by S. A. Hunter
“I’m not worried. I just want to make sure that you’re okay.”
“Aren’t those the same thing?”
He gave her a small grin. “A little. Will you be okay?”
“I’ll be fine. Once I see Gran, everything will be okay.”
He looked at her for a moment as if he were determining whether she was telling the truth. She was getting antsy. She wanted to get inside now. He finally nodded. “If you need anything, give me a call.”
She nodded as she closed the door, and then strode into the hospital. Once she was inside, she faltered. What had happened to Gran? How was she? She wanted to know, but she was scared to find out. The hospital appeared no different than when she'd been there last night. Visitors and staff went about their business as usual, but it was different this time. Someone she cared about had been admitted. Her first stop was the information desk. The woman working there smiled sunnily at her. She couldn’t return even a half smile. “Could you tell me what room Helena Dubont is in, please?”
She looked up the name in her computer. “She was put in room 224.”
Mary recognized the room number and raised an eyebrow. She started for the elevators before the receptionist looked up from her computer screen.
The elevator was empty when she got on it. “What floor, please?”
“Two. Did the Shadowman attack my grandmother?” The button for two lit up, but the ghost didn’t reply. “Do you know anything about what happened to my grandmother?”
Still the ghost didn’t answer. Why wouldn’t anyone tell her anything? She crossed her arms and tapped her feet.
“Second floor.”
The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. “Thanks,” Mary grumbled as she strode out. She quickly turned down the hall to room 224. As she arrived there and reached to open the door, raised voices stopped her.
“You are so full of it! Tolliver’s book was a crock, and you know it!”
“He got the alignment right, didn’t he?”
“Pure chance! He doesn’t know his Manipura chakra from a bleeding ulcer!”
She pushed the door open slowly and peeked in. Gran was sitting up, with her left foot suspended over the bed. She looked flushed and ornery. Mr. White was rather rosy in the cheeks as well.
“Gran?”
“Mary! Oh no, I told the hospital not to call the school.”
She went to the bed and stared at her suspended foot. It wasn’t in a cast. It was in an ace bandage. The injury didn't make sense. “Did the Shadowman do this?”
“No, tell her what really happened!” Mr. White said.
She glanced at him and then back at her. “Gran?”
“Don’t pay any attention to him.”
“Did the Shadowman do this?”
“No, dear. I slipped. That’s all. I sprained my ankle, and now I’m waiting on x-rays to see if I broke anything.”
“If you believe that, then instead of her foot, they should x-ray your head!”
“What’s he talking about?”
“He has this crazy notion—-”
Mr. White shook his finger at her. “It is not crazy! You fell down those stairs on purpose!”
Gran rolled her eyes. “Yes, that sounds sane and sensible.”
“I didn’t say you were sane or sensible.”
Mary didn't know what to believe. “Did the Shadowman do this?!”
“No!” They both shouted.
She threw up her hands. “Then what’s going on?”
Gran’s lips screwed up into a scowl. Mr. White, though, was more than eager to answer. “Because I wouldn’t tell her anything about that stupid Shadowman, she went and hurt herself so she could trap me and wear me down until I tell her what she wants to know. It’s insane, and I’m not telling you a blasted thing!”
Mary turned to Gran hoping for a more sensible answer. “Gran, is that what happened?”
She lifted her chin and looked down her nose at her. There was a flintiness in her eyes that Mary knew well. She couldn’t believe it. Gran had totally done it on purpose. She’d twisted her ankle to trap and interrogate Mr. White. “Have you at least found out anything?”
“He’s a stubborn old man.”
“You’re damn right. You ain’t getting anything out of me.”
Gran cast a sideways glare at Mr. White that looked absolutely evil. He didn't know it yet, but he was in for trouble. "Mary, the doctors suggested I stay overnight for observation. I think I will.Be a dear and bring me a few things from home." The way she sweetly said it made Mary's eyes dart to Mr. White. He was in for it now. “Along with all the regular stuff, could you bring a few specials things? I'd like my CD player and my Dean Martin CDs. He's such a wonderful singer. Listening to him will certainly lift my spirits. And did you notice that the television has a DVD player? Bring all of my Martin and Lewis movies. We could have a marathon. Wouldn't that be fun? And finally, I'd really like to have my autographed picture of Dino with me. Holding it is such a comfort. Got that?”
Every time she mentioned Dean Martin, Mr. White’s eye had twitched. The way Gran sounded, one would think she was a total Dean Martin fan girl, and Mary had known she liked him, but she didn’t listen to his music much or watch the DVDs. She’d probably have to wipe dust off them before bringing them in.
“I’ll give you fifty bucks to disobey your grandmother.”
She turned to Mr. White. This could get interesting. “Thanks, but I don’t want money.”
“A hundred dollars.”
“You know what I want.”
“Two hundred.”
“Zeke,” Gran said in a chiding tone.
“I’m going to get something for my information. You’re not getting it free.”
