"Come on, Jenny! Wake up already! It’s eleven o’clock, and you have an appointment with the doctor at twelve!”, my mom shouted at the top of her voice.

I could tell that she was standing just outside my room.

“Don’t make me come in there!”, she yelled back after a short pause.

“I’m up, I’m up!”, I said yawning, still groggy from sleep. I had trouble sleeping last night again, and according to the last time I checked my phone, it was probably six in the morning when I finally fell asleep. I got up halfheartedly and checked my phone for any messages. ‘Appointment with Dr. J at 12’ displayed on my screen. “Nothing new at all, huh”, I thought to myself as I got out of bed. “Well, at least I get to meet him. Not everything is boring in my life,” I smiled. I looked at the clock on the wall, and saw that it was already 11:15. I rushed into the bathroom, brushed, bathed, and put on my favorite hoodie and black jeans.

“Jenny! You’re gonna be late! You won’t get time for breakfast if you don’t hurry up!”, mom yelled again, this time from the drawing room downstairs.

I sprinted down the stairs, jumping two at a time, and slumped on the dining table, panting from the exercise.

“Where’s my blood test report?”, I asked mom, after gulping down my toast and juice.

“Must be where you left it a couple of days ago”, she said, staring at me with a smirk on her face.

“Mo-om, this is not the time!”, I cried, exasperated.

“Fine, fine, it’s in the first drawer in the table by the sofa”, she laughed, shaking her head. “Will you be fine today or will I have to bring you from the hospital again?”, she asked, quite obviously teasing me.

I ignored her, took the reports, and decided to drive to the hospital, even though it is barely a kilometer away from my home. I live in a small town, people mind their own business and almost everything is barely a kilometer away from my place. The school, the hospital, grocery shops, everything except for my college which is in another town, around five kilometers from here. The Town Hospital has only one floor, and Dr. J is the one who deals with most of the patients. He’s tall, and strongly built, with light brown eyes, and dark hair which is never out of place. It’s perfectly kept, with not even a single loose strand. Although he’s still quite young, he is very good at his job. His family is one of the oldest in the town. Since they’ve been around from the days of the aristocracy and being aristocrats themselves, Dr. J lives in a huge manor on the outskirts of the town. He knows a lot of people. I know this because I pass by his house on my way to college and quite often I see some car or the other, along with his, parked out front.

I pulled up my car in front of the hospital and entered the building. As soon as I walked in, I heard someone call my name.

“Hey, Jenny!”, Mrs. White exclaimed, waving at me. She’s technically the receptionist here, but she also does other things like handling the test reports and basic nursing jobs. She’s a small lady, but doesn’t evoke feelings of helplessness. She gets things done. She has thick glasses, and bright silvery hair that almost reach her shoulders.

“Good Morning, Mrs. White,” I said brightly, walking towards her. “Is Dr. J in? I have an appointment at 12,” I inquired, looking at her through the glass screen behind which she was sitting.

“Oh, he just called a few minutes back to say that he is running a little late. It may take him a little while to come here. How are you, dear?” she asked me, with a concerned look on her face.

“I’m absolutely fine, Mrs. White. Thanks for delivering my test reports at home. Erm.. Mrs. White, is Toby okay?” I asked, as I went round the stone table and sat in a chair beside her. Toby is Mrs. White’s son, he studies with me but I haven’t seen him in a while. Mrs. White and Toby live alone together a few blocks from mine. Her husband passed away a few months ago in an accident. I like Mrs. White. She’s a sweet old lady, very helpful and polite to everyone. I couldn’t even get angry when she told me that the lab had inadvertently misplaced my blood sample and requested me to come again. Even though I absolutely hate needles, I didn’t mind getting another one stuck in me, only because it was her who had asked. It seemed like she was on the verge of crying when she called me, poor woman.

“He’s grown quite weak. I don’t know what happened to him. He was fine when he went to Dr. James’s house a couple of weeks ago. He’s quite fond of Toby, you know. Called him up to his castle for dinner and everything. He even dropped Toby home later that night because Toby had drank so much, he could barely keep his eyes open. He slept till evening the next day! He’s too weak to even step out of the house. I begged him to visit Dr. James at the hospital with me, but he refused and said he just wanted to rest...,” she answered, sighing deeply.

I smiled at her. “Don’t worry Mrs. White, I’m sure he’ll be absolutely fine in a few days. And I’m here if you need any help.”

Suddenly I heard someone exclaim, “Good Afternoon, ladies!”

