Page 48 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

They descended in the lift to another lobby with yellow walls and picturesque paintings.

“Mikhail! So good to see you, old friend!” An attractive man in an elegant striped suit headed towards them, leaning against his cane.

“How are you, my friend?”

As Mikhail greeted him, Amelia ran her gaze up and down the man who, despite the cane and the limp, she found incredibly charming.

“The old bones are healing.” He knocked on the side of his lower thigh with the tip of his cane and winked at Amelia. “These are not the best of times for nonsense. I learnt that the hard way. Who’s the lady, Mikhail? I don’t think we have met.”

Mikhail stepped in front of her. “We have to go. Get well soon, my friend,” he said, then grabbed her hand and led her to the wooden door to the left. Out of earshot, he warned, “Novak is a lycanthrope who turns into a bloodthirsty wolf in a heartbeat. Trust me, you don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

“I thought he was cute,” Amelia attempted a joke solely so she could distract herself from the burning sensation his touch had provoked.

“Just stay close and don’t talk to anyone.”

He gestured for her to follow until they found themselves in a large gym with wooden floors, a Swedish wall and all kinds of exercise equipment. There were balls of different sizes, weights, sticks, and ropes – and tens of men and women in sportswear making good use of them. Contemporary music played from the speakers, causing vibrations to reverberate through the space.

“Is this a sports hall?” she asked.

“It’s a rehab centre. All the creatures you see here are recovering from surgery.”

Amelia observed a blonde woman on the treadmill. She was young and clearly in good physical shape. The muscles on her legs stretched out as she ran. “All right. I believe that this is real. But I don’t think I can help you cure these people, creatures, or whatever it is you want to call them.”

Mikhail quieted her with a hand gesture. “Not here. Let’s go outside.”

On their way back, he disappeared through a door labelled Changing Room and emerged a moment later with a black parka jacket. He placed it on her shoulders. “It’s cold outside.”

Amelia shoved her hands in the sleeves, trying not to flinch at his unexpected chivalry.

When they reached the ground floor, Mikhail continued, “As you can see, this is just like any other hospital. There are doctors and patients. This is the reception. Everyone passes through here first.”

Fresh air grazed against her cheeks as they stepped once again out of the lift. The door to the left was labelled Radiology and the one to the right led to the reception desk. A creaking noise caught her attention just as a man burst in through a third door, holding his hand close to his body, his face twisted with pain. He veered right and continued to the reception entrance. When the doors opened for him, Amelia got her first look at the dozens of people sitting on chairs lined up on both sides of a long corridor.

With effort, she tore her gaze away and asked, “You’re not Bulgarian, and yet you speak the language perfectly?”

“Nationality is a fleeting thing when you’re immortal. But you’re not completely right about me. I’m half Bulgarian.”

‘My mother was Bulgarian…’ He’d said as much in her dream. But if that was true, what else about her dreams was?

“I’m fluent in many languages,” he added. “But Bulgarian is one of the oldest languages in the immortal world, despite the fact the country itself and the concept of “Bulgarian” have only existed since 681. We used to refer to our collective language as ‘South-eastern’. Whatever name it goes by now, the history behind it is why it’s considered the official language in the Hospital – even if we don’t call it that.” He paused, as though gauging how much more to say, and ended with, “You might be surprised, but various creatures have always inhabited these lands. With variety comes multilingualism, and that is why along these halls, you will hear many different languages.”

They exited the building through the door to the main gate and headed out into the courtyard. It was sometime in the late afternoon, neither day nor night. ‘Twilight is when all the chickens fall asleep and the evil spirits awaken to roam the earth,’ her grandmother used to say. Amelia had always thought that chickens and evil spirits had no place together in a sentence. ‘Don’t listen to your grandmother’s nonsense,’ her father would tell her. He’d raised her to never believe in spiritual, paranormal and esoteric gibberish. What would he have said now, if he’d met Mikhail?

A gust of wind scattered the leaves on her feet. The autumn afternoon was beautiful, although it felt more like winter. She eyed the two roads that were winding down the courtyard and towards the black gate in the distance. A massive stone wall, at least eight feet tall, surrounded the entire grounds. The sharp metal spikes coming out of the top made it look even taller. A few men in uniforms hovered around the fence.

At that moment, the black gate split open, and a car entered the Hospital grounds. Its engine rumbled through the yard until it disappeared behind the building.

Mikhail followed her gaze. “The underground parking is at the back.”

She spun around to take in the sight of the Hospital, and she gaped.

A grand entrance, with a curved archway nestled between two smaller arches, extended upwards to a central edifice featuring towering windows and pointed details. The exterior was a soft ebony shade, adorned with intricate embellishments and even more arches – taller ones, with peaks going even higher. The tallest reached high up into the sky, its top hidden in the clouds. The main building stretched out in two opposite directions, like wings, all the way into the forest, with similar arched elements and dagger-like forms.

“This is one of the most gorgeous buildings I have ever seen! It’s gigantic! How is it possible I haven’t heard about this place until now?” Amelia tore her eyes away from the building just in time to catch the satisfaction on Mikhail’s face.

“The building is concealed from humans with powerful magic. Only someone who is already within the grounds can see it. If you were outside these gates, the only thing you’d see would be thick forests that would cause the hairs on the back of your neck to bristle.”

“How does one reach this place?”

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