Chapter-9

The next morning I woke up without having any nightmares. Tom was not in the room when I looked around. I glanced at the watch kept on the side table, it showed 9 a.m.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes to get away from the drowsiness. Once I was fully awake, I went back to my room. As I closed the door behind me, I went to the bathroom to freshen up, the warm water washed away my all tiredness and awakened re-freshness. With a hope of a better day, I got ready and decided to see Crystal. On my way to the basement, I got a call from an unknown number. Thinking it might be from the hospital, I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, doctor Tessa, there's a patient here asking for you" I hear a panicked male voice. My steps halted as I registered what exactly he said.

"What happened?"

"He says that he is one of your old patients and requests to see you now," The man said in a hurry,

"Is there no other doctor?" I asked him,

"No everyone is busy, and as you know about his case," he paused. "It will be more convenient for you to come"

I rubbed my temples as I thought about what I should do.

"Okay, is May there? Give her the phone" I asked for the nurse, as she could have given more details.

"She's out to take some medicines, doctor, could you please make it fast" he urged.

I gave up and decided to go there.

"Okay fine, I am coming" I hung up and went back to my room to take my car keys.

On my way down I saw Sam and greeted him.

"Where are you going? I told you to rest, didn't I," Sam inquired after seeing me coming downstairs. He met me halfway at the stairs.

"I am fine now. see," I said and lifted up m jeans a little to show him that the swelling was gone,

"I can walk now easily,"

"Then let me drive you. I'll drop you wherever you want to go," Sam said but I politely refused him.

"Trust me, I will be fine," I assured him.

"Fine, just take care," Sam said and patted me on head before going upstairs to his room.

I took my coat from the coat hanger by the door and went outside. I got inside the car and quickly drove out of the mansion, speeding off to the hospital. I thought of taking a shortcut and googled it on map. Due to last night's snowfall, there were road blocks in the way. It said the shortest route was only forty minutes away from the hospital, and was through the way of some old colonies. I didn't gave much thought to it and pulled over on that route. As I entered one of the remote territories, I saw how isolated it was.

One storey houses that looked like were about to fall any time stood out in a line through an archway, stretching out for a mile on both sides. Dried leaves spread out on the road; they blew away as I drove slowly through the narrow lane. The last bit of snowfall from last night was piled up by the sidewalk and shaded over the roof of the houses. I kept driving and didn't gave much attention to my surroundings.

I was almost out of that place, when suddenly my car stopped. I turned the key and tried to start the car again but it didn't.

"Great, now what?" I groaned in frustration and tried to start it again, but still, it didn't work. I looked around me and had a familiar feeling. I moved out of the car and opened the car bonnet to check the problem. Suddenly my phone starts ringing again.

I opened the door and took my phone to see it was from May.

"May, I am just coming, my car broke, I'll try to see what I can do, till then can you handle the situation?" I spoke as soon as I picked up the call.

"What situation? Did someone already told you about it?" I got confused from her question as she sounded nervous.

"Yes May, I got informed about the patient," I told her.

"I don't get you ma'am, which patient are you talking about?" I could feel myself getting tensed from her replies.

"The one who says to be my old patient and wants to see me," I once again tried to make her recall.

"Ma'am, what are you saying, there's no such patient here," I noticed she sounded panicked. "In fact, I called you to tell you that the patient whose operation you did yesterday is missing,"

My breath almost got stopped. I froze at her words, "What do you mean he's missing?" I flapped.

I was so near in having a heart attack.

"Ma'am in the morning he was there, but half an hour ago I went to the canteen to have coffee." she started explaining. "When I returned, his room was empty. We searched everywhere," she said in an apologetic tone.

My feet wobbled. I leaned on the car as I was about to lose my balance. I cut the call because I had nothing to say. I couldn't think anything properly.

I was getting more and more nervous by the time. Looking at my hands, I found them shaking. I took deep breaths, and tried to call Sam but remembered that I don't have his number. I realized I was tricked and had no idea what to do.

But why would anyone trick me? I sit inside the car and give a last try to start the engine. Still, it didn't start, I kicked on the pedal, and groan out in frustration.

I rested my forehead on the steering wheel, thinking of a way to get out of here, just then my phone starts ringing and I looked at it. My breath got hitched at the sight of an unknown number.

I didn't wanted to pick it up, but something inside me told me to do it. I answered the call and put it on speaker.

"Hello, Tessa?"

