The Hollow (Rose of the Dawn Series Book 2) by Ily Maguire Read Free Book Online Page B

one
enclosing the stairwell. The gate opens and slams closed behind me.
    She takes a
right and we’re in a wide-open space with an oval desk in the middle. The desk
is surrounded and encapsulated by glass. Two other nurses sit behind the desk.
Dressed in white. All the same. They don’t look up as I float behind, passing
into another hallway and through another large room with lots of windows. A
breezeway. We travel around in an arc. The room is flooded with brightness. My
eyes close. Too much sunlight. We’re going in a circle and I’m dizzy.
    I open my eyes.
    White walls.
Bright lights in a line overhead. I can hear the faint buzzing of the
fluorescent lights. Side to side I shift my eyes. Shiny metal chairs outside
each room. Lots of sunlight. Warm.
    The nurse stops
in front of a door. My chair stops a few feet behind her. The door we are in
front of is much like all the rest we’ve just passed, but this one is painted
black.
    The nurse puts
her palm up against it. Then pulls it away.
    “Come in,
please,” a pleasant sounding woman says from the other side of the door.
    It opens. The
nurse hasn’t touched anything again. She steps out of the way and I pass
through a double-walled doorframe and glide in on my chair.
    The woman from
the morgue stands in front of me. The doctor.
    “Have a nice day,”
she says and the nurse leaves the room.
    Don’t leave me! I want to
scream, but don’t get the chance before the door closes behind me.
    “Rosamund
Campbell.”
    I don’t say anything.
My skin tingles. My hands are clammy. I’m getting feeling back in my legs, but
not nearly enough for me to move. Not enough for me to be able to run away.
    Something about
this room doesn’t feel right. It’s too warm. There are too many windows. It’s
bright, though there’s no sun. It’s gray outside. The room is shaped almost octagonally.
There is a dark mahogany table and chairs with lion claws on their feet off to
the left. An Oriental rug goes right up to the fireplace, which is behind the
desk. Red and gold are vivid in the pattern.
    Branches in the
room. Broken glass. Roots crawl down the fireplace and grow up through the
thinning edges of the rug.
    Goosebumps go up
and down my arms.
    “You are safe
here,” the doctor tells me. She walks from the fireplace to the windows and
looks out. Drapes are pulled to the sides and tied with sashes of the same
muted color. The woman isn’t tall, but the black high heels add to her stature.
She wears a black skirt and matching black jacket. A thin, red scarf is wrapped
around her neck.
    “Safe from
what?” I ask, my voice cracks.
    “Based on what
we know about you and your family history—” she begins and moves behind the
desk. She sits.
    “My family?”
    “I’d say we got
you in time.” She looks down at the file on her desk. She is average looking
despite being visibly old. Her hair is cropped in a chin-length, dirty-blonde
bob and wrinkles split her skin. She hasn’t been AR’d.
    “In time for
what?”
    “Forgive me, let
me start by introducing myself. I am Doctor Flint,” she looks up, but doesn’t
get up. She smiles. Her teeth are long. Sharp. “Any more time with those fools
in Aegis and you’d have been AR’d to death.”
    “They wouldn’t
do that. They weren’t going to do that,” I lie. I’ve gone from one medical
prison to another and now just await my sentence.
    “What did you
think, that they were your friends? James and Patience Jameson. They weren’t
there to help you.”
    “How do you
know–”
    “They were
friends of The Hollow. Very greedy ones.”
    She doesn’t elaborate.
    “They were
against ARs. They wouldn’t do that to me, even if they weren’t my friends.”
    “Rose Campbell,
I thought you were smarter than that. Weren’t you taught anything?”
    I have nothing
to say.
    “You would’ve
been sold to the highest bidder had you remained,” Dr. Flint continues. “It’s a
good thing we were looking out for you. Watching out