Dr. James, or as I like to call him, Dr. J, beamed at us.

“Hello, Dr. J!”, I uttered, blushing hard.

“Sorry for being late, Jenny. Come on, let’s go.” I waved goodbye to Mrs. White and rushed along to Dr. J. We went to his room on the far end of the building and took our seats. I handed him my test report and he looked at it briefly. “Well, Miss Jenny Ryan, your reports look absolutely fine to me. You’re as healthy as a horse,” he said, handing me back my report.

“I knew there was nothing wrong with me. It’s just that my mom insists on having a check-up now and again,” I explained, a little embarrassed. He chuckled as a response. “Well, I should go then.”

I almost jumped up from my seat, and suddenly my head started spinning and my vision went black. I lost my balance and fell back in the chair. When I opened my eyes after a few seconds, I saw Dr. J looking intently at me, with his brows raised a little in surprise.

“Did you just get a head rush?”, he inquired, with his eyes still fixed on my face.

“I think so, yes. My head started spinning really fast and I couldn’t see anything,” I answered, slowly getting back to normal. “This doesn’t happen to me often,” I added after a pause. I did not want to look frail and feeble in front of Dr. J!

“I’m sure it doesn’t,” he said, distractedly, his brows now furrowed together in concentration.

“I guess I should go now,” I repeated. When I got no reply, I quietly stood up from my seat, slowly this time, and left his room. I got so lost as I walked from his room towards the main entrance that I almost bumped into Teddy. He works in the laboratory at the hospital and is also my neighbor. He’s only a few years older than me, and has lived alone in the house beside me since he shifted here, which was almost half a decade ago. Teddy is a fun-loving guy, but his presence does nothing but intimidate someone who’s meeting him for the first time. He is huge. There is really no other way to describe him.

“Hey, watch out!”, he exclaimed, as he swerved to avoid crashing into me. “This would have turned into a crime scene!”, he laughed. I let out a chuckle, too, though I didn’t quite understand what he meant. Then my eyes fell on the tray he was holding and I noticed a couple of familiar names on the small bottles. Blood samples.

“I am so sorry, Teddy. I didn’t see you there,” I apologized. “Unlike you, I wouldn’t want to have these poor people come in and give their blood samples again,” I said, sarcastically, remembering my own experience.

“Uh, I gotta go Jenny.” He hurried away. I stood there for a moment, frowning to myself. “Well, that was weird,” I thought to myself, and walked away.

“You’re still coming to the park, right?”, I asked Leah. Leah Jacobson is my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were kids. Our mothers were best friends so, naturally, we’re best friends too. She lives on the other end of my street.

“No can do. This headache is killing me. I am going to the hospital today,” she answered, and I noticed a faint hint of excitement in her voice. I’m not the only one who likes Dr. J, you know.

“Ah, I see. Tell Dr. J I said hi,” I chuckled.

“Girl, you met him just a few days ago!”

“Leah, that was two weeks ago, okay? There’s a lot that can happen in two weeks.”

“Right, whatever. See ya.”

“Bye!”

I finished up my college work, and decided to go for a stroll. I got dressed and stepped out of my house, plugging in my earphones. I started walking towards the direction of the hospital, then turned on the road leading to Mrs. White’s block, and reaching the crossroad, I took a right towards the park. I went in through the old, creaking metal gate, and sat on one of the benches, a little way off from the moms watching their kids playing together. I sat there, taking in the nice autumn smell and the chirping of the birds. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look and saw that it was Kasey Wells, a friend of mine.

“Oh, hey Kasey!” I greeted her, taking out my earphones. “What’s up?”

“I was just here for a walk,” she said with a wave of her hand, “and I saw you sitting here, so, you know, came to say hi!”

We continued chatting a little, but suddenly I caught a few words from the conversation of the moms sitting near us. “ … Stupid Teddy lost my blood sample, and I had to go again to the hospital yesterday. Anyway, I should go now, I have a lot of work pending.” I saw the woman quickly stand up and sit down again, with the same speed. “Don’t worry, it’s just a head rush”, I heard her say, nonchalantly. As she turned to leave after calling her kid to her, I realized that it was Mrs. Combe. Before I could wonder about this similarity of experiences, my phone started ringing. Leah. I waved Kasey goodbye, with an apologetic look on my face. She just laughed and mouthed, “It’s okay!”

“Hello!”

“Heyyy!”

“So, what happened? Are you okay? Anything serious?”

