by Alexie Aaron
The nurses worked quickly to settle the man in. IV lines were untangled and bandages checked. The urine bag was tucked away to the side of the bed. Most men in Agnes’s experience felt that the catheter was a violation. She had removed many in her time. She ignored the embarrassed protests of the males and took sadistic pleasure in disengaging the tubes of the crabby, uncooperative patients with a bit of a yank. She didn’t feel this was a sin, just part of her job.
She didn’t remember passing away nor her funeral. All she knew was that one moment she was nursing and the next she was watching others do it. She never left the room. There was no point in wandering the halls of the hospital. The light came and went on a regular rotation it seemed. When she felt she was no longer needed, she would hop the next one and see what God had in plan for her next.
“What are you staring at?” a clipped voice said from the bed.
Sister Agnes moved closer and studied the face of the man. “You can see me?”
“And hear you. Go away, I need my sleep.”
“You’re not Thaddeus Maynard the Third, are you?”
“In body. Hopefully for a few decades.”
“What you’re doing is against God’s law,” she warned.
“There is no god but myself. Get used to it, Sister. I’m the only game in town. Hook your wagon to me, and I’ll see you properly entertained.”
Sister Agnes, who had existed in this hospital room solely since her death, walked out the door without a backward glance.
The corridor was busy with hospital employees, many of whom moved right through the good sister. She sought out a familiar face and found her behind the counter typing into a computer terminal. Sister Agnes, not totally unfamiliar with keys – hers, the kind normally attached to typewriters - reached forward and began typing.
Margret Mary stared at her ward report, confused. Where the dosage of the patient in room six bed B was supposed to be was the name Mia. She backspaced, and before she could enter the correct information, the keys moved under her fingers. Mia Mia Mia.
She felt a cool hand on the back of her neck. Taking a chance with her sanity, she asked, “Sister Agnes?”
Yes.
“Do you want me to contact Mia?”
Yes Hurry. Danger.
Margaret Mary didn’t think twice. She pulled the little blue book out of her smock pocket and dialed the number written in red.
Mia’s cell phone rang and she looked at her caller ID, puzzled, but answered anyway, “Hello?”
“Mia, this is Margret Mary from the hospital,” she explained.
“Yes, M&Ms, I remember you. What a pleasant surprise.”
“I have a situation here,” Margret informed her and explained about the typewritten communication from Sister Agnes.
Mia looked over at Father Alessandro sipping a cup of Ted’s espresso.
“I’m on my way. Tell the sister I’ll be there in twenty minutes, and tell her I’m bringing help.” She put her phone down and walked over and put a gentle hand on top of the priest’s. “Father, would you mind us stopping at the hospital before I take you back home?”
“Business or pleasure?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. Sister Agnes…” She explained the spiritual sister’s tie to the hospital. “Forgive me if you already know of her but…”
He waved a hand. “No need to apologize. I do know of the sister. She’s tied to a certain room where I believe she passed on after decades of service.”
“Here’s the situation. The sister left the room and typed out a warning on a patient report that a nurse friend of mine, Margaret Mary, was working on.”
“She’s never left that room,” Alessandro said, rubbing his chin. “We better go there pronto. Bring that industrious spouse of yours. We need to communicate with the dear sister, and I’m not sure how strong she will be outside of the room.”
“Ted has some cubes he’s made up for Murphy…” Mia explained the principal of the energy-releasing battery packs.
“Better bring a few of those along,” he said. “I’ll stop off at the little boys’ room and meet you outside.”
Mia moved quickly through the house, grabbing a coat on her way out the door. She breezed past a surprised Burt and Mike without a word and ran into the workshop. She found Ted bent over, working on a loose weld on a motherboard. Cid was observing. Mia held her tongue, worried that she would distract him from the precise weld he was doing.
“Minnie Mouse, what’s wrong?” he asked, looking up. One look at the concern filling her face made him forget the project on the workbench.
