Dr. Yusefka used her fingers clad in white gloves to tuck her flaxen hair behind her ear.
Bending down, she inquired about Viola and the children in the clinic’s corner.
The two little girls, after seeing Lann off, quickly lay back down in their mother’s embrace and fell asleep again, exhausted.
But Viola seemed burdened with worries, only absently caressing her daughters’ hair.
Yusefka knew what she was thinking about.
She was still worried about her husband, Gascogne.
Their love had always been something many envied. But on this treacherous night, it became a tormenting thing.
"No, we’re all fine, it’s just that we are troubling you too much."
Viola was brought back to her senses by Yusefka, and immediately put on a comforting smile, urging the doctor not to worry too much.
She was never one with a weak character.
"You’ve been very tired, Yusefka. Take some rest as well. The incense has just been replaced; there’s nothing to worry about. If you need, I could watch over things and wake you if something happens."
The doctor was not at ease in the clinic.
The patients sat distantly from each other, due to the dangers of this night, they distrusted one another, wary, tired, exhausted...
Adding to their already poor physical condition, the psychological burden had them on the brink of collapse.
Yusefka couldn’t leave them alone and had to go between each patient.
Comforting them, encouraging them, telling them that no one in this clinic showed any signs of the beast plague.
The plague of beast transformation didn’t exist here.
Yusefka was a mature doctor; she knew how to throw out a bunch of uncommon terms to make patients dizzy and, through the gap in knowledge, foster trust.
And on this night, the patients could only trust her, or rather should trust her.
Otherwise, who else could take care of a group of already ill people?
Hunters could also treat diseases; they specialized in beast transformation sickness, and their treatment had one method only—kill the patient.
"Forget it, Viola. They don’t trust you, you’re from the outside. If you walk beside them, they might panic."
Yusefka smiled gently, shaking her head.
Viola, upon giving it a thought, understood the situation slightly, and thus could only look apologetically at the doctor.
"Sorry, it seems I really can’t help... Thanks for your hard work, doctor."
"You taking care of the children is already helping."
Yusefka didn’t mind at all; she simply poked the cheeks of the two little girls, making their round faces dent slightly.
Amid the little girls’ muddled murmurs, Yusefka stood up.
The motion made her momentarily dizzy; she rubbed her forehead before stabilizing again.
How long had this night been dragging on? It felt like taking care of patients overnight was never this exhausting before.
Yusefka waved her hand while responding to Viola’s worried gaze, once more heading toward the patients.
They started to look around neurotically again.
She couldn’t collapse; she was the only professional in the clinic... although merely a small clinic doctor, incomparable to the scholars in the Healing Church, but undoubtedly a professional.
Here, only she could bring reassurance to people, she still had to hold on.
But, as she moved her tired and heavy steps towards the patients, the silence was shattered by knocking sounds from the tightly shut doors on the second floor of the clinic.
"Is there anyone there?"
Yusefka raised her voice slightly, hesitantly asking.
Inside the clinic, all patients stared warily at the door, as if a beast-transformed patient was lying outside, using its melted and dispersed pupils to watch everyone inside.
No response came from outside the door, but indeed there was someone, for the knocking came again, growing louder.
In such circumstances, Yusefka unconsciously hugged her arms before her chest, tightly clutching them.
She was full of fear, especially after witnessing a patient in the clinic suddenly transform into a werewolf.
Would there be a hunter outside the door?
Hunters would, on a hunting night, knock on doors house by house; residents unable to respond wisely would have their doors broken down and dragged out to be killed.
Such bloody stories were long-standing tales in Yan’an, second only to jokes about outsiders facing hardships.
Having serious cases of beast transformation at the clinic, would it be hunters coming to eradicate the issue?
Those crazed hunters have done such things before.
But she couldn’t let such things happen in her clinic.
"Are you a hunter, on a hunting mission?"
No words came from outside; even the knocking stopped.
Yusefka held back her fear, swallowing as she continued to speak.
"I’m really sorry, but... but I cannot open the door for you. This is a clinic with normal patients only, no beasts, and I won’t let my patients be exposed to the risk of beast plague."
"I know you are hunting for us for this city, but I really can’t open the door."
Understanding that most hunters weren’t that rich in compassion, Yusefka quickly ran to the clinic’s bookshelf, pulling out a vial from a slender box.
"This is the refined blood I extracted myself."
She spoke of her past identity as a Blood Saintess while handing the vial out through the broken glass of the door.
"I can only offer you this kind of help, please accept it."
She extended her hand through the broken glass, for a while, nobody took the vial.
No one responded, nor were there knocking sounds.
As Yusefka felt at a loss about what to do, her wrist was suddenly seized, followed by a piercing needle pain lanced from her blood vessel.
Almost simultaneously, dizziness surged into her mind.
Her long-fatigued body went limp, and in a blur, she saw the limb-like appendages resembling soft creatures extending in through the window’s crack.
Those slippery and soft appendages, amidst the ’slap slap’ sound of oozing, drew out the door latch from the exit. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel⟡fire.net
Patients screamed, Viola seemed to have picked up the IV pole to fend off, but the limb-like appendage easily flicked away the flimsy metal rod.
Two little girls’ anxious voices called for ’Mommy’.
"Ah, Sister, my sister..."
In the chaos and commotion, a gentle female voice came from outside, mirroring Yusefka’s yet not as mild.
Yusefka suddenly widened her eyes, trying to resist the effect of the drugs to see the scene outside the door clearly.
But it was useless, in her uncontrollable blurry vision, the last scene was only the sight of a woman’s boot stepping inside the doorway.