From the Ashes

- Chapter I / Draft -

Eyes red and watery, her hands trembling around a cup of tea that had been served too long ago and was not warm anymore.

She had gotten used to the rapid steps of the nurses, click-clacking their way in and out of the emergency room all night long. This time she heard slower steps, there was no hurry anymore.

The cup slid a bit under her sweaty hands when the door opened and the doctor came in. He was a young man but he looked older than he was after years of long night shifts and lack of sleep.

With a quick move of her hand she tried to wipe off the wetness in her eyes and cheeks. The moment he was opening the door, Dr. Newman got a glimpse of what she was doing and his expression softened immediately. He was still nervous.

- Hi there Diane, how are you feeling?

Only at this point had he taken a good look at her. She looked pale and fragile. Her skin reminded him of his grandmother's old leather purse: dry and rough. Her appearance was not that different from so many other corpses he had seen before, except this one was alive. Sort of.

Diane just nodded and looked at him in the eyes. She thought it was kind from him to ask, but there was no good answer to this question and he already knew this. He was just being polite.  She had also lost all her strength a couple of hours ago and did not feel like wasting any energy in replying.

The doctor reached some papers on the little white table next to her bed. He had to move the magazines away to find them and proceeded to read them carefully, making notes every now and then. For a while, all you could hear in the room was the sound of his pen scraping Diane's medical reports.