Dr. Gabriel Clarkson entered the patient's room.
"How are you doing today, Mr. Drake?" She forced a smile and walked over to him, turning his head left to check his injury. "The swelling has gone down. Got any headaches?"
Charlie Drake shook his head lightly, his eyes empty and distant.
"Good, then I think we can release you today, though I'd suggest you have someone drive you and that you get plenty of rest over the next few days."
He nodded, but his expression remained impassive. The doctor sighed; she expected more of a reaction, that he would be relieved. His brother's funeral was today.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Drake," she said. His expressionless eyes went to her. "And I know it might be selfish of me, but I do have a question I'd like to ask you," she sat on his bed and pulled out her phone. "When you were there… did you happen to see anyone with this tattoo? Or something similar, maybe?" She showed him the image.
Charlie squinted. The symbol in the photo had a distinct arrowhead shape, almost like a heart, and he tried to recall whether he had seen it, but winced as the memories of that day came flooding into his mind.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" she rose from his bed and put her phone away. "I shouldn't have asked." She turned to leave.
"Was it a friend of yours?" he asked as she reached the door.
She stopped, forcing a smile again before looking back at him and shaking her head. "Please, don't worry about it, just focus on getting better."
"No, it's okay, Doctor. I want to help."
She hesitated for a moment, then returned to his side.
"Show me the picture again."
She did.
Charlie thought hard but couldn't recognize the symbol. "Sorry, I don't remember… If you show me the person's face, maybe I could—"
"Thank you for trying, Mr. Drake," she pocketed her phone. "I really do appreciate it." She left the room before he could say anything more.
***
Gabriel returned to her office and slumped down in her chair. What was I thinking? She hid her face in her hands. Pestering him with this silly nonsense…
A knock on the door made her jerk up in her seat. She went still and silent as if caught red-handed, even though the person on the other side couldn't see her. The knock came again, forcing her out of her stupor. "Yes, come in."
A short woman walked through the door, dressed in a black suit and tie and wearing sunglasses. "Gabriel Clarkson?" the woman asked, her voice stern.
The doctor blinked. The woman looked like a government agent, though her outfit seemed more like a costume than the real thing. "Ah… yeah?"
The woman closed the door behind her and pulled out a star-shaped badge. "Vira Starfield, Special Investigations Division."
"Special Investigations?" The doctor raised a brow. "How can I help?"
"I think you know why I am here, Dr. Clarkson," the fairy godmother said, crossing her arms and standing as straight as she could.
A bead of sweat went down the doctor's forehead, and she shrank guiltily behind her desk. "I… I don't know what you mean."
Vira narrowed her eyes. She didn't know either, but in the past couple of days she had been trying to reach Aqwyn, and the only message she could get back was this woman's name. Whatever evil power caused the disaster at the beach had also cast a barrier around the city, disrupting any scrying attempts—and Gabriel was somehow involved. But how? The fairy godmother had to find out.
"Don't play coy with me," Vira slammed the desk. "Tell me everything you know about the recent disaster, or you will suffer the consequences!"
"Consequences? But I didn't do anything."
"But you do know something, don't you?"
"I-I'm not… I don't—" the doctor stammered.
"I remind you that this is an active investigation, and if you conceal evidence, you could be tried for obstruction of justice."
"Wha—" Gabriel grunted. "This is absurd! Concealing evidence? What evidence? I didn't find any evidence!"
"But you were looking for it…" Vira picked up on the implication. "What were you looking for, Doctor?"
She winced, fearing she had said too much, then shook that fear out of her head. It was all getting blown completely out of proportion. "It's not like it's some big secret," she tapped furiously on her keyboard and turned the computer screen around for the fairy godmother to see. "It's all online anyway."
Vira's eyes went wide. "That symbol…" She recognized the magical rune instantly—a spell meant to bond together a master and their familiar.
"It's just a conspiracy theory, or… an urban legend. The online forums call this symbol the 'Omen of Death', and over the recent years, it has appeared on the hands of people who were involved in natural disasters and freak accidents. It is said that if you go on a bus and see someone with that mark on their hand, you should get off as soon as you can because that bus is sure to crash."
Vira's knees felt weak, and she sat down.
"I know it sounds insane," the doctor continued. "Logically, this is probably no more than a bizarre coincidence. The tattoo was likely trending at some point, and a bunch of people got it, then were randomly involved in accidents around the city," she frowned. "But… when I tried looking into it… I went from tattoo parlor to tattoo parlor all over the city, and none of them had ever even seen this symbol."
The fairy's face twisted with a mixture of distaste and worry. "You… looked into it yourself?"
Gabriel blushed. "Conspiracy theories are a guilty pleasure of mine."
"And you think the disaster at the beach is related?"
"I've found no evidence, but—"
"How many incidents are believed to be a part of this… conspiracy?"
"It's hard to know for sure; many events are speculated to be a part of the phenomenon, but only a few are confirmed," she scrolled through the website to a list of events, some marked with an asterisk, others without. "This is further complicated by the fact that there is no clear mechanism to explain it. Are these people causing the events, or are they cursed somehow? Not to mention we have no idea how these people meet, if they even know about each other, or how they get those tattoos?" She bit on her nail. "There has to be a rational explanation behind all—"
"This one!" Vira pointed at the screen.
"It's one of the confirmed cases," the doctor clicked on the link. "The Lux Junction Accident. A road camera caught the driver who started it all, and you can see his hands holding the wheel." The image appeared on the monitor. It was blurry, but the symbol was marked on his hand; there was no doubt about it. "It wasn't the first incident, but it was the first of this scale."
Vira nodded and got up. "Thank you for your cooperation, Doctor. That'll be all."
"Wait, does that mean the government is investigating this?"
"It is better if you stop looking into the matter, for your own safety." Vira opened the door.
"So that's it? You're just gonna leave me hanging?"
The fairy paused and glanced over her shoulder, her eyes half-closed. "I'm sorry."
The doctor lowered her head.
"Stay safe, Doctor," the fairy closed the door behind her.