“Well, as I had expected, he said it’s ninety-nine percent migraine, but then went ahead to write a couple of tests. Ugh. Since when do you need a blood sample to test migraine?! Dude loves to puncture his patients. Blood stealer.”

I laughed. “Okay, calm down, relax.”

“Yeah. Right.” She sighed. “I’ll see you later, okay? I’m going to take a nap.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

I woke up to the sound of someone furiously knocking on my bedroom door.

“What is it?” I shouted, annoyed.

“Open up, Jenny!” Leah yelled back.

“Go away, Leah. it’s so early in the morning. Why are you here?” I whined, rubbing my eyes and opening the door anyway.

“I don’t fucking believe it!” she exclaimed, barging into my room, and flopping onto my bed. “Also, Your Highness, it’s eleven thirty in the morning, almost afternoon. How the hell is this early?”

“Shut up and tell me what happened,” I retorted, yawning.

Without a hint of humor in her voice, she said, “I’m gonna kill Teddy.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why, did he lose your blood sample, too?” I jokingly asked.

“How did you know?”

“Wait, what? Teddy lost your blood sample, too?” I repeated, shocked. All the sleep had vanished from my eyes.

“Yes! That absolute moron! Mrs. White called me yesterday and requested me to come again. You know how I hate needles. Even more than you! Thank God for the talkative nurse, time passes by pretty quickly and you’re done before you know it. And you know what, I got so sleepy this second time that Mrs. White had to call my mom to pick me up. I didn’t even notice when the nurse came and took my blood, which worked out for me pretty well, to be honest.”

I stood there silent for a few moments, my face contorted into a deep frown.

“Leah, something is wrong. Mrs. White called me about the same thing the last time. And the other day, at the park, I overheard Mrs. Combe talking about Teddy losing her sample, too. Also, guess what, I was sleepy, too, and mom had to pick me up from the hospital as well. Tell me exactly what happened at the hospital when you went there again.”

“Erm.. well, I went there and Mrs. White took me to a room, said someone would be coming along shortly, then went back to the reception. After a couple minutes a nurse came in, offered me some water, and took my blood, like always. Then I came home.”

I nodded, deep in thought.

“Wait, do you think Teddy’s doing this deliberately? Hiding our blood samples, then calling us again?”, Leah asked me, raising her eyebrows in disbelief. Then with a loud gasp, she added, “Do you think he’s stealing our blood?!”

“Maybe, maybe. We need more clues,” I answered.

“Do you think we should talk to Teddy once? Although Mrs. White was quite afraid Dr. J might fire Teddy if this comes out in public…,” Leah said, her voice trailing.

“And even if he is doing all this, you think he would just admit it when we go asking questions?” Then answering myself, I added, “No. We’re not gonna ask Teddy. We’re gonna sneak into the hospital.”

“Do you think she’s asleep yet?” Leah asked me, looking at the clock. She just had to call her mom and tell her that she would be staying the night at my place. Perks of having your mom’s best friend’s daughter as your best friend.

“She should be. It’s twelve. Let’s wait for another ten minutes, and then we’ll leave,” I answered, my leg continuously shaking due to anxiety.

After waiting, we tiptoed downstairs, sneaked through the door, turning the key as slowly and silently as possible and checking for any movement or noise from my mom’s room after every turn. Breathing a deep sigh of relief after getting out, we decided it would be better if we walked, as taking the car would be too conspicuous.

“Okay, let’s go over the plan again,” Leah suggested, when we reached the hospital.

“Leah, it’s quite easy. If anyone stops us, you’re gonna say you left your bag in the lab the other day, and we’re just here to grab it. Mrs. White won’t be at the reception at this time, so that’s a plus. The other lady doesn’t bat an eye anyway. We’re gonna be fine, Leah,” I said, letting out deep breaths after every sentence and reassuring myself as much as her.

We calmed down our nerves for a couple minutes and walked towards the hospital.

The door felt heavier to push than usual. I had to use both my hands. I opened the door, and we entered the hospital.

“Okay, one step complete,” I mumbled to Leah. “That wasn’t so difficult, huh?” I added, letting out a shaky, guarded chuckle.

We put on a determined look on our face to avoid suspicion and crossed the receptionist’s table. I could feel my heart beating in my ears. We swiftly walked away from the woman. As soon as we were out of her sight, both of us let out an audibly loud sigh. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead, and said, “step two, check.”
We moved forward, trying very hard not to look suspicious. The distance between the main door and the lab never felt this long. After what felt like hours, we finally reached the lab, which is the room just beside Dr. J’s, and got heart when we saw the lights off, indicating its emptiness.