I couldn't have been anymore relieved at hearing the familiar voice, I quickly picked up the phone and removed it from the speaker.

"Sam" I spoke his name in an urgency, luckily he caught my tone.

"Tessa, are you okay? You sounded tensed," Sam asked with caution.

"Sam, I don't know what's happening, but I think I have been trapped" I explained to him the whole situation.

After I finished, he cursed loudly.

"Dammit, how could I be so careless" he murmured to himself, "Tessa, where are you right now exactly?"

I looked around myself, there was nothing familiar about this place, "I don't know?" I answered.

"Just send me your location, I'll come there and don't get outside of your car at any cost till I come there," he said and cut the call as I send him my location. I felt little much relieved from before, knowing someone is aware about my whereabouts.

I leaned back, and sighed. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something. I bent forward and looked closely. It looked like a person was lying on the road; the person was a few feet away from my car. I was sure a few minutes ago no one was there. My hands itched to open the door and move out to see the person, but Sam's word kept ringing in my mind. My heart told me to check on that person, and my mind told me, to not leave the car. My doctor instincts kicked in.

I knew what I was doing was not something good and definitely not brave, but still, I already moved out of the car and started to proceed towards the person.

Once I was close enough to the person, I noticed it was a guy. His face hidden as he was lying on his stomach.

It looked like he fainted, but I didn't saw anyone coming or moving around here, then where did he come from?

My human instincts were telling me to run away, but I was a fool to bend down beside him. Out of nowhere a hand clasped on my wrist and pushed me to the ground. The push was so hard that my whole body ached from the impact. I looked up and found the guy standing in front of me. I missed to notice that his was face was covered with a mask.

I crawled backwards to keep distance between us. He observed this and charged towards me. As I reflex I kicked him at his weak point, he fell back in agony. I took this moment to escape away. I picked up my pace as I saw him recovering from the ache and stand up. As soon as I reached my car, I got inside and started the car, but of course, it broke down. I was about to leave the car and run away before the guy catches me, but just then something cold touched at the back of my forehead.

I gasped in fright as I looked in the rear-view mirror. A guy was sitting behind holding me at his gunpoint, he too has his face covered.

"You thought you could get away" his voice was familiar,

"Get out before I pull the trigger," he shouted, making my skin crawl.

The other was already standing in front. I opened the gate and moved out. The guy who was inside followed me out. He held me by my neck and pushed me to the other guy, who held my arms tightly behind my back. His fingers dig deep into my arm, making me hiss in pain. It's going to leave a mark.

Suddenly two more guys appeared from around the corner. They all had their face covered. The guy with the gun moved forward and stood in front of me.

"I don't get it, even after beaten so bad how could you have so much energy" he sneered at me.

I looked into his eyes, and that's when I realized who he was. He was the guy because of whom Crystal was in a coma, they all were the guys from that night. The thing which shocked me more was the fact that these were the same eyes, who were staring at me through the corridor, day before noon at the hospital. He was there at the hospital and the guy whom I operated on had to be one of them.

I wriggled in the guy's arms and tried to break away from his hold, due to which he tightened the grasp. The guy who had a gun slapped me hard, making my cheek sting. I almost forgot to breathe because of it. I took a few breaths and looked back at him.

"What do you want from me? Why are you doing this?" I asked in my fear stricken voice.

He laughed without any humor and held face tightly.

"You think you can get away after what you did. You were lucky enough to get saved that night but not this time," Before I could register what he said, the guy who was holding me by my arms pushed me to ground harshly, making my knees and arms scratch.

I staggered back holding my hand as the wound started bleeding badly. They were thinking I was Crystal but I couldn't understand why so?

"I am not her" I cried,

"Then how do you know who we are thinking of" he grinned at me.

I went silent because I couldn't let them know about Crystal, I needed to do something else. The other guy gave the gun to his partner and moved forward. My body was in a lot of pain, and I couldn't shift away. He stepped on my leg and pressed on it making me scream in agony.

"Stop it" I begged him, but it only made him press harder.

He bent down to my level and whispered in my ear.

"Last time I thought to kill you less painfully, but I think I was too nice," he smiled with sinister intentions. "Not anymore this time I'll make sure you'll suffer till your last breath" with that said, he kicked me in stomach pretty hard.

My eyes widened when I coughed out blood, my vision got blurred as I doubled over in pain.

"Do whatever you want, just don't kill her yet," he said to other guys.

I couldn't have let that happen to me. I needed to find a way to get out here.

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