HER ALPHA, HER SAVIOUR

The sound of blood hitting porcelain echoes through our small apartment bathroom, and I know immediately that something's terribly wrong.

“Mom!” I rush toward the sound, my heart hammering against my ribs aggressively.

I find her hunched over the sink, her knuckles white as she grips the counter's edge.

Dark red droplets stain the white basin, stark and terrifying against the clean surface.

Mother has always been the strongest person I know. She is my anchor in this unstable world.

But now, watching her shoulders shake with each violent cough that tears through her body, I feel that anchor slipping away from me.

“It’s nothing, sweetheart,” she manages to say, but her voice is hoarse and strained.

She reaches for a towel, trying to hide the evidence, but I’m already there, taking her trembling hands in mine because I can see how scared she is underneath the brave act.

“This isn’t nothing, Mom.” My voice cracks despite my efforts to stay calm and strong for both of us.

“You’ve been sick for two weeks now, and this is getting worse.”

The towel comes away stained with even more blood, and my eyes widen in horror.

“I think we should go to the hospital right now,” I say immediately.

She shakes her head. “We can’t afford to—”

“I don’t care about the money. Mom, you’re coughing up blood; that’s not a cold. This is serious!”

She looks up at me then, and the look in her eyes makes my stomach drop with fear.

“Evelyn,” she whispers.

She tries to reach for me, but her hands are shaking too much.

“We’re going to the hospital,” I say firmly, looping one of her arms around my neck and helping her out of the bathroom.

My heart races.

“Easy, mum I whisper, struggling to guide her toward the door.

“Just a few more steps…”

Her body sags heavily against me, as if all the strength has drained from her.

“Mum?”

There is no response.

I lean closer. “Mum?”

Still nothing. I blink.

Then her head droops unnaturally to the side.

I panic. “Mum?”

I shake her lightly, then more firmly. Her body sways with the motion, limp and unnaturally.

“Mum!” I scream, my voice cutting through the walls, raw and desperate.

“Wake up! Please, wake up!”

Her body weight is suddenly to heavy for me, and she slumps against the floor like a lifeless doll, her arms falling from my grip.

I have to call 911.

That is the only thing I know. The only thing keeping me from collapsing beside her.

Hours crawl by while I call in sick to both my job and pace the hospitals waiting room.

Finally, a young doctor approaches me with a neutral expression.

“Miss Howard? I’m Dr. Martinez. I’ve been treating your mother.”

“How is she? What’s wrong with her? Please just tell me she’s going to be okay.”

“Your mother is stable for now,” he begins.

“However, we’re seeing symptoms that suggest a very serious illness, but all our tests are coming back normal, which frankly has us completely baffled.”

I stare at him with a frown. “What do you mean they’re normal?”

“According to our tests, your mother is in perfect health right now, but clearly she’s not,” he continues.

“This means this is something beyond our current capabilities to understand or treat.”

The words hit me like a physical blow. “Are you saying she’s dying and you don’t know why or how to help her?”

His silence tells me everything I need to know, and I feel like I’m falling into a black hole with no bottom.

“Can I see her please? I need to see her right now.”

“Of course, but Miss Howard… she’s been asking for you, and some of what she’s been saying…” he hesitates.

“Patients in critical condition sometimes become confused or delirious, so don’t take everything she says too seriously.”

The room is quiet except for the steady beeping of monitoring equipment.

Mom looks tiny in the hospital bed, dwarfed by machines and tubes that are probably the only things keeping her alive right now, and it breaks my heart.

“Evelyn?” Her voice is barely a faint whisper.

“I’m here, Mom,” I say, pulling a chair close to her bedside and taking her cold hand in mine.

“Listen to me very carefully. There are things I never told you that I thought I could keep secret forever to protect you.”

“I thought I could keep you safe by keeping you ignorant about everything, but it’s too late to hide anymore.”

“Mom, you need to rest. The doctors said you might be confused because of your condition—”

“I’m not confused!” Her loud voice startles me and makes the heart monitor beep faster.

“I ran to protect you, to hide you from them, but—” another coughing fit seizes her, and when she pulls her hand away from her mouth, her palm is dark with blood.

I press the call button frantically. “Mom, stop talking and save your strength, please.”

But she grabs my wrist with surprising force. “Promise me, Evelyn, promise me you’ll run if they find you.”

“Don’t let them—”

The machines around her bed suddenly go completely crazy. Nurses rush in, pushing me aside as they work over her, and I stand pressed against the wall, watching the scene helplessly.

That’s when I feel it, a presence in the doorway.

I turn to see a man in an expensive suit staring straight at me.

Everything about him radiates wealth and power, and he’s watching me with an intensity that makes my skin prickle.

“Excuse me,” I say, having to raise my voice over the alarms. “This is a restricted area for family members only.”

He steps into the room, and somehow his presence seems to calm the chaos around us.

“Hello, Evelyn,” he says, his voice smooth and cultured like expensive whiskey that burns going down. “My name is Kane Hellbound, and I’m an old friend of your mother’s from way back.”

I glance back at Mom, who has gone rigid on the bed, her eyes wide with what looks like pure terror as she stares at his face like he’s the devil himself.

“I’ve never heard her mention anyone named Kane,” I say carefully, every instinct screaming warnings at me to run.

His smile is warm, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “It was a long time ago, actually. I heard about Rachel’s illness and came as soon as I could to help.”

“How did you hear about her being sick? This literally just happened.”

“I have connections at the hospital,” he says smoothly, like that’s a completely normal thing to say.

“And I may be able to help her when these doctors clearly can’t do anything useful.”

“The doctors here are excellent, but they’re limited by conventional medicine that doesn’t understand cases like your mother’s. I know specialists who deal with unusual situations like these.”

Something about the way he says “unusual” makes my stomach fill with dread, but when I look at my mother, dying despite the doctors’ efforts, desperation overrides every warning signal.

“What kind of specialists are you talking about?”

Kane’s smile widens, and for just a moment, I could swear I see something predatory flash across his features.

“The kind that save lives when no one else can. The question is, what are you willing to do to save hers?”