The hospital stench was getting to me.
After school today, my mom had called from work to ask if I could kindly swing by the hospital to drop off some files she had forgotten in the process of her rush this morning. Molly and I were about to have some sandwiches at my place for lunch when she called, I agreed and we packed up some tomato sandwiches and pink lemonade to go for all three of us.
After taking the bus heading out of town and a very long hour or so, we got to the psychiatric hospital where my mom has worked as a nurse since before I was born. She appreciated the lunch we brought her and after a few minutes of sitting around and eating, I was already impatient and ready to leave. Molly, on the other hand had made herself completely comfortable on the office couch and was ranting to my mom about how she had been saving for some new designer boots that had gotten even more expensive over the weekend.
Sometimes, I thought Molly was very vain but looking at her in her faded denim jumpsuit dotted with multicolored patches and her soft, oval face framed with long chestnut brown, I decided she had a lot to be vain about. I fingered my shoulder length, thick, black hair and felt a flash of jealousy which disappeared as fast as it came.
Mom thought Molly was the best thing since the invention of technology, so our friendship was something she loved and encouraged heartily. I on the other hand didn't really like our friendship all that much, people always saw me as that Molly's friend, she was the reason I was popular too and I hated it.
"Sophie," Molly called my mom, speaking softly her voice dripping like honey. "You've got bags under your eyes, you need to rest, you've been working yourself too much."
My mom gave an agreeing nod, placing a hand to her forehead and leaning back on her chair. Molly was actually right, my mom did look stressed out with her hooded, heavy eyes and grey streaked black hair put up in a tight bun but I hated that she was the one to point it out, it should have been me caring about my mom not her.
"You're right, dear," my mom sighed, straightening up to reach for her plastic cup of lemonade and clutching it tightly. "It must be the graveyard shifts I've been taking lately, but I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, Molly."
"Sophie, you're like my mom, I'm always going to be worried about you."
I was sick to the stomach at this point and I rolled my eyes, getting up from the couch I had been seating on with Molly. I jammed my hands into the pockets of my gray sweatpants and cleared my throat loudly.
"I'm going to the bathroom," I told them, wanting to leave their presence but it wasn't a total lie too, I actually needed to use the bathroom.
"Sure, dear." My mom only glanced at me once before turning back to Molly.
"Want me to come with?" Molly asked, excitedly and I suppressed the urge to say a cuss word. That was the problem with her, she was so nice and genuine, you couldn't find a reason to hate her.
"No, I'll be back soon." I tied my hair up in a high ponytail. "And then we'll leave."
I had had enough of them. I strolled down the depressing hallways and said a few words of greetings to the few of my mom's colleagues I was familiar with. This whole place screamed sadness and depression and after glancing at the tiny, black 22 on the back of my hand, I felt the same type of depression radiate off me in waves.
22 days. I was going to die in 22 days with the way were going. I hadn't heard a word from the devil since after calculus two days ago.
Somehow, I had left the route that led to the bathrooms and was now standing right in front of a sign that contained two blue opposite faced arrows that each pointed out the words, Staff welfare and permanent residents.
The right arrow which pointed out permanent residents really interested me and I found myself turning and following that direction as though controlled by some powerful external force. I found myself in an hallway with dimmed lights that contained doors which went all the way down the hall on both sides and I slowly walked down the silent hallway.
Peering through the see through glasses, I noticed the rooms were all similarly basic and simple with small beds, a small cable TV and a desk table complete with chair. Some of the rooms contained people, some just stared at me blankly while some sat up to watch the television, others seemed to talk to themselves and one particularly chubby, redheaded woman raced to her window side when she spotted me and banged at it repeatedly.
I quickly walked away from her after that.
At the very end of the hallway, I noticed a large window, huge enough to contain three people at the same time and I peered out of it and noticed that climbing this building was going to be relatively easy. The old pipes stretched out around the faded bricks and I dismissed the insane thought as quickly as it had come. I glanced at the late evening sky and my heart quietly sunk at the thought of yet another day coming to an end.
I needed to act fast on the Blake issue.
I turned from the window, wanting to leave this creepy hallway when someone watching TV in the last room caught my eye. She looked even older and more sickly now with her washed out blonde hair in tufts. She had on the hospital's orange dressing gown which looked huge on her tiny frame and almost like she knew she was being watched, she turned and her black eyes met mine.
Mad Maria! After all these years, she was still here.
She stared at me for a full minute then got off the bed in a movement that looked almost mechanical, like she was being controlled and went over to her tiny desk. I stared, mesmerized by the lunatic and even though I knew the doors were all locked and there was no way she could possibly get near me, I couldn't shake off the sudden apprehension I felt.