“Sister Agnes has left her room and…”
Ted handed his tools to Cid. “Mind finishing up, dude?”
“No problem,” Cid answered, surprised at Ted handing over control of his project to him so easily.
“Tell me more,” Ted said, grabbing Mia’s hands and giving her his full attention.
Mia explained the situation, and he agreed that a few energon cubes might be needed.
“What’s this about Sister Agnes?” Burt asked from the doorway where he was eavesdropping.
“She’s in danger or there is danger. M&Ms wasn’t exactly sure,” Mia explained.
“Count me in. I owe that nun my life,” Burt said. “I’ll pull the van around. Ted, you gather our go-kit. Cid, hold the fort. I’ve sent Audrey and Mike home.”
Ted resisted the urge to salute. Mia seemed okay with Burt taking the lead on this situation. He didn’t mind as it would give him more time to look after his wife who was displaying an unusual lack of confidence.
“Mia,” he said tenderly. “Everything is going to be alright. Have a little faith in those around you.”
“Oh, Ted, it’s not the team I worry about, it’s me. I’m not comfortable with the way the spirit trackers handled the situation. I fear that they haven’t just tracked the entity to the middle house, but have stirred up it and everything else inside. Sometimes it’s wiser not to shake the wasps’ nest.”
“You’re remembering how PEEPs did that, aren’t you?”
“I knew it was building. I could feel the rise in negative energy. I just felt so out of control. Helpless.”
“That’s because no one listened to you,” Ted commented. “I assure you that everyone listens to you now, even Burt.”
“It was a lesson hard learned,” Mia said, thinking back to the brutal beating Burt received from the hands of Steele, the hag’s henchman. “I’m way out of my depth here, yet again. Even though we’ve been to hell and back, I worry that we don’t have the knowledge to defeat this soul-jumper. I sense that he is miles ahead of us. We’re barely set up, and he has already set down roots. Roots that can destroy all around him. And in case you didn’t notice, we’re his closest neighbors.”
“We have PEEPs, these spirit trackers, connections with the mightiest professional paranormal people around, and above all, Mia, we have something more powerful than all of us put together. We have Stephen Murphy.”
Murphy, who was sitting on the tailgate of Mia’s truck sharpening his axe, looked up. Ted’s words hit the ghost hard. It was the faith this young man had in him that shook up his resolve to end this thing in the hollow once and for all. Even if it meant that he might walk the halls of the dead alone, he would protect his friends from whatever was coming for them.
Chapter Nine
Tonia didn’t let the darkness dissuade her. She had come to think of it as the great equalizer when it came to spirit tracking. Most earthbound spirits tended to glow a bit. Why the glow was a lime green shade was beyond her. She laughed, thinking about who in the ether thought it was a good idea to glow green. Did it have something to do with ancient tree spirits? Did they use the green to move unnoticed through the spring leaves to spy on the living? Or was it just how the living brain interpreted the distortion as the veil was crossed. Whatever the reason, Tonia had developed her eyesight to pick up these trails, even in daylight.
She navigated using
the steps of the spinster in her vision. She saw what the flower-presser saw. Instead of the leveled lots, Tonia took in the ghostly outlines of the homes that had once graced the lane. Most of the large, beautiful buildings had wood-stained porches that smelled of newly sawn wood and freshly laid bricks. Even in the lateness of the hour, Tonia witnessed cigars being lit and amber liquids drunk by the gentlemen of the households while the ladies prepared themselves for bed. She was well aware of the depravity that some of the men had got into, but these were early days. Steele had not assembled his sadistic monks yet.
She stopped before the Blackwell house. Tonia stood still and pushed the echo of the past away so she could see the building as the renovation company had left it. They had kept the original lines of the front of the home. A multitude of windows, now double paned, watched Tonia. Someone had taken the pains to attach lace panels to give the home a lived-in look. It was lived-in alright, Tonia noticed, but not by the living. She saw green apparitions moving behind the curtains. They seemed to be agitated. Was it her presence outside or something else?
