“We are not going to call the police?” Betty asked quietly, suspecting she already knew the answer.
“I can’t identify who it was, can you?” He paused, his brownish green eyes boring into hers. When Betty shook her head, he continued. “These things happen in facilities like this. I am not saying you have to get used to it but it may happen from time to time.”
“I understand. I just wanted to make sure. Did Travis get out of his room? Is that why the guards were out like that?” She asked, holding her head up once more so he could wipe her face with a wet towel.
“No, as far as I know he was in his room. We heard you screaming and came looking for you.” Doctor Raines began placing tape over Betty’s nose, trying to keep it in place. “At least we do not have to put your nose back together. You may end up with a bump on it and it may be crooked but I do not think it is going to be too bad.”
Betty smiled at the doctor, not sure what else to say. She wanted to run home and cry into her pillow but she had a feeling she might lose some respect at work if she did that. She only had an hour left on her shift anyway. She had taken some acetaminophen and continued on with her shift.
Jackie came back in and handed her the ice, bringing the salad Betty had been longing for with her.
“I thought you might be hungry still. You take that on home with you and we will see you tomorrow, alright?” Jackie was the charge nurse and had the ability to allow other nurses to go home.
“I think I will stay. Have my salad and finish my shift. My nose isn’t going to feel better for going home.” Betty tried to smile again but the pain in her nose finally became too much.
“You tough girl, you tough. You can stay on if you want but if you need to go home you just tell me so.” Jackie displayed the gap in her otherwise perfect white teeth and Betty let her eyes do the smiling this time.
“I will let you know. I just need to finish up my charts and I will be done anyway.” Betty looked over at the doctor. “You done with me?”
“Yes, but I want to ask you a few more questions while you eat, if you do not mind.” Jackie left the room as the doctor spoke. “And you might want to change your dress before you go back out.”
The doctor was pointing at Betty’s dress and she looked down to see she was covered in blood.
“Oh yes, I believe you are right.” A tissue was not going to get all of the blood and dirt out, she was not sure the dress would ever come clean again, in fact.
“Did you see the guy at all or recognize him?” The doctor asked. “If we can identify him we might be able to deal with it.”
“No, nothing was recognizable. I expect it was Travis though. He has been giving me problems.” Betty tried the salad but put it back down. She had something draining down her throat, likely blood, and the salad just tasted horrible and it made her face hurt to try to eat.
“Right, well, we will keep an eye on him. When are you off again?” His question was abrupt and distracted Betty from trying to wipe at the blood on her dress once more.
“Friday I think, two days from now. Why?”
“I would like to meet you for coffee if you would like.” Doctor Raines said with a smile.
“What about Rule 22?” Betty asked, forgetting her own sworn bachelorette-hood for the moment.
“To hell with it. I would like to get to know you better Ms. Taylor.” The doctor, tall, with a nice tan and light blond hair was charming and had a great smile. But there was something more, something powerful and strong about him that drew Betty in. It was not just the fact that his chiseled good looks reminded her of a movie star or that he was a doctor. She felt safe with him near.
“I think I would like that.” Betty named a diner near her house and got up from the gurney. “Shall we meet at 5?”
“Perfect. Do you have another dress?” He asked as he helped her down from the gurney.
“I am a nurse, of course I have extras.” Betty said with a laugh. A wave of dizziness made her sway but Doctor Raines held his hand to her shoulder to steady her.
“You are brave. I believe you are terrified on the inside but you are brave. I like that.” He said before opening the door and letting her walk out.
Betty changed and finished her charts deciding to go home when she was done. She had gained respect from her workmates by staying and she had a feeling she was going to need that in the days ahead. She could not afford to quit and go back to North Carolina. She had made her bed; she was going to have to lay in it now. Somehow, she would have to learn to cope with the bad because she was stuck here now. Maybe Doctor Raines could make that a little better.
* * *
Two months later
Betty had finally settled into a routine at work and though she still saw the shadows often, sometimes more than one, she hadn’t been attacked again. It had taken her weeks to be able to sleep properly and to be able to walk down the halls on her own but she was getting braver by the day.
She and Adam, Doctor Raines, were growing more serious in their relationship but still kept it platonic at work. Neither wanted to lose their jobs, though Adam had tried to convince her to find a more sedate job where she would not be attacked or hurt by patients. Other than the run-in with Travis, things had been fine and she enjoyed her job. It was challenging but rewarding and the patients were usually very good. They seemed to be more violent with the male staff than the female staff. Betty suspected that said a lot about the male patients and their pasts.
The relationship was progressing slowly; Betty was still leery of what was happening. She had lived her entire life uninterested in the opposite sex but Adam had changed all of that. The first couple of weeks had been tentative steps at friendship, on her part at least. Over time she had found she thought about him often and smiled without even realizing it. She was also catching herself daydreaming about him, about plans they’d made. Betty did not know if this meant she was in love but she knew she was wrapped up in Adam and that meant something important was happening.
