Abominations Read Free

annoyance.
      Once mainly upright, tilting back only slightly, the nurse carefully gave her a small sip of water. Severe looking or not, the woman seemed good at her job, letting her drink the entire glass a tiny bit at a time without even a hint of impatience. Gwen decided to give her a second hash mark on her mental tally, tentatively at least. Only one person had ever managed to get to four before, but this lady seemed well on her way to taking the record if she kept this up.
      After the woman took the glass away Gwen thanked her. It was the only reward she could give the woman for her good work, after all.
      “It's no bother, dear. Now, I need to get the doctor, and I believe some people from the Constabulary wish to speak with you, as soon as you feel up to it. Let's have the doctor in first though, to make certain you're ready for such things, shall we?” Not waiting for an answer, the woman left the room, her hard shoes making clip-clop noises on the floor.
      Gwen waited, marveling at how odd the room looked. She should have asked what hospital she was at, and if they could contact her parents for her. Even her parents would come and visit her after being stabbed in the chest by some loony cult.
      At least she thought they would.
      It would have to be clear to them that she hadn't done it to herself this time. Her parents could imagine that she'd beaten herself all they wanted, but stabbing herself in the chest would have been past what she could have possibly done, right? They weren't bad people after all, they just didn't want to be saddled with a freak for a daughter. Overall her parents hid it well, she couldn't fault them there. They'd really tried to be good, but it was clear to her that they wanted, and probably deserved, a life free of her problems. Normally she tried to give them that peace, but this was... Unusual, even for Gwen's life.
      A man in a white coat came into the room, blond hair and gray eyes, she thought, she couldn't exactly tell for certain behind the glasses, thick wire rims holding even thicker lenses. He looked cute, in a slightly pale way. Not that Gwen was picky. Any guy not trying to stab her in the chest looked pretty good right now. She might even settle for a flesh wound, or being stabbed in the leg, if the guy could manage to hold his lunch while talking to her.
      “Good afternoon, Miss Vernor. I'm going to have to have a look at your wound, I'm afraid. Nurse Rogers will stay in the room for your comfort of course.” His tone seemed very formal and professional to her, as if she might object to him looking at the stab wound. Like she'd care about him doing his job?
      Realizing that he'd gotten her name wrong, she decided to corrected him gently, trying to stay polite, since he seemed OK so far, having bothered to smile at her when he came in even. Whoever these people were, they had top notch professionalism down in a way few ever mastered.
      “Um, my name's Farris, Gwendolyn Farris?” She kept her voice soft. It sounded funny to her, not unpleasant, far from it. It just didn't sound like her.
      She could tell her words took the doctor by surprise, he checked the paperwork again and looked at her closely, looking back at the picture several times.
      “Are you certain? Your traveler's identification places your name as Katherine Vernor... The picture matches.” He leaned forward and showed her the image on the page he held.
      The woman in the picture had curly brown hair, large light brown eyes, and a creamy, pale complexion. The nose seemed a little big to be an actress maybe... then again maybe not, she looked a lot like the sidekick off of the vampire detective show Gwen liked to watch on Thursdays, but no one with eyes could possibly confuse her with that woman. Most didn't even mistake her for a person.
      She tried for baffled rather than her normal