And then she saw her.

Carmen saw a young woman reading the notice board that was hooked on the wall. The stranger wore a total black outfit – shoes, pants, a V-neck sweater, a long coat -, her dark hair was messy and partly covered her forehead. Her skin was pale.

She was beautiful, ethereal somehow but definitely stunning, and Carmen narrowed her eyes and frowned. How could she be there? Carmen had just passed through that same corridor and nobody was there. She was alone.

And suddenly, that woman. Where did she come from? Who was she?

Carmen tilted her head to a side, trying to intercept the stranger’s face and moving some unsure steps toward her.

“Excuse me?”, she called out, tentatively.

The stranger turned her head and stared at her, the hint of a smile on her lips. Carmen swallowed in a sudden discomfort.

“Are you a visitor?”, she asked her, calmly.

The stranger’s smile went a bit wider.

“Yes”, she nodded, quietly.

Carmen arched her eyebrows and cleared her throat.

“Uhm, well… Visiting hours have been over since 8…”.

The stranger turned fully to her in one fluid movement. She didn’t remove her hands from her pockets.

“Why do they have that?”, she asked, blinking.

Carmen frowned in confusion.

“What?”.

“Hours”, the stranger clarified, widening her eyes.

They were perfectly green, Carmen noticed.

“Doesn’t it help the patient to be visited?”, the stranger asked, sincerely curious.

Carmen shook her head and smiled tentatively.

“Who are you visiting? Mr. Bizzarri? Right now?”, she asked rapidly.

The woman just shook her head slowly.

“You”, she replied, and Carmen held her breath for a second. Inexplicably, her heartbeat fastened.

“I…I don’t need a visitor…”, she murmured in disbelief.

The stranger stared at her with her green eyes that seemed to be drilling right inside her soul.

“You’re not ill?”, she asked, naively.

“No…”, Carmen pointed at the card fixed on her white coat, “…I’m one of the doctors here…”.

The stranger didn’t move or blink.

“Are you in despair?”, she asked, softly.

Carmen’s brown eyes were pierced by the stranger’s green ones. She felt hypnotized.

“I lost a patient”, she blurted out in a whisper, realizing that her own guard was completely down, and that she was completely exposed before that woman.

“You did everything you could?”, the stranger asked, her voice husky and low.

“I was holding his heart in my hand when he died”, Carmen murmured.

The stranger smiled softly.

“Then he wasn’t alone”.

Carmen swallowed.

“Yes, he was”.

“People die”, the stranger considered, quietly.

“Not on my table”.

“People die when their bodies give out”.

“It’s my job to keep their bodies from giving out. Or what am I doing here?”.

The stranger shook her head sympathetically.

“It wasn’t your fault, Carmen”.

“I wanted him to live”, Carmen confessed hastily.

The stranger’s eyes softened even more.

“He is living…”, she murmured, quietly, “…Just not the way you think”.

Still unable to break eye-contact, Carmen managed to shake her head.

“I don’t believe in that”, she said, under her breath.

“Some things are true whether you believe in them or not”.

Carmen blinked repeatedly, trying her best to fight the trance she was slowly slipping in.

“How did you know my name?”, she asked, harshly, “What’s yours?”.

“Shane”, the stranger replied, smiling, and Carmen felt her irritation vanish immediately.

She walked past the woman and toward the dressing room.

“You better get out of here, Shane…”, she said then, turning her head and glancing at her, “…Or security’s going to think you’re a psych patient”.

Shane let her go. She watched her until she disappeared behind the corner.

”…I don’t think you unworthy
I need a moment to deliberate”*

TBC

***
SOUNDTRACK:
* “Uninvited” (Alanis Morissette)