In the sterile silence of the hospital, Nurse Sarah found a strange solace in caring for Vincent, her comatose patient. His condition was stable, his body a silent vessel in a room filled with the hum of machines. She filled the quiet with stories from her own life, sometimes imagining a flicker of awareness behind his closed eyelids. It was a one-sided relationship built on routine and hope, a small anchor in the chaotic world of medicine. But that anchor was about to be ripped away by a single, horrifying revelation.
The moment of discovery was as mundane as it was catastrophic. During a standard bedding change, she lifted the blanket from Vincent’s arm and saw the mark. It was a tattoo of a snake entwined with a sword, a symbol she knew all too well. Her blood ran cold. Years ago, her brother Tom had confided in her, showing her the same exact tattoo on his own arm. He called it the sigil of “The Watchers,” a clandestine society operating from the shadows, their true purpose a closely guarded secret. Shortly after that conversation, Tom had disappeared without a trace.
Now, here was that same symbol on the arm of a stranger. The implications were staggering and terrifying. Was Vincent a fellow member? A target? Did his coma have a more sinister cause than a simple car accident? The hospital room, once a place of healing, instantly transformed into a chamber of menacing possibilities. The man she had been tending to for weeks was no longer just a patient; he was a direct link to the enigmatic force that had stolen her brother from her.
Fear gripped Sarah’s heart, colder than any she had ever known. Everything she believed about Vincent, about the safety of her environment, was thrown into question. If he was a Watcher, then his presence here was no accident. And if the organization knew she had seen the mark, was she now in danger herself? The silent patient held the key, but unlocking his secrets could open a door to a darkness from which there was no return.