She was a holding a pencil now, and was holding a roll of toilet paper, she gave a grim smile and then unrolled it a bit to move the pencil across. It looked as if she was trying to write but with quite a lot of difficulty. I was about to finally walk away when she suddenly clapped with apparent excitement and ran over to the glass barrier where I stood on the opposite side and held up the roll of toilet paper.
I strained my eyes for a few moments before deciphering the letters.
ELBIB SLIVED EHT
What the heck was that supposed to mean? I frowned knowing I had wasted my time and hating myself for it when I noticed her begin to shake her head furiously as she pointed at her lunatic words. With the way things were going, I was going to get a ward next to her very soon. Then I noticed Maria leave the glass and go to her metal door and pull at it desperately, her eyes panicked and I wondered why she wouldn't just talk.
Giving up on the door, I noticed the roll of toilet paper fly out of the small door hatch left on all the doors probably for passing items to the patients. I went over to the paper and picked it, then held it up to watch her continue to shake her head furiously.
"What the heck is this, Maria?" I waved the toilet paper in the air. "What are you trying to say?"
I was pacing about now, hands jammed into my sweatshirt pockets.
"You once said I was shadowkissed by the devil, what does that mean?" I was desperate for answers at this point, any answers. "If you know what it all means, help me. I'm going to die in 22days."
Mad Maria had gone back to the bed and was now completely focused on the TV with one bony finger jammed into her ear. If she heard me, she didn't act it as she continued to stare at the TV which was airing some low volumed news.
"Fine, thanks for nothing!" I snapped, crumpling the paper and jammed it into the pockets of my sweatpants. I stalked away, annoyed, confused and worried all at once. I retraced my steps to the bathroom, and after a quick splash of water on my face and observation of my pale, sickly looking appearance, I headed back to the office. It was time to break up the dream team of Molly and my mom.
Standing at the bus stop, half an hour later, I was beginning to realize that maybe leaving the hospital was a bad idea because we could have followed my mom back home way later in the night. A loud clap of thunder struck overhead and I felt Molly's glare from the back of my head.
It was going to rain. Heavily.
"Ruby, this is all your fault," Molly hissed for what sounded like the thousandth time since we've been standing here waiting for a bus." I told you so, and now it looks like it's going to rain."
"Would you calm the fuck down? We'll soon get a bus or a cab and be back in town before the rain starts." I was trying to reassure myself too, at least, they always said to maintain positive vibes in bad situations.
"We better get out here and fast, you know what rain water does to my hair." I resisted the urge to smack her as she patted the perfect ringlets of brown.
We waited about 15 minutes more and then the worse that could happen, did happen. With another loud clap of thunder, the rain droplets started falling hitting us with what felt like intensity of missiles and I hated myself and what I had subjected us to. Molly would never let me hear the end of it.
As we ran down the block, looking for the nearest shelter and running from this rain that was fast making us feel like drowning ducks, a ray of sunlight came in the form of a yellow cab appearing down the street.
We flagged him down and he surprisingly stopped, and shivering all over we got into the backseat, grateful to be away from the storm. I called out our directions to the driver with the large, black cap and settled into the backseat. Molly already had her eyes closed and her lips moving in what seemed like a prayer.
I reached for her hand, wanting her to know I was really sorry for putting her through this experience and I felt her hand squeeze mine gently in return.
She wasn't mad anymore.
We were gonna be okay.
And then I noticed the head of the familiar looking black, cobra tattoo from the neck of the cab driver and the pale, yellow and long, bony fingers gripping the steering wheel and guiding the small car through the heavy rain.
And then I realized I was very wrong.
The last thing we were gonna be was okay.
