Wicked Haunted: An Anthology of the New England Horror Writers
Page 14
And who’s this woman acting this show, this tour—”
“Nurse Emma, Gram. Please. Let her show us around?”
Nurses say Teresa, not Terezia.
She tells Cass when she visits. “Such rude manners!”
Cass listens and tutors, “Please, Tay-rey-tzee-ya.”
Emma nods, writes phonetics on the planner.
“I don’t trust people here. Don’t you feel the air?”
“It’s dry,” Cass agrees, “And too warm, I suppose...”
“Most people her age get chilled, so we take care,”
Nurse Emma explains. “Extra heat. Extra clothes.”
“It’s to hide all the ghosts,” Terezia says.
“What ghosts?” Nurse Emma asks, fooling just Cass.
“Gram, there are no ghosts. Let the dead just stay dead.
You know, your stories got Nick sent home from class?
It’s safe here for you, Gram. I promise; I swear.”
“Dear child you know not what you speak. And I
dismiss foolish vows. And I don’t speak from fear.
But take care if you see there’s a ghost in my eye.”
3.
She watches. She watches. She watches their eyes.
She watches. She watches. In silence, she sighs.
Penance for silence, see the ghosts in their eyes.
The doctor hadn’t known that Nurse Emma was there.
She’d gone downstairs, though she knew it forbidden;
her patient was begging for Doctor Audaire.
To this day, she still keeps what she saw hidden.
Two patients bound to tables, wired, side-by-side.
Soft words from the lips of the Doctor Audaire.
A cup of liquid drunk. A switch thrown. Both died.
Only for a moment. Their spirits in air.
Zagging roads of lightning redirected to hosts.
Both opened their eyes wide. Their eyes weren’t their own.
Each looked at each other. And saw each their ghosts.
Trapped inside. Dead alive. Foreign skin, wrong bone.
Throw the switch. Lightning flare. Free spirits once more.
They sought their own bodies—Audaire spoke their names.
Holding them moments more, light pulled from their cores.
Though back to their bodies, neither was the same.
Once loosened from body, spirits are bolder.
What the doctor has stolen, they now must steal.
From a body less sick, one that’s less older.
Push out someone’s ghost, and from stolen life heal.
And then when their time comes to pass, they do stay.
Holding onto this world, unfamiliar eyes stare
at children, grandchildren, the loved ones who pray
a piece of mom or dad or grandma is there.
And what from this torture gets Doctor Audaire?
A little more life, the power of a god.
Knowledge, secrets, of such so few are aware.
“You look young for your age.” Vanity does nod.
If he knows, if he cares, what loosed spirits do—
Nurse Emma can’t tell and would never dare ask.
Surrounded by ghosts dead and still living too,
she calms worried fam’lies; fear keeps her on task.
“Nurse Emma, my office. It’s time that we talk.”
Doctor Audaire turned around, walked down the stairs.
Shaking, quaking, Nurse Emma could hardly walk.
But she followed the doctor down those same stairs.
He motioned for her to sit by two empty
tables. She does, but wonders who lay there last.
“Nurse Emma, look at me. Now, what did you see
when you came looking, down here, not two months past?”
“Doctor Audaire, if asked... I can’t really say...
I wouldn’t say anything—see anything...
I mean...” She stopped, too scared to even pray.
“You care for your fam’ly. Your pay, your earnings?”
“I...yes.” She thought of her sister, nephews and—
“Your father, he’s getting well up in his years?
You know he can come here.” Audaire took her hand.
Dad will never come here. Emma fought her tears.
4.
She watches. She watches. She watches their eyes.
She watches. She watches. In silence, she cries.
Penance for silence, see the ghosts in their eyes.
“Why’s her hair not colored?” asks Cass one visit.
“We pay for the service. It means much to her.”
“Last time we tried she attacked the assistant.
With her anxiety, no one can touch her.”
“Perhaps I can come out... help and be near her?”
“Are you licensed or trained?” Nurse Emma enquires.
“Well, no, but... I thought that...” Cass says in murmurs.
“It’s all right, dear, just trust the people you hired.”
“I don’t trust them at all,” Terezia says.
One lucid moment, one difficult visit.
Cass talks in that moment, sits closer, and says,
“Why don’t you trust them, Gram? Tell me, what is it?”
“You know my necklace, the one with the symbol?
Bring it to me, and never let them take it.”
Cass thought to protest; the request was simple.
“I’ll find it and bring it next time I can make it.”
“Did you bring my necklace?” Terezia frets.
“Shit! I knew I forgot... I was running so late.
Sorry, Gram. Next time, I promise, I won’t forget.”
“If there is a next time...” Her gram turns away.
“Don’t be so dramatic—” Cass starts to chastise.
