Page 32 of Dark Visions

“Well?” he asked expectantly.

“It was different,” said Kane. “I didn’t feel the zing. I’ve never felt something so different before. It was more…”

“Sadness,” said Aislinn.

“Yes.”

“I didn’t get a sick, evil feeling. I got sadness. I wonder if he’s feeling remorse.”

“God, I have no clue,” said Adam. “The mind is an amazing thing. He could have split personality disorder. His mind could give off two people’s psyche.”

“Could that really happen?” asked Kane.

“I honestly don’t know, brother, but we’ll know in the next forty-eight hours. If Aislinn has another vision, we’ll know more about the good doctor.”

Adam rode back to Kane’s home and then took his car home. He hoped that Aislinn wouldn’t suffer with another vision, and yet hoped she would see something that could help them stop the murders.

He turned his car onto 30 and spotted the campground off in the distance, the very one that Flip was staying at. Pulling off at the exit, he took the long dirt road back into the campground. Campers of various sizes and shapes filled the spots. He knew that many people lived here year-round and wondered how someone could survive in such a small space. His own house was too large for just him, but he was a man that needed room.

Taking the big loop around the park, he spotted Flip sitting near a burning fire pit in front of a large motor home. The big awning stretched out over a few folding chairs and a picnic table, his dark face lost in thought as he stared at the fire.

Adam parked his car and walked toward the campsite. Flip never looked up as if not hearing him at all. Yet Adam knew his friend heard everything. He was trained to hear everything, and Phillip ‘Flip’ Cho would never allow anyone to sneak up on him.

“Why are you here?” he asked coldly.

“Well, hello to you too, asshole,” he replied.

“Hello.”

“Flip? What the fuck, dude! We’re brothers. I’m worried about you and your sorry ass. I want to help you if I can.”

“You can’t help me, Doc. No one can,” he said, still staring into the flames.

“Flip, I know you’re different.” His head snapped up, and a flash of anger filled his face, making Adam take a step back. “It’s okay, Flip. I’m different too. You know that.”

“I don’t know fuck! You’re not different, not like me.”

“Really? You wanna compare dick sizes? Look, I don’t know what your issue is, but I know that I carry my own burden, Flip. Didn’t you ever wonder how I saved Gilman? Thomas? Did that not ever occur to you?”

Flip stared at his old friend across the flames. His face flickered in the red and orange of the flames, his blue eyes bright and intelligent as always. He had wondered how Doc saved the two men. The others said it was impossible, the internal bleeding, the damage done to limbs, beyond repair. Yet somehow, Doc saved them both.

“So, what, you’re saying you got fucking super doctor powers?” he asked.

“Something like that,” he grimaced, shifting from one foot to another, kicking at the gravel.

Flip stared at him and reached beside him, grabbing a beer. He gestured for Adam to take the cold bottle, jerking his head to the seat beside him. Adam took the beer and sat in the flimsy chair.

“So… talk,” said Flip. “How did you save Gilman and Thomas? Let’s not forget Folger, too.”

“Folger, yea, I forgot about her.” He stared at the dark sky for a moment and then leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “I see everything when I’m working on their bodies. Everything.”

“What do you mean? Like their thoughts?” he asked.

“No. I see their injuries without even opening them up. I know what’s bleeding and where. I see it. I see the heart pumping or not. I see the bullet. I see the artery. I see everything, and I know what I have to do to fix it. I saw the bullet that ripped through Gilman’s spleen. I saw the artery bleeding out in Thomas’s leg, and I knew that Folger’s brain was swelling and hemorrhaging at the same time. And I never even picked up the scalpel to see that.”

Flip stared at his friend, his dark gaze intimidating and uncertain. Could that be what happened? Is that how he saved their friends?

“If you were to touch me… If you touch me, you can see if I’m sick?” he asked quietly.

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