text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor. You haven't been able to really enjoy your success though.
  
  Sure, you have your own apartment and you make a decent living to afford the things you want, but you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop and Edmond is going to call in that favor. It's prevented you from even having a serious relationship for fear that whomever you're with could possibly be hurt if things get...complex.
  
  Of course there's also your mother to worry about still, but from what you know she's planning on selling the old inn and moving to Teckleville. Hopefully soon, so it'll at least keep her somewhat out of potential harm.
  
  Ultimately you try to keep yourself busy with work hoping it will keep your mind off things, but it doesn't help. Eventually you do come up with something that does help a bit. Alcohol.
  
  It's amazing that you grew up in a place that sells the stuff and never had a drink until now. You have to say, it's not bad and it seems to calm you a bit when you're feeling anxious. Through this crutch you finally manage to cope.
  
  Well at least until the fateful day does arrive...
  
  One night when you're coming home from the hospital and carriage pulls up next to you.
  
  "Hey doc, I think we have a friend in common." A voice says from the inside of the carriage.
  
  "Let me guess, Edmond. Right?" you reply.
  
  "Correct. I think you know what comes next doc."
  
  "Yeah, I do." You say and get into the carriage.
  
  You sit down on one side while sitting opposite of you is one man dressed in a cheap suit smoking pipe weed. The other one is dressed more casually and openly playing with a dagger. The pipe man lights up and speaks.
  
  "Before we get started, my name's Hans and this is my brother Wallace. Now that that's over with, Edmond is personally in need of your medical services."
  
  "I figured it was something like that. What happened to him?
  
  "Oh what usually happens to our kind in this business. There was a disagreement, some words were exchanged and before you know it, some people get hurt while others aren't so lucky."
  
  "I...see. So I take it we're heading to him right now?"
  
  "Yes. He's a little paranoid about going to hospitals especially with the attempt on his life and all."
  
  "Hey, doesn't he already have a doctor?"
  
  "He did, but unfortunately his over indulgence of the spirits made his skills useless and he was...sent away a long time ago."
  
  "Oh..."
  
  The rest of the trip is mostly in silence. Hans asks a few superficial things about you which you give quick answer to, but your mind is focused more on what you're going to encounter when you get to Edmond. How bad is he going to be? What happens if you can't help him? By the gods you could use a drink right now.
  
  You then think to yourself. "Maybe this is why his old doctor was a drunk."
  
  Eventually you arrive at the Troll's Breath Tavern. When you enter the place it's completely empty save for a few rough looking sorts who look like they're focused on cleaning up the place. You notice broken glass and a few blood spots here and there.
  
  "Is that the doc?" one of them asks Hans.
  
  "Yeah, is Ed still in his office?"
  
  "Yeah, and his pet lizard is guarding him like a fucking dragon. Ed's not letting anyone in there except the doctor."
  
  "Hm, well I guess you better get in there then. Don't worry. You're probably safer than the rest of us right now."
  
  You don't share that sentiment, but you have little choice in the matter. You head to Edmond's office and knock on the door.
  
  "Who the fuck is it? That better be the doc!"
  
  "Yeah, it's me. I'm coming in."
  
  You cautiously enter and see a great deal of blood on the floor. Edmond is clutching on to his left side and his Sotakan assassin is standing close by staring directly at you. A bottle whiskey is also nearby probably being used to dull his pain and as a disinfectant.
  
  "Well, don't just stand there, I gotta fucking hole in my side!"
  
  You quickly inspect the wound and see that Edmond's been shot most likely by a blunderbuss and he's still got fragments of the shot in his body.
  
  "Okay, keep the pressure on it like you've been doing. I can fix this, but I need to act fast and I'm gonna need some stuff from the hospital." You say.
  
  "What?! You mean those idiots didn't have you pick up any supplies?"
  
  "No, they told me to just get into the carriage."
  
  "Fucking morons. It's like they want me to die! Okay look, we got access to some hospital supplies in a warehouse much closer than the hospital. Just tell Reg outside what you need and he'll get them for you. Go, go."
  
  You leave the office and ask for Reg, who comes up immediately.
  
  "What's up? Will he live?"
  
  "Yeah, but I'll need some medical supplies. He said you can get them from one of your warehouses. Now I need..."
  
  Before you can finish Hans interjects.
  
  "Reg, you realize we sold most of those supplies to that bodylegger a few weeks ago? We don't have much left."
  
  "We don't? Well what do we have left?" Reg asks.
  
  "I dunno, I don't have the supply list in front of me now do I? But what if you get there and find that what the doc asked for isn't there? We've wasted valuable time fucking around while the boss bleeds to death! Look why don't we just take the doctor back to the hospital, I'm sure we can get everything there right?"
  
  "Well yeah, but Edmond said..."
  
  "I'm sure Edmond won't mind if disobey his orders if it's going to save his life."
  
