“Put some jeans on, Don Juan De Mummy,” I shake my head at him.
“I probably should, someone might mistake this,” he points to his groin, “as someone’s missing arm.”
I punch him in the shoulder. “That would be funny to put an arm there! Maybe we should do that one day.”
“Yeah, we could go to that supermarket place and pay for things,” he smiles widely.
“I don’t have to be with them, though do I? It didn’t say that.” I think over my Hat sentence. It just said basically to get ten other people naked, meaning at one stage I had to bare all as well.
“No, I don’t want to beat up sick people if they get excited,” Nat grimaces. “Ah hold on, it’s you getting naked, not me. They’ll run screaming!”
“Ha, ha, ha,” I give him a sideways look. I’m desperately trying to think of an amazing idea to do this. Out of the square type of thing. I don’t want to just steal people’s clothes while they are having a shower. I want people to go into mass nakedness hysteria. It would be a great story to tell. But how?
Dad would love the hospital to have... I get an idea. Dad is going to love this.
“I’ve got it!” I say with a grin grabbing the Reaper mask and shoving it Nat’s big hand.
Noah
At the hospital doors, I pause, that familiar feeling of warring emotions hits me hard. I hurt her so badly and didn’t even fucking notice, but I want to see her so desperately to make it right.
It wins. The desire to see her. I walk in, hoping her brother won’t use this time in my life to push me to violence. I can see he dances with it just as much as I do.
I walk in and the whoosh of the automatic doors distracts me fleetingly from the scene of confusion in front of me. Yet even amongst the melee of this confusion I see her.
Oh God, I see her. My mouth falls open.
“Av?” My voice falters at the sight of her about to disappear from my view. She turns, hair sliding over those bare shoulders and a wide grin breaks out on her face. She bolts to me lifting my shirt and sliding up against my skin.
Skin against skin. I can feel parts of her I never thought I would dare.
I’ve seen girls naked before but never had one against me. So soft and silky. I can feel everything and nothing. I don’t feel the doors open and close behind me, or people push past me, all I feel is her... and the deep knowledge that right at this moment I’m more perilous than I have ever been in my life... as every teenage feeling I’ve ever hidden rushes to the surface.
Uh oh
Avalon
I glance at my watch, waiting for him. Hoping he hasn’t been caught squashed in his hiding place. Not that that would stop him. I smile picturing how they’d need to tranquilise him like a bull elephant to stop this little thing happening. His face when I told him my plan was gold. We had hashed over what to say while we hid and schemed our way into the main office area of the whole hospital. Which was a feat because we had to bring the Reaper stuff with us.
I’m glad that Nathan is super controlled when he is pumped. Otherwise, we would have had a disaster.
It’s really busy in the ER, people are just lying around everywhere in chairs or in beds, Dad would hate it. He’d be ready to kill anyone that approached him, especially, if they had a bag or needle on their person. I must admit, I do not particularly like it either. Hospitals aren’t my thing, even with Nathan here, there is always this lurking feeling scratching at the base of my spine.
I wish I had my phone so I could ring Noah and see how he’s doing, I’d even settle for ringing Seth and teasing him about something or rather, see if Kelsey captured him, if my mum spontaneously combusted after my plate throwing tirade at the restaurant or if Sam has trained the women. D had rung earlier along with Tina and Ruth who were both at her house. I told them not to come because they’d be dragged into The Hat and I don’t think they are ready for that yet. I can’t wait to see them after school tomorrow and D said she would whip up Nathan a leotard for All the Single Ladies show just in case he took my place.
I wonder if Noah is beating himself up. If his father were -still alive... me and him would tangle big time. PTSD is a terrible thing, I guess when you’re going through it you don’t realise what you’re doing or saying and what it’s effect might be. I feel right now like Noah probably does every minute of the day – well when I’m with him - a mixture of emotions. I’d drag Noah’s dad to help even if I had to tie him behind Frank.
