Chapter 1: What Was Living Beneath the Cast
Chapter 1: What Was Living Beneath the Cast
The room fell into complete silence.
Only Noah's ragged breathing broke it.
Evelyn knelt beside the bed, carefully sliding the blade of the cast cutter along the hardened plaster. The vibrating tool buzzed loudly, but Noah didn't flinch.
He stared only at Marissa.
She wasn't frightened anymore.
She was calculating.
"Daniel," she said softly, "if she damages his arm, you'll regret this."
Daniel swallowed hard.
"I have to know."
Piece by piece, the cast cracked apart.
A sour smell drifted into the room.
The attending nurse frowned.
"That's... not normal."
Evelyn peeled away the final layer of padding.
Something black wriggled.
Then another.
A nurse screamed.
Three large centipedes spilled onto the hospital blanket, twisting violently after being trapped in the warm darkness for days.
Noah let out a cry that echoed through the hallway.
Daniel stumbled backward, his face draining of color.
"What... what is that?"
The insects scattered across the sheets.
One nurse crushed them with a metal tray while another grabbed Noah's arm.
His skin wasn't broken from the fracture.
It was covered with hundreds of tiny bite marks.
Some were already infected.
The orthopedic surgeon rushed in moments later.
"I never packed this cast," he said after examining it. "Our casts are applied in sterile rooms. This padding has been opened and resealed."
Daniel slowly turned toward Marissa.
She had already started crying.
"Oh my God... someone must have tampered with it."
But Evelyn wasn't watching Marissa.
She was studying Noah's arm.
Carefully.
Hidden beneath one layer of gauze was something taped against his skin.
A tiny electronic tracker.
Not hospital equipment.
Not medical.
Someone had wanted to know exactly where Noah was at every moment.
Evelyn slipped it into an evidence bag without saying a word.
Across the room, Marissa's fingers trembled for the first time.
May you like
Not because the insects had been discovered.
Because the tracker had.