Betty was handing out medications to patients, waiting for the last of her bunch to show up. The staff had all worked together to make sure Betty stayed safe after the attack and she was never assigned to work with the Lurking Spectre, as she called Travis Brown. He was not allowed to come to the nursing station anymore unless there was an emergency. He had to speak to an orderly and the orderly would come to the station. There was no proof he had been the one to attack Betty but they all suspected it was him.
Betty knew more about him now, how he had been found with the flesh of most of the women he’d raped and killed hanging in his house, how his landlord had started to smell rotten smells from the place, and sent the police in to search the property. Travis had been dancing with the withered head of one of the women as the police busted in his door, smiling at them maniacally as they arrested him. He had even asked them not to harm his “dresses”, as he had referred to the flesh, because they were precious mementos of his love affairs.
Betty did not know what had happened to his last victim, the women that had been locked in his basement, but thought she might have ended up in a psychiatric hospital too. How could she have gone back to normal life after years of that treatment? She hoped the woman had received some kind of help but after working in the hospital for a while now she wondered if it would have truly helped the woman. The purpose of this hospital seemed to be to control and contain the mental patients, not cure them. That did not help them but Betty knew the hospital was underfunded and understaffed. Besides most of the general population wouldn’t have accepted the patients back into society if they were cured, these people would never be trusted again.
Betty handed the last of the drugs out, watched the patient swallow, and looked into their mouth to ensure they’d swallowed it. She made some notes on her charts and turned to put the chart away. She turned back and started running down the hall as she heard a patient begin screaming. She looked around but did not see any of the orderlies, guards, o
r other nurses around. Running into the room she saw the patient had somehow managed to cut their wrists and was busy dripping it down the walls and smearing it around as they laughed gleefully.
There were words on the wall but Betty ignored them as she tried to get the patient to sit down. The male patient, shorter than Betty, frail, and bald, looked like a tiny harmless old man but Betty knew he had killed six young girls twenty years before. And he had a weapon somewhere if he had managed to cut his own skin.
Betty chased the man down and tackled him to the bed. There were restraints on the bed already so she hooked those up to get him to stay still so she could look at his wrists. Betty started to notice shadows building up in the room as she looked at the man’s wrists but tried to ignore them. When the little man began cackling and a voice outside the room joined in Betty began to become frightened.
Looking around the plain undecorated room, she saw the words finally. The words the man had scrawled in his own blood.
“The Shadow Man will take us all!”
Betty felt goose-bumps rising on her flesh and her blood ran cold. The Shadow Man? Who was that? Her head snapped back to the door as she heard footsteps coming closer. The shadows outside of the door were coming closer and the patient’s laughter was becoming more maniacal. Betty wanted to run but she could not leave her patient. She looked for a place to hide as the footsteps came closer. But there was nowhere to hide!
Chapter Eight
Betty’s mouth opened as the footsteps neared, her eyes wide in absolute terror, the scream just a second from escaping her throat as terror filled her. There was no escape!
“Betty, you alright in there girl?” Jackie came flying into the room at a run, her arms reaching out for the frightened woman.
“I am fine. Oh my God, you scared the life out of me, but I am fine. Let’s get this patient sorted. He has cut his wrists with something. We will have to get one of the doctors in.” Betty turned away, trying to hide her embarrassment at being frightened out of her skin over nothing.
She went down to a closet to grab some towels and sighed with relief as the doctor and two orderlies came running down the hall and into the room. Betty took a moment to herself, letting her racing heart calm as she held the towels to her chest. It had been nothing, she told herself.
“Then what were those shadows and the laughter?” She wondered aloud but quietly. “If there was nothing there then what were those shadows?”
Walking back to the room Betty watched as Adam stitched the man’s wrists back up and gently placed bandages over the stitches. Adam was a good doctor. He was limited in what he could do here but he was a good medical doctor. Adam worked here as a medical doctor while the psychiatrists were here to treat the underlying mental problems of the patients. He had worked hard to bring himself to the position he was in now. His parents had been poor sugar cane farmers but had encouraged their rather intelligent son to go to university and follow his dreams.
He treated his patients with respect and care, even though they were criminals, and Betty admired his drive to actually care for people. Adam had a lot of qualities she admired and she tried listing them in her head now as a distraction. He was kind to the homeless, treated wait staff with respect, treated her with respect, and did not rush her; he hadn’t even put his hands under her clothes yet. From books and movies, and talk amongst women she had overheard, men were always trying that but he hadn’t.
Betty could feel her nerves calming as she watched Adam working. All she needed was his presence and her heart rate had started to calm. Now she watched him talking with the nurses and orderlies and her heart fluttered. What was it about him that delighted her so?
“Are you alright, Ms. Taylor?” Adam asked his hand at her elbow suddenly.
Betty blinked and gave him a quivery smile.
“I am fine, Doctor Raines. How is the patient?” Betty watched as the orderlies started going through every inch of the room until they came up with a piece of thin metal. The end was sharp and if the patient had been persistent, he would have been able to cut his wrists with it. The blood on the sharp end let them know they’d found what they were looking for. The men kept searching the room just in case he had other dangerous items hidden away.