Even though my hospital heebee geebies are actively sprinting up my spine with their nasty claws and I’m missing Amber and Outlaw, I feel damn good because of Nathan, Pop and Frank’s close proximity. It’s amazing how much of the suffocating pain has left my chest. I can’t believe how I even breathed through that. It’s incredible that Noah lives daily through his pain, I can see why he is so cold and controlled because if he weren’t, he’d be lost... totally. At least now, Noah has no option but to hang around us and hopefully, we will have a great effect on him. And come on, how could my presence not affect him much? A girl who is about to try to get the whole hospital naked? What more could he want? I literally can’t wait to see him.
If he comes... I’m so hoping, but I wouldn’t place any bets on it.
A high pitch sound scratches over the PA system causing a hitch in my breath and my mind to get on the job that will be at hand in any coming minute.
He’s in and captured the PA system and the lights by the looks of it, I muse as the lights flicker on and off ominously. People look around with slight alarm.
I wait gathering myself for what’s to come. What I need to achieve.
Dad once said that people are like sheep, move one, move all. I’m hoping that is true but still what a terrible thing for the human race to be perceived as... sheep.
But I’m ever ready to take advantage, and I’m prepared to shepherd the hospital herd to mass nakedness.
The lights go on and off again and again. Either Nathan is getting very dramatic, or he’s fighting someone.
A sound, more dreadful than any I have ever thought possible, scratches through the hospital speakers like evil claws down a chalkboard. I don’t know what evil sounds like but the resonance of it rashes my whole body with goosebumps.
A bloodcurdling snicker causes people to either grip the arms of their seats with white knuckles or to peer around in alarm.
The nurses stare at each other in consternation and check their computers.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You are now listening to the dulcet tones of the designated region’s - and world’s best, might I add- Grim Reaper.”
People shudder but no one makes a move to speak. My goosebumps intensify, I don’t know how that is possible, but the voice that comes out of that mask sounds waaaaay worse altering Nat’s voice than it did mine.
“I can envisage that I now hold the attention of every soul in this hospital. Rather taking advantage of the inevitable fact really, aren’t I?”
We spent ages working the dialogue out, but boofhead is obviously well and truly in part now because he’s bloody changing it.
“After millenniums of performing my mundane profession, transporting those last wispy exhalations from warm bodies fighting for life and harvesting your delectable souls, I have decided to grant myself some entertainment and some of you here tonight - twenty-eight to be exact - a chance for a reprieve. A second chance at living.”
A tail could swish and everyone would hear it, it’s that quiet. We didn’t talk about a number! I want to cover my eyes, but I have to act here.
“I will not touch with my lovely, lady killer fingers, anybody that is...”
A collective breath is taken by those in the ER. Nat waits dramatically.
“Naked.”
It is still quiet. No one moves. We predicted this.
“As I can see all your souls not moving, I will tell you a little personal fact about myself. I hate STD’s they are nasty, nasty little things, spreading here an
d itching there- so if you remain clothed... I will presume you have an STD and I, being one to wish the world to be rid of such pesky, crotch irritating diseases... will REAP YOU INSTEAD!”
He roars and people squeal. I jump to my feet and scream, ripping the my clothes from my body with a fever of someone that believes. That loves being alive. I will risk being naked to live.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I see people staring at me with wide, stunned-mullet expressions. All I need is one to follow my lead. A grinning teenager stands up and unzips his pants. As my hospital gown falls to the floor other people are standing pulling at their clothes, dumping them on seats and throwing them on the floor or plastering them to themselves.
People are pointing to the others slow on the getting naked gig, “Get them off!”, “Hurry!”
When an older lady points and yells out, “There! I think I see him,” pandemonium hits. People who were considering not giving in and getting naked, get their threads off in Olympic seconds and run to different parts of the room to be in clumps. The people that were pretty much acting dead in the waiting chairs are the liveliest.
Some nurses also feel they might not be exempt and remove their gear. I count, forty-two! Haha! We rock!
