“That would be nice, yes. But,” Elene paused and sighed, becore continuing with a sharpness in her voice “you said it yourself, no one has died… so far. But how long, do you think, it will be before someone does? Because if something isn’t done quick, it will happen.” Elene had been shuffling the papers in her hands, but now she paused. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet. “And that someone will be followed by many, if, again, something isn’t done quick.” She turned to look at Victor, sadness in her eyes. “Listen, Victor, I’ve seen what it’s like to live when nowhere is safe from monsters. I couldn’t do anything back then, but if I just can help it, I’ll do all I can to revent it from happening in here, too.”
“I personally cannot relate, Elene, so I do not entirely understand your pain about it. Having lived somewhere where monsters are…not domesticated but, perhaps evolved? They are not fearsome pests. They are as dangerous as anyone, adding extra teeth and claws.” Stopping in his ramble, Victor took off his glasses and cleaned the lenses, looking at his colleague and old friend through narrowed eyes. “But I can assure you that this minor catastrophe will not reach major levels, as long as I am here to help you and we can pool our resources because your-” he stopped, glasses back on. “We can fix this. Just do not let the past hinder the present.”
“We can’t say for sure, Victor. We’ll do our best, and we’ll do all we can. But we can never say for sure.” Elene took a deep breath. “And I’d rather think that way and not get my hopes up too high. I’ve made that mistake often enough… but,” she shook herself and brushed her hair back with her hands, about to tie it up and out of the way, “now’s the time to try and stop the invasion before it even starts. You seen the notes about the patient files somewhere?” As if all melancholy had fallen off, she now looked sharp and ready to work on the task at hand.
“I suppose we will just have to work with our opposing opinions on how this will go. But,” Victor cracked his knuckles and stretched a bit to try and shake off the tiny bit of sleepiness left lingering in his mind. “If you ask me, that pessimistic view can jinx you and your work. Especially in a place such as this with high concentrations of, well, magic. Words carry power.” He spoke while going through the papers he had taken from Elene in their stroll down to the lab. “The notes on the files….notes…” a frown appeared on his face, “…am I looking for files in total or…was it just papers.” he rubbed at his eyes behind his glasses with one hand and took a step back, holding out the loose sheets he had in his free hand that was just a list of those that had checked into the clinic after being attacked. “I had…this?”
“…Well, yes, that is needed too.” Elene furrowed her brows slightly and studied Victor’s face closely. “But there should be a bunch of hand-written notes, where we gathered up the key info about each patient’s symptoms and treatments done on them so far, do you have it somewhere there?” She didn’t want to voice her concerns aloud yet, but she couldn’t help feeling worried for her friend anytime the present seemed to escape him.
“The…what.” Victor looked even more confused, trying to think back quickly to when they had written any of what Elene just said. He set the papers he was holding down and glanced up at her over his glasses, though it wasn’t much help since she became a bit of a blur that way. Expression changing to a dawning realization kind of look, the doctor looked slightly embarrassed and shook his head, rifling through what he’d taken. “Are you sure you do not have them? You have half the files for the patients in that cluster with you, I am sure of it, so maybe we put it in one of those files.”
"Oh, that is a good point, give me a moment..." Elene browsed through the papers she had in hand, muttering softly to herself before shaking her head. "I don't see them. I might have something in my laptop, which we can use, but we have a written copy too... or at least had, somewhere. Hmm." She tapped her chin lightly with one hand, having set the papers onto the table. "Well, I'll set my laptop up, and then we'll get these files in order. We'll see what we have."



















