Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist Read Free Book Online Page B

reached the door, she turned to David and said, 'I'll call someone who ... ' and disappeared inside.

    David remained in the corridor for a moment. He realised he was hyperventilating and tried to calm his breathing before he went back inside to Eva. The thoughts were racing through his head . .,A miracle ... her eye ... Magnus. He closed his eyes, and conjured up an image of Eva's gaze when she was looking at him with her utmost love. The glimmer, the play of living light. He breathed deeply, held onto this image and went in.

    Eva had lost interest in the cup, which lay on the floor below the bed. David moved closer trying not to look at her chest.

    'Eva. I'm here.'

    The head turned toward him. He looked just below the eye; toward the smooth, undamaged cheek. He stretched out his hand, stroking her cheek with the back of his fingers.

    'Everything will be fine ... everything will be fine .. .'

    Her hand came up so fast that he instinctively pulled back, but then steeled himself and held it out to her again. Her hand gripped his. Hard. A stiff, mechanical grip, painful. Her nails dug into the back of his hand. He clenched his teeth and nodded.

    'It's me. David.'

    He looked into her eye. There was nothing there. Her mouth opened and a hissing sound emerged, ' ... aavi .. .' The tears welled up in his eyes. He nodded. 'That's right. David. I'm here.'

    The grip on his hand grew tighter; a shaft of pain as a nail pierced his skin.

    ' ... Daavi ... hee ... heeere .. .'

    'Yes. Yes. I'm here. With you.'

    He eased his hand out of her grip, replacing it with the other, but angled so that she was squeezing the fingers instead. A trickle of blood ran from the hand she had been holding. He wiped it on the sheet, sat down on the bed.

    'Eva?'

    'Eeva .. .'

    'Yes. Do you know who I am?'

    A moment's silence. The hold on his fingers loosened a little. She said, 'aa ... aam ... davi ... d.'

    It's getting better. It must be getting better. She understands.

    He nodded, pointing to his chest like Tarzan, said, 'I David. You Eva.'

    'Youu ... Eva.'

    They got no further. A doctor burst into the room, stopping short when she caught sight of Eva. She too seemed on the verge of some exclamation of protest but instead, diverted by a professional reflex, she took a stethoscope out of her pocket and approached the bed without looking at David.

    David drew back to let her pass, and saw the nurse again standing in the doorway with another nurse who had no apparent function except curious bystander.

    The doctor placed the bell of the stethoscope on the uninjured side of Eva's chest. Listened. Moved the stethoscope, listened again. Eva's hand flew up, grasped the tube-
    'Eva!' David yelled, 'No!' -and yanked on it. The physician screamed, her head yanked forward before the earpieces came free. David grimaced in sympathetic pain.

    'Eva, you can't ... do that.'

    A shiver ran through him. He was acting to shield her from authority, as if he feared that they would punish her in some way if she did not behave herself.

    The doctor let out a whimper, holding her hands up to her ears for a couple of seconds, but then with an effort she restored her face to a professional calm and turned to the nurses.

    'Call Lasse in Neurology,' she said. 'Otherwise, Goran.'

    The nurse took half a step into the room and echoed, 'Otherwise?'

    'If Lasse isn't there,' the doctor said with irritation, 'then ask Goran to come.'

    The nurse nodded and said something ina low voice to the other one, and both of them ducked out into the corridor.

    Eva plucked the head of the stethoscope free of the tubes and it clattered to the floor. The doctor, who was simply sitting there staring at Eva, made no movement to pick it up, so David retrieved it instead. When he placed it in her hand she appeared to become aware for the first time that there was another person in the room.

    'How is she?' David asked.

    The doctor looked at him with a half-open mouth as if he had just