Jake sat in one of the plastic chairs with his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor.
The kid had been inside for forty minutes.
He looked up when he heard footsteps he recognized before he saw who they belonged to.
He saw her appear through the main emergency room doors.
'Oh, shit.'
Evelyn spotted him in less than three seconds. When she saw him, she went straight over and sat down beside him.
"Explain yourself."
Evelyn said.
"I found someone at the ritual site…"
"Explain yourself…"
Evelyn repeated.
"Why is there a person in the hospital cut in half?"
"He was trapped in a mass of flesh and there was no way to pry him loose, so I made the executive decision to…"
"Executive decision!?"
"It's a valid term."
Evelyn pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Jake, if that kid dies…"
"He's not going to die… I think."
"He's cut in half!"
"Yeah, but I saved the more important half."
She sighed and Jake continued.
"Maybe I did go a little overboard with the decision…"
Evelyn stared at him for a long moment, opened her mouth, then closed it again.
The doctor on duty came out and stopped in front of them.
"Are you the companions of the unidentified patient?"
"Yes."
Evelyn replied, and the doctor breathed out.
"The damage the patient presented was…"
He searched for the word.
"Incompatible with survival—the tissue trauma, organ loss, and hemorrhage. There was nothing we could do…"
Evelyn stood up slowly and turned toward Jake with an expression of total judgment.
"However…"
The doctor continued.
"The patient stabilized on his own."
The doctor had the face of someone reporting something he still hadn't fully processed.
"The tissues are regenerating at a speed with no precedent in anything I've seen before."
"Is he alive?"
Evelyn said.
"He's conscious and stable."
Jake watched Evelyn as she looked at the doctor.
"I want to speak with him."
The doctor nodded and led them to the recovery room.
The place was small, with a window overlooking an interior courtyard. The kid was in the bed staring at the ceiling.
When Evelyn entered, the kid looked at her and pressed himself into the corner of the bed.
"Easy."
Evelyn said, in a calm tone.
"I just want to ask you a few questions. No one is going to—"
"Sorry."
The kid said.
"You don't have to—"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry…!"
He had gotten off the bed and moved to a corner of the room, against the wall, with his arms wrapped around himself, repeating the same word over and over.
"Listen to me, I'm not going to hurt you…"
She approached and placed a hand on his shoulder, and the reaction was immediate.
"NO!!!"
The kid pulled away even farther from Evelyn, who, seeing that, decided to leave the room.
Jake was leaning against the hallway wall with his arms crossed when she came out.
"He wouldn't talk to me."
Evelyn said.
"I heard that loud and clear."
"He's in shock."
"Or he's scared of you."
Evelyn looked at him.
"Jake…"
"Let me talk to him."
"No."
"Come on, Evelyn, what could go wrong?"
"The last time I let you make a decision, the kid showed up here in two pieces."
"And he survived."
Jake pointed out.
"So my decision was correct."
He pushed off the wall.
"Just five minutes… If I don't get anything in five minutes, I'll come out and shut up."
Evelyn weighed which of her options was the lesser evil and sighed.
"Four minutes."
"Deal."
Jake opened the door to the room.
The kid was still in the corner. He looked up when he heard the door, muscles tense and ready for a reaction, but when he saw it wasn't Evelyn, he relaxed.
Jake looked at the kid.
"First time I've heard of someone who's scared of women."
He walked over to the small sink in the corner, turned on the faucet, filled a plastic cup that was on the edge, and took a sip as if he were in his own kitchen.
The kid watched him without saying anything.
"My name's Jake."
He said, pointing at himself with the cup.
The kid hesitated for a few moments.
"Noah."
"I can see you're shy."
Jake nodded and took another sip.
"How did you end up in that place, Noah?"
Noah looked at the floor and answered a moment later.
"I was running from someone and the cult offered me shelter…"
He paused for a second and continued.
"I didn't know what they were when I went in."
"And the over-the-top reaction?"
Jake gestured vaguely toward the door.
"The woman outside?"
Noah tightened his arms around himself.
"I had a bad experience with someone before."
"With a specific woman or with the general concept?"
Noah didn't answer.
"Because those are different problems…"
Jake continued with complete neutrality.
"One has a more straightforward solution than the other."
Noah looked at him.
"With a specific person."
"Good."
Jake finished the water.
"Well, now comes the most important question of all…"
His face grew serious as the tension thickened in the air.
"Are you gay?"
Noah blinked.
"What?"
"It's just with the corner thing, the bad experience and the…"
"It's not—"
Noah frowned.
"It has nothing to do with that!"
"Are you or aren't you?"
"That's not relevant!"
"Yeah, but are you or aren't you?"
Noah looked at Jake with an expression of doubt, but finally answered.
"I'm not."
Jake nodded slowly.
"So you're not straight."
"That's not what I meant!"
"You said you're not."
"I said I'm not gay!"
"You didn't specify."
Jake set the cup down on the edge of the sink.
"It's okay, it's not a serious problem, it can be fixed."
"I'm not saying that—!"
Noah stopped when he noticed he was in the middle of the room with his arms raised in a gesture of indignation, without having processed exactly when he had left the corner.
Jake smiled.
From the hallway, through the narrow window in the door, Evelyn watched the kid in the center of the room, color back in his face and his shoulders relaxed.
Evelyn looked at Jake, who was leaning against the sink, then at Noah, and back at Jake again.
She took out her phone and dialed a number.
"I need to open a file for a new contract."
She said when someone picked up.
"Category C, for now."
She looked through the window once more.
"The name is Noah and I'll get the last name later."