Excitement wells up in me and I dash off through the milling people to find Nathan so we can freak out about what we just did together.
I hear his voice.
I stop and turn, my eyes searching for those green ones I have been thinking about.
There, by the door. I dash over the best I can with my IV and duck up under his shirt.
A strange quivering sensation assaults me as his body trembles. His skin is so soft and parts of me react like never before. A weird heat unlocks the mental cage my octopus must have been imprisoned in, and I can feel its tentacles slide down my body turning knobs and buttons I have no idea what their switches do.
I press my lips to the skin of his chest in welcome as my arms slide around him, loving the feel of his skin and the fact my tattoos are decorating it. “I’m so happy you’re here,” I gaze up at him through the neck hole of his shirt.
His muscles go strangely tense, I can feel them all, every striation. My mind marvels just how much I do appreciate powerful bodies. His eyes are practically glowing.
“Av,” he breathes looking down at me. His shaking hands wrapping around my body. “Y- you have to get out of my shirt.”
“I, for once, agree with he who is most definitely on my list,” A midnight strangler voice skitters across the room from behind me.
Noah
The voice is like nothing I’ve ever heard before, it’s as if someone stole a million nightmares and sewed them all together with a thread sourced from hell itself. It’s so horrendous that it causes all my feelings to skid to a halt right against Av as I carefully manoeuvre her behind me.
That action is not as easy as it should be because Av is giggling her head off while trying to yell out crazy comebacks to the huge Reaper tapping his sickle against his hand ominously. No wonder everyone is screaming and seeking to vacate the room, the rotting flesh on the mask looks so real I would be half worried if Avalon wasn’t laughing.
I have a strong feeling it’s Nathan but still, if it’s not and thinks he’s going to take her from me, I’ll be the one doing the killing tonight.
I don’t move, I can talk to Avalon freely, but I still feel my tongue glued to my mouth with most other people. I let my eyes do the talking.
The Grim Reaper whirls suddenly and storms over to step up on a chair, black billowing around his legs like shadows. He gestures for silence and for everyone to stay still. That body language must run in their family.
Av slides around to the front of me and again and pops her head out my shirt. My hands snake their way around her waist, my thumb rubbing the pleat of her bandage. My mind starts to fall into turmoil. I’m glad for the distraction when the Reaper does some curious hand movements.
Av turns her head and her hot blue gaze finds mine. I can’t talk for a moment, as my mind stumbles for a second in replaying my father’s sayings. Avalon is so goddam beautiful. “Can I have your shirt, please?” she waits expectantly.
The reaper makes a growling type noise.
I don’t want to let her move from against me, but my mind’s stirring with those dangerous feelings due to her close proximity. I shrug it off my arms and head so that it stays over her, happy that it covers her to her thighs.
“That is your brother, right?” I ask ready to whisk her away if she says no. Because there is a more than a big chance that she’s made friends with a mental patient. That would totally be plausible for Avalon.
“Yup,” she nods. “And unfortunately, he is going to test you right now. Fail and he probably will actually kill you, kill you. He thinks that he will get away with it if he says the spirit of the Grim Reaper overtook his brain and my dad will back him up saying it runs in the family when female members are in naked, comprising positions. But if you pass, all you need to do is give him your keys. Please pass, I don’t want to fight him.”
“What?” I murmur wondering where the hell she got all that from and what ‘keys’ he thinks I’m giving him.
“Just go with it,” she smiles at me before placing her soft lips on mine. I feel any fight leave my body.
The Reaper growls again, and my skins crawls from the orchestra of death that sound creates.
Nathan, I find out is just as dramatic as his sister. Totally unaffected by being in public, in fact like in Av’s case, it eggs him on. He flourishes and moves like... death. The people that were screaming and running before are hidden in the hallway or behind the nursing station, naked and mesmerised.
I can understand why he is Av’s fav brother. 100% into it, just like her.
“There is always one,” his voice slithers across the floor and the skin of every human in the room with the touch of a thousand snakes, worms and cockroaches.