“Don’t you dare, Cassandra, I know what’s at stake.
You don’t believe now, but look into their eyes.
All of them. In this place. Do they look awake?”
“Gram, there’s no—” Cass started to speak.
“There is, and there are ghosts. Right now. Right here.
I see them, I feel them. They prey on the weak.
I tell you, these nurses, they know—and they fear.”
“You’re speaking in stories; you’re making no sense.”
Gram said, “I speak more sense then you’ll ever know.”
Is she lucid? Is this some mental defense?
“If you care, bring my necklace. Till then, just go.”
Outside, Cass paces. Twenty feet from the doors.
Was she hurting her Gram? Just making things worse?
She paces and puffs two cigarettes or more.
I remember thinking ‘put necklace in purse.’
But Nicky woke late, and Dan went in early.
Jessie nearly forgot her homework, at that.
Full-time job, full-time wife... caretaker? Surely—
she couldn’t do it all. Still, sobbing, she sat...
“Honey, don’t cry.” Nurse Emma comes to the curb.
“You’re doing your best, and don’t you forget it.
This...seeing our parents like this...it will hurt.
But you’ve made the best choice. Don’t you regret it.”
“I wish I could do more. Be here, do something...”
“So does everyone else in this situation.
Remember, you’re here now, not doing nothing.
Cherish now. Time just worsens her condition.”
5.
She watches. She watches. She watches their eyes.
She watches. She watches. In silence, she lies.
Penance for silence, see the ghosts in their eyes.
Terezia sees her, hiding the needle.
Two orderlies come in; she fights and she fails.
Medicine injected. Downstairs. On a table.
Eyes Doctor
Audaire, neither flinches nor pales.
She can’t move, hardly breathe, while they bind her tight.
The two orderlies leave; that one nurse stays.
At least no one promises she’ll be all right.
She didn’t trust the doctor when they first met.
He asked too many questions; his eyes were dead.
His soul reeked of poison—aura slimy, wet.
While ghosts wandered all round, from him they fled.
And this room, this basement, void of spirits too.
Though her body is drugged, mind medically blurred—
Why she is here, why the ghosts—why this...she knew.
Doctor Audaire tells her without any words.
The lightning is blinding, pain swirling black hole.
Drugs and fear gurgle gasping laughter in screams.
The tearing of essence rips body and soul.
But worse is the light being stolen in streams.
The doctor’s eyes glow, light from living ghost.
Into Terezia bores dark empty chasms.
Her ghost eyes see herself, Audaire’s captive host.
When the doctor is done, she snaps back in spasms.
On the floor, she’s returned, no longer intact.
Now bound to oxygen, body and mind
still don’t work the same. A delay to react.
Eyes no longer can tell life from spirit kind.
Still weak, Terezia is pushed out a crack
by another who wears her body like a dress.
She sees her own eyes, and a stranger looks back.
When that spirit leaves, she returns feeling less.
“God, what happened to her?” cries Cass at first sight.
Of course Dan and the kids had come this visit.
“Gram-gram, you okay?” Jessie snuggles beside.
Nicky shakes, looks away, quietly he sits.
“Stay with them,” Cass tells Dan, finds the first nurse.
“What the hell happened? Why does she look like that?”
“She lashed out. Paranoid. Was like she was cursed—”
“Bullshit,” says Cass. “Is there video of that?”
“There’s no video,” Nurse Emma says with care
as she arrives. “Last night’s storm took power out.
“But you can discuss it with Doctor Audaire.”
Cass looks at her family gathered about
their great gram, her gram—her second mother.
Those years Gram protected, and loved—she deserved
to be cared for the same. Loved like no other.
“Yeah. Where’s his office?” Something prickles Cass’s nerves.
Terezia watches her fam’ly through mist.
Their voices, a moment, come after their words.
Cass asks a question; its meaning she misses.
Just keeping together her own spirit hurts.
Were they ghosts, still alive? Were her own eyes dead?
When she opens her mouth, the wrong words escape.
“Gram-gram…we don’t know what you’re asking,” Jess says.
“Spirits see…come apart… necklace home… I break...”
She sighs, closes her eyes, and tears start to fall.
“Gram-gram are there ghosts? Is that why you’re so scared?”
“Nicky, don’t ask that,” Dan says. His voice is appalled.
“But if that’s what hurt her…” She feels unprepared.
She gasps and tries to breathe; nothing has an effect.
Flails. What now? Dan switches her oxygen on.
Her beloved family, she cannot protect.
So helpless, so useless, who has she become?
“What happened to my Gram?” Cass folds her arms.
“What Nurse Emma told you,” says Doctor Audaire.
“She had an episode. We stopped further harm.”
“And you have proof you acted in her best care?”
