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  That is, until I had to go out again.

  Which would be as soon as any of the dozen or so patients under my direct supervision had a problem and one of their nurses paged me. Which could be at any moment. So I needed to take a moment to enjoy my sense of peace and safety now.

  Then I heard it—that high, squeaky voice that had been haunting me for weeks.

  “Attention, Charlotte Walker,” it said, coming from somewhere overhead. “I have a message that I must deliver to you.”

  Looking up, I saw that the light fixture in the supply closet had a curving, silver metal side which was shiny enough to reflect light. Only instead of the dull glint of the light bulb, it was showing a strange, blue worm-like creature with multiple arms and eyes that were mounted on stalks.

  It was the same creature I had been seeing for weeks. It appeared everywhere—the bowl of my metal spoon when I was eating oatmeal or yogurt, the side of the toaster when I was making toast, even the shiny metal surgical instruments laid out on tray in the operating theater where I was supposed to be assisting.

  The other day it had appeared in the middle of a splenectomy, speaking to me from the blade of a scalpel in its tiny, high voice that only I could hear.

  The blue worm creature had startled me so badly I had dropped the scalpel I had been handing to the surgeon right into the patient’s open body cavity! Luckily, the scalpel had fallen handle first, so it hadn’t severed any major blood vessels or punctured any organs, but the surgeon had been livid with me and I had been dismissed from the surgery with a black mark on my record.

  Day and night the worm followed me—unless I slept in a completely dark room with no reflective surfaces. But have you heard when medical interns get to sleep? That’s right—almost never. We’re constantly on call, constantly on the move. And we almost never get a good night’s sleep—or any sleep at all, for that matter.

  It was awful and the main reason I was convinced I was going crazy.

  “Charlotte Walker,” the blue worm said again. “I have accepted payment to deliver a message to you regarding—”

  “No!” I screamed, finally “losing my shit” as my best friend Zoe would say.

  Zoe. God, I missed her—she had disappeared months ago and nobody knew what had happened to her. When my other friend, Leah, and I had decided to finally stop looking for her, I had made the decision to go to med school and drown my sorrows in work. At first, everything had been fine—well, as fine as it could be after losing my friend. But then the blue worm had started stalking me. And now, after weeks of constant harassment, I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  “Charlotte Walker—”

  “No, no, no!” I shouted. “Leave me alone!”

  I pulled off one of my comfortable clogs, stood on a plastic stool which was obviously used for reaching the higher shelves, and began banging on the light fixture as hard as I could.

  “Leave me alone!” I screamed at the weird blue worm. “Leave me the fuck alone!”

  “What’s the matter, Walker—pager driving you bugshit?”

  I looked over to see my friend and fellow intern, Sebastian Trent, leaning against the door jam with his arms crossed and a sarcastic little smile playing around the corners of his mouth.

  “Shut up,” I said, climbing off the stool and quickly replacing my clog. “I just, uh, thought I saw a worm up there.”

  “A worm?” He frowned. “What would a worm be doing on the ceiling?”

  “Uh, spider, I mean. I thought I saw a spider,” I said quickly. “And I hate spiders.”

  “Oh. I thought maybe your pager was going off when you were trying to catch a nap.” He smiled sympathetically. “I know how that feels.”

  “I don’t nap on duty,” I said. “Especially not when I’m covering the pit.”

  The “pit” was what we called the ER, which was generally jammed almost all the time. Tonight, however, it had been strangely quiet, which was why I had dared to duck into the supply closet to try and get five minutes of peace and quiet.

  So much for that.

  “Well excuse me for interrupting your ‘me time’ your royal highness,” Sebastian snapped bitchily. “I just thought you might like to know you have a new triage.”

  “In the pit?” I asked. “What is it? MVA? Gunshot wound?”

  “Knife fight victim.” Sebastian grinned. “And just wait ‘till you see him.”

  “Why? Is he in bad shape?” I was already moving down the hall with Sebastian jogging to keep up with me. “You think he’ll need surgery?”

  It may sound ghoulish but I was kind of hoping he would. We interns are always trying to get more cases under our belt. What’s bad for the patient is often good for us. Not that I want anyone to die—I just kind of hope they’re in danger of dying and that I can save them.

  Wow, that sounds crazy, right? But that’s the life of an intern—rushing from emergency to emergency, trying to save as many people as possible and soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can along the way.

  If I hadn’t had that damn blue worm following me and popping up everywhere to yell at me in his high, Disney-character voice, I would have been having the time of my life. As it was, I was miserable—though the idea of a stab wound so bad it needed surgery did cheer me up considerably.

  But Sebastian was shaking his head.

  “No, I’m not talking about his trauma—I’m talking about his ass,” he gushed. “You should see this guy. He’s got to be over seven feet tall and every inch of him is pure muscle. Not to mention he has this incredible blue-black hair and these amazing eyes—”

  “Sebastian…” I sighed and shook my head. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Get me this guy’s number and ask if he swings both ways,” my friend said promptly.

  “If he’s so hot, why didn’t you take him yourself?” I demanded. “You’re on pit duty too.”

  “Believe me, I tried.” Sebastian opened his eyes wide and made a helpless gesture with both hands. “But he only wants you—he asked for you by name.”

  “He what?” I frowned at him. “What are you talking about? Is he from Tampa or something?”

  Tampa, Florida is my hometown and the city I had been living in until I decided to go back to medical school in Gainesville, which is a couple of hours north. But even in Tampa, I hadn’t known any seven foot tall guys with black hair and amazing eyes.

  Of course, Sebastian was probably exaggerating on at least one, if not all counts. He was perpetually horny and had already worked his way through most of the male nurses at North Florida Regional, as well as a good number of the young male doctors.

  “I don’t know where he’s from,” Sebastian said, as we rounded the corner and went through the automatic doors that led to the ER triage area. “I just know he’s gorgeous and he’s asking for you. You lucky girl.”

  “Shut up,” I said under my breath as we came to a curtained area. There was some kind of commotion taking place inside—someone was yelling and then I heard the clang of instruments being thrown on the floor.

  “I told you,” a deep male voice shouted. “I will speak only to Charlotte Walker. She is the only person I will allow to treat my wounds!”

  “Sir if you’ll just—” came the voice of a nurse from the other side of the curtain.

  “Charlotte Walker! I must see her now!” he bellowed, loudly enough to hurt my ears.

  “See what I mean?” Sebastian whispered. “He wouldn’t let me touch him either and believe me, honey, I tried.”

  “Well he can’t be that bad off if he’s yelling like that,” I muttered back.

  He shook his head. “Actually, I’m afraid he’s got a really nasty slice up the right side of his abdomen. You better get in there and see what you can do for him.”

  I glared at him. “You’re enjoying this.”

  “Of course I am! Girl, this is better than an episode of Grey’s Anatomy!” He g