“Always one that does not believe.” He brandishes the sickle my way. Av gets on her knees in front of me begging him to stop, to choose someone else. To leave me alone. Tears stain her face. I’m lost to what the hell is going on here. What they are doing. I’m torn. I want to pick her up and get her the hell out of here. But... this is Av... and this is Nathan. It’s hard to remember it’s not real when they act this way... and there are naked people in a hospital.
“Always one smart arse that pays the ultimate price,” Nathan jumps down absolutely silently which makes the whole scene extra creepy and advances slowly while twisting and turning the sickle as if he’s had it in his hand for eternity. Avalon stands up and wraps herself around my body, her sweet voice whispers frantically in my ear. “Pretend to die when he does whatever to you. This is going to be awesome!”
Av can hardly hide the excitement in her eyes, her body is absolutely wired with it.
Awesome? I’m pretty sure my eyes are wider than Seth’s when he clocks me coming for him.
Suddenly, she is ripped away from me, it must look callous and harsh to the onlookers but in reality he takes her gently then she starts smacking into him. Hitting him and screaming, begging again for my life. He throws her down and she slides across the floor, crying. Sobbing. Av crying does something to my insides. I step forward only to find the sickle pressed against my chest. Av shakes her head slightly and winks.
“Little girl, you try in vain.” The Reaper scoffs pushing off her headlong charge. She falls easily,
I must look ridiculous because all I can do is stare at her while my body desperately fires off ways to kill Nathan. I’m on tenterhooks. I can honestly say it’s like being thrown into a movie and being told to ‘ACT’ but you don’t even know what genre.
A sizeable skeletal hand grabs my hair and I feel something cold press against my neck. It feels like a squashy bag of some sort.
“Nooooo,” Av screams, on her knees one hand reaching forward. “Pleaaaaaseeee!”
“You’re hurting my ears, shush.�
� He points a bony finger at her.
“I’ve had a great deal of fun tonight,” he starts. My skin breaks out in goosebumps from the voice being so close, I half expect worms to appear from his mouth. “And I want to get back to it. So much nakedness, who wouldn’t.” He leans in close like I’m in on the joke and totally agree with him. “So kids, remember to cloak the joker before you poke her. STD’s are nasty and I will find you and ... well, this.”
I feel the swing of the sickle before I feel it slash my neck before I can think of what I should do I’m down on the floor, cold liquid pouring around my neck. On the floor beside my face red blood pools, I’m not hurt, but there is a heavy boot on my back, digging in and twisting. Av is giving me a look as she crawls over seemingly hysterical, her knees slipping in the blood. The boot leaves me as she arrives pulling me into her lap.
“Act dead,” she whispers, “until I pinch you.”
I have no idea what the hell is going to happen here, I’m hoping that they don’t try those electric defibrillator things on me.
But she does the last thing I expect.
She sings. Loud and clear.
“If this world is wearing thin
And you’re thinking of escape
I’ll go anywhere with you
Just wrap me up in chains.”
She cradles my head and lets her tears fall on my face.
But if you try to go out alone
Don’t think I’ll understand
Stay with me
Stay with me”
She uses my shirt to clean me up. Her hands roam over my shirtless body. I start to forget where I am as she touches me. I would go through this every night to have her touch me like that. I would. I’m already planning it. I will act dead in a hospital killed by an STD hating Reaper to feel this.
“In the silence of your room
In the darkness of your dreams
You must only think of me
There can be no in between”
Right now, I’m only thinking of her and this situation, my body has never felt what it’s experiencing right now. Her hand continues to work itself over my body, causing very undead like tingles to follow its path over my skin. My brain, the cold half is trying to revolt, trying to get me to feel that critical need to get her away from me but I can’t. I’m supposed to be dead. This isn’t real. She’s not doing it on purpose. It’s like my body has found a loophole. And is loving it. I’m hoping this song goes on for a long time.
Avalon Expandable Heart: The Wild Heart Series Page 27