The Immortal Coil Read Free Page A

pale that the veins in her face were beginning to show. No more than fifteen minutes ago, she appeared completely healthy, but now she looked like she had been suffering from pneumonia for weeks.
    The elevator doors closed and took me up to my floor. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Shannon’s friend and the lady I saw being taken away from my building. It was for reasons like that that I could never follow in my parents’ footsteps and go for a career in medicine. Somehow they became experts at shutting out emotions when dealing with patients. I must have been in fifth grade when I asked my dad if he had ever lost a patient. He told me he had lost many, but didn’t let himself think about it. If he got emotional over every loss, then he would never be able to move on and save the next person.
    I got off on the sixth floor to find my landlord waiting for the elevator. His expression when he saw me said that he would have rather it had been anyone else in the world but me getting off of that elevator. He was probably dreading the pending complaints from my parents.
    “Hi, Mr. Stahl.” I spoke first. “Any news on what happened?”
    “Lynn Sutherland, fourth floor. She moved in right after you. She didn’t show up to work or return anyone’s calls for a few days. Her family called the police to check on her, so I let them in.”
    He finished there and walked into the elevator. I put my hand out to stop the door from closing.
    “Is she all right? I saw them taking her away.”
    “She was sick, real sick. I hear she travels a lot. She just got back from overseas somewhere. EMT says she might have picked up something.”
    He looked spooked.
    “What do you mean something ? The police don’t evacuate a building because someone is sick.” I was beginning to think it might be a good idea to call my parents after all. At least they could offer professional advice.
    “No … no, I suppose they don’t.”
    He definitely wasn’t telling me everything. He kept pressing the elevator button to go down as if I wasn’t even there.
    “Where are you going?” I asked him.
    “I’ve got to pick up a few things from my place there. I left so fast to get a room I forgot half my stuff.”
    That made me realize I had also come here with nothing.
    “Do you think they’ll let us back in? I want to get some of my things if we’re going to be here awhile.”
    “No, you stay here. No sense in both of us getting in trouble in case they kick us out. Besides, I don’t think your father would appreciate hearing that I let you back in before everything was checked out.”
    Mr. Stahl was still staring down at the elevator buttons like they were part of the conversation. I let the door go and walked to my room, seeing as this wasn’t getting me anywhere.
    I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my door. The room was definitely worth the money spent and almost made me regret having to go back to my cramped apartment. It was nice to stay in a room where you could actually see the floor and the bed wasn’t covered with laundry in true bachelor-pad style.
    My cell phone battery was dying, and without a charger or my laptop, I felt completely cut off from the outside world. I didn’t have my architecture book to study from either, so all I could do to pass the time was watch TV.
    I put on the evening news thinking there might be something about the police at my building, but I guess it was too boring to report compared to celebrity babies and breakups. The next best thing was spending a few bucks on a movie.
    I found the old black-and-white version of Frankenstein from the 1930s, a personal favorite. I must have seen this a dozen times since first watching it in the third grade. My father told me people actually used to be scared when the film first came out. If anything, I felt bad for the monster.
    An hour through the movie, the sound of a woman crying in the hall caught my attention. Hopefully, whatever was going on at the apartment