by Ingrid Fry
Walking along the corridor, I anticipated a lovely hot shower. I was glad to see a toothbrush and toothpaste included in the bag Ashley had given me. My mouth felt like the bottom of a cockatoo’s cage.
I opened the shower room with the key he’d given me. Good old Ashley. He must have sweet-talked one of the nurses into letting me use the staff shower room. First things first, I had to clean my teeth. Looking into the mirror, and brushing thoroughly, I enjoyed the minty freshness.
Ashley came to mind again. Those images I’d seen, and the feelings. The icy coldness, surrounded by black, claustrophobia, the stench of decay. My stomach knotted in response.
I looked at my reflection. Oh crikey, we had ourselves a mirror of death. The harsh fluorescent lights highlighted every flaw and washed away any remaining colour left in my face. Holy crap. If I got any whiter, you wouldn’t be able to find me in a snowstorm. The lights sucked out the colour from my green eyes, making them look eerie under my dark lashes and eyebrows. My black hair had lost its luster and lay in matted clumps, and my blunt cut fringe had gone AWOL, curling in multiple directions.
The overhead lights flickered and my reflection was overshadowed by another face. It was blurred and shadowy, but it seemed like a man. I shrieked and dropped the toothbrush on the floor.
Almost as soon as they’d started, the lights stopped flickering and my reflection returned to normal. I rubbed my eyes. What was that? The image had been so brief, I hadn’t had time to fully register it. I was way too tired. Perhaps my eyesight was playing up. Or maybe there was a ghost in the mirror.
I often saw strange things. Ghosts and stuff. We had a ghost in our house. Harmless, but she liked to muck around with the lights. We had a lot of blown lightbulbs from her efforts. I don’t know who she is, but apparently, she likes being with us. She’s a clean freak. She got highly upset when we were renovating and there was mess around. Cost us a fortune in lightbulbs. God knows how she’s coping at the moment.
So maybe it was a ghost in the mirror. The mirrors at home seemed to have a life of their own lately. Just great. I had a ghost who played with electricity, and now one with a penchant for mirrors.
Still thinking of Ashley, I zipped the toilet bag and headed for the shower. He felt close. I held the image of his face in my mind and became aware of a soft humming in my head. Don’t tell me on top of everything I’ve got tinnitus!
I moved towards the door and the humming increased in strength. Ashley’s presence felt stronger. Deciding to forgo the shower, I exited the bathroom and raced along the corridor towards Jason’s room. The humming faded. Following the sound in my brain I ran towards the lifts.
The lift arrived and I got in. When the doors closed, the automated voice suggested I select a floor. I ran my eyes over the numbered buttons, and when they hit the bottom level, B5, the whine in my head dialed up in volume. I was being led to Ashley! I’d turned into a human Geiger counter, or Ashley detector.
I pressed B5 with my finger covered in the sleeve of my jumper—those buttons would be crawling with germs. As I pressed the button, it occurred to me I should get Jason, but no, he needed to rest. I could do this.
The lift door opened and I stepped out into a long corridor. Unlike the modern hospital on the floors above, this was like stepping back in time. It reminded me of a mineshaft—a corridor stretching out to forever.
The high ceilings were lit by dim fluorescent lights, which fought a losing battle against the encroaching shadows. The Dark Force would love it here.
The place seemed deserted. I followed the hum to the left, and winced when my boots made a racket on the green linoleum floor. Too loud. I yanked them off and left them inside an open office door. Office, twenty-three. Remember that, Maggie. Don’t want to lose those boots.
Now my footfalls were silent as a mouse. Mucho bettero.
I followed a blue line on the floor to who knew where. All the shiny linoleum made me want to take a run and see how far I could slide in my socks.
The place was heavy with silence and appeared deserted. This was definitely the bowels of the hospital, probably housing laundry rooms or secret labs filled with failed experiments.
I slipped along the corridor past rows of doors, all identical except for their numbers, and finally found myself at a fork in the corridor. There were three directions to choose from. Getting the hang of my new skill, the direction I needed to take came immediately—the middle corridor. I still hadn’t come across a living soul, or even a dead one for that matter.
