My Dear Reader Rebecca

Part 2 - WMD

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, MSKCC, should have been a place I know very well, because my father worked there until his retirement. His lab is in the research wing so I never had to come to the other side.

In my too vivid imagination, this place is quite depressing: all the patients here are waiting for their uncertain fate. Some will survive, some won't. It's like lambs helplessly watching wolves eating them alive one by one. I have had a mental problem of depression for a long time. ( Totally not related to this story. ) So it's really not in my best interest to come over here and feel the bad vine.

Yet, here I am. My mood is getting worse by the minute already. Though the hospital is extremely clean, I smell something foul, like people are rotting on their beds. Maybe it's just my imagination again, right? I cannot really tell.

Why do I have to be here? Why does an angry father want to kill me? What the hell did I ever do besides playing computer games and occasionally posting some chapters online? Very few people read those anyway. I swear I did no harm to anyone.

On the subway train it started to dawn on me that I suffered this fate because I just declined his daughter's request like hours ago? Come on, man, you have to understand why I sent the message. I need to be considerate to all other readers, though as few as they are! It's so unfair that you daughters get to read my draft before all others, and honestly I had no idea that your daughter was a patient here. She never mentioned it anywhere...

Wait, maybe she did mention it in her long message, and I was too impatient to read it all ? Oh, fxxx me. It appears that I accidentally refused a cancer patient to share some chapters. Once again, I messed everything up. Story of my life. If I get thrown down from the top of this building I totally deserve it...

As I'm thinking like a crazy guy, the elevator takes me to the 9th floor. Once the door is open, I see a big man with a full mustache rushes toward me. He's at least 6 inches taller than me, looks like a bulky midwestern basketball player. OMG, he has tears in his eyes! What is he going to do? Kill me right here in front of everyone?

In physiology, there is a term called "fight-or-flight", you all know what it means, right? I am exactly in such a dilemma. Should I stay and fight like Becca, or should I run like a rabbit?

Well, I am doing neither. I am frozen staring at him approaching me fast, too afraid to move a muscle. Probably my knees are shaking.

Before I can react, he opens his arms and completely overshadows me. My goodness! Right on cue, a scene from the movie "Incredible Hulk" pops up in my brain. So intimidating! As I barely recoil from the scare, he embraces me with his long arms, "Oh, Philip, thank God you are here!"

"How... how... how do you know my name?" I stutter, not sure about his intention, and his tightly hug is a little...uh...suffocating.

"Pfff, your online profile name? Plus the visitor's name tag, stupid." He says the word "stupid" again. Only then I am sure he is actually the user LTurner75, the one who threatened my life. Who else ?

He let go of me and extends a big hand, "My name is Liam Turner, Rebecca's father."

I carefully take his hand and gently shake. It kinda makes sense. Only a father would have wanted to kill some total stranger for his daughter, and this guy does look like he can wipe out a whole army. I am so glad that I made the right decision to come here. You don't want to piss this guy off.

Yeah, the plot is too obvious, right? Sorry that this book is not a murder mystery. Don't expect any violence or killing. If you were reading it so far purely for the death threat at the opening, please get another novel in WritersHaven, there are plenty of decent ones. Don't want to waste more of your time here.