Children of Dawn

Jinxx’s POV
I on the sidewalk across the street from the hotel. It was old fashioned, with a large neon sign clinging to the red brick out front. The instructions said to go there and find room 634, in that room there would be a man who I was supposed to take a kidney from. I swallowed hard and looked up at the large dark windows, they seemed to want to shut me out. Every bone in my body was telling me that what I was about to do could go wrong in so many different ways. The briefcase in my hand seemed to gain ten pounds as I stood there looking at the looming hotel. I took a deep breath. Confidence was key, if I looked like I was supposed to be there then maybe no one would question it.
Before I’d left Sammi with the doctor they’d given me a suit. I chose to ignore the fact that they knew what size I would where. I had pulled my hair back, and shaved what little bit of a beard I had beginning to grow. Walking into the hotel I would just look like a young businessman. I hoped that was enough to get me through the doors and to get people to not question me. I took a final steadying breath and checked both ways before crossing the street. I splashed through the snow on the side of the road, melting and slushy. As I pushed open the door to the hotel I caught my breath and straightened my tie. I walked in the shiny, gold framed, revolving door and I didn’t think I’d ever been in a place that nice before in my life. A fireplace burned to my left, lush chairs crowded around the heat. Farther in that direction there was a room with tables set up for a breakfast bar in the morning. To my right there was a front desk and farther past that was a bar. The floors were padded with soft, red carpet and the room smelled clean and fresh. As I entered the warmth of the fire wrapped me up. I’d never wanted to lay down and go to sleep so much before in my life.
I forced myself to continue walking, like I’d been there before. I’d seen it all. I reminded myself that with this suit, and the money I got from doing this, Sammi and I would be living someplace as fancy as the hotel one day. I walked past the front desk and nodded at the girl as she smiled at me. The less I spoke to people, the better. I was nervous and if I spoke I was sure that my stuttering and broken thoughts would leave people being suspicious, or at least make them remember me. I walked to the elevator like I’d been there before. As the elevator doors slid closed I was alone again with my thoughts. I shifted the briefcase to my other hand. I pressed the button for the sixth floor and the elevator creaked as it began its ascent. I had already looked over the tools and instructions for how to do the surgery, I understood it all. I had convinced myself that if I could just read the directions step by step I could do the surgery without complications. I even had a note to sit next to the victim. The note explained what had happened to him and that he should probably find an actual doctor to make sure he was okay.
The elevator dinged and the doors whispered open. I looked out into an empty hallway. I read the plaques and headed off to the right, in the direction of room 634. My feet made almost no sound as I walked quickly and quietly down the hall. I found the room without much trouble. The door was open just a crack with the latch stopping the door from closing. I rechecked the door number just to be sure. Then I pushed my way in. It was a standard hotel room, with a TV, two beds, a mini fridge and a microwave. The only difference was that there was an unconscious man lying on his side in the bath tub. There was no water in the tub, it was only the best place to leave the least mess. I shut the door behind me and entered the bathroom as quickly as possible. Kneeling down next to the tub I opened up the briefcase, the instructions tumbled out. The first cut was to be made on his side near his lower ribs. I shuddered at the thought that I might have to break a rib to be able to get all the way to the kidney that I needed. Before I got started I decided to double check to make sure I had the right man. His clothes were folded neatly next to him on the towel rack.
My hands searched in his pockets for his wallet. I found it quickly, when I opened it a picture of a woman, three young kids, and the man lying unconscious in the tub fell to the floor. I could only stand to look at it for a second before my gut twisted so hard with guilt that I almost got sick. With trembling hands I shoved the picture back into the wallet and pulled out his driver’s license. James Markov. He was the man I was looking for. I put his wallet back in his pants pocket and pulled the scalpel from my briefcase. It trembled in my hand. Just then I remembered to put on some gloves. I laid the scalpel by my knees and pulled on a pair of blue rubber gloves. I grabbed the cold metal scalpel from the floor and held it in my hand. I checked the diagram on instructions one last time and then I carefully made the first cut on James’s back.