The doctor examined the metal and showed it to Jackie and Betty. It was shiny and looked like the metal used in coat hangers. The end looked as though the coat hanger had been twisted until it snapped. The end was wicked looking and very sharp.
“Coat hanger?” Better said to the other two.
“But those are only allowed in our locker rooms. How would he have gotten it?” Jackie responded. “Do you think someone gave it to him?”
Jackie looked to the doctor for an answer. He shrugged and looked down at the now unconscious man. Betty assumed the doctor had given him something to make him sleep.
“It is hard to tell where he got it from.” Adam looked around at the walls and grimaced. “Who is the Shadow Man then? I do not remember seeing anything about it in his file.”
“Another delusion? Who knows? I will get these fellas to scrubbing down the walls though. We do not need the other patients seeing it and going on about it.” Jackie stepped over to the two men and left Betty and Adam alone.
“Come to my place tonight?” Betty asked suddenly, her mind made up. She had to think about it later. For now she knew she did not want to sleep alone and Adam was the only person she wanted in her bed.
“What? Oh yes. Of course. I will meet you there when I get off of work.” Adam said, his eyes curious, asking questions Betty did not know the answers to.
“I will put some wine in the fridge then.” She said, walking out of the room before she could change her mind.
Betty felt disjointed, as though she was at the hospital but not really there, for the rest of the evening. Her mind was consumed with what was going to happen later. She had asked Adam to her place. He had always left her at the door before, or come onto her porch, and she had never asked him inside. Now she had. He had to know that meant something.
She drove home later and raced through the shower, shaving her legs, and drying her hair. She tried to decide what to wear and settled on a caftan she had bought for her beach excursions. It was light, airy, and sexy without being gaudy. It was also safe in case she changed her mind. She did not expect to but perhaps Adam would say no? She could not imagine why he would but just in case she did not want to look desperate.
She had stopped to pick up a bottle of wine on the way home but ended up picking up a white and a red because she did not know which he would prefer. She did not know a lot about wine but she liked the white. Twiddling her thumbs as she waited Betty kept popping up to fluff her hair, went into the bathroom twice to remove her makeup but then decided not to as she had put it on special, and changed the records twice. She finally settled on some light jazz they’d both enjoyed when at a restaurant a few weeks ago.
Betty was going back to the couch when she heard Adam’s car pulling up a little after midnight. She had worked herself up into a ball of nerves. She was a virgin, even at her age, she was still a virgin, and she was not sure how to please Adam. She had ideas of what she needed to do but she just was not sure.
For a moment, she felt a rush of resentment, towards herself more than towards anyone else.
“This is why you have avoided relationships, Betty. It just causes stress and anger. Are you sure about this?” But before she could answer herself Adam was knocking at the door lightly.
She stood still for a moment, rooted to the floor. This was it. She stared at the door, uncertain. Could she do it? Before she could talk herself out of it Betty walked to the door and opened it.
“Betty.” Adam said, his voice breathless.
“Adam.” She replied, her voice as shocked as her face.
Adam gave a light laugh, wondering if they were both standing there with the same shocked look on their faces. He knew she had to be nervous. From her slight hints he k
new she had never been with a man before. This was something new for both of them, he had never been with a virgin before.
Betty’s nerves disappeared as soon as she saw Adam and she joined him in laughing as she held the door open.
“Come in. Get comfortable. Do you want something to eat? I know it is late but that was a long day.”
“I am not really hungry now but that wine you mentioned might be nice.” He said as he took off his sport coat and spread it over the back of the couch. He sat down and looked around. The room was furnished with heavy antique furniture but Betty had brought in some bright yellow curtains to brighten the room up. It was decorated sparingly but the room was comfortable. The kitchen was just to the right of the living room, her bedroom in the back along with the bathroom. A small house but it suited her needs.
Adam twisted his hands nervously as Betty appeared with two glasses of white wine. He smiled up at her and thanked her as she sat at the other end of the couch. She looked nervous as she sipped at her wine.
“Are you sure you are not hungry?” She asked, looking at him with her big green eyes rounded.
“No, I am not hungry. Do you want to dance?” He asked, holding his hand out to her.
There was not a lot of room for dancing but Betty liked the idea. She took his hand and they went behind the couch, where the floor was more open, and he took her in his arms.
“Are you alright?” Adam asked as they began to dance, her body close to his.
“I am fine now.” She responded as she allowed herself to melt into him.
It had been years since Betty felt anyone so closely. She had had light hugs here and there but nothing like this. She was vividly aware of every inch of him that was now pressed into her. Her heart speeded up again but this time it was in excitement, not fear. She moved smoothly with him, letting herself lean against him more and more until her head was on his shoulder and they were no longer moving.
Thriller: Horror: The Cottage (Mystery Suspense Thrillers) (Haunted Paranormal Short Story) Page 18