The Game - 35. Chapter 35

Andrea had no idea at all why she had come here. It had always seemed like a strange thing to do... to think. Somehow Daniel had possessed her, had got under her skin to the extent that she had lost all perspective, all objectivity.

It wasn’t that she was falling in love with him.... she was pretty sure about that. It was more that she was ... caring about him, caring deeply, passionately, obsessively. She had known from the first moment that there was something different about him and it wasn’t just the way he looked, although of course that helped. There was something about him, about the way he was, the way he looked at you, his gentleness.

When she had burned her hand and he had taken it to put it under the running water... he had been so gentle, so certain, so.... it was like he had thrown his arms around her and taken her to a safe place. In that moment there is nothing she would not have done for him, nowhere she would not have gone. And it was only a touch, just a brief, gentle touch.

And then when he had smiled at her and she had felt as though the sun had come out from behind a cloud and warmed cold bones. She bathed in it, in the golden glow.... yes, he was golden, light and golden. It was that which had made her feel so strongly that something was terribly wrong. She had been in the business for long enough to know what’s what and what was happening to Daniel was all wrong. The treatment, the drugs, everything. Whatever might have been said or she might have believed at the time, as soon as she thought about it she realised, she knew. It was all wrong.

And then she had come running and it had not surprised her to see the others there. It had seemed.... right, natural as had running through the hospital corridors, startling staff and patients alike, sweeping aside all opposition, heading directly for the place she knew he would be, the place she had always known he would be.

And then, there he was and they were too late... or were they? It certainly seemed that way. She had not understood the exchange that had taken place between the men but she had understood the set up, straight away. She had understood that and she had understood from the readings on the bank of monitors, the unsteady flickering of the lights and sounds that it would not be a good idea to push him any further.

When the psychic call to proceed had come she had already started moving, trying to get to the Professor before he was able to do anything but she had been too late, they had all been too late and from the moment the drug entered the tube there was no doubt about the outcome, no saving him. She had known that and her heart had wept for him, for herself, for them all.

And now.... now something was happening and she could not quite work out what it was. There had been a stunned silence, a deep pain, an abiding confusion, a strange stillness. The girl Annie had got up on the table and took him in her arms and it almost broke her heart. And then... and then there was this weird light, golden sparkling light that seemed somehow to emanate from him and it grew and brightened until it completely obscured them and she seemed to be pulled forwards, feeling the light surround her and flow through her.