his lips were crimson [vampire]

four

CHAPTER FOUR

DENALI FORCEFULLY SWUNG OPEN LAKE VIEW'S GRAND DOUBLE DOORS. The hospital, although empty, buzzed with life. Doctors rushed from place to place, clipboards in their hands as they read off charts to interns, checked the white board for new surgeries or talked to patient's families.

She looked around the room with anticipation, trying to pinpoint the exact location of Dr. Glover. The last thing she needed was to be caught by her educator—she knew she was about to entertain an extremely unethical thought; a thought that could lead to unemployment or termination of license. Getting caught was not an option for her.

She just had to make sure that Dr. Glover wasn't on the first floor.

To the left sat two glass doors with the word "EMERGENCY" in bold silver letters hanging over them. One of the doors were propped open so you could see directly into the room without the glare from the big lights in the main entrance shining onto it.

In the center of the room was a huge crescent shaped table where four receptionists sat. One of the receptionists chatted with a small family, the mother doing all the talking as the father typed away on his phone. Their child was jumping up and down in excitement, a lollipop stick poked out from between his blue raspberry colored lips.

Another receptionist was typing maniacally at her keyboard, who sat next to a man who was taking a sip of his water, waiting patiently for more families to come in and talk to him. The last receptionist was talking to someone on the phone, in a very relaxed way as she curled the phone wire in between her fingertips.

Behind them were four rows of escalators and a pair of stairs leading up to the second floor. The elevator was tucked into the right of those. A directory of the hospital sat at the center of the floor right next to the entrance and to the right was a long corridor that led to the cafeteria and restrooms.

Luckily, Dani found Dr. Glover rather quickly. She was sitting in a thick rolling office chair against the back wall. Denali swiftly moved in the opposite direction, diverting her eyes elsewhere. Her shift didn't start for another hour, so if she stealthily moved through the building without being caught, she could be less of a culprit if something were to happen.

Denali desperately needed to get upstairs to the neuro inpatient care floor, but with Dr. Glover sitting between the sets of escalators and elevators, she needed to find an alternative route. She knew there was another set of elevators on the east side of the building near the cafeteria. It was her best shot.

Someone came up next to her, jabbing her in the stomach lightly with their elbow. It was a doe-eyed intern with an eager smile.

"Good morning Dr. Scranton," she chipped, still moving at a rushed pace to get out of Dr. Glover's view. Her acknowledgement made him smile more cheekily at her.

"I didn't realize your shift started already," he muttered. "I would have been here sooner." Dani smiled back at him impatiently, she had no time for pleasantries.

"Well I didn't page you, did I?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. He shook his head no, keeping up his pace with Dani. "If I need you, I'll page you. Unless, there's an emergency?"

"No ma'am." He pursed his lips, his cheeks turning beet read in embarrassment. "But, I checked on John Doe this morning."

Denali stopped suddenly, taking a moment to look at her intern. She realized that she was going about this the wrong way. She knew that if she got an intern to copy his file, the blame wouldn't land on her. If he got caught, he'd get a lighter sentence because he was new, inexperienced and had room to grow.