by L. J. Sealey
* * *
Michael pushed passed Lacy only to have his suspicions confirmed as things came in to view. He immediately pulled Lacy into his arms holding her head against his chest as she sobbed. Mr Grace from the football coaching staff was attending to a body lying on the ground.
Nina.
She was lying on her stomach, her body splayed out and her eyes closed.
He looked on as Mr Grace placed his fingers to her neck feeling for a sign of life. “Someone call for an ambulance! She’s still alive,” he urged.
Lacy turned around, keeping hold of Michael’s arm which she squeezed as she looked on with tears rolling down her face. She let go and joined Mr Grace at Nina’s side. She placed her hand on the young woman’s head and began to stroke her hair gently. “Hold on Nina. Help will be here soon honey.” Her voice trembled.
Michael looked up at the dorm building and spotted the wide-open window from where Nina must have jumped. He scanned the crowd of on-lookers to see if he could see Jake but there was no sign of him. This was too much of a coincidence. Jake was, in some way, connected to this and there was no doubt in Michael’s mind that he would find out how.
He looked back at Nina’s body lying limp on the asphalt and just then saw something unexpected.
What the. . . ?
A mist began to rise up out of her before hovering inches over her body like a cloud of black smoke. Michael’s eyes scanned the crowd and as he suspected, he was the only one who could see it. Being dead had its advantages. The smoke became darker, more visible, and began to transform. The cloud shifted at one end and a face began to emerge right above Nina’s head. Its face was distorted, like nothing he’d seen before: demonic, with pained, twisted features that grew more solid with each passing second. All Michael could do was watch as the form began to lift higher.
Lacy and Mr Grace were still by Nina’s side thankfully unaware of what was in front of them.
Moving slowly, the non-corporeal being gradually pulled itself further away from her. It twisted around facing Nina’s unconscious body and seemed to glance at her before drifting towards the crowd who were also oblivious to what was happening.
After all of this time trying to find something−anything that would lead to who or what was causing the students to jump to their deaths−there it was right in front of him. Now all he had to do was find out why. One thing was for sure: it hadn’t noticed him, which made things a whole lot easier. There was no way Michael was going to let it out of his sight.
While the creature passed through the unknowing crowd, Michael approached Lacy and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Stay with her. I’ll be right back.” His voice was almost a whisper.
She nodded to him, tears still falling down her cheeks leaving streaks in her makeup.
Michael kept his distance as he followed the black form which had now floated around the corner of the dorm building and towards the football field. Before it reached the edge of the building it suddenly changed direction, sweeping down an alleyway and disappearing from sight. Michael rushed over. Keeping his back pressed up against the wall at the side of the alley, he leant his head and peered around an open metal gate which, he assumed, would normally be locked because he noticed a piece of chain which had been cut.
He watched patiently as the haze passed through the wall of a prefabricated utility shed that stood next to a couple of green dumpsters at the other end of the alley. Michael hung back waiting to see what would happen next.
In the year since Michael had returned to this world he had seen many things. Although the memories of what had happened to him were just flashes of jumbled images in his nightmares, he knew he wasn’t the only one to walk the earth in the afterlife (or whatever it was). He’d witnessed many things so was well aware that there were demons and spirits everywhere−hell, he’d encountered enough of them−but this thing, however, was new; to his eyes anyway.
He was about to give up the ghost (pun intended) and head down the alley when the utility shed door began to open. He watched intently, not paying much attention to the sound of sirens that grew louder in the background, as a figure walked out from behind the door.
Son of a bitch!
It was Jake. At least, it was his body but he very much doubted that Jake was aware of much in there. He was in a trancelike state as he paused and stared ahead. Then his whole body began to shake coming to an abrupt stop before his eyes closed and he stood stock-still. Then the young man’s head quickly turned and his eyes opened and fixed on Michael.
“Shit!” he gasped as he pulled back behind the wall.
There was no doubt that Jake was possessed by that thing−a demon of some sort, he guessed−which meant things just got a whole lot more complicated.
Michael quickly headed back towards the scene where Nina was now strapped to a gurney which was being lifted into the ambulance. The medics still worked on her once they were inside, placing needles in her arm, attaching wires to machines, and one placed an oxygen mask over her face. She was still gripping on to her life but only just, by the looks of things.
He walked up to Lacy who was stood watching in distress. He placed his hand on her shoulder and she turned to look at him. “How’s she doing?” he asked.
“She’s holding on.” She sniffed as she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. “I’m going to go with her to the hospital.”
“Sure. I’ll let the department know.”
Lacy’s lip curled as she attempted a smile. “Thank you,” she said as she climbed inside the ambulance and sat on the bench seat next to Nina. The doors were pushed closed and Michael inhaled deeply as he watched the ambulance pull away, its sirens blaring then fading off into the distance.
He had work to do, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
As the crowd of on-lookers dispersed, he reached into his jacket pocket and grabbed his cell phone while he headed back to his room. He flipped it open and scrolled through his small list of contacts until he reached the name he was looking for: Evo, His one and only friend. He hadn’t spoken to him in a while but he sure as hell needed to now.