“Hey, you two! What are you girls doing here at this time?”, a woman’s voice called out to us.

We froze. We could hear the footsteps coming towards us but didn’t dare to turn.

“The lab is closed, what are you doing here?”, the voice asked us again. “Wait a second, Leah? Is that you?”

I turned around and saw that this woman was looking at Leah and me with a confused smile on her face.

“Oh, hey Sarah!”, Leah exclaimed. “I had just left my bag in one of the rooms when I came here this morning. It had some important stuff, so Jenny agreed to come with me to grab it.”

“Oh, well, okay then! But you guys should hurry, it’s pretty late, you know,” the voice, with the name Sarah, said.

As we watched her walk off, suddenly a piece of paper caught my eye. It looked as if it had fallen from the dustbin kept beside. It looked like a receipt of some kind. I walked towards and picked up the paper. It was crumpled a little, but wasn’t torn from anywhere. I straightened it and read the header: “Umbra Blood Bank”. The list below it read: ‘A+, O-, O+, AB-’.

“Oh my God!”, Leah exclaimed.

I jumped a little at the sound of her voice. I hadn’t heard her coming.

“What happened?”, I inquired.

“It has today’s date, Jenny, and look-,” she answered, and pointed her finger at one of the entries in the list. “AB- is my blood type. This cannot be a coincidence.”

I looked at her, unable to say a word out of disbelief over what we had just found out. I turned back to the receipt, hoping against hope to find something to contradict this appalling truth. And as soon as I saw the name of the person in whose name the receipt had been made, I gasped loudly and felt my heart sink. Dr. James Hargrove. I pointed a wordless finger towards the name, when Leah asked me what was wrong. We stood speechless, frozen to our spots. Leah broke the silence after what seemed like hours.

“Turns out he really is a blood stealer.”

I looked at her, and then we burst out laughing. This was beyond what I had comprehended. I couldn’t even fathom Dr. J doing such a thing as this.

“Well, looks like we don’t need to go to the lab now,” I said, after we had stopped laughing.

“Do you think Dr. J and Teddy are a team in this?,” Leah asked.

“I don’t know … could be. Let’s get out of here first, we’ll discuss this at home.”

None of us uttered a word throughout our way to my home, each of us cooking up plausible theories.

“Okay, here’s what I think,” Leah said as soon as we entered my room. “I think Dr. J deliberately prescribes a blood test to the patients who he thinks are alright or have some non-blood-related problems like headaches or something then after Teddy takes our samples, Dr. J hides them and then Teddy is forced to call us again. I bet he has involved a nurse in this, too, who steals our blood for him.”

I nodded. “Yeah, makes sense. You know, when I had a head rush in Dr. J’s room when I went to show him my reports, he was surprised and got distracted. Maybe it was his guilty conscience surfacing. And even Teddy looked in a hurry to get away when I made an indirect remark about him losing my blood sample. But that still does not explain why they call us to give our samples again, or how the nurse is able to fill a whole damned bottle. I mean, they could just do it the first time itself, can’t they?”

I lay down on my bed, closed my eyes and tried to recreate the incident, exactly as it happened, in my mind. I had gone inside the hospital, and as soon as I had entered, Mrs. White had called me to her and told me to wait while someone came to fetch me as, apparently, I was supposed to go to a different room this time. Then she went to the restroom. After a couple of minutes, a nurse came, wearing a cap and a mask with thick glasses, and took me to a room. She offered me some water, told me to wait for a couple of minutes, and left the room. I did not remember much after that. I just vaguely remembered feeling a bit sleepy while waiting for the nurse, and my mom coming to pick me up while I waited near the reception after everything was done, my eyes drooping. The only different thing in the whole process was the room.

“Let’s go to this blood bank tomorrow,” I said to Leah. “That’s the place for more information.”

We woke up late the next morning, due to the ‘eventful’ night that we had had. We quickly got ready, had our breakfast, left my home at around midday, fibbing to my mother that we had to meet a friend in a different town.

As we drove past the house of Dr. J, I saw Teddy, leaving from the front door with a big box in his hands. I shouted for Leah to pull over at a little distance from the house.

"Leah, look!", I exclaimed, pointing my finger at Teddy. "What is he doing here?"

We got out of the car, and walked stealthily towards Dr. J's. We hid behind a car standing in front of a house, a few meters away, and watched Teddy walking towards his car.

"I wonder what's in that box?", Leah murmured, squinting her eyes.

