The two brawny orderlies were trouble, that much was clear, and how they would get past them was their next challenge. And it wasn’t her only concern. Just as problematic in her mind was a bigger question: where was that awful nurse? Whatever was happening in this place, she was the key. She’d most likely been the catalyst for the whole thing right from the beginning. Jesus, she’d always known evil existed in the world, but this was beyond anything she’d ever imagined. They’d stepped outside the world she’d always believed was the only one that existed and were now trapped in some dimension she would never be able to fully describe. It was real and unreal at the same. Most of all, it was frightening. God, how she hoped Lorna could break them all free.
She was mulling over what to do when Sadie leaned into her and whispered, “Do we try rushing them? I mean, they’re not real, right?”
The men were big, dressed in all white, and watching them intently as if they could read their thoughts. Given how weird everything was at the moment, she wasn’t so sure they couldn’t tell what was going in in their heads. Since Sadie had gone missing, her world had taken a huge reality shift.
She narrowed her eyes as she studied their position. In plain speak, it sucked. Rows of doors lined the hallway, and she had no way of knowing what was on the other side of any of them. The last thing she wanted to do was race into one of them only to find themselves locked in another room. The way things were going, the odds of that happening were pretty high. So, scratch that option.
She studied the burly men, who did, in fact, appear to be very real, and then turned her gaze down the length of the hallway behind them once more. She turned up the corners of her mouth in a slow smile. She’d missed it when she looked before. Now it seemed to glow like the beacon of a lighthouse. A really incredible beacon. Maybe God was smiling down on them and this escape might work out after all. Take that, Nurse Thompson.
She leaned close to Sadie’s ear as if she were going to kiss her. Instead, she grabbed her hand and whispered, “Run!”
Chapter Sixteen
Renee was only a step behind Lorna when she felt a powerful hand push her. Given Katie and Lorna were both in front of her, logically it couldn’t happen. But she wasn’t imagining the hand in the middle of her back that shoved, making her stumble and roll down the remaining few steps. Pain knifed through her shoulder at the same time she heard a loud pop, after which pain lasered through her body. Irrationally she thought, I don’t have any herbs strong enough for this one.
As she’d tumbled down the stairs, she’d bumped Katie and clipped Lorna in the legs. Through her pain-filled haze she was grateful to see she hadn’t knocked either of them down. Katie put a hand on the wall to steady herself, and Lorna stumbled but had been close enough to the bottom to keep herself from going all the way down. Katie was the first one to reach Renee where she landed at the bottom of the stairs in an awkward heap and now kneeled beside her.
“What happened? Did you trip on something?” Her hands swept across her head, across her shoulders, and then down her arms. A good cop doing a quick injury inventory. Obviously her first-aid card was current.
Renee blinked and ran her question quickly through her mind. It was hard to think when her body was screaming. She did know that nobody had been behind her on the stairs, and there was nothing on any of the steps to trip on. The shove was intentional and the power behind it filled with fury. “I was pushed,” she said simply as she wondered if the pain was going to back off at any point.
Katie gasped and turned her head up the way they’d come. “No one was there before, and no one is there now.”
Trying to breathe through the throbbing pain that didn’t seem to be fading, she put a hand on Katie’s arm. “I’m aware of that, but I was pushed just the same.” She didn’t imagine it; she knew what she’d felt.
Lorna now kneeled on the other side of her, gingerly assessing the damage. Her touch was gentle, yet the pressure brought tears of pain to Renee’s eyes just the same. This was not a good situation in one that was already bad. “I think you’ve dislocated your shoulder.”
That wasn’t hard to believe, given the way she felt. It was like someone had shoved a hot poker through her shoulder. “I believe you’re right. Feels horrible.”
“It was her, wasn’t it?” Lorna was staring into her eyes, a mixture of concern and fury in them. “She pushed you.”
She nodded even as Katie protested, a look of horror on her face. “I didn’t touch her.”
Lorna reached across Renee and put a hand on Katie’s shoulder. “Not you, her.” She inclined her head toward the far wall.
Renee hadn’t seen her before, but now she did. Tall, angry, and with her back ramrod straight, she stood against the wall with her hands in the pockets of her crisp pressed apron. As it had been the last time she made an appearance, the previously dark room was now bathed in light. The empty room was no longer empty, and the musty smell of disuse was gone, replaced by an odor she couldn’t quite define. It was sharp, astringent, and made her want to cover her nose.
“Who?” Katie asked as her head turned to survey the room.
“You don’t see her?” Renee was surprised because she was as real as the three of them. “Do you see the lights, the furniture?”
Katie was shaking her head as she rose to her feet, her gun now out in one hand and her flashlight back in the other. “Where? Where is she?”
“Your friend does not believe yet,” the nurse said. “She has to believe to see.”
“You pushed me, you bitch,” Renee bit out, surprised by her own vehemence. Her normally forgiving nature was nowhere to be found when it came to that woman. Even Renee could be pushed too far, and in this case that was a literal statement.
