13 Doctor Iosefka

"You're not welcome here" said the man as he widely swung his axe towards Surgit. Seeing through the attack this time, Surgit managed to dodge away from it. For some reason the man's attack seemed to go on slow motion and it was easy for him to avoid it. Surgit, with one strike from his saw, managed to open the man's belly and watch him fall back as blood rushed out of his body. Soon, he was inanimate, devoid of life. "This is too easy, something's not right" he thought to himself as he approached his victim.

On closer inspection, Surgit managed to have a better look at his previous assailant. This was not a man, but what was he? He definitely had a human head albeit with fur covering his face. He had a long furry right arm and a human left one. It seemed as though he was about to transform into a beast of some sort and stopped right at the middle of the process. He wore a leather jacket and blue trousers. They seemed old and dingy, as if the man hadn't changed them in a very long time. Under his jacket, he wore what used to be an elegant button-up shirt. It became used and covered with filth and dirt. Surgit inspected his mouth as he remembered seeing something unusual on their first encounter. The old man even had canine teeth. He got up, feeling confused. This man had a deformed appearance. Even though he was capable of speech, everything in his behavior and appearance suggested that he had lost his mind. Surgit felt that this city had more mysteries than what he had anticipated.

Now that he had time to have a better look at his surroundings, Surgit noticed that what he thought was a garden, was in fact a graveyard. Graves were organized in a horizontal way. It looked as if the person who used to take care of the place had great respect for it. Some of the tombstones were well polished and faint letters could be deciphered. "Alenka, a loving wife and caring mother" read one of the stones while on others, different names of people from both sexes could be read.He turned around to look at the building he had just come out of. On top of what seemed the entrance door hung a wide sign. It read: "Iosefka's clinic". This discovery surprised Surgit. The last thing he could imagine the building to be was a hospital. Although he had seen the beds and all the medical equipment on the inside, the place seemed too sinister for it to be a hospital. "Well, there must be someone on the inside if this is a hospital. At least the old man who had treated me" he thought to himself as he entered the clinic again. By now, he knew the place. So he darted through the large room and made his way upstairs, towards the room where he awoke. He noticed that the door was still closed, he went for the door knob but it wouldn't budge. It was locked. Suddenly he heard a woman's voice "Are you a hunter?"

He was taken aback. The closed door now concealed what seems to be a woman and she recognized him as a hunter without even interacting with him. "I recognized you from your scent", she said as if reading his thoughts. "I'm Iosefka and this is my clinic. I'm sorry but I cannot open this door. Upon my Hippocratic Oath, I need to take care of my patients and not expose them to any danger. You're out on the hunt. I wish you good luck but please understand: opening the door for you would be foolish."

Surgit felt confused, "the door was open and I was there just some time ago. How did you get there? And where's the old man?" He had too many questions that needed answering, but at that moment these were the two pressing questions that came out of his mind. "Here, take this, it's the only way I can help you out on your hunt" Iosefka handed him, through a small hole on the door, a vial filled with a red liquid. "I'm a healing church doctor; this blood will help you in times of need. If you feel yourself losing your strength or injured, just inject it into you and it will heal you." She went on, ignoring his questions completely. "Now please go, this is all I have for you."

Surgit could hear her footsteps fading away as he pounded at the door. "Wait! Tell me what is going here? Where's that old man? I need answers goddamnit!" He pounded and kicked and tried to force the door open… to no avail. Surgit gave up and sat down on the stairs leading to the basement. He was now alone in this place, his mind full of unanswered questions, each more mysterious than the previous one. After a moment, he decided to leave the clinic and explore the area outside.