Free Avenger by Su Halfwerk

what’s this?”
    She was gone. He waited few precious moments, she didn’t return. Luke reached out and touched the wall, but felt no trace of her heavenly presence. Raking his hair, he paced the alley. What was happening?
    How will I find her?
    An idea hit him then, he knew where he could find a trace of her. The place she returned to when there was nowhere to go. With a colorful curse, Luke rushed into the hospital.
    Because there was a throng of people waiting for the elevator, Luke headed to the stairs instead. Overhead, the disembodied voice of the page said, “Code Blue, D three one five.” The emergency code was for room fifteen in wing D on the third floor.
    Pru’s room!
    He shot up the stairs, his arms pumping by his side, legs propelling him forward in a speed borne out of fear. He slowed down as he neared the room and heard the commotion inside. Nurses and a doctor surrounded her bed, all speaking at the same time in short clipped jargons. Something collided with the back of Luke’s leg, he turned. An orderly pushing a defibrillator had hit him with the device in his eagerness to roll it in the room. Luckily, he also got Luke pushed in as well.
    “You can’t be here, Sir,” a nurse said to him firmly.
    He narrowed his eyes at her, almost pushing the nurse out of his way to reach Pru. He wanted to feel her hand in his. That was all he wanted and it wasn’t much to ask.
    He opened his mouth to snap at the nurse standing between him and Pru, but Celestine said, You can do better by remaining in the room, unseen.
    Luke closed his mouth and raised his hands in a gesture of concession while he took a step back. The moment the nurse returned to her colleagues, he took a couple of extra-large steps toward a corner of the room and cloaked himself in invisibility.
    There was no trace of the incorporeal Pru, only the one on the bed surrounded by equipment and medical staff. Luke could only make out Pru’s pale profile and an expanse of red curls surrounding her head like a halo.
    “Clear!” At the utterance of that word, a nurse stopped fussing with Pru’s forehead and kept her hands to herself.
    Pru’s head tilted backward sharply and settled back facing him.
    The doctor said, “Recharging again. Clear!”
    Another jolt shook her body. No change in the ECG reading. A flat line.
    “Recharge to 300,” shouted the doctor and a nurse adjusted a knob on the device.
    There were tears tracks on Pru’s cheeks.
    ****
    Luke leaned on the wall, its cool surface felt good against his heated forehead. It had taken him a while to trace Carla, Pru’s mother. She had moved from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita after Adoria, Pru’s aunt, got married. Unfortunately, in those days, Luke wasn’t close to their family and never bothered with keeping in touch. He rolled his eyes up and thanked heavens that Carla Hall was listed.
    Because Pru remained in touch with her mother through occasional calls and visits during holidays, Carla was unaware of her daughter’s situation. Work pressure had kept Pru busy, her mother had said. Perhaps it was Pru’s way of opting for independence from her mother’s total devotion to her. Through choked back tears, Carla got the hospital’s name and room number. He hoped she would call her sister who was married to a famous actor turned producer. They might need to pull some muscle around the hospital to get Pru out, especially since Mrs. Lancaster, a powerful woman, had made it her business to keep her in the hospital. That cardiac arrest was induced, Luke would bet his hunting license on it.
    He’d hung up when Carla asked for his name.
    “You have done well, calling Pru’s family to her side. Perhaps this will give you more time to hunt.”
    Luke appreciated Celestine’s compromise but also heard the reminder to do his job. “I have a strong feeling this cardiac arrest was brought upon her. She was healthy one minute and then…”
    “The human body is not invincible.”
    “I think