Dialogue sample

The ride to the carriage was silent. It wasn’t that there was nothing to speak about, surely a great deal has changed in both of our lives in the past fifteen years, however, there was no desire to breach the topic. How would one even start the conversation without getting over the obvious elephant in the room. I ran away from her. There’s no two ways about it. I was a coward who deserved to rot in prison, not for the crime I was accused of, but rather for the crimes I have yet to answer for.

	Suddenly, the carriage came to a halt. I moved the curtains out of the way and looked out the window and my heart dropped.

	“Not this clinic” I thought to myself. There was no way this could possibly end well. Not if she’s here.

	The driver opened the door and offered Renee his hand getting out. I hesitated to get out of the carriage, but it’s too late to leave now. There’s no way she’d let me go home without seeing a doctor. I begrudgingly stepped off the carriage on to the ground.

	“So this is Felix’s clinic. I’ve never been here myself.”, She says as she read the sign out front. She walked to the front and opened the door. As we walked into the clinic, she raised her voice,

“Is anyone here?” She said, raising her voice. I looked around the room. We were in the waiting room. There was no one here.

“That’s odd,” she said, “Where’s Felix?”. Most likely he’s away on business, since he does more than just run his clinic, although, what exactly he does, even I’m not sure.

We walked into the examination room and found the doctor lying face down on her desk. The sound of slow shallow breaths could be heard from her.

“Hello? Doctor?” Renee said as she gently shook her. No response.

“aHEM. DOCTOR?” She said raising her voice. The sleeping woman jolted awake. She had black hair that went down to her jaw. She was wearing a white coat, a black dress underneath, and a black choker necklace with a gem hanging from it. With wide eyes she looked around the room only to see Renee’s concerned face and me grinning. We made eye contact.

“S-sorry, what do you need?” she asked drowsily as she looked to Renee.

“My husband is in poor condition and needs to be seen.” Renee answers swiftly.

My smile drops.

“Your husband?” She asks incredulously, glancing at me and then back to renee. Ah shit.

“Alex is your husband?” She asks.

“Alex?” Renee asks confused, “Wait, he’s a patient here? And Felix never sent word for me?”
	“Our clinic has a distinct ”Hear nothing, say nothing“ policy. We don’t discuss patient details with outsiders.” The doctor replies.

	“I’m his wife.” She repeats.

My eyes looked at the doctor pleading not to say anything more.

“eeehh?” She said as a smile formed on the doctor’s face. I was dead.

“Anyways, my name is Dr. Antanov, but you can just call me Mila. I’m the assistant doctor here. I’m going to need you to wait in the waiting room while I examine him” Mila says to Renee.

“But-” Renee begins to protest, but obediently leaves the room.

She pulled out some sort of wire and put it around her neck.

“Sit down.” she says.

There was a stool, so I sat down as she said.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing to the wire around her neck. I had never seen her with it before.

“It’s called a stethoscope. They can let us hear things like breathing and heartbeats.”

I sat there as she had begun to poke and prod at my chest with the device, telling me to breathe or placing the device over my heart. A frown had come over her face.  She asked me to take my shirt off and so I did, revealing several bruises on my chest and stomach.

“What happened here? You certainly have a knack for finding trouble.” Mila said looking at me. She pokes my bruise and I grimace.

“Well, I won’t ask. You’ll need rest and avoid physical activity. We’ll need to bandage you up and then I’ll give you some pain relievers as well.” She said.

She takes out some white bandages and begins to wrap them around my stomache and torso.

 I was surprised. I thought she would take advantage of the situation to her sadistic benefit, instead she told Renee to leave the room and didn’t bring up my married status.

She finished wrapping the bandages and before I could react, gave me a back slap on my bruised back.  I winced but kept myself from screaming.

“There we go, we’re all done now.” She said to Renee who was waiting outside.

“Um, where is Felix? I need to speak with him” She tells Mila.

“He’s currently at the general hospital. Do you need to see him right now?” She asked her.

“Yes, it’s important.” Renee replied.

“Alright then, I can walk Alexei home.” Mila concluded.

“You know where he lives?” Renee asks eyeing me suspiciously. I could feel the sweat on my back forming.

“Of course, I’ve been there often…to deliver medicine” she added at the end with a smile that hid her maliciousness. Ah, I should’ve seen this coming.