“You will get something--a Dino-free zone.” Gran had him. She had the same look in her eyes as when a client blustered about paying for her services. She’d get them to pay--and tip well, too.
Mr. White worked his jaw. Gran started humming the tune for “That’s Amore.”
“Bwah! Fine! You want to know about Shadowmen? I’ll tell you. They’re nasty. They glom onto people and feed off of them. People hardly ever know they’re victims. They just feel worn down and surly. Usually, the Shadowman will leave them on its own for a new victim.”
“How do you get rid of them?” Mary asked.
Mr. White shrugged.
“What?”
“I don’t know how to get rid of them. People have tried blessings and exorcisms, but nothing seems to definitively work. No one knows what they are. They don’t seem like ghosts. They aren’t demons. They’re a nuisance. That’s all anyone is sure of.”
“But this one's attacking people in the hospital. It may be killing them. That’s way more than a nuisance.”
“I remember you saying that, and I don’t understand it, but then again, nobody really understands Shadowmen. They just are.”
She looked at Gran to get her take on this. She had her chin cupped and was tapping a finger against her lips. “There has to be a way to help Vicky,” Mary said to her.
Gran nodded. “Zeke, have you seen the Shadowman that’s here? Has it tried to sneak into your room?”
Mr. White hunched over. “Yeah, it has, but I was always able to send it packing.”
“We need to lure it out and then follow it. Mary, I need you to go home and get Chowder and all the flashlights.”
“What are you planning?”
“We need to track it. Figure out where it rests. I think that will tell us how to get rid of it.”
“What do you mean lure it out? Are you going to make yourself vulnerable to this thing?” Mr. White sounded concerned. It made alarms go off in Mary’s head, too.
“I don’t like this plan much either, but if we hope to stop this entity, we need to find where it rests and anything else we can about it.”
“How are you going to track it with Chowder? You can’t leave the bed, and you can’t be sure Chowder will track this thi
ng anyway.”
Gran looked down at her hands. She had them clasped together. She started massaging them. She did that when she wasn’t happy. “You’ll need to hide yourself and stay here. I’ll be the bait, and you’ll be the tracker.”
Mary didn’t know how to react. Gran wanted her to track this thing, but she didn’t know what to do. This seemed extremely dangerous. Yesterday, Gran had her swearing to not even come to the hospital again until she'd handled the monster. She'd been happy to swear not to. The moment she'd seen that thing, she'd known she was out of her depth, but Gran was now asking her to follow it. Obviously, Gran couldn't, and who did that leave? She didn't want to do it, but she couldn't say no.
Mr. White picked up on her hesitancy. “Helena, this is a lot to ask of her. She’s just a kid.”
Gran looked at her when she replied. “You can do it. I know you can. All you have to do is follow it. Learn what you can. See if you can find where it rests. You don’t have to confront it.”
She nodded her head, but she wasn't happy. The door suddenly opened, and Rachel rushed in.
“Mrs. Dubont! Are you all right? I heard you got hurt. Was it the Shadowman?”
Gran smiled at her, and Mr. White snorted.
“You ditched school,” Mary said.
“Duh. How was I supposed to stay in class when I didn’t know what was going on? As soon as I saw a chance, I left.”
“I’m fine, dear. Just a sprained ankle.”
“What happened?”
“I slipped.”
Mr. White snorted again.
“Rach, I need you to take me to my house to get a few things for Gran.”
“Sure, wanna go now?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t look back as she left. She felt jittery, like she was over-caffeinated. She let Rachel lead the way.
She kept her head down in the elevator. She didn’t want to talk to the elevator ghost. She didn’t want to talk to anybody. She realized she was scared. She'd just spent the last hour worried that the Shadowman had hurt Gran, and even though it had turned out it hadn't, they were going to stay in the hospital and give it another chance.
When they finally got into the car, Rachel asked, “So what really happened?”
“Gran sprained her ankle on purpose. She requested to be put in Mr. White’s room so she could interrogate him.”
“Oh my God, your Gran is such a bad-ass.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Has he told you anything?”
“He doesn’t know how to get rid of the Shadowman.”
“What? After making all those demands, he doesn’t know anything?”
“He says they usually don’t kill people. They just drain people for a while and then move on.”
“What?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what he said.”
“Drains them of what?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t know what they are, either.”
“Well isn’t he a fount of nothing. Does Gran have any ideas?”
“Not yet,” she lied. She didn’t want to tell Rachel about the stakeout because she’d insist on being a part of it, and Mary didn't want to put her in danger, too. Never mind herself, Gran and Mr. White.
She left Rachel in the living room as she went to pack the overnight bag for Gran. She put Chowder’s body into the bag first and packed the flashlights around him. She also threw in a few of Gran’s Martin and Lewis DVDs in case they needed to threaten Mr. White some more. She barely had room for the normal stuff.
“Hey, Mary, how much longer?”
She struggled with the zipper and finally got it closed. Chowder gave a muffled whine. “Well, if you don’t like it in there, come out,” she said. She didn’t understand him sometimes. He would go into his body and expect them to pet him. She would refuse, but Gran would often sit on the couch with him tucked beside her and petted his sawdust-filled head. It was creepy. She carried the overnight bag downstairs.
