Illumine Her by Sieni A.M.

asked shakily. “What did you do back there?”
    “You did well, Alana. Those extra minutes saved his life.”
    She frowned. What? I didn’t do anything!
    “I didn’t do anything! I don’t understand what just happened. Mr. Filipo was dead,” she stammered. “I walked away and came back and you…” She shook her head. “You…You brought him back.” She stopped and swallowed. She expected an explanation, an answer, anything, and when she looked up at him, she was met with an impassive gaze.
    Shaking his head he said, “Look, Alana… I feel badly for having kept you from your work. What you do, it’s honorable no matter what people think.” He held her gaze. “It’s my fault you were late.” Alana looked into his blue eyes and wanted to be angry at him. Yes, it was indeed his fault she was late for an on-call emergency. Her patient had died on her watch. Dizzily, she remembered the blue-like flames and the beeping sound of the machines, a testament to Filipo’s beating and very alive heart, and her anger dissipated and was replaced by concern and curiosity.
    “What was that?” she whispered. “What did you do? That blue light? What was that? Where did it come from?”
    Chase regarded her seriously before straightening to his full height. Alana could see distance cloud his eyes as he spoke. “Alana, I’ve taken up too much of your time. I’ll leave you now so you can return to work.”
    Baffled, she watched as he brushed past, threatening to abandon her to her puzzled thoughts and infinite unanswered questions.
    “Stop!” she yelled, halting his steps. Turning his head, he looked at her. “You can’t just go!” she pleaded. “What did you do? Talk to me, please.”
    Chase held her gaze when he spoke. “I was drawn to that room, Alana.”
    Imploring with her eyes, she silently willed him to continue, but he shook his head in answer before walking away.

Chapter 6

    “E arth to Lana, come in.” Sera’s eyebrows rose and her smile flashed across the screen. “Did you hear what I said?” Alana looked at her best friend’s face on the laptop and sighed. True to her word, they had been chatting on Skype every Sunday evening, rain or shine. “Are you alright? You haven’t said peep,” she asked.
    Alana let out a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Sera. I’ve just had a rough week. Stuff at work, that’s all.”
    Yeah, that was the understatement of the decade. In truth, she couldn’t let that incident with Chase and Mr. Filipo go. It infiltrated her thoughts every minute of the day, and she had a buildup of questions that threatened to explode. What was his story? Who was he? What was he? Where had that blue light come from? She was bewildered that life around her went on normally without a clue as to what she experienced. She knew what she witnessed was far from normal, far from anything that was of this world. She also knew he was deliberately ignoring her ever since, moving away when she spotted him at the hospital. Consequently, she was hailed a hero by the medical staff. Alana wanted to laugh. If they only knew what really happened . She wanted answers and the only person who could give them to her was avoiding her. Now he was leaving Samoa tomorrow for good.
    “Is Manu giving you a hard time?” Sera asked. “He’s not bossing you around, is he? I will kick his butt if he is.”
    Alana gave her a small smile. “No, he’s not. I don’t get to see him much since he’s in the ER. We had lunch together last week though.”
    “Did you make some love-struck nurse jealous? I bet he has them swooning over him.”
    Alana laughed. “Yes, in fact. We pretended to be a couple so we could get this one girl off his trail. Not sure the plan worked though because he still gets texts from her claiming that he could do better with her.” Alana smiled at the little game they played over lunch, pretending to have a fling, but when Manu suggested they hold hands and kiss to make it look authentic, she