I followed this new corridor to a set of double doors with restricted access signs all over them. I peered through the window in the door and saw a little office to the right with a sign on the window: Medical Records / Mortuary. N.B. Cremation Certificate MUST be paid for at Cashier on Level 1.
It appeared no one was in attendance, so I pushed on one of the double doors, and hey presto, it opened. So much for restricted access. I hugged the wall and ducked below the office window, like I’d seen in the movies, in case someone was in the back having coffee and doughnuts.
The light was dim and the corridor radiated a peculiar greenish tinge. The ceiling was low with pipes running along the walls. Tiles were coming loose and the air smelt stale. All in all, it was a pretty spooky place, but I was starting to enjoy myself.
A sign for the mortuary pointed straight ahead. The humming increased, so I kept going. Suddenly the buzzing in my head stopped. Now what?
Footsteps, not the squeak, squeakady, squeak of rubber or vinyl soles, but the tap, tap, tap of leather. A second set of footsteps followed the first. Office doors opened and closed systematically.
Someone was searching for something, or someone.
I had a strong feeling it would behoove me not to be discovered by the owners of these footsteps, even though I didn’t know who owned them. I tried the handle on the office door behind me. It was locked.
Bang! If I didn’t know any better, that sounded like an office door being kicked in.
Bang! Yep. Their search was slow, methodical and relentless.
Bang! I assumed with all the door kicking they weren’t hospital employees. Or maybe they were.
Bang! I stood, unsure what to do next; my Geiger counter seemed to have given up the ghost.
A sign indicated the mortuary was to the right, and there was a laundry to the left. Opposite me was a short unsignposted corridor.
I couldn’t go back. I had to choose. Right? Left? Straight ahead? Where were my psychic powers when I bloody needed ‘em?
A short, angry exchange in a foreign language echoed through the tunnel, followed immediately by the sound of running footsteps heading my way. Decision made! I took the short corridor opposite and strode along it, looking desperately for a suitable hidey-hole. I came across a large doorless room on the left. Inside, the light was dim, but I could make out rows of what looked like boilers. The equipment, whatever it was, seemed to be old and disused. If Jason were here, he’d know exactly what all this stuff was.
In the dim light, back at the T-junction where I’d come from, was the silhouette of a man moving steadily towards me. Before I could react, a hand slapped across my mouth and dragged me backwards into the boiler room.
It was one big mother of a guy who held me in his paws. My body became limp with fright. My legs and arms were useless appendages as he dragged me at speed to the back of the room. His face was next to mine. He smelt like … death.
I felt myself disassociate from my body. Jason was going to be so angry with me for disobeying him and getting into more strife. Huh, if I died here, maybe I would end up in the mortuary around the corner. That would be weird. Handy though.
Clarity returned slightly. There was a bench, I made a restricted grab at whatever came to hand. Hmmm, it felt like metal, and heavy. Good.
I couldn’t whack the bastard behind me because I didn’t have full movement of my arms. Hope began to evaporate. Maybe he was a grizzly bear; he had the arms and grip of one. I’d have to
bide my time.
We reached the wall at the end of the room. My mouth was tightly covered, but there was a slight loosening of his grip around my chest and upper arms. This is it, Maggie. You’ve got to brain him—now!
I went for it, but he grabbed my wrist.
I have to say, I was sick and tired of my wrists being grabbed, particularly as they were still sore from their previous abuses.
A voice hissed in my ear. ‘It’s Ash, idiot. Shhh.’
He released my mouth, put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me into a squat between his legs, his arms wrapped around me. We were wedged behind one of the boilers at the back of the room. It was dark, but we were like two sitting ducks.
My heart hammered in my ears, and I felt a ridiculous urge to scream.
Wait! I had it! It hit me like a bolt of lightning. I had the answer. I needed to get angry. It was that easy. I needed to turn myself back into the monster who nearly killed Jason. I could have those two blokes on toast. No worries.