After a couple of moments, Dr. J came out as well. We couldn't hear what they were talking about, but I saw them conversing for a few minutes and then leave together in Teddy's car.

"Well, this doesn't look suspicious at all," I said, sarcastically, looking at Leah.

When we finally reached our destination after half an hour, we saw that the blood bank was an old, colorless building, with paint and plaster peeling off from a number of places, leaving bricks peeking from behind. I looked at Leah with a raised eyebrow.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

We got out of the car, and saw an old, shabby looking man at the counter. As soon as he saw us, he started tidying himself up a little. He didn’t look mean and, in fact, had a sweet face. I felt hope rising in me.

“Hello, Mr…,” Leah said, smiling at the old man and raising her eyebrows in question.

“Mr. Romero,” he said, smiling in return. “What can I do for you ladies?”

“Mr. Romero, we wanted to talk to you about, erm, a transaction which happened yesterday? By Dr. James Hargrove from Schiff Town Hospital?”, Leah asked

“Uh, actually we’re here from the hospital and we just wanted to confirm a couple of things with you, if that’s okay?”, I added, trying to sound as cheerful and unsuspicious as possible.

Mr. Romero stared into my eyes, squinting his own. I tried my best not to look away, but it seemed like he was staring inside me, right through our lies. I felt that hope ebbing now. My throat had gone dry and I couldn’t even swallow. To my relief, he agreed to answer our questions after what seemed like an hour rather than a minute.

“How long has he been in contact with you?”, I questioned him.

“It’s been a couple of months now,” he answered.

I heard the scratching of a pen and turned to see Leah taking notes. I shot a quick appreciative glance towards her, and continued with my questions.

“Does he give a consistent supply?”

“No. It varies from time to time.”

“Do you guys talk about something when he comes here?”

“He doesn’t talk much. He gives me blood, I give him the money, we say goodbyes, and that’s it.”

“Erm, alright Mr. Romero. Thanks for your time, we really appreciate it,” I said, giving him an easy smile. We turned back and walked towards my car, but halfway through an idea struck me, and I ran back to him, whipping out my phone from my jeans pocket. I opened a photo of Dr. J. It was from a party organized by the hospital. The photo had Dr. J along with some other workers.

“Just one more thing Mr. Romero. These two the people who come to sell you the blood, right?”, I asked him, showing him the picture and pointing at Dr. J and Teddy.

“No, it’s these two,” he replied, putting his finger at the people standing beside them.

It’s been a month since the arrest of Mrs. White and her son, Toby. We had gone straight to the police station from the blood bank and narrated the whole story to the inspector. A proper investigation ensued and Mrs. White was caught with packs of blood in her refrigerator at home. She was a tough nut to crack but in the end she confessed to everything. Since she handled the reports and had basic nursing knowledge, it was not difficult for her to ascertain the eligibility of a patient to donate blood. Whenever Teddy gave her the reports of a patient to be delivered, she used to go through them and diagnosed who was healthy enough for her work. Sometimes she called the patients herself and sometimes she took the help of a different nurse and got her to call someone. Then as soon as a patient used to step inside the hospital, she called them to her, and made them sit and wait for someone to call them, while she went to the restroom. There, she put on the clothes of a nurse, complete with a cap and a mask, so that no one recognized her, and took the patient with her to a room. Sometimes, she would take the patients there without changing, and then leave, to go back to the reception, then changed and came back. She even changed her voice, so as not to arouse any suspicion. Here, she offered them water, which was laced with a mild sedative, enough to make the patient sleepy, but not affect the bloodstream so much. Then she took their blood. Not all the patients drank that water, and not all the patients whose reports she had got were healthy enough to give their blood, that is why the supply was never consistent. She never thought people would pay so much attention to what was happening, and believed that since she had begged the patients not to report this losing of blood samples by Teddy, no one would do that because the town people care for one another and are a generally sensitive lot. She didn’t think that out of everyone, two young girls would be bothered enough to search for the truth. I do feel bad for her though. After the death of her husband, it was hard for her to make ends meet, and being desperate, she flailed her hands about, searching for anything to keep her afloat. As for Dr. J, I had a talk with him about why he had been surprised when I had gotten a head rush in his room. Turns out, a lot of patients whose reports were otherwise healthy had been getting these head rushes, and that made him worried. Moving on to Teddy, he was in a hurry that day because the AC in the hospital wasn't working, and he had to quickly shift crucial things to Dr. J's house. Anyhow, I still like Mrs. White. She’s a small lady, but doesn’t evoke feelings of helplessness. She gets things done.