I placed my wife in the passenger front seat of our car.

She did not look good. Her skin was grayish, and her hair had lost its luster. How could this happen so fast? We were driving home from her mother’s house. She was fine.

I got in the car, started it up, and placed it in drive.

The doc’s car had already pulled away from the side onto the road. Dr. Galven took off faster than I expected. I had to speed up to catch it.

We drove about five miles and turned right onto a smaller road. We traveled on a paved road for a short time. Then, a few hundred feet further, it turned into gravel.

This did not feel right. Is this even an actual street?

“What the hell have we done to ourselves ?” I asked Minuete, even though I did not expect an answer.

Minuete moaned. I felt she might say something, but she didn’t. She just rested.

The road twisted and meandered through the trees, so much that it backtracked upon itself three times. It was dark, very dark. There were no lights anywhere. Pitch black except for our cars. My eyes locked onto the doc’s taillights. I had a scary thought. ‘If I lost him, I might not find my way back. At least not until daylight and Minuete could be…’ I have got to stop thinking like that. The road turned right. We were again on a paved road. Up ahead was an iron, wrought gate, with a ten-foot-tall stone fence attached. I felt myself relax a little.

It was a bit of overkill for a clinic.

Dr. Galven pulled up to a podium with a card reader. He lowered his window and let it scan a card he had in his hand. He yelled back.

I lowered my window. “What?”

“Drive in after me. I have told the gate to stay open for two vehicles.” He drove forward.

I stayed still for a moment. A closed clinic in the middle of nowhere with this kind of security. It did not add up.

I had no choice but to follow him in. The gate closed behind me with a “Clang!”

A hundred feet later, the road split. Another gate and fence lined the right. We turned left towards a small parking lot and a two-story building. It was basic. The building appeared to be a hundred feet long—no clue how deep. There was nothing unusual about it, except the only windows were on the second level.

Dr. Galven parked in a slot that said reserved with a medical symbol. I parked next to him. I walked around and got Minuete into my arms. He was at the door, holding it open.

The reception room was small but lavish. At most, it could hold ten people. Four big plush recliner chairs lined one wall, and the opposite had two couches. The walls themselves had paintings on them. The paintings looked old and famous. We went through fast. I could not see them.

I followed Dr. Galven through another door into a long hallway. There were several doors we passed. He took us into a surgery room at the end of the hall. It was metal from floor to ceiling. It shined like polished steel. There were machines around the walls. I had no idea what they did. A large surgical table dominated the room’s center. The doc gestured for me to place Minuete on the table.

Even with all the room’s strange devices, what caught my eye was the door as we were passing through. It was thick. About six inches thick. It held a locking mechanism like a submarine or battleship bulkhead. The entire room appeared to be one solid piece, plus the door.

Why would a clinic need such a room? What the hell did they use to do here? A big part of me wanted to pick up my wife and run. Get to a hospital, a normal hospital, but Minuete looked worse by the minute. The doc was right about one thing. She did not have long. He needed to do something fast.

Dr. Galven took one of those machines and pulled two leads from it. “Please remove her shirt; I need to attach these to test her.”

I hesitated. He is… or was a doctor. He would not be doing this for some cheap thrill. Would he? I did as asked.

He placed one lead, which was comprised of a patch and connector, above her heart. I noticed he was careful not to touch things he should not. Okay, so not a pervert.

“Please remove her left shoe and sock.” So I did and thought that sounded like a weird place for the other connector.

Yet, that is what he did. He placed the other lead on her big toe. The machine behind him lit up. A soft reddish light glowed over a readout. He took a moment to read what it said.

“Yes, just as I thought. Her life energy is being drained away. Will you help me heal her?” The doc asked that last question almost too sly. He kept asking me to help him. Why in that way?

I responded. “What do you need me to do?”

Dr. Claude Galven laughed. “Well, I had to give it one last try. You’re very cautious or damn lucky.”

I had enough. “What the hell is going on here? Did you do something to her when I wasn’t looking? When I went to get my jack? But I was out of sight for only thirty to forty seconds.

He laughed again. More of a chuckle.

“Just what is funny?”

“I did nothing to her when you were not looking. You were there the entire time. She agreed to help me. She did not ask me how, just agreed. That left her wide open. You! On the other hand, were smart. You did not agree. You still have not. There may be hope for you.”

I reached for my ankle gun. I traveled nowhere without her. Let’s see how much he smiles with a gun in his face.

“You don’t need your gun. Even if you already had it out, it would not change things.”

I pulled it anyway.

He looked at it and shrugged. “What do you plan on doing with that? Hmm? If you kill me, your wife dies. No question about it. Put the gun away, or keep it out it if makes you feel better, stronger maybe?”

He did that chuckle again. I was beginning to hate the doc’s chuckle.

“What would have happened if I had agreed to help as my wife did?”

“Think about it. You would both be dead by now. However, your stubbornness saved you and may yet save your wife.”

How does someone respond to that? He admitted we would both be dead. What kind of criminal does that? They lie and make crap up. Unless… They feel they are in total control. There is no chance of losing.

Now, I became worried. He was so confident. This was not his first time.

“You need agreement? You need my permission to kill me?”

The doc sighed. “Yes. There are certain rules, laws really, that must be obeyed. Free will is a big one.

“My wife never agreed to allow you to kill her.”

“You have to be willing. What form that permission is in, does not matter. She agreed to help. What she agreed to unspoken was to help by giving her life. She did not add any parameters or limitations.”

“I will never agree. Where does that leave us? What now”

The doc removed the leads from Minuete. “That depends on you. I assume you want to save your wife. How far are you willing to go? What are you willing to do to save her.”