I screwed up my face—I’m angry; I am soooo angry. So angry, angry, angry! I focused my concentration on all the things which made me furious. I tried to whip myself into a frenzy, but like a woman with too much Botox, all I got was blandness. What the hell?
As footsteps made their way into the room, I had a lightbulb moment—I could be a tad slow at times—the darkness wouldn’t attack its own. That must be why I couldn’t get any rage going. But was it really the Dark Force? The vibe from this pursuer was different. I couldn’t sense unadulterated rage. It was an energy devoid of emotion. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was dealing with.
I didn’t know if Ashley had a plan, but I knew exactly what I was going to do. I whipped myself out of Ashley’s grasp and squeezed between the boilers, making my way to the front of the room. The man was heading towards the spot where Ashley was hidden.
I took aim and hurled the metal object I’d found earlier at a small window at the top of the wall outside the room.
Smash! A direct hit! The noise was loud enough for the man to hightail it back outside the room. He didn’t notice the window and kept going, running off along the corridor.
Ashley was by my side a second later. He grasped my hand and pulled me from the room, dragging me behind him to the end of the corridor where he raised his fist and stopped. I’d seen enough action movies to know what that hand signal meant, and Ashley had seen enough action to use it automatically.
We peeked around the corner. The man was nowhere to be seen. Giving the forward motion hand signal, Ashley dragged me along the corridor towards the mortuary. Ashley was in his socks as well, and a big toe stuck out through a hole in one of them.
Blasting through more doors with Restricted Access signs, we finally arrived at the mortuary. I stopped, confronted by an awful orange linoleum floor and a big bank of stainless-steel fridge lockers.
‘Come on, this bottom locker’s empty,’ Ashley whispered, indicating a blank identification ticket on the door. He pulled off a whiteboard pen clipped to the front of the locker and wrote something in the blank space.
‘You’re kidding?’
‘Nup, it’s the perfect hidey-hole.’ He opened the door and slid out the bottom trolley. ‘I put a tagged body bag in there already.’
‘Not a used bag?’
‘No silly, it’s brand new. Come on, we have to get bagged and tagged.’
The look on my face must have said everything.
He spoke to me like I was a child. ‘Just imagine … pretend it’s a sleeping bag, and we’re going camping.’
I rolled my eyes.
Ashley sat in the body bag on the stainless-steel body tray and swung his legs on, stretching them out in front of him. He held out his arms. ‘Get in. Now!’
I lay on top of him, face to face. I figured I’d rather stare at Ashley than have my nose millimeters away from a stainless-steel plate, above which rested four dead bodies.
‘Watch your noggin.’ He held the steel above and rolled us into the fridge. Then he reached back and pulled the fridge door closed.
‘I’ve been laying low in here,’ he whispered. ‘After I left you, I sensed I was being tailed, and I was. Three blokes. I could’ve taken ‘em out, but I didn’t want my new choppers smashed, so I lost the dudes and hid in this locker. I thought the blokes had scarpered and was making my way out when I saw you. We can wait it out in here ’til the coast is clear. I couldn’t understand their language, but I did make out two words. They said Maggie a few times, and Kris-tal, which obviously means crystal.’
‘So, what? They know you’re associated with me so they’re after you too?’
‘Looks like it, kiddo.’
‘Shit.’
It was pitch black. The steel was cold on my hands so I moved them to rest on Ashley’s chest. I tried not to think about the men hunting us, or their soulless energy. I tried not to think about the bodies stacked above us. It felt like they’d
definitely gone spirit wise, so that was something. I guess. I also tried to not think about my close proximity to Ashley. We were the best of friends now, but I had dated him before Jason.
‘This is cozy,’ he whispered. He stretched his jacket across me to keep me warm. ‘Reminds me of the time we all went camping. Remember the storm and how my tent got trashed. We all had to huddle in your two-man tent.’
‘Yeah, it was beaut,’ I said, as my teeth began to chatter.
Ashley held me tight in his arms; one big paw cradled the top of my head.
‘This is dumb,’ I whispered. ‘They’ll find us. We’re like sitting ducks.’
‘They didn’t find me before.’
I pinched his arm. ‘Listen. Footsteps.’