“You researched our facility when you chose us.
Do you question your choice? What you chose for her?”
“Should I?” Cass asks. “Tell me about her bruises.”
“She attacked her nurse, crying ghostly horror.”
Cass leaves Doctor Audaire’s office feeling worse—
powerless, helpless—has she made a mistake?
She needed a smoke so she reached in her purse.
No, you’re trying to quit. She tried not to shake.
She returned to her Gram, to her family,
but they all looked worried; only Jessie spoke—
prattling hopefully as Gram sat silently.
But her eyes—Gram’s eyes looked like those of a ghost.
6.
She watches. She watches. She watches their eyes.
She watches. She watches. In silence, she sighs.
Penance for silence, see the ghosts in their eyes.
Cass checks three extra times. She will not forget.
Gram’s request, the necklace. She hopes it will help.
If it makes Gram more calm, helps make her less stressed...
If I visited more, that also would help...
Brushes her hand on the pendant, fingered its
surface and chain. Would it banish her guilt
as it banished the ghosts? What else could it fix?
Cass sits in the car, frozen by all she’s felt.
What’s wrong? I love Gram. I should want to see her.
Deliberate, Cass breathes and turns off her car.
Stomach twinges ill each step she takes nearer.
It isn’t long to arrive; the trip isn’t far.
Gram sits in her room; eyes shine empty like glass.
Please, see me Gram. She says, “Hey, Gram. It’s me, Cass.”
“I know you.” Gram reaches a weak hand; Cass grasps.
“I brought this for you.” Cass attaches the necklace.
It takes some time—and even more patience.
She hears Cass in the hall, admonishing her—
Nurse Emma. “I promise, no one will touch that necklace.”
Not ready to speak, she just thinks, Liar.
Her trembling hand, now trembling less, tucks inside
her prize, her power, her secreted defense.
Before Cass leaves, Terezia shows her pride.
“I luh-love you, Cass.” She smiles; her words make sense.
“I love you, too, Gram.” Cass wipes new tears away.
Strength grows, and clarity, fraction by fraction.
Enough for her to ask, “Cass, You...you please stay?”
Terezia needs time, rest before action.
And Nurse Bitch won’t come in—won’t ruin her plans—
with Cass in the room paying close attention.
Bless her granddaughter, she nods, taking her hands.
To keep Cass while she heals, she asks more questions.
Strangely, Nurse Emma’s forgotten the necklace.
Or doesn’t know better... Terezia thinks.
What is her alliance? Just what is her place?
As the old woman plans, she doesn’t want kinks.
She still sees the ghosts, but they all avoid her.
Confidence moves her; she’s reclaimed her power.
Even toting oxygen, using her walker.
She observes what happens every hour.
That devil of a doctor keeps strict schedules.
Terezia watches each resident’s state...
When the doctor does take them, steal from their souls,
she notes each recovery, how long it takes.
Before how long is the next soul pulled to feed?
How long before it is Terezia’s turn
to be taken for Audaire’s abhorrent need?
And what she learns is she hasn’t time to burn.
The wise woman knows she has no time to spare.
She wanders all hallways, explores every room.
She spies on t
he doctor when he’s not downstairs.
When he’s not, and it’s safe, she goes down there too.
With protective measures from her mother’s gram,
she studies the tables, the machine, the wires.
Mechanical dark magic, work of the damned...
How hard would it be... an electrical fire?
As if they know, as if they too are watching,
ghosts follow Terezia through others’ eyes—
Torturing those pushed out and stuck watching
their tortured families staring at empty eyes.
I’ll end their suffering. I will fix this all.
She sneaks oxygen tanks from storage downstairs.
Days pass, she waits for Cass to visit or call.
Then it’s time to be brought to Doctor Audaire.
She still fights, she still loses, she’s drugged and tied.
Brought downstairs and restrained, she maintains her glare.
She does not look where her mischief’s work all hides.
Instead, she focuses hate on Doctor Audaire.
Unfazed by her scorn, he sets all his buttons.
He narrows his eyes, fixes them on her neck.
He pulls at the pendant; it won’t come undone.
“You must think you’re clever with this little trick?”
The old woman bats her eyes innocently.
“Emma,” orders Audaire, “Do take care of this.”
“You promised.” Terezia burns intensity.
The nurse pauses, at least, but does as he bids.
That nurse pockets the necklace, walks out the door.
Flip the switch. Spirit split. Steals life from her soul.
And this time it hurts so much more than before.
Back in her room, she knows she’s so much less whole.
7.
She watches. She watches. She watches their eyes.
She watches. She watches. In silence, she cries.
Penance for silence, see the ghosts in their eyes.
The very next day, Cass comes for a visit.
Terezia fights with the ghost who possesses...