by C. C. Wall
“Lukas!” she yelled.
She banged on the door and heard nothing. She took a step back and swung her leg up and kicked through Lukas’s door. To her horror, she found Lukas; he was lying on the floor.
She ran over to him and quickly checked for any wounds. She checked his wrists. He was cold. She couldn’t feel a pulse.
Thoughts of guilt swam through her head knowing that she was there hours ago and could have found him sooner. She rolled him over and opened his mouth. Sue began to administer CPR on him.
“Damn it Lukas, please,” she begged. “I need you right now. Please hold on.”
She started pushing on his chest in steady succession. After going back and forth between the two, she couldn’t tell any change in him.
She pulled out her radio, “Officer down! Officer down! I need an ambulance!
Lukas was even more pale than he usually was. That was something that Sue thought he could never get. His lips were blue. Sue tried to hold the tears at bay, but she failed and they began to run down her face freely. She kept trying to cry out to Lukas and would choke on her words.
As the minutes ticked by, she looked around the room trying to put together what happened the night before. It didn’t take her long to see the empty bottle of pills on the floor. She looked all over trying to find one of the pills so that she could make sure what he took. She got on the floor and looked under the bed. The only thing under there was one, single pill. It was purple and white. She picked it up and dropped it into the empty bottle.
The sound of the ambulance came down the road. It was getting louder and louder. Everything for Sue slowed down. Time seemed to be acting strangely. She knew the medics were probably running up the stairs, but it seemed like it was taking them way too long. The sound in the room and the sound outside began to meld together into a drone that sounded like it was coming from under water.
The medics ran in the room but they seemed to be out of focus and swimming through the room.
“Are you all right?” one of the medics asked.
It took Sue a second to get her head back on straight. She looked at the medic and blinked her eyes a couple times. “Yeah, it’s him though. I can’t tell if he…” She trailed off and then saw the prescription bottle in her hand. “He took these I think.”
The three medics crowded around him.
“You have to save him!” Sue shouted. She forced the bottle into one of their hands. “He took these I think.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” he said. “We’ll take it from here.”
Sue stood back hoping that Lukas would cough and sit up; any form of life in him would be good at that moment.
“I have a faint pulse,” one medic said.
Sue gasped and began to cry out. She covered her mouth to shut herself up so that she could hear what else they were saying.
“We have to get him to the hospital if he is going to have any chance,” another medic said. “Now!”
The medics all rushed Lukas up onto a gurney and quickly rolled him out of the room. As soon as they were gone, Sue screamed out. She took a couple of deep breaths and then ran out the door after them.
“Can I ride with you guys?” she yelled down the hallway.
“No room,” one shouted back at her.
They pushed the gurney up inside the ambulance and hit the sirens.
Sue ran to her car and had a hard time finding the right key while tried to rub tears out of her eyes. She got in and floored it. Her tires screeched as they spun quickly, then catching the road. She nearly lost control of the car just getting out of her parking spot.
Once she was able to catch up to the ambulance, she began to calm down. Just being able to see it in front of her made her feel better. One thing was for certain, Sue Callahan’s world was cracking all around her and she was running out of things to hold onto.
16 - Very Strong Words
Sue was running alongside of the gurney as it was being pushed down the hospital hallway into the Emergency Room. “Hold on, Lukas! We’re almost there!” she said.
Deputy Reed was waiting there at the end of the hall. He was nervous and worried about Lukas. He wasn’t really pacing back and forth, but he was heading to the right then the left as if he didn’t know which way to start to pace. “Is he okay?” Reed said. He was so quiet, he almost didn’t even hear himself say it.
Nurse Janet stopped Sue. “This is as far as you can go. I’m sorry.”
Sue nodded her head showing Janet that she understood. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat as Lukas was taken behind a curtain. She looked at Reed with teary eyes. “Is Reagan here yet?”
“Yeah,” he said. “He should be coming up any second now.” Reed reached over and awkwardly patted Sue on the shoulder. “I’m sure he will make it. This is kind of his style, I guess.” Reed didn’t have a lot of confidence in his voice.
Sue looked at him and wanted to laugh but knew he was trying. She would let him off this time, she thought.
That thought was interrupted by the sound of Janet yelling, “Clear!” and then the sound of the defibrillator releasing a charge into Lukas’s body from behind the curtain.
Sue winced. She clinched her jaw tightly.
Again, Janet yelled, “Clear!” and the defibrillator did its best to try to bring Lukas back.
Sue closed her eyes tightly and buried her face into her palms as it happened a third time. But something was different that time. As soon as it happened, there was a terrifying shriek, that came from down the hall, near the rooms where Eric was. Sue shared a glance of worry with Reed and then the two ran towards the scream as fast as they could.
They turned the corner and saw something that they weren’t expecting. They stopped at Elizabeth’s room to see her sitting up in bed, breathing heavily as if she just ran as fast as she could. Her eyes were wide opened and looked like she had seen something horrific. Her jaw hung open slightly and her teeth were showing as if she was trying to use a primal instinct to scare an attacker away. She held her hands out in front of her with her fingers curled, ready to claw at anyone who came near. The whites of her eyes seemed bigger than ever. She could barely catch her breath.
