Bzzzt. Bzzzzzt.
The phone wouldn't shut up.
He groaned, half-asleep, and slapped at the nightstand until his fingers closed around the vibrating brick. "Hello?"
"Dr. Lin, we need you now." The nurse on the line sounded like she was two seconds from breaking. "We've got a trauma patient—car crash, massive leg bleeding, he won't last the hour without surgery. No other surgeons on call can handle this."
He was already out of bed before she finished, tugging on yesterday's pants and shoving his feet into cold shoes. "Prep the OR. I'm on my way."
The apartment door slammed behind him as he sprinted into the freezing night. His car beeped open, and he threw himself behind the wheel. The engine coughed awake, and he floored it.
City lights blurred past. His dashboard kept lighting up with messages:
BP dropping.
ETA, Doctor?
"I'm coming," he muttered, pressing harder on the accelerator. "Just hold on."
A red light flashed ahead. The street was empty, so he shot through it—
—and a blinding pair of headlights exploded from the side.
He had just enough time to think, Seriously? Now? before a horn screamed and everything went black.
Silence swallowed him whole.
Somewhere in the void, a strange breeze brushed his skin. The cold asphalt smell vanished, replaced by incense and distant shouting in a language he somehow recognized—
And then he opened his eyes.