“Mike.” A familiar voice said through the phone.
“Hey buddy. I have a situation here that I’m gonna need your help with.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Lacy paced up and down the empty corridor praying for some news. She was still shaking from the ride in the ambulance. Seeing the medical staff fighting for Nina’s life in the back of that vehicle was pretty harrowing to say the least. She’d sat stone-still watching as they cut Nina’s clothes open then stuck needles into her skin as one of them used an air bag to pump oxygen into her lungs. She was sure she’d nearly passed out on more than one occasion but managed to stay conscious for the rest of the journey.
Nina had been in the OR for nearly two hours. There was no doubt she was in a bad way. The fact that she was still alive was a miracle in itself after the distance she’d fallen. Jumped? Oh, God. Lacy struggled to push the image of her lying on the ground from her mind as she choked back a sob. The fact that Nina had no one there for her made things worse. Lacy had tried to find someone to contact−family member or a friend, but according to Miss Taylor, who she’d spoken to when she’d called the Dean’s office, there was only one name listed as her next of kin and the number on file was unreachable. That poor girl who she’d sat next to in the ambulance−her life slipping away from her with every second−had no one.
Lacy leaned against the cold cream wall opposite the double doors that Nina had been rushed through. Her arms were folded around her chest as she waited anxiously. The sparse corridor was quiet for the most part, except for the occasional nurse who would come through the doors and rush down the long empty space, each time making Lacy stand to attention in the hope that they were bringing Nina back through with good news.
But it was a lot better than sitting around in the waiting area like she had to begin with. The harsh memory from her past back in England had
already started to rear its ugly head so she’d left the stark room pretty quickly, not wanting to relive the last time she’d spent hours waiting for news in a room that looked so similar.
But it was too late.
Memories she’d locked away for such a long time had already begun to creep back into her head, reigniting feelings of dread similar to that day, back when she was just a young girl. Sitting in that room on her own, waiting for news, had made her remember that day as though it were yesterday; only then, the patient had been her sister.
Her beautiful younger sister had been taken through similar looking doors nearly sixteen years ago, but she hadn’t lived for long after she’d been wheeled back out of them. Lacy took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The anniversary of her sister’s death was approaching; a time which she dreaded every year.
November 2nd 1996.
She pictured her sister’s face. Her long wavy brown hair had run half way down her back and her squeaky laugh had always made Lacy smile. They’d run around in the patch of wasteland at the back of their small town house in Chelmsford where they’d lived with their mother Sheila. There had been just the two of them at home the day the accident happened which was nothing unusual. Their mother thought nothing of leaving a twelve year old and a nine year old at home alone while she went to work. Of course, Lacy discovered much later that work actually meant working on some gentleman in his fancy apartment across town, but at the time she thought Sheila worked shifts at a local pub. Lacy found out a couple of years after her sister’s death that, in actual fact, her mother was nothing but a high class hooker who pleasured lonely businessmen.
Although Sheila was always in and out of the house, she would always make sure that there was food prepared for them, mostly sandwiches and stuff to reheat in the microwave, and that the cupboards were well stocked. She was out of the house a lot and if anything, it made Lacy and her sister Beth’s relationship stronger. They were close and Lacy would always do whatever she needed to do to look after her.
Their house had been small: a two up, two down affair that had the bare minimum as far as furniture was concerned. Lacy and Beth had shared a bedroom which had been painted lilac when they were much younger. Their mother had painted a rainbow on the wall between their beds which made the room feel a little brighter and cheerier than it actually was. Lacy remembered the small lamp, that had sat on the bedside table in between their beds, that she’d put stickers all over. The bulb inside it was dim and she’d always made sure it was on when they were in bed until Beth fell asleep because Beth was afraid of the dark. There was no garden to speak of just a small concrete yard with a tall gate leading to an alley, across which was their playground: an empty plot of land that had a chain link fence around it. There was a part of the fence that had been cut and even though they weren’t supposed to leave the back yard, whenever Sheila went out to work the pair of them would go in there to play but they knew never to leave the alley, not with the busy road at the end of it.
Lacy desperately wished that she could go back in time and not let Beth out of her sight that day like she had done. But there was no changing the past no matter how hard you wished for it.
The hardest part of remembering was the pain that she’d gotten so good at hiding away. She never let herself think about it which was the only way she stayed sane and how she’d managed to get through every day, even sixteen years later. But today, here in this hospital, she was failing miserably. It was too familiar, too tragic, and was triggering every memory she’d ever shut out.
She squeezed her eyes shut as she thought back to that day.
Lacy wanted some tinned custard. Beth was in the yard outside playing catch with a tennis ball so Lacy had gone into the kitchen, straight into the cupboard and grabbed a tin of readymade custard. Remembering how her mother had done it, she reached for the tin opener, placed it in position at the edge of the tin and squeezed the two handles shut. The metal point pierced the tin and she twisted the handle around over and over until the lid snapped off. She got a small pan from the bottom cupboard, poured the contents of the tin into it and placed it on top of one of the rings on the electric cooker. She turned the dial to half way. As she waited for the custard to heat up, she looked through the small kitchen window and saw Beth crouched down stroking the tabby cat from two doors down. She watched as the cat arched its back to her and walked around in circles enjoying Beth’s affection. She reached into the cupboard by the sink and grabbed two small bowls.
