Viktor was deep in thought until a strange choking sound to his left distracted him.
A soft splat echoed in the otherwise silent hospital room, followed by a pungent odour that permeated the air.
What is that God-awful smell? Viktor thought to himself as he lay on his bed next to the window. It was a very familiar smell, acidic and acrid to the nose. He soon realized it smelled exactly like vomit.
"Glkkkk..." There was a faint moan from someone in the bed beside his. There was a thin curtain hanging between the beds, but that still couldn't mask the person's obvious misery and suffering. Viktor hadn't realized that there was anyone in the other bed, or that there was even another bed in the first place. He vaguely wondered if whoever it was had heard him talking incessantly to himself at night.
"Who's there?" he called out nervously. This had better not be a trick... everyone knows I'm blind and pretty much helpless, after all...
"I dun feel good..." moaned a tiny, faint voice. It was that of a little girl.
Viktor wasn't sure how to respond. Should he call for a nurse? Try to comfort her? Say nothing?
"So what's wrong with ya, mister?" she asked, attempting to make small talk.
"A man hurt me," he replied simply.
"He must be a really bad man..."
"No... he's the good one... I'm the bad man..."
"So are you gonna live? You are, right?"
He was surprised that a little girl would ask he, a total stranger, if he was going to live. "Yes," he replied. "Not that you could really call this living, though," Viktor added bitterly.
"You're lucky, mister... at least ya got ta be a kid and later do grown-up stuff..."
Viktor was puzzled by this comment. Didn't everyone get a childhood?
"I'm gonna go back to sleep... I'm really tired..." said the girl.
"Can I talk to you a little bit later?" Viktor asked, eager for something to do besides mulling over his turbulent past.
"Maybe, but I dun think I'll be around... I'm gonna die soon 'cause the doctors can't fix me... See, I been in here a long time 'cause I been sick so long..."
Viktor then realized that even the terrible fate Ashley had condemned him to was not as horrid compared to that of the little girl.