"Of course he said that…" Wait, who was she talking about? And why the hell was I agreeing with her?
Suddenly she raised her head and stared right through me. Her eyes were like topaz gemstones. Like caution lights. They glowed with an intensity I've never seen before. They were immaculate.
Before I could probe her more, I realized that I had to get the hell out of there. She had a frenzy look in her eyes. I didn't know if I could outrun her, but it was worth a try. Nearby an IV drip stand was just out of reach.
I lunged toward it and grabbed the metal pole like a warhammer, swinging it around. At the last second I released it, the momentum launching the pole at the girl. With a loud metal crash it dropped her. I didn't watch long enough to see if it knocked her out. I grabbed any notes I could and shoved them into my backpack as I ran out of that room.
The hallway outside was just as dark, with only a few low lying lights to illuminate the space. Maybe the dark would shake her off, hide me. I ran down the corridor as fast as I could. The tiles echoed with each foot step. If she could hear me, then that meant the rest of the hospital could too. I thought about screaming, but up ahead I saw someone step out from the shadows.
"Hey! I need you to help me…"
The girl stepped out ahead of me.
Wait a minute. How did she get in front of me?
She turned to me and said, "You shouldn't have run." Her hand reached out and I felt a pressure slam me onto the floor. The wind got blown out of me. The air felt thinner, and I found it harder to breathe.
"Holy shit," I wheezed out. I tried to catch my breath. The girl got closer, her hair began to billow out, catching on a breeze like her head was under water. Although, when I finally caught my breath, I leaned up. There was no breeze. It wasn't even cold. Her hair was levitating on it's own, as if she didn't feel like following the laws of physics today. Then, the invisible force came to mind and I understood what was happening.
"This is a dream, right?"
"You're not dreaming," she said with no hesitation.
My shoulder strained. I grabbed it with my hand and winced. Yup, It must have broken when I got knocked down. Inch by inch I rose back up. Thankfully, the backpack protected my back and head from the fall.
"Why are you doing this?" I asked. I just needed time to think of a way out of this situation. Get her talking, I thought to myself.
She shook her head.
"You can't say, or you won't?" I continued. She looked back at me. Her face was lower, like she didn't want to give away her feelings. She hid her expressions like a child who knew what they were doing was wrong. I pressed harder.
"You couldn't seriously hurt someone right now. We're in a hospital for crying out loud. How many people are you going to put in harm's way before you come to your senses?"
"That won't be an issue," she said.
"So you can talk?" I said with sarcasm.
"You know, you're making this a lot harder than it has to be!" She said it with a seriousness I didn't think possible for someone with murderous intent.
"Sorry I'm making it harder for you to kill me. It's not exactly easy for me to just let someone do that. You know?"
"Things would have gone so smoothly if you were asleep too."
"Asleep?" I think she may actually be crazy…
"He said all I'd have to do was find you. And everything would just work itself out."
"Look, maybe we can reach a compromise--"
Another push. The pressure hit me like a blanket of wind. I nearly fell down again. However, my feet stood firmly on the floor. I was ready that time.
"Just, let me kill you," she said, pleading.
I gritted my teeth and pushed against the force.
"Like hell I am!"
I wasn't gonna let what happened on the wharf happen again. I won't let those mistakes dictate my life. I pushed further against the grain, moving towards a door in the hall. While walking with the grain, I managed to slide seamlessly through the incoming pressure and launched my shoulder against the door, smashing it open. I could hear her pleading outside.
"Wait! Please come back. I--I have to do this."
I slammed my back against the door and closed it on her. I shouted, between breaths, through the closed door, "Why? What's the point?"
I heard the door rattle. It was like a linebacker slammed their shoulder into it. The balls on her! Dust floated off the hinges. The room shook with each slam. Bang. Bang Bang. Bang!
Which way?
I turned around to examine the room. A normal hospital room with cots and curtains like any other. Cabinets lined the walls and gurneys blocked much of the center of the area. There's nothing here. I need a weapon.
Bang! She slammed against the door again. It was practically off it's hinges already. Any second now and she'd be through. I had to think of something fast before that managed to happen. But what?
The curtains, I thought. I immediately started to close them all off. I dragged them all around to section off the various corners of the room. As some pockets of hiding spaces began to form, another thought came to me.
