Shit, she said.

The way the man had run, taking that immediate left and then knowing where the stairwells were…it was odd. Hed hurried through it all with the speed and confidence of a man that knew where he was going. It seemed her preliminary hunch was at least somewhat correct: he had familiarity with this hospital. And that meant he would be able to outsmart her. More than that, hed successfully led her away from Dillingers room. Shed done exactly what hed hoped for.

Rachel stopped as she made her way down the second-floor stairs. Maybe he knows, she thought. Maybe hes figured out that everyone on the list is being watched now and hes desperate to get to Dillinger. And Ive been pulled right away from the damned room…

Angry with herself, she turned around and rushed back up the stairs. If he was expecting her to follow him while he still had a sizeable lead, he was going to be sorely mistaken. Shed get back to the room and give an order for the place to be put on lockdown. If she could manage that, then she

Blinding pain tore through her head. It came out of nowhere and for a dreadful moment, she thought maybe the nurse was still here in the stairwell and had stabbed her in the back of the head. Thats how intense the pain was.

She shouted out in surprise and pain as she was in mid-step. She fell slightly down the stairs, losing her balance and falling back to the landing between floors. It was only a three-foot drop, but enough to send a flare of pain from her butt bone upwards and knocking the breath out of her. But that little pain was nothing compared to the juggernaut roaring in her head.

Little black stars zipped across her field of vision. Creeping dark blurs started to come in at the corners of her eyes and pulsed. It felt as if a pair of massive hands were gripping her head and trying to literally rip her skull apart. She gasped in little hitched breaths, as she still had not managed to get her wind back from the fall.

No. Not now…not now…

The pain roared back and when it did, Rachel worried that this was it. The little episodes that had come before had been warnings, but this was the real deal. Maybe she died here, in this dark stairwell. Maybe she wouldnt stop the killer, or ever see Paige again, or…