She raised her hand and waved. She saw two or three lace panels twitch. So they could see her. She lowered her hand and with the other motioned for whoever was watching to come outside to her. The front door opened, and Alice May Blackwell stepped outside.
Tonia was disappointed. She really wanted this spicy spinster to have made it out of the hollow and to have lived out her life richly, but evidently fate wasn’t a fan of the unmarried intelligent woman.
“What business have you here?” Alice asked, walking boldly across the porch. She stepped down the steps, careful of the wide skirt of her gown.
“I’m seeking out a recent boarder of yours,” Tonia said, taking care to keep her voice casual. “Brentwood’s his name.”
Alice angled her head, her dead eyes absorbing the night as she studied the woman in front of her. She moved a hand to her pocket and drew out a small book and opened it. “Brentwood, Brentwood. No. No Brentwood here.”
“Maybe he goes by another name,” suggested Tonia.
“Could be,” Alice acknowledged. “What exactly would you be wanting him for?”
“He needs to answer for crimes he’s committed since he left the confines of his body.”
“Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say his original body?” Alice said with a sardonic expression.
“I see we are of one mind.”
“In this regard, yes. I’m not happy with him here, but as I am not the owner of my own home, it seems, I have no other choice than to be a gracious hostess.”
“I have to admit to being saddened to hear this. Not only have you had to bear the constraints put on you in life, but it seems death has not freed you.”
Alice May Blackwell smiled. “It appears you know a lot more about me than I do you, spirit hunter. Don’t feel sad for me. I’ve made my bed and will lie amongst the compromises of my youth until the world ceases to be.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Tonia insisted.
“Here I will have to be rude and correct you. I earned my spot here. I chose to turn a blind eye when I saw the direction the hollow was headed in. I chose not to act when I could have prevented the pain and death of those innocent women and children. I let bitterness and jealousy consume me until I became as bad as those animals who…” Alice stopped talking. When she resumed, her voice was low and lacked any emotion. “When I willingly shook hands with the devil, I decided my own fate, such as it is.”
“Miss Blackwell, I’m sure you are aware that you still control your fate. Even in death you can change.”
“Are you talking about redemption?” Alice scoffed. “A crossbreed pagan is talking to me about redemption? Well, light the candles and toss the holy water, Alice May Blackwell’s headed to heaven. I believe the people of this time add at this point the word not.”
Tonia, who was used to being called much worse, pushed the insult away. After all, most of it was true. Her mixed heritage she was proud of. Having pagan blood made her who she was. “I’m just honor bound to present the options.”
“Noted.”
Tonia turned to leave.
“He’s not here,” Alice announced. “Brentwood was here, but he’s found a vessel. I’m not sure he’s coming back, but he didn’t say he wasn’t coming back, if that helps.”
Tonia turned back and nodded. “Thank you. I hope he doesn’t return, for your sake.”
“Why?”
“Because the fires of hell can’t compete with the horrors that spirit brings with him. His end will come, and the end of all who help him,” Tonia stated.
“I will take that into consideration,” Alice said and turned, walking back into the middle house and closing the door.
Tonia watched the house for a moment before turning and walking off into the darkness.
~
The Green Ridge hospital was busy. Even though it had adopted the “visit anytime” rules of most of its competitors, most visitors took it for granted that they could only visit their friends and family for a few hours after the dinner hour. The parking lot was almost full. As Mia and crew followed the bearers of flowers and balloons inside, she couldn’t help but pick up on the feeling that something was out of whack. She reasoned that her senses could be clouded by Sister Agnes’s warning, but she found herself looking at every person, living and dead, that she encountered on their way to the elevators.
