Chapter 3: The Shadow Over the Hospital
Three hours passed like an eternity. Arthur paced the floor of the private waiting area Vance had secured for them. The heavy rain beat against the windows, mirroring the storm inside Arthur’s mind.
The double doors swung open, and the surgeon stepped out, looking exhausted but relieved. “She’s out of surgery. The internal bleeding was caused by a ruptured ovarian cyst, exacerbated by blunt force trauma to her abdomen. We repaired the damage. She’s stable, but she’s severely malnourished and has old fractures that never healed properly. She’s sleeping now.”
Arthur let out a breath he felt he had been holding for seven years. “Can I see her?”
“Only for a moment. She’s in the ICU.”
Arthur and Detective Vance walked into the quiet room. The girl looked so small in the large hospital bed, surrounded by the rhythmic humming of monitors. Arthur sat in the chair beside her, gently taking her frail, unbruised hand.
Suddenly, Vance’s phone buzzed. He stepped out to take the call. When he returned five minutes later, his face was white as a sheet.
“Arthur,” Vance whispered, closing the door tightly behind him. “The preliminary DNA results just came back from the lab's express unit.”
Arthur gripped the bed rail, unable to speak.
“It’s a 99.9% match,” Vance said, his voice trembling with emotion. “Arthur... it’s her. It’s Emily.”
Arthur fell to his knees beside the bed, burying his face in his daughter’s mattress, sobbing uncontrollably. The agony of seven years of searching, of sleepless nights and hopeless prayers, washed away in a flood of tears. She was alive. She was right here.
But their relief was cut short. The hospital lights suddenly flickered and died, plunging the room into darkness before the dim red emergency lights kicked in. Outside the room, a faint scuffle could be heard, followed by a heavy thud.
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Vance immediately drew his service weapon. “Arthur, stay behind me. Someone just cut the main power grid to this floor.”
The door to the ICU room slowly creaked open. A tall man in a janitor’s uniform stood in the doorway, but instead of a mop, he held a silenced pistol. His eyes weren't on Vance; they were locked onto the sleeping Emily. The monster had come to take his captive back.