We held our breath as rubber soles squeaked around the room, stopped, then squeaked some more, off into the distance.
I slowly let out my breath to try and settle my pounding heart. ‘What’s the plan if someone opens the door? We’re screwed.’
‘I have a plan.’
‘What’s the plan?’
‘We play dead,’ he said.
‘Oh my God, that’s it? We are so dead.’
‘Think positive.’
‘Ashley?’
‘Yes.’
‘How do we get out?’
‘Self-releasing mechanism. Red button on the inside of door.’
The tip of my nose was an ice block, and I couldn’t feel my fingers and toes. Seriously, I could not stay in this refrigerated coffin. I hated going into supermarkets with open freezers, or walking into the refrigerated back room of the liquor store. This was my worst, worst nightmare. I would happily hand myself over to the bad guys rather than stay in this subzero box.
‘When can we go?’
‘Soon, pumpkin.’
‘How soon?’ I asked.
‘Soon.’
‘Soon soon?’
‘Yep, soon.’
He was in no hurry to leave. In fact, he seemed quite relaxed. How odd. Maybe he was a vampire, and this reminded him of his coffin at home. Just my luck. He was probably going to bite me any minute, and I’d be doomed to drink blood and roam the earth for eternity. What would happen to Jason? Or Boo? I would have to bite them too.
‘You’re a vampire, aren’t you?’ I whispered. ‘You love it in here.’
His belly shook with silent laughter. He moved my head to one side exposing the soft flesh on my neck, then bent forward and bit me with his brand-new choppers, sucking in my flesh between his teeth.
‘Ow! Stop, it hurts!’ I jerked away and cracked my skull on the top of the fridge. It echoed like thunder and we both let rip with an expletive.
Ashley became rigid; I felt us both hold our breath. Ashley was still holding his when I had to let mine go, blowing softly into his chest.
‘I think we’re okay, Mags.’
‘You’re an idiot.’
‘No, you’re an idiot. A vampire indeed! Hmmm, but I like sharing my coffin with you,’ he said, trying to nuzzle my n
eck again. Ashley was easily bored, and I knew he was trying to amuse himself at my expense.
‘I’m outta here.’ I wriggled upwards trying to find the door release button. I was cold—no, make that freezing—claustrophobic, and highly annoyed. It was at that moment I felt the beast stir.
Except it wasn’t my beast, it was Ashley’s.
‘Ashley! What?’
‘Sorry,’ he whispered. ‘I’m only human. You wriggle too much.’
‘Awkward.’
‘Uh huh.’
I tried to wriggle to one side to take the pressure off.
He drew a sharp breath in through his nose. ‘I wouldn’t do that.’
‘Sorry, only trying to help.’
‘It ain’t helping, sweetheart.’
I started to giggle and buried my face in his chest to muffle the sound. Convulsing with laughter, and knowing it wouldn’t benefit things, made me laugh even more.
Ashley groaned underneath me.
My stomach hurt. I couldn’t breathe. I gasped for air. I think I’d used up all the oxygen. At least I was warmer. I raised my head to catch a breath, and Ashley kissed me. Oh my.
The flame I thought dead burst into life.
Uh-oh.
His hand slid to the back of my head, holding me in place, as he gave me a long, deep, passionate kiss. His other hand wrapped around my bum, and he pulled me in close. I didn’t think we could actually get any closer, but Ashley obviously had other ideas.
Against my will, my body responded.
What was it with my knees? I felt them go weak even though they had no weight to support.
I might as well stay here in this goddamn morgue now, because I was so dead already if Jason found out.
‘Mmmm,’ I said, trying to pull away and speak. I dug him sharply in the ribs.
‘Ouch!’ He jerked his head back. Both his hands had found their way under my top where he’d already released my bra strap with one quick flick. Oh, here was a man of remarkable know-how. Years of practice, right there.
His hands were trying to manoeuvre their way to my breasts, but were frustrated by the lack of space. He went to Plan B, sliding both hands along my body until his thumbs hooked into the back of my jeans, and then he yanked downwards. I felt a button give way.