  Well this certainly stressful. If the warehouse is lacking supplies, you might not be able to help Edmond. If you go back to the hospital you might take too much time since it's not just the trip back and forth but it's the sneaking around stealing medical supplies.
  
  > go back to the hospital
  The hospital is probably a better bet. Besides you can get the higher quality stuff there. You doubt if you'll have that much of a problem getting the supplies too, it isn't an uncommon thing for a few things to go missing here and there.
  
  "We better go back to the hospital, I'd rather be on the safe side."
  
  "Good man, come on we'll take the carriage back to the hospital, my brother will drive it, he knows all the short cuts in this city and isn't squeamish about running over dumb fuckers that get in the way."
  
  "Erm, okay then." You reply.
  
  "Just be quick about this shit, if you take too fucking long and Edmond dies, you three are going to be joining him!" Reg reminds all of you.
  
  You, Hans and Wallace leave the Troll's Breath Tavern and set out for the hospital. On the way there you make a mental note of what to say if anyone at the hospital asks you any questions and where else in the hospital to search just in case you don't find what you need right away.
  
  "Tell me, do you think Edmond is a fair man?" Hans suddenly asks you.
  
  "Huh?"
  
  "I said, do you think Edmond is a fair man? Tis not a hard question."
  
  "Uh, well sure. I mean I had a deal with him in the past and he lived up to it."
  
  "Yeah, I know all about that so called deal. If it were truly a deal, you and me wouldn't be having this conversation. I hope you realize this isn't going to be the last time he calls on you again."
  
  You don't say anything. You were trying not to dwell on the possibility of such depressing matters.
  
  "Look friend, I know you. You'd rather not have to live your life being connected to the underworld, but you were in a tight spot, so you resorted to desperate measures. Sort of like your father no?"
  
  "Yeah...I guess so..." you answer not really thinking of that parallel before.
  
  "Well, I sympathize. Trust me I do. I mean I know what it's like to get so far deep into something that you don't know how you're ever going to get out. Hell, I never intended to be part of the Crimson Talons, but I had to do it not just for my survival but my brother's as well."
  
  You say nothing and wait for Hans to get to the point he's going to make.
  
  "What I'm saying is, you don't NEED to have this hanging over your head forever. You could end it tonight."
  
  "Hold on, if we're talking about what I think we are, you heard Reg, he said if we took too long he'd have us all killed."
  
  "I didn't suggest that. I mean that hospital surely has a bunch of things that shouldn't be used in excessive dosages."
  
  "You want me to kill him? I can't do that, I'd get killed by that Sotakan! If not immediately then certainly soon after he suspected that I had something to do with his death!"
  
  "Well I figured that you'd be a little creative in that area. Perhaps give him something for the pain. Something that creates a plausible tale that the man just died in his sleep. It's not like that lizard is really going to put two and two together. It's not the brightest thing; it's just really good at following orders and killing people. I wouldn't worry about it anyway. The lizard will be taken care of soon. And you needn't worry about anyone else potentially retaliating either, Edmond's never been too popular and what few loyal cronies he has other than the lizard will also be dealt with."
  
  You bury your hands in your head at the thought of all this and how you got here in the first place. If you go through with this, you won't just be an accomplice the murder anymore, but a full blown one. You think about the irony of being a doctor. You're supposed to be keeping people alive not killing them.
  
  "Look, I know this is all a lot to take in, but just think. If you do this, you're free. Free to go about the rest of your life as you see fit. And getting rid of Edmond would be a favor to everyone; he's an evil bastard. Now I'm not saying I'm a saint, but the man is unnecessarily brutal. I'd at least try to put an end to some of the random violence that goes on in the organization and get back to focusing on business. Hell, I've got even a long-term plan of trying to make the organization legit one day. Like I said, I didn't really want this life, but it was survival at the time."
  
  If Hans is trying to identify with you on some level to get you to help him, it's working, because you're starting to seriously consider going through with this plan.
  
  Eventually you get to the hospital and you tell Hans you'll be out as soon as possible. It's the graveyard shift so you don't run into too many people you know that ask questions. In fact nobody really pays too much attention to you at all, but you decide to play it safe and head down to the supply room in the basement to take what you need.
  
  After grabbing a few syringes, disinfectants, bandages and the like, you break the lock of the cabinet with the pharmaceutical supplies. You grab the pain killers immediately, but then you look for something that might help you with the other problem.
  
  "Incitahol? What the hell?" you say to yourself, picking up the small vial. This stuff shouldn't even be mixed in with the regular drugs. It's a powerful experimental concoction! It was supposed to be a "miracle" drug that increased the body's natural healing ability even greater than that of mountain trolls and was first used on dying patients. Unfortunately what the drug really did was the speed up the death process and bring them back as zombies. It was banned by most civilized places and is highly sought out by lazy necromancers who don't have the natural ability to raise hordes of undead.
  