The nurse’s eyes were dark and angry. “You are interfering. You needed to be taught a lesson. I do not tolerate those who stick their noses in where they do not belong.”
“Oh, I’ll teach you a lesson.” Big words from a woman lying on a concrete floor with a dislocated shoulder. She meant every one of them nonetheless. At this point she didn’t figure she had much to lose.
Lorna leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I got this, baby.”
“Who are you talking to?” Katie was still unable to see the evil apparition. She still didn’t believe quite enough.
Renee was staring at the nurse and disliking her more every second. “She says you don’t believe and that’s why you’re not seeing her.”
“Give believing a shot,” Lorna said.
“Sounds crazy but what the hell.” Katie rose to her feet, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, her head turned in the direction of their unwanted guest. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Brittle laughter bounced off the walls, and the sound of it filled Renee with such dread, all of a sudden she forgot the pain in her shoulder.
*
Jeremy finally found his voice, even though he was still stunned by the man towering over him. “Who are you?”
The giant on the stairs didn’t answer. Instead, he waved his hand, and the door to the mental hospital swung open. Bending down to enter through the opening far too low to accommodate his massive height, he stepped through and disappeared into the shadows.
Okay, so the guy obviously wasn’t the talkative type. This wasn’t exactly the time for chitchat anyway. Taking the steps two at a time, he was up and across the entry seconds behind him. After he’d stepped inside, he saw with dismay that the tall man was already halfway up the stairs. Jeremy raced after him, unable to catch up to a guy with a stride three times as long as his. Once more he ascended the stairs two at time. It was the only way to stay even close to the caped crusader.
At the top of the stairs, two things struck him at the same time: the giant was nowhere in sight, and the place was lit with gas lamps that gave off a low hiss and golden glow. For a moment he became fixated on those lights. It seemed wrong somehow. Shouldn’t the lights be electric? The buil
ding had been in use well into the twentieth century, yet these were straight out of the nineteenth century. It didn’t make sense they wouldn’t have been upgraded somewhere along the line.
The other thing about the lights that bugged him? When he drove up and parked, the building had been dark. Not a single flicker of light in any window he could see from the parking lot. The way it was lit up now, he should have been able to see something. Granted he’d been frantic on the way out, but not frantic enough he wouldn’t notice lights in the windows.
He almost laughed at the troubling inconsistencies. After everything they’d been through recently, not much should strike him as odd. Not mute giants, not old-fashioned gas lamps, not anything. If John McCafferty’s spirit could take over his body, then it sure wasn’t impossible for lights to go on and off without a reason.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “Think.” A better idea was to listen. Now that he was inside, he was less concerned about the tall man and more focused on finding his crew. They had to be in here somewhere, and he wanted to meet up with them first thing. Stop, be still, and listen. That’s what he needed to do. He closed his eyes, shut out the hiss of the lamps, and concentrated.
“Help me out here, Lorna.”
As if she heard him, he felt a pull and caught the whisper of sound coming from the rear of the building. It was the sign he was hoping for, and it was enough.
“Thanks, sister.” He opened his eyes and raced in the direction of the whisper. He didn’t bother to try to hide the sound of big, pounding feet as he ran down the stairs and toward the back of the building. What would be the point? One thing he’d come to understand over the last year: they were no longer just dealing with the world of the seen. The unseen, the unacknowledged had become an integral part of their existence. It should bother him and yet it didn’t. It was the new normal.
Funny how a life could change so quickly. He’d spent all of his, until the day he moved across state, in the very real, very conventional day-to-day world. He did what was expected of him and never even thought about what might exist beyond the norm. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary and nothing felt out of sync.
Except that wasn’t exactly the way it all went down, now was it? He’d sensed the changes long before he sold his share of the business to his partner. What had come to him back then wasn’t as blatant as the visions that assailed Lorna. It was more an unsettling disquiet he couldn’t shake, no matter what he did. It was what had driven him across the mountains, jobless and without any prospects for starting a new life. It was what had put into motion everything that had happened since that drive.
It had brought him here now as he stood before a closed door, the distinct sound of movement and voices on the other side, an unknown danger waiting to get its claws in him. He pulled at the handle, dismayed at its refusal to open. Did this place have any doors that weren’t locked up tight? The apparent answer to that was no.
He needed something to force it open, and if he wasn’t mistaken, he’d spotted just such a pry bar outside the front door. All he had to do was run back out and grab it. At this point he wasn’t above smashing a door to smithereens.
The sound of pounding feet made him spin and go into a defensive posture, the flashlight he still held his only weapon. It wasn’t an ideal defensive tool, but hey; he would work with whatever he had. When the beam fell on Anna and the woman he assumed had to be Sadie, he lowered his arm back to his side. He was relieved to see them. One less problem to worry about. Now all he needed was to find Lorna.
“Hurry,” Anna said with icy fear in her voice. “They’re going to be right behind us.”
He flashed his light behind them. “Who?” Nobody was following them that he could see. Maybe it was the giant and his big black cape. Though their interaction was brief, Ryan didn’t think he was much of a threat. He sensed the big guy was here to help.