Earlier today I had used a gurney to hide in plain sight. I looked underneath the closest one. This will have to do.
As the door banged for the final time, out popped the hunk of metal, whooshing across the room and crashing into the glass cabinets. The sound of them shattering into a thousand little pieces echoed through the entire hospital wing. I nearly jumped out of my hiding place when I heard it. Crackling, like static. She was walking through the wreckage, looking for me.
Whoosh!
One of the curtains billowed open. The girl said, "Come out and I'll make this as quick and painless as possible…please."
Like hell I will. Did she think tacking on 'please' will make this anymore easier for her?
Another Whoosh! This time, the curtain next to my hiding place opened up. She was getting closer.
"Like, I'm just gonna find you anyway. It's a small room. And I know you're here so just come out--" The girl's hand reached for my spot's curtain. I saw her eyes glistening through the folds of the veil. I had my opportunity.
I gripped the handles of the gurney and pushed it full force into her, startling her and sending her back onto the floor. The whole room rattled as she collapsed.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow!" She skirted on the tiles. Her hair tossed over to the side. I was face to face with her now. She looked up at me. Her eyes were wide. They glowed like amethysts in the dim light. I almost forgot that she was chasing me around. Almost.
I swung around and bolted out of the room, leaving the turned-over gurney on top of her. She struggled to push it off. But as I left I heard her scream, "Wait! Wait! Come back!" Then I heard her push the gurney off herself. It sounded just like the door getting thrown from its frame. How did she do that?
Back on the beach, I met someone like that, didn't I? It's been tough trying to remember what happened, but I was sure of it. The memories were returning to me, easier now. It was like a catalyst had been ignited. I remembered Cindi and Lynn, and an overwhelming feeling that took over me. It wasn't pleasant.
There was someone else there too, wasn't there? A dark figure, floating over the bay. It felt oddly familiar. But it wasn't her I realized. No. It was taller, more imposing. It was like I was staring up at a moving statue. She's nothing like that, but why did it feel so similar? Connected?
Also, where was everyone? Shouldn't security have arrived by now? As I continued running down the hall I tried to listen in on the rooms around me, seeing if I could hear any absent chatter. Snoring? No, that was the overhead lights. Then, where was everyone?
I managed to make it to the lobby, but as I suspected the receptionist wasn't behind the desk. Maybe they were in the back? I haven't seen any nurses yet either. Surely if someone was around, they'd hear the ruckus and investigate. Right?
I ran to the elevator to see if I could get down to the first floor like before. It sat silently at the end of the hall. I smacked the down button repeatedly, like a petulant child, as if it would come quicker in my desperation, and . Before the doors opened I figured I should check to see if she caught up. I glanced around behind me and stared down the corridor. She stood across the hall, in the dark, with hair fallen across her face like a ghost in a schlocky horror movie. If I hadn't just gone to the bathroom, I probably would have peed my pants right there. Her eyes were almost iridescent.
"You can't escape," she said. I could barely hear her from across the hall. "He won't let you leave."
"I don't know what the hell you're talking about," I said. The truth was I didn't even think I was awake. It felt like she had been operating this entire time off of dream logic. A faux reality. I still thought I dreamt up this insane fiasco. "Who is he?" I asked.
She reached out her hand. I could feel her pinning my arms and legs together, like I was being squeezed by some unseen gigantic hand. My toes lifted gently off the ground. I was hovering just a few feet away from her now, struggling to find solid footing.
I kicked my feet as I dangled just in front of the elevator. I may have screamed, but it felt like something muffled my voice, smothering me.
"Please let this work," she begged.
I struggled to pull away the invisible force, clawing at the invisible air, swinging my fist around. The clinical, iridescent lights of the hospital wing flickered in and out. Like a poltergeist, it rattled the ceiling. Dust fell to the floor and drifted up in the air again. The whole hallway shook like a dollhouse in a child's room.
"Stop!" I managed to get out.
And she did, but not after throwing me through the elevator.
As soon as I heard a ding! The girl chucked me through the elevator doors. I felt the wall of the tiny metal box creak and sway as my back slammed into the middle of it, assuming that the force didn't rattle the cage itself, though it hardly needed my raggedy body to do some damage.
