestured around at the nearly completely deserted cafeteria. Our only companionship besides one another was the hum of the  vending machines and the buzzing of the lights. “And the stories that people tell about hospitals at like 3am and the ghosts, hauntings…” I joked but they exchanged a look. Like I was just as mad as the doctor. 

Maybe that would be for the best, I didn’t need the workplace flavored high school gossip or drama.  

I sobered, finishing my dinner quickly. “It’s all very Lewis Carrol no? Alice in Wonderland? We’re all mad here.” I offer a smile, hoping that maybe I can salvage my relationship with the ladies. If for no other reason than to be able to run interference when the doctor had the “episodes” I was warned about.

I picked my way back to where I knew I would find him. I listened at the door and heard him talking to himself. 

Muttering. Rambling.  I was about to leave when I heard something fall from the desk and break. I hesitated for a moment, knocking before opening the door to find him staring at it and then his hands reached up to grip the sides of his head. “No…no no no no… Alice fell…”

“...Sir?” I asked, unsure if he needed help from me or someone else. Was he on something? Was it an episode? I wasn’t experienced with mental illnesses as some of my other friends, but I would try.

He sank to his knees next to, one hand twitching as he started reaching out for the broken pieces of the frame. “Alice fell…Alice fell…”

I glanced behind me for a moment before closing the door behind me as I stepped closer. I kept my movements slow as I kneeled across from him. “It’s okay,” I soothed, as though he was a spooked animal or a child. “We can help Alice get back up.” I began carefully collecting the pieces. The image from the frame was thankfully intact. “I can get you a new frame tomorrow.” 

I didn’t notice it at the time, but when he looked up it seemed like there was a conscious decision to breathe. Rapidly at first then slowing. His body seemed to sag until he sat with his back to the desk. “I’m tired.” 

“It is going for 4am.” I offered him a small smile. “Why don’t you take a break?” I deposited the glass and frame pieces into the trash. “I can finish up editing the notes from earlier and we can call it a night.” I went to rise to give him space when his hand gripped my wrist. A surprisingly strong grip. 

“Stay.” A command. I felt a shiver run up my spine , anchoring me in place. Then as an afterthought “Please.” the anchor that held me loosened.

I stayed. 

~

It was different the next night. Even though neither of us directly addressed what happened aside from rehoming Alice into her new frame I had picked up from Michael’s on the way to work it felt like something had shifted. 

He was quieter it seemed, lost in thought. 

“Are you alright?” I asked, touching his arm to try and bring him back to reality.

“Hm? Yes, I’m fine…” his voice trailed off.  We stepped into the hallway. “...I’m sorry.” He raked a hand through his hair. 

“Don’t worry about it. Accidents happen.” I waved my hand, dismissing it. “As long as you’re okay.” I gave him a smile. 

“You were able to ground me.” It wasn’t a question. An acknowledgment. The only one we would get.

“I have that effect on people. I talked down patients when they were panicking at the other job. There was a guy who absolutely hated doctors and was ready to bolt. He became a big fan of her in no time.” We began to walk to the next room. He drew up short. I turned to look at him. 

“What’s the phase of the moon?”

This threw me. “I’m not sure.”

“I need to know. I need to know now.” 

“Why? Are you a werewolf?” I teased, pulling my phone out to check. “You know you could just tell me, it’s fine.” One of my favorite characters in the Harry Potter series was Lupin after all. Shame the author had to shoot herself in the foot. 

“The phase, Ms. Winters.” His voice was sharper than I heard.

“Alright alright.” I skimmed over the charts. “Waxing, full moon’s next week.”

There was an exhale and a nod before he strode into the next room. “I’m sorry.”

I didn’t know what he was apologizing for. I wouldn’t know until that night. 

A full moon about three months later. We had fallen into routine with one another. He would go off on tangents and I would record it all. Just in case he ever needed it, whether it was important or not. The nurses were surprised that I had been kept so long. 

Honestly I was too. 

We were seeing a patient-a young family that had been in a car accident with no serious injuries aside from some bruising to the muscle and bone when the doors burst open and chaos erupted. 

He was a blur of motion, rushing to the chaos. I apologized to the family before rushing off after him. 

There were so many people there. The sharp scent of iron-blood and lots of it. 

Shouts. 

The flash of something else metallic. 

Someone shouted that the person was armed. 

I felt my heart in my throat. I had gotten out of education because the constant stress about trying to keep children safe as threats became more commonplace. There had been at least two lockdowns in the past year for actual threats. Not just a drill. I wasn’t trained to deal with someone armed. I was always supposed to leave it for someone who knew how to diffuse physical fights. To subdue people.

I turned to get out of the way and felt pain rip through me. Sharp, excruciating, steal your breath kind of pain. I don’t remember much after my body hit the ground and the coldness began seeping into my extremities. 

Blackness. 

I remember waking up in not a hospital bed, but in his office. And starving. He leaned against the desk, an uncharacteristically serious and focused look on his face. He gestured to a cooler next to the couch and my stomach roiled. Blood pouches. “....It was a full moon.”  he said as though that explained everything. “We have a lot to talk about. But first, eat.” His clothes were rumpled and covered in blood as well. Like he had fought, or had tried to save me. Did save me.

“I have dinner in the fridge-” I made a motion to get off the couch to go and retrieve it. I glanced down and saw myself in a pair of  dark blue scrub pants and a black t-shirt. Not the clothes I had been wearing earlier. Probably ripped or covered in blood.

“The pouches.”

“What? Do you need my blood type or something? Because I’ll be honest, I asked my primary if he could find out my type and was told they ‘don’t do that here’.” Had I lost that much blood that I needed a transfusion or something? And why wasn’t I in a hospital bed? I ran a hand through my hair, loose of its normal braid. What was going on?

A tic started in his jaw and he strode over. Something in my body came alive, acknowledging something in him. He grabbed a pouch and then my jaw. He popped it onto my canines-had they always been that sharp? I thrashed against it, repulsed but it felt good too. 

I was disgusted with myself. I drained that pouch and he helped me learn the best ways to pop the pouches like a capri sun. It wasn’t until I had gone through half a dozen that my body finally relaxed enough for him to explain what happened.

He wasn’t a werewolf like I had expected when he was fixated on the phases of the moon but I wasn’t that far off. He was a vampire-sorry, Kindred, Kine. The brutes who had come into the hospital were a mixture of Garou-werewolves fighting with some Anarchs that had spilled into the emergency room. I had been an unfortunate casualty. 

A casualty. 

    The word roiled in my stomach.

He had known it was going to happen on a full moon but didn’t know which full moon. He should have warned me to stay away, but knew it wouldn’t help. I had bled out too quickly that the mortal staff wouldn’t have been able to save me. So he did by Embracing me. 

“I couldn’t lose you. You’re the best assistant I ever had…and I don’t embrace people.”

“Why?” I asked. I licked my lips, my tongue testing the new sharpness of the fangs. 

He gave me a pained smile. “I’m a child of Malkav. I’m sorry.” 

He was sorry. 

This was what he was apologizing for months ago. 

For knowing I would die…for knowing he would save me.

  For the cost of it- my mortal life and sanity.