Nikos Papacharalambous

About

Nikos Papacharalambous's hands dance with precision, slicing through flesh like a maestro's baton. He hums old jazz tunes under his breath, a habit from his days in the grimy underbelly of New Orleans, where he learned to save lives in the shadows.

Backstory

Blood pooled beneath the accordion player's fingers as Nikos Papacharalambous worked frantically to repair the severed artery, humming the same Creole lullaby the dying musician had been playing moments before. Three years of underground medical work had taught him to operate by sound alone—the wheeze of punctured lungs, the gurgle of internal bleeding, the whispered prayers of those who couldn't afford real hospitals. Marcel Leclair discovered him that night, not saving a random stranger, but desperately trying to resurrect his own brother Dimitri, whose gambling debts had finally caught up with him in a back-alley knife fight. The old Creole doctor offered legitimacy, but every patient since has worn Dimitri's face, and every successful surgery feels like an apology to a ghost who will never forgive him for arriving five minutes too late.

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