The $450 Manhattan Room Mystery: Why Was a Famous Surgeon Performing Midnight Blood Rituals Behind My Wardrobe Wall?
👉 Previous Decision: You chose Option A – Seek help from Dr. Julian Rivera, an eccentric retired bioethicist who frequents a diner near the hospital.
The diner on 2nd Avenue smelled of stale coffee and grilled onions. Dr. Julian Rivera sat in a booth by the window, a stack of worn journals beside him. His spectacles perched on his nose, magnifying his intense blue eyes.
“Dr. Rivera?” I asked, sliding into the opposite seat.
He looked up, a thin smile on his lips. “You must be Clara Hensley. Finch has quite the reputation.”
I launched into my story, describing the red lights, the masked figures, the strange blood ritual, and the chilling symbols on the wall. I even drew one on a napkin—a stylized serpent coiling around a caduceus.
Rivera’s eyes widened. He pushed his journals aside, revealing an identical symbol embossed on one of their covers.
“This is not a cult for rich donors, Clara,” Rivera said, his voice dropping. “This is a medical guild. An ancient one, tracing its roots to the late 1800s right here in New York City.”
He explained how the guild, shrouded in secrecy, performed rituals blending arcane knowledge with cutting-edge medical science. “They use 19th-century surgical tools, yes, but also modern stem-cell machinery to pull a living supernatural anomaly out of human blood.”
He tapped the symbol on the journal. “These are not just blood transfusions. These are lineage transfers. Designed to extract and channel vital force. Finch is merely the current head of the order.”
Rivera leaned closer, his voice a gravelly whisper. “Finch never operates without a covenant. Someone close to you, Clara, someone you trust, sold you into this arrangement. You are part of their design.”
The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. A covenant? My mother’s face flashed in my mind, her long illness, her desperation. The image made me shiver, despite the warm diner air.
➡️ Read CHAPTER 5 to continue the story
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