I sagged to the floor. My body went limp like a doll, limbs numb and prickly. The lights inside the elevator itself flickered on and off, though more intermittently than the hallway. As I drew my head up off my chest, ears ringing and head aching, I watched her slide closer towards the entrance to the shaft. Her feet floated a few inches off the ground. Now I was convinced she was a ghost. Would it have killed her to let me drift away into the afterlife more gracefully?
"Do your worst," I said. With the head trauma it sounded a little less cool than I envisioned. I could hardly spew the words out before a bit of spittle got in the way. She didn't look all that happy to be standing over me, or floating I should say. She glanced nervously around, as if she was worried someone would jump out from the shadows with a bloody axe and a grudge.
She stood just at the precipice of the doorway. I could still slip out, or at the very least try something. I shifted my body up and towards the control panel. The buttons to each floor blinked in little increments. They lined the panel like a row of cheap string lights I bought off a dropshipping site for my bedroom.
I reached up for the bottom floor. My finger extended out, just outside of my reach. I strained with the little energy I had just to make it work. The halfway, which had been shaking just idly, had now begun to rattle more fiercely, like an earthquake.
"I'm sorry. I really am," the girl said. "For all it's worth, I didn't mean for this to happen."
"Does anyone--huff--really mean for anything to--huff--happen?" I managed to say between breaths. The button was just an inch away. I only needed a second and a little push.
"I don't think I'm the right person to ask that kind of question to. If there was another option, I would have taken it," she said, her voice growing quieter. "I don't like hurting people. I'm sorry!" She closed her eyes. I could feel her reaching out to me with that strange force that followed her. I could feel her taking hold of it, taking hold of me.
Just as I feared she would have me, I heard the elevator ding!
And suddenly, though for no reason I could infer other than through sheer luck, I was freefalling five stories. I screamed at the top of my lungs. Quickly, I watched the girl's head leave my cone of vision, slipping from view. Her pupils shrunk as she too watched me slip from her sight. Just as I screamed into the void, so too did she. I could hear her shouts echoing down the now empty elevator shaft as the words chased me, "COME BACK HERE!" I'd have laughed if I wasn't so locked into the terrifying thrall of it. Like one of those freefalling rides at an amusement park, the metal coffin I was thrown into had suddenly detached from any safety locks holding it in place and fell to the bottom in a horrifying excuse for serendipity.
After a few seconds the elevator crashed into the bottom floor. It splintered through the pipes and metal bars of the shaft's industrial framework. I heard the pipes burst and metal creak before I felt the impact. As the walls caved in, all I could think was: Is this it?
Static crackled.
Crackle.
Crackle.
Crack!
Before I knew it, I was awake in the safety of my hospital bed. My skin felt prickly, like caffeine and adrenaline pumping through my veins. I sat straight up in bed, throwing my sheets to the side, afraid that she was still around. But no, I was alone in the hospital room.
I brought my hands up to my mouth. I almost let out a scream for help, but managed to stop myself.
Was that a dream?
No. No way in hell was that a dream. I've never once had a dream as visceral, as real as that one.
Light streamed in through the blinds, illuminating my bed and room. It was morning. The elevator!
I jumped from my bed and threw a shirt on. The second I opened the door to the hallway I sprinted down towards the lobby, nearly hitting two attendees.
"Please do not run in the halls!" one of them shouted after me. I didn't care. I obviously had something more pressing on my mind. Focus Monty. It has to be over…here! After I rounded the corner, I stood face to face with the hunk of steel and lights that almost squashed me a moment ago.
Ding!
A sign flashed at the top of the doors as they opened to reveal Dr. Crowe in his full morning glory. A cup of black coffee stirred in his hand while a clipboard hung just below the crook of his arm.
"Out of bed bright and early I see. Going down?"
I huffed and heaved with my chest fully into it. I didn't realize how much energy I expended from my sprint down the hall. My knees rattled like I'd been asleep for a millenia.
"S--So sorry Dr. Crowe."
He laughed. It was a heartfelt and crony laugh.
"It's no trouble, but you should be getting some rest. Your hair's a mess."
And indeed it was. Bedhead locks of hair stuck to my cheeks which were coated with sweat. The first thing I did was go to check on the elevator…which was fine. Working. Completely intact. It even seemed to glow.
"Maybe…we should have a chat, Monty."
I hadn't even noticed the second cup of coffee in his other hand. Steam rose to the surface.
"You take any cream? Sugar?"