“The orderlies and they’re big.”
Okay, he wasn’t expecting that, and he still didn’t see anyone, orderly or otherwise. “No orderlies, Anna, big or small.”
Anna and Sadie both turned to look back the way they’d come. Then they stared at each other with questioning expressions on their faces. “They were right behind us,” Anna explained, holding Sadie’s hand. “I’m not joking, Jeremy. Two big, mean-looking guys.”
“Not a big man in a cape?”
Anna and Sadie looked at each other again. “No,” Anna said. “Definitely nobody in a cape. These guys were huge and dressed all in white.”
He shrugged and knew it could very well have been. The unexplained was at every turn. The orderlies might have been following Anna and Sadie, and by now they could also have faded back into the shadows they’d come from.
“Well, they’re not there now, and I’ve got bigger things to worry about. I’ve got to get this door open.” He waved his hand toward the door at this back. “Lorna and the others are down there.”
“Ah, Jeremy.” Anna’s voice was trembling this time.
“What?” he snapped, ready to go into a full-on yell. He needed them to help and stop screwing around. As he spun away from them and back toward the door, the words died on his lips. Standing beside the now-open door was the giant.
*
Lorna took a chance. If ever there was a time to call on her powers to kick into high gear, this was it. Granted, that bitch had stepped out of her paranormal realm and into Lorna’s reality, so there wasn’t a question what they were up against. It was most assuredly going to get physical. But she needed to know why the change had happened.
The angel of death staring at her right now held all the cards when it came to what this was about, and that pissed her off. If she wanted to play hardball, well, she’d chosen the right team, and Lorna was ready to bat. She would figure this out, and she would take her down.
Quickly she scanned the room and settled her gaze on an old steel gurney, covered with dust and sitting in the middle of the room. If anything could show her what she needed to know to fight, she was pretty confident that piece of equipment could do it. Concentrating, she prayed as she hurried over to it and grabbed hold of the cold metal. This had to work.
The room was well lit and humming with activity. Two men were wheeling in a gurney, the figure lying prone on top struggling against the leather restraints that held her arms and legs secure. The woman’s face looked vaguely familiar, and then she realized why. The scared and struggling woman resembled the photograph of Anna’s wife. This had to be the great-great-grandmother who once owned the beautiful reset diamond.
Lorna was standing at the bottom of the stairwell, an unseen spectator in the drama unfolding in front of her eyes. The men rolled the gurney beneath a bright light suspended by a long black cord from the ceiling. It flickered when one of the men hit it, and it began to swing back and forth. The woman started to scream and to beg.
“Please, I can pay you. Please do not do this.” Tears streamed down her face and she struggled against the restraints. Her hair was a tangled mess, her gown rumpled.
The nurse, the same one who’d pushed Renee down the stairs and laughed about it, ran her hand over the woman’s hair, smoothing it back from her pale face. Her eyes were big and dark. “Oh, my dear girl, you really do not understand, do you? It must be your troubled mind. That is why your husband has already paid us well to ease your troubles. You will never have another disturbed thought once we finish with you. I promise, dear one. Your life will be transformed.”
“I do not want to die,” she cried. “I have children. I have money.”
“And your husband will raise them well, I have no doubt. He is a good man, and his payment was generous. No, there is no need for you to worry about family or money. Rest easy. It will be over in a moment, and you will not feel a thing. All your troubles will be gone.”
The nurse picked up something that looked like an old-fashioned hand drill. As Lorna watched in horror, the two men who had rolled the woman in put their hands on her head t
o keep her still. The nurse laid the tool against her skull and began to turn the handle. Blood started to dribble from the woman’s head, picking up in intensity as the handle was turned. Her screams ratcheted up louder and louder. Then they began to trail off until they finally stopped altogether. Her body stilled as the nurse continued to turn the handle, and the only sounds in the room were the hum of the light and the squeak of the drill. The sound was like fingernails on a blackboard.
After what seemed like forever, the nurse stopped turning the handle and stared down at the unmoving woman. What she was looking for, Lorna couldn’t tell. A few minutes of intense study seemed to satisfy her, and she reversed the direction of the drill until she could lift the tool away. As if on command, the orderlies dropped their hands from the woman’s head and stepped away. She didn’t so much as twitch.
All three stood staring down at the woman. Her chest was no longer rising and falling. The flow of blood from the hole in her skull had slowed until it was little more a mere trickle. Her skin was turning even paler than it already was. Her lips were beginning to turn a light, unnatural blue.
“Well, I believe we have accomplished the family’s wishes,” the nurse said as she picked up a towel from the small table where the bloody drill now lay and wiped her hands, studying her nails and her palms as if looking for the tiniest speck of blood. When she appeared satisfied her hands were clean, she dropped the towel, now streaked with blood, back on the table.
One of the orderlies looked down at the woman and then took one finger and poked her in the cheek. He looked up and over at the other one, who shrugged.
The one who’d done the poking said, “Nurse Thompson, I think she’s dead.”
Twisted Screams Page 19