Inside the elevator, feeling dwarfed by her tall husband, Burt and Father Alessandro, Mia felt uncomfortable. She backed up as the doors opened and a few people stepped inside. Ted’s comforting hand settled on the small of her back, and she drew courage and strength from him. The door opened on their floor, and as she stepped out into the well-lit corridor, a pulse of a heartbeat, not hers, muted the sounds around her. She closed her mind, and her hearing was restored. She looked over at Father Alessandro and saw that he had his prayer beads wound around his hand. Ted and Burt didn’t seem to have been disturbed at all. Sometimes Mia envied them. Their blindness to the spiritual realm might get them into trouble at times, but it did keep them from having to deal with the baggage that came with being a sensitive.
Margaret Mary looked up from the desk. She smiled first at Mia, but then she frowned when she looked over at Father Alessandro. Mia was aware of the nurse’s frustrations with her religion but hadn’t taken in her feelings of being let down until this moment.
“You called, I came,” Mia said. She looked around and didn’t see the nun in the immediate vicinity. “Margaret Mary, may I introduce Father Alessandro, a good friend of mine.”
“Father,” Margaret said, not wanting to meet his eyes.
“Child, you are in pain,” Alessandro said, taking hold of Margaret’s offered hand in both of his.
Margaret pulled her hand out of his grasp. “Now’s not the time. Excuse me, Father, but I have patients to see to.”
Alessandro looked at her retreating form and said, “I think I scared her off. Now what?”
“We look for the good sister. This is the room…” Mia started to say, approaching the private room, but stopped as something caught the sleeve of her jacket. She turned to see a faint mist waver. “Ted, I think we’ve found the sister. She’s very weak,” Mia said, leading the apparition down the hall and into a quiet alcove.
Ted pulled the cube of batteries out of his pocket and activated it, handing it to Mia.
“Take hold of this. It will give you the strength you need,” she instructed the failing apparition before her.
Mia felt a slight difference in weight as the sister put her hand on top of the cube in Mia’s hand.
Burt and Ted acted as a wall, eliciting strange stares from a few people. Alessandro watched as the mist became the plump visage of Sister Agnes. She was about to raise her hand when Mia instructed, “Draw all of the energy out of the cube, Sister.”
After she had accomplished this, she moved from Mia to Alessandro and began talking to him
in rapid Spanish. Mia looked at Ted who was picking up the odd phrase. He frowned and leaned down and whispered, “It seems that a soul-jumper has taken up residence in a… I believe she said drunkard. Yes. He was the victim of an automobile crash. He’s in, or was in, your and Burt’s old room.”
Mia grabbed his hand and rushed down the hall. She stood in front of the closed door and boldly pushed it open, ready to face this soul-jumper.
The room was empty.
Mia looked at the whiteboard just inside the room. The name of the patient that should be lying, recovering in the bed was written in block letters along with the duty nurse’s name. Mia read aloud, “Thaddeus Maynard III.”
Ted walked over and noticed that the monitoring equipment was still on, and the alarms had been turned off. The IV tubing was lying on the floor in a pool of fluid coming from a discarded catheter.
“Can I help you?” an unfamiliar nurse asked from the doorway.
“Where is this patient?” Ted asked.
“Mr. Maynard was here ten minutes ago…” she stopped speaking, looking around, seeing the discarded tubes lying on the floor. She walked over to the monitors and shook the machine in frustration. “These things are supposed to alert us if anyone is monkeying around with them.” She pulled the top sheet and exclaimed, “Well, this is a first! The idiot pulled his own catheter out.”
Ted flinched at the thought of yanking that tube out himself.
“How the hell did he have the strength to detach himself?” She pulled out her phone and called security. “Did anyone see a patient in his mid-thirties, brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a hospital gown, leaving the building? Of course I know you’d not let anyone out dressed like that. I think we need you to view the security cameras on this floor. He had to have an accomplice. Thaddeus Maynard. Came into the ER last night unconscious. He was in CCU for most of the morning. We only received him a few hours ago. No, I didn’t know that. Shit.” She returned the phone to her pocket and looked over at the young couple. “Do you know this guy?”