As she looked up from what she was doing she noticed that the back gate was now open. Immediately she went to the back door and saw that Beth had followed the cat out into the alley. She went straight out and yelled at her to come back into the yard. Beth protested and continued to stroke the cat.
“You’re not allowed out of the yard without me, now come back in before. . . ” Lacy remembered she’d left the custard on the heat and ran back in the kitchen, just catching it before the whole contents had boiled over the side. It was a mess. She poured what was left into the two bowls and put the pan into the sink. She took two spoons from the drawer and put one in each bowl, pleased at how grown up she felt.
She went to the back door and shouted to Beth. She couldn’t see her anywhere. The gate was still open but Beth was out of sight. She stepped into the alley and when she realised how far Beth had gone she gasped and shouted to her as Beth ran towards the main road after that stupid cat. . .
Lacy’s hand went to her mouth, holding back her sobs, as what happened next played out in slow motion in her mind: Her running down the alley after Beth, her shouts for her sister to stay where she was falling on deaf ears as Beth followed the cat between some parked cars and straight out into the road.
What happened after that was still quite blurry except for the vision of little Beth lying in the road with people rushing around her. Lacy remembered that far too clearly. Her memories flicked through her mind like a movie on fast forward only picking out the bits that she’d hung on to: The driver of the car who was in shock with his hands in his hair and a look of sheer horror on his face, the ambulance crew running to her sister’s side, the panic, her mother in hysterics in the hospital’s waiting room as some stranger−she still didn’t know to this day who he was. . . probably one of her mother’s clients−tried to calm her down. Then came the worst memory of all: the doctor coming into the room and telling her mother that Beth was gone.
The sensation of a wet tear travelling down her cheek brought her back to the present. It had been a while since she’d thought of that day. No matter how distant it now was, it didn’t get any easier. The pain was still very much the same. Only now, she was much better at locking it away.
Her head fell back against the wall.
She closed her eyes and thought about Nina who had been in a similar position on the ground as her sister had all those years ago. She wasn’t religious−and who could blame her? Her faith had been taken away that day in the hospital when she’d told herself there couldn’t possibly be a god. Not if someone so precious to her could be snatched away so cruelly. Despite this, she silently prayed. Please God, if you are there, let Nina survive this.
As if by coincidence−because that’s all it could have been−the double doors in front of her burst open. She stood up rigid as the gurney that Nina was lying on was wheeled out and into the corridor by a tall man dressed all in white and a nurse walking by his side. A man in green scrubs followed soon after and walked straight over to Lacy. His name tag was pinned to his breast pocket and he was removing a paper face mask that dangled from one ear.
“Miss Holloway?” he asked as he held out a hand to her. She nodded. “Hi. I’m Doctor Green, Nina’s surgeon.”
She was surprised how young he was. His short, salt and pepper hair was out of place atop his young features “Hi,” was about all she could manage to say as she shook his warm hand.
“We’ve managed to stabilise her but her condition is still critical. The impac
t of the fall had caused some internal bleeding in her abdomen which we’ve managed to stop. She has a couple of broken bones: a break in her left tibia and another in her left femur. But we’re more worried about the swelling in her frontal lobe. We’ve managed to release some of the pressure from around the area, and the swelling seems to have reduced slightly but we will need to keep a very close eye on her.”
Lacy exhaled a long breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, remembering that she did still need to breathe if she wanted to remain vertical. The situation was too similar to her sister’s all those years ago and she realised she wasn’t handling things very well. “I want to stay with her.”
“Of course. They’re just about to take her up to ICU. Go and get yourself a coffee and some fresh air and give them time to get her settled.” The doctor placed his hand on her arm and in a kind voice said, “She’ll be well looked after here.”
Lacy smiled as best she could.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Since waking up dead, Michael had spent most of his days alone. For that he’d been grateful: no distractions. Giving him plenty of time to do what he’d become very good at: seeking out and fighting evil supernatural beings in the hope that they’d be of use to him during his search for the truth. Not that he was ever into company all that much, even before his death. He’d had lots of friends and acquaintances due to the nature of his career and had been fortunate enough to enjoy many of life’s luxuries. But his success had attracted many people. He’d had enough of all the fake friends who’d admired his status more than anything else.
There was none of that now.
Being who or what he was now, the only human interaction he’d had was when he’d needed something from them. He’d used people, taken advantage of kindness that was offered to him on many occasions, and tried his hardest to remain alone. He’d even dated the odd female to get information; of course, that never lead to anything more than a movie, dinner or a midnight stroll. There had never been so much as a kiss between him and the few females he’d interacted with. They, on the other hand, had been more than willing, but for him it was just business and nothing more. As soon as he was satisfied that they were of no more help to him, those people were quickly forgotten about, never seeing or hearing from him again.