Elizabeth looked over at Sue and Reed, “Where’s is Detective Lukas?”
Sue and Reed were still hesitant to actually enter the room. They looked at each other in bewilderment. Before Sue could address Elizabeth, there was another loud voice coming from behind them.
“Elizabeth?” Jonathan shouted as he ran as awkwardly as his injured body would take him. Once he realized Sue was standing in front of the door, he was infuriated. “What the hell are you doing here?” he said.
“I’m…” Sue started.
Jonathan grabbed Reed by the arm. “Arrest this woman! That is an order!”
Reed was confused. “I’m sorry Mayor, but can you order me to do that kind of thing?”
“Of course I can! I’m the bloody mayor!” Jonathan saw Elizabeth out of the corner of his eye and turned his head towards her. He slowly released his grip on Reed’s arm. “Elizabeth,” he whispered.
Jonathan walked swiftly in the room and stopped in front of her, just to make sure it was really happening. “Princess?” he said.
She looked at him with the same look she gave Sue. It was a look of borderline madness, but it was good enough for Jonathan.
He lunged in and held her tightly. “Oh, my baby!” he cried out as tears of joy ran down his face.
Reagan finally appeared in the hallway. He put his hand on Sue’s shoulder.
Sue turned to him and gave him a hug which he wasn’t expecting and also didn’t know how to respond. After a moment, he placed his hand on her back.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Lukas is in the ER and Elizabeth just woke up,” she said.
“Let me handle this,” he said. He walked in and patted Jonathan on the back. “Thank God she’s all right.”
“Yes,” Jonathan said, “Yes,
indeed.”
“I need a word with you, sir,” Reagan asked.
“Now, really isn’t the time,” Jonathan responded.
“It has to be now Jonathan.” Reagan said.
He let go of his grip on Elizabeth and turned to Reagan, regaining his composure. “Is this about your insubordination concerning that woman not being in custody?”
“If by that woman, you are referring to Deputy Callahan, then yes,” Reagan said.
“That is where you are wrong, sheriff, she has resigned,” Jonathan said.
Reagan looked him in the eye, “Mayor, I couldn’t accept her resignation.”
Jonathan was mortified. “And why the hell not?”
“Because Jonathan,” Reagan squared his shoulders up with Jonathan’s “She is about to make an arrest in a murder case that she has been working on, and quite frankly, we are understaffed as it is. She is a good deputy and I need her. At least for a little while longer.” He looked over his glasses at Jonathan. “Is that going to be all right with you sir?”
Jonathan was furious but kept it on the inside. He took a deep breath through his nostrils to hold the anger down. “That will be fine for now Sheriff Reagan, but you and I will be having very strong words shortly.”
“We sure will, sir, looking forward to it.” Reagan turned to Sue and smiled, “You’re up.”
Sue walked up to Jonathan “Jonathan Kensington, you are under arrest for the murder of Michael Goodman. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…”
Jonathan’s face turned white as a sheet as she continued down the list of rights. “What?”
Sue turned him around and forcefully pushed him against the wall to place the cuffs on him.
“What are you doing?” Jonathan yelled, “I’m the mayor!”
“Not for long, sir,” Sue said.
Reagan took Jonathan by the arm. “I’ll take him in.”
“All right,” Sue said. She handed Jonathan over.
Reagan took him into the hallway. “Now let’s have that talk with them strong words in it now. What do you say?”
Sue looked behind her and saw that Elizabeth was sitting there still with same look on her face. “Honey, I’m really sorry you had to see that.”
“I need to speak with Detective Lukas,” Elizabeth said loudly.
“I’ll go see how he’s doing,” Sue said. “Reed stay with her please. No visitors.”
“You got it,” Reed said.
Sue walked quickly down the hall back to where she left Lukas behind the curtain. She hoped things were going better. She knew he wouldn’t be able to go talk to Elizabeth, but needed to see him. She needed to brag about arresting Kensington. Brag that at least one of the crazy cases from the last week was finally getting closed.
She rounded the corner. She then heard a faint ‘beep’ coming from a machine behind the curtain where Lukas was. The beep was steady. It was slow, but it was steady. She intently scanned the room looking for Dr. Clive or Nurse Janet. She couldn’t see anyone. She had to see for herself. She grabbed the curtain and pulled it back.
Tears escaped her eyes yet again. Her face crinkled up tight to hold in any sounds. She saw Lukas laying there hooked up to machines with tubes coming out of him every which way. She walked next to the bed and grabbed his hand. She held it tightly. It was slightly warmer than it was at his apartment.
17 - Going Home
The door was opened half-way when Bekka got back to her house. She was afraid to open it. She was afraid of what she would find; or what she wouldn’t find.
“Mom! Dad!” Bekka called out from the porch.
The door squeaked as she slowly pushed it open further. She entered through the door and was immediately met with flashbacks from the night before. She stood still with her eyes shut until the flashbacks stopped. She slowly opened her eyes and continued into the house.
“Mom! Dad! Answer me!” she yelled.