The Devil was driving the cab.At this point, I wasn't even surprised to see him anymore and I felt the first signs of a splitting migraine as he continued to weave the car at insane speed not the least disturbed by the heavy rain.Molly's eyes were still closed, with her plump, pink lips slightly parted and wet hair matting to her soft face. I wondered if she had fallen asleep by her own will or that of our infamous driver. It was probably the latter."Are you following me now?" I asked."Yes." He replied without an ounce of hesitation and I didn't know whether I was supposed to be creeped out or reassured by the thought. "And I helped you out of this rain, didn't I?""Thanks," I murmured sourly. "Also, could you maybe slow down, I wouldn't want to die before my twenty-two days are up." The dark, casual tone that I used to refer to my death scared me. Had I accepted my fat
I couldn't breathe.The large hand was firmly clamped on my throat, restricting any such luxury such as breathing. I fought the hand, desperately clawing at it when she spoke. I was startled to look at the face of my strangler and discover that it was in fact a giant woman.There were no other words to describe her safe from giant. The clear hairnet she had on did nothing to cover her short, mousy brown hair framing her square jawed face which held the first bearings of a sprouting moustache. A mole stood out on her cheek and her huge blossom rose up and down rapidly as her large, frying pan sized hands continued gripping my neck."Johnson!" She yelled, and my ears temporarily went out of commission then I heard static. "This chica is what's chasing you?"I could understand why she called me chica, most people tended to do that because of my exotic looks. My dad was part Latin and part Mexican and I had his
Friday, Day 11.Things were finally looking up.Our school was no different from those typical ones we read in books; we had the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the computer geeks and the whole lot. However, the only difference was that we barely related with those that weren't in our cliques, meaning your only friends were those on the same social status as you.Our seating arrangements during lunch even showed the segregation clearly, the popular kids sat separate from the ones with no social status, it was the rule of the jungle called high school. I usually sat with Molly and the other cheerleaders at our special table outside. It was more of a school patio converted hangout for us. Yeah, the school didn't complain about it, why? Because the boys liked it, the jocks were everything.This town loved football more than anything, so these boys were hero worshipped.
Saturday, Day 12.My body was literally on fire.I groaned once again, making the girls put on those worried looks once more. Amanda, placing her pom poms down knelt beside me on the bench and reached out to feel my tummy which I was currently gripping.Her big, blue beautiful eyes showed intense worry for her fellow teammate and once again, I remembered this was why she deserved to get Darren. The thought snapped away as fast as it came when another shot of aches coursed through my system and I involuntarily yelled in pain. I closed my eyes, wondering why my body chose today to behave this way, we had a game right now, I was supposed to be out there, not acting as a liability here. I had started feeling the first bearings of pain earlier during practice earlier today but it got intense about an hour ago.It was an unexplainable kind of pain in the sense that I wasn't feeling it in just
Day 13.Sundays were my rest days, basically my favorite day of the week.Binge watching TV.Stuffing my face with junk that would give Amanda an instant heart attack.Wearing sweats all day.Those were my ideal Sundays, only this Sunday wasn't turning out too well and the first sign that today was going to go all wrong came in the form of my sleep deprived mom walking into the kitchen to announce that she wanted to spend the day with me. I was naturally surprised, I couldn't even remember the last time I had hung out with my mom.It was always work, I was used to it though, at least I still had her. I hadn't talked to my father in years now, I wasn't even sure of his whereabouts now, yeah, it was that bad.I had nodded and quietly continued nibbling on my waffles while she continued to stare at me critically. After coming to pick me up f
Day 14It was official, I hated this job.I stared at the ancient, black coffeemaker once again, trying to remember what Darra said to do whenever it stopped working. I couldn't even remember a thing of what the strawberry blonde had told me before hurriedly dashing off, no doubt happy to be relieved of her shift.I had resumed my job at the tea shop just today, after cheer leading practice and Phil had explained I would be working shifts with Darra at the counter, it seemed pretty easy until she had left over an hour ago and the crowd had started to increase rapidly.Between collecting orders, preparing the drinks and serving the pastries I had been totally overwhelmed and the misbehaving of the coffee machine felt like the last straw on the camel's back."What is taking the coffee so long?" I heard Blake ask, staring at me from the other side of the counter. He had been on his
Day 15The oddest thing happened when I opened my locker on Tuesday morning to remove my Biology textbooks as I had that class at the moment and was currently running late.Lock picking and hijacking was quite common in this school so it didn't really surprise me when I found out my lock had been picked and padlock now lying idly inside the locker. I took quick inventory of my things and found out nothing had been touched. My things were exactly as I had left them, even the opened pack of gummy bears were still as I had left them.Why then did they attack my locker and what had they been looking for?I pulled out my textbook, slammed the locker, taking extra care to lock the padlock carefully and inwardly made a decision to go get a better padlock at the store. The second bell went off just as I skidded into Mr Reynolds class.He had been pointing at the fake skeleton we ha
Day 16.I screwed up with Blake big time.It was official, the sight of Darren pushed all my rational thoughts away and filled my head with air. I was beginning to understand why girls that hung around hot guys were called airheads.I had agreed to meet up with Blake in the library and was in fact, on my way there when I ran into Darren at the entrance. His coffee brown skin seemed to glow under the blue polo shirt and my eyes seemed to be magnetized by his wide chest as he smirked down at me."Hey, Chica." His voice was sex, pure, raw sex and I felt my skin dance in anticipation of nothing and everything at the same time. I tried to focus on the posters behind him, the planning committee had obviously been getting ready for Halloween."Darren." I fiddled with the handles of my tote bag now. "We keep running into each other, if I didn't know any better, I'd say it's not coi