The first hint that something had gone wrong was the amount of blood that came from just my simple cut. It slid down his back at a much higher rate than I had expected, but I’d never seen a surgery done before. I didn’t really know how much blood there was supposed to be. I grabbed a towel and wiped it away so I could see. A bit more came after it, but I paid it no mind and kept cutting, going deeper into his flesh. He was a thin and fit man, it wasn’t going to be very long before I got to his ribs. There was more blood. It rolled down his back and was beginning to pool around his body. I looked at the instructions. They assumed everything went right. There was nothing to tell me what to do if something went wrong. I decided to forge ahead despite my growing nerves that there was a problem. Who could tell what Doctor Brazold might do to Sammi or I if I didn’t come back with what he wanted.
Finally my scalpel scraped bone. I could hardly see into the wound because there was so much blood. I was starting to panic. What if this man had some sort of bleeding disorder that I didn’t know about. I pushed the thought away, the quicker I got him stitched up, the quicker he could stop bleeding. I could see the kidney nestled up against the back wall of his abdominal cavity. Luckily the ribs weren’t in the way. Unfortunately, blood was in the way. It kept filling the wound. No matter how many times I wiped it away and the white towel was quickly turning bold red. Blood was starting to go down the drain of the shower. I pulled my hand from the wound quickly and looked at the man’s things again. My stomach sank as I saw a pill bottle that I had not seen before. I picked it up and read, I didn’t recognize the name of the drug, but as I read my concern turned into a panic. One of the side effects of the drug was excessive bleeding.
“Oh shit!” I whispered to myself. The man was going to bleed out if I didn’t do something, but the only thing I could think to do was close the wound. I couldn’t do that, not with Sammi in the hands of the Doctor. I weighed my options and then got back into the surgery as fast as I could. I cut the main line of the kidney and the blood flow doubled. I ignored it and severed the organ from the wall of fat that it clung to. As I pulled away the fist sized organ was in my hand, with all its appendages attached. There was a bucket of ice sitting on the toilet. I grabbed it and poured some of it into the plastic bag that came in the briefcase. The kidney went on top of that and then some more ice over top of that. I sealed the bag and threw it in the briefcase. Now all I had to do was save this man’s life.
I still had to prepare the needle and thread so I shoved as many clean towels as I could into the wound. My hands were slippery with blood as I got the needle and thread ready to close him up, it took longer than it should have. When I looked back the towels had soaked all the way through and had been stained a horrific shade of red. My stomach did a backflip as my trembling hands pulled away the towels. More blood followed after it, splashing into the tub. I reached back into the wound and tried to find where most of it was coming from, but I couldn’t. I looked to the man’s face. He was pale as a ghost. In a panic my and found his neck, where a light, quick pulse frolicked. I was losing him. I reached into him again, this time my fingers managed to find the main artery that lead into the kidney. I sewed it shut as quickly as I could but by the time I was done the bleeding was slowing down. Not in the good way either. Only the highly pressurized arteries were still spewing. The capillaries did nothing but drip. I reached for his pulse and felt none.
A shock of panic and adrenaline shot through me. I had killed a man. I snatched up all of my things and threw them back into the briefcase. I slammed it shut and locked it. As I turned to run out of the room I saw on the floor, a photo of a man, woman, and two kids. Their faces now splattered with blood to the point where I could barely make them out. I choked back vomit as I turned and ran out of the room. I was covered in blood and I couldn’t stop to get into the elevator. I half ran and half fell down the stairs. As I entered the lobby the girl at the front desk screamed. I ran past her and through the revolving doors, out into the blistering wind and snow.

Notes

Hey guys I'm so sorry that this is a day late, but here's a quick PSA. DON'T STAY IN RESTAURANTS AND STORES AFTER THEY CLOSE!! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT IF YOU'RE NOT DONE ASK FOR A TO GO BOX AND FUCKING LEAVE!!! THE WORKERS REALLY LIKE TO BE ABLE TO GO HOME BEFORE 11 ESPECIALLY WHEN WE CLOSE AT 8. That is all. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.