  You'd worry more about finding this if you didn't have your own drama going on right now. In fact this would probably be the perfect thing to take with you. Incitahol doesn't cause pain and quickly puts the patient into a coma and death follows soon after. (And then it's zombie time) You'll have to explain some of this to Hans though so he's prepared.
  
  Part of you wonders if you should really go through with all this though. There's no guarantee that Hans is telling you the truth and you might be just trading one master for another. In fact he might just blame you for everything and have you killed when he takes power.
  
  Of course another way to handle this is to inject this stuff into Edmond and not tell him what's going to happen. Chances are undead Ed might kill everyone nearby. Incitahol does increase the reflexes and strength after death making for a rather lively zombie. The problem is this is a very risky endeavor not to mention severely irresponsible.
  
  > Don't kill Edmond
  You don't know if you'll forever be indebted to Edmond, but at least you know his character a little bit better than Hans. Telling Hans you're not going to go through with his plan though would be foolish, the only way to do this is to act like you are and then rat him out when you get to Edmond. Not the noblest of plans, but you see that you have little choice.
  
  When you leave the hospital you enter the carriage, which is waiting for you across the street.
  
  "I trust you got everything you need?"
  
  "Yeah, I found something perfect to take care of our problem."
  
  "Excellent! I knew you'd see things my way." Hans says. He doesn't seem to think you're going to double cross him, which is good news for you. Hans goes on a little more about how you're doing the right thing and to make sure to stay calm throughout the whole procedure
  
  You get back to the tavern where Reg and several other Talon members are waiting.
  
  "What the fuck took you so damn long? Edmond could've died already!"
  
  "Sorry." You reply and head to his office.
  
  You enter the office and the Sotakan assassin is holding a dagger to your throat already.
  
  "Down boy, it's the doc...ugh...what the fuck took you so long? I'm dying over here!"
  
  The Sotakan releases you and you run over to Edmond who is now lying on the floor still clutching his side. You begin working on Edmond immediately.
  
  "Argh, fuck! That hurt!" Edmond winces as you take out a few pieces of shrapnel before sewing him up.
  
  "Yeah I imagine it would. I got some bad news to tell you."
  
  "What worse than getting shot?
  
  "Well maybe not as bad as that, but how close are you to Hans and his brother?"
  
  "We're business associates though they've been working for me since they were snot nosed kids. So I suppose I'm like a father figure to them. Heh heh."
  
  "Then they're ready to commit patricide, because they tried to get me to kill you."
  
  "What!?"
  
  You explain to Edmond what Hans told you as you're working on him. He's mad, but not at you. In fact he doesn't even accuse you of making it up. He says it's hardly surprising given the business he's in. He calls over his Sotakan and tells him "Hans, Wallace, dead." With this simple instruction, the lizard assassin finally leaves the room to do his mission.
  
  Doesn't take long for the Sotakan to come back.
  
  "Wow. I guess that's the end of that then." You say still working on Edmond.
  
  "Looks like. Hey doc, that was a real standup thing ya did. You probably could've easily injected me with some shit that could've killed me without even my lizard boy even realizing it before it was too late."
  
  "I'm not a killer, despite my unfortunate lapse of judgment concerning how to deal with those waitresses a few years ago."
  
  "Hmm, well I'm sure it probably still passed through your mind. Especially how that deal went down with Frank's place. Anyway, Hans was probably right about one thing, I was going to hang that incident over your head for the rest of your life, but given these recent events let's call it even."
  
  "Thanks Edmond." You say politely. Sure you could get self-righteous and point out that you've saved his life TWICE. But really, why piss off a crime boss?
  
  After patching up Edmond and making sure he's not going to get an infection, you mention that he should be fine as long as he takes it easy for a couple months. He thanks you again and says if you ever need another favor you know where to find him. You assure him that you won't.
  
  You get on with your life after this last bit of dabbling with the underworld. Part of you for a while worries that Edmond is going to go back on his word, but that doesn't happen thankfully. You definitely feel a great weight has been lifted off of you. You also properly dispose of the Incitahol. You'd normally report something like this, but you'd rather not have to explain why you were breaking into the pharmaceutical cabinet in the first place. You just hope whoever was dumb enough to put the stuff there doesn't have any more of it.
  
  As for your family's inn, your mother eventually sells it in a few years and moves back to Teckleville. You aren't unhappy to see it sold off; you didn't have too many great memories of the place in the last years you were there. Still, if it weren't for the inn you wouldn't have been able to become a doctor either.
  
  While the rest of your life generally plays out in a positive way, you never do lose your minor alcohol problem because every once in awhile you still feel guilt about some of the things you were involved in. Drinking helps ease the pain a bit, but you never talk to anyone else about it of course. Sometimes you wonder what you could've done different when you worked at the inn, a better way perhaps.
  
  You'll never know.