She was afraid to walk into the living room, where they always sat, glued to the television. If she didn’t see them sitting there, she didn’t know what she would do. She inched her way down the small entry way into the living room. The sound of static from the television set filled the air. The heavy drapes were pulled shut so that it seemed black as night in the room. The wall that the television pointed at broke the darkness with a greenish glow. To Bekka’s horror though, there was no one watching the television. The room was empty.
“No!” she cried. She fell onto her knees and cried into her hands. Moaning and sobbing aloud as if her parents were dead. Her sister was missing and so were her parents. Bekka was all alone in a cold, dark house. She could feel the isolation creeping up her arms and crawling over her skin. She screamed. She swatted away at her flesh trying to make the feeling go away.
Bekka took a chance and ran into the blackness that was her hallway. She was hoping to not run into anything that should not be there on her way to her room. The bedroom door flew open as her body slammed into it. She forgot that her room was a disaster after the attack and fell over immediately on the night stand that somehow managed be in the center of her room. Pain shot through her body. The room was in shambles.
She crawled up against the wall and then slid the length of it to the furtherest corner from the door. Her bed and many other fragments of what used to be her room laid in the space between. She had a flash in her mind of the man or the creature that attacked her. She shut her eyes tightly. When she opened them, she saw a bottle of beer that hadn’t been opened yet. Anything to numb her to the situation was a good thing she thought. She opened the beer and took a big swig. Then she dropped it on the floor when the thought crossed her mind that it might be laced with something. That was probably why she thought she saw a monster attacking her, she thought. But if that were the case, how did Eric see the same thing she did? If that were the case, it really could have been Jason. If that were the case, it could have just as easily been Dakota or even Colt!
Her mind raced. She saw her phone on her bed. She grabbed it hoping to see that Jen texted her saying that she was all right. Her heart broke a little when there was no such text. She called Dakota hoping he could come over and comfort her. It went straight to voicemail. She then tried Colt. The same thing.
Bekka had never felt so alone in all of her life. She then wondered if Dakota and Colt were also missing. She thought that maybe she was cursed.
Bile quickly started moving up her throat. She haphazardly maneuvered around the mess and got to the bathroom as quickly as she could. Her stomach wrenched as vomit flew out of her mouth and splattered into the toilet. She cried between episodes. When she felt the worst of it had passed, she stood up and washed her hands and rinsed out her mouth with water.
That was the first time that she had really seen the state of her facial injuries. Her face was swollen and the wrap around her head made it look even worse. The bruising was starting to really get dark. She whimpered. When her eyes were able to focus again, she saw that the wall behind her was much brighter than usual. It was the whitest white that she could ever remember seeing. It began to blind her. She squinted her eyes so much so that all she could see through the brightness was her eyelashes coming together.
It then looked as if someone was standing behind her. The person was a bit shorter than her, with longer fuller hair. It looked like Jen!
She quickly turned around to see that the wall was as dingy as ever and that she was still, all alone.
18 - The Fool
The commotion in the hospital had finally died down. Things seemed to be back to normal. Nurse Janet made her rounds through empty halls. It felt calm in the halls for once. Even though there were people in serious conditions, Jonathan Kensington wasn’t yelling at her about every little thing. Sheriff’s deputies weren’t wandering the halls asking everyone questions or running as fast as they could in or out. It got very loud when Jonathan was being arrested. Janet was worried that it would upset the other patients. I
t did not seem that anyone was really bothered. Most were just glad that he was gone.
There was one patient that had questions though once Nurse Janet came to check on them.
“What happened out there?” Eric said.
“Nothing to worry about,” Janet said.
“Was someone arrested?” Eric asked.
“Yes.” Janet said hesitantly. She walked in to see if Eric’s bedding was tucked in.
“I’m fine. You don’t need to do that,” he said. “Was it Mayor Kensington?”
Janet looked up at him and felt that if she told him that he might lose faith in the adults in the community but couldn’t think of a better lie to tell him. “Yes.”
Eric looked shocked. “That’s insane.”
“You know what they say,” she paused, “Innocent until proven guilty.”
Eric nodded. “That’s what I hear.” He stood up and walked to the door to look out into the empty halls. “Did anything else happen? I mean how is Elizabeth?”
“Well, there is some good news,” she said. “She’s awake!” Janet smiled and put her hand on Eric’s arm. “That’s something really positive about today.”
“Is she all right?” Eric asked. “I mean, did she see it happen?”
Janet looked down and nodded her head in the affirmative. “I know she is your mother, Eric, but I really wish she had more tact than to do that right in front of Elizabeth. The poor girl just woke up.”
Eric looked away from Nurse Janet, knowing that she was right, but Eric had a gut reaction to defend his mother. For some reason though, he didn’t even attempt to. “Is it okay if I go see her?”
“Who, Elizabeth?” she asked.
Eric was already nervous. He really didn’t want to have to come out and say it. “Yes.”
Janet smiled coyly at him. “Sure you can.”
Deputy Reed felt horribly awkward standing in Elizabeth Kensington’s doorway. Elizabeth sat up straight in her bed looking straight ahead. She was frozen and blank. It was making Reed’s skin crawl. He had to do something to break the silence.