“Ready?” Rachel said when she saw her.
She hitched the bag higher onto her shoulder. “Yeah, let’s go.”
As they went back to the hospital, Mary felt resignation set in. She was going to stay behind in the hospital and wait for the Shadowman to attack Gran. It seemed like such a bad plan, but what other choice did they have? She glanced at Rachel and wished she could talk to her--because she wanted to talk to someone about how crazy this was--but kept quiet. Rachel didn’t notice her uneasiness. She kept both eyes firmly on the road. She was a very careful driver. She had to be. If she so much as scratched the paint, her dad would revoke her driving privileges, and he inspected the car every time she came home.
Mary realized she had another problem. How was she going to explain to Rachel that she didn’t need a ride home? She couldn’t drive herself, even if she’d had a car. She only had a learner’s permit, and no one else was around to take her. Saying she’d take a cab or the bus wouldn’t go over.
When they got back to the hospital room, Gran and Mr. White had their dinners before them. Mr. White was poking the food on his tray warily. “I don’t suppose you brought some cheeseburgers and fries with you?” he asked.
“Those cheeseburgers and fries are what landed you here in the first place,” Gran said, but she was only pecking at her food too. It looked like it was supposed to be beef Stroganoff, except it was rather gray and mushy.
“Do you want me to go down to the cafeteria and get you something else?” Mary asked.
Gran shook her head and pushed the tray away. “No, I’m just not hungry. Rachel, thank you for driving Mary. Your mother is looking for you. I’m afraid I mentioned you were by, and she realized you must have skipped class. You should go talk to her. Don’t worry about Mary. Neil, an old friend of ours, is coming to see me and can drive her home.”
Rachel looked reluctant to leave, but Gran had spoken. She turned to Mary and gave her a hug. “Call me tomorrow,” she said.
“Will do,” she said, though she dreaded that future conversation. How many lies would she need to come up with the next time they talked? All the lying was making her feel queasy, but her friend didn’t notice. She wished she would. Rachel gave them a wave before slipping out of the room.
“Now, bring me Chowder,” Gran said.
“You told Mrs. Pillar about Rachel on purpose, didn’t you?” Mary said as she brought the stuffed dog over to her.
“Did you tell her about our plan?”
“No.”
“She needed to go. It was the easiest way.”
“What do we do now?”
“We wait.”
“This isn’t going to work,” Mr. White said.
“Don’t worry, we’ll let you keep a night light on.”
Chapter 8
Waiting in the Dark
Mary wiggled her toes and massaged her calves to wake them up. She wanted to get up and walk around, but that would’ve ruined the stakeout. She’d been hiding in the cramped closet for over three hours now. Through slats in the folding door, she could watch the room. Gran and Mr. White were asleep or pretending to be. The room was dark except for a light over Mr. White’s bed. He still refused to participate in the trap. She couldn’t fault him for saying no to the idea. She didn’t like this plan much either.
Gran was in complete darkness on the far side of the room. Mary couldn’t tell if she was asleep. She had to have her eyes closed to fool the Shadowman, but Mary was watching for it. When the thing showed up, she was to hit it with the large flashlight. Hopefully the flashlight would be enough to send it away. Turning on the room lights might attract the staff. When the Shadowman fled, she'd set Chowder after it and follow him to wherever he led. The more she thought about it, the less she liked the plan. It all hinged on too many unknowns. What if the Shadowman didn’t show? What if the flashlight didn’t scare it off? What if Chowder wouldn’t follow it? What if she couldn’t follow them? It was a little after midnight. The night nurse had just done a check. Mar
y had been startled to see that it was Mrs. Pillar. She’d have to be extra careful to avoid her.
She’d gone into the closet around nine o’clock when visiting hours ended. Gran and Mr. White had kept the television on for the first couple of hours, and Gran kindly put it on Animal Planet for her instead of the History Channel like Mr. White kept grumping for.
Since the television had been turned off and they’d settled in to sleep, Mary had been sitting quietly in the closet for over an hour. She was bored and getting a little sleepy. She had a cup of coffee with her, but it had long gone cold. The coffee was from the hospitality cart that Mabel had brought around. She’d looked askance at the room Gran had been put in. Mary had heard her mutter something about the cure being worse than the disease.
She cradled Chowder’s body in her lap while the ghost dog slept inside it. She hadn’t known ghosts slept, but she was getting an earful now of soft snoring sounds. She thought maybe ghosts even dreamed. Chowder would occasionally make little snuffling noises. She didn’t know if all ghosts retreated to their anchors to sleep or if it was just a quirk of Chowder’s. At least she could just shake his body to wake him when the Shadowman appeared.
Listening to the ghost dog’s gentle snoring was really weighing her eyelids down. She took a sip of the cold coffee with a grimace. If she fell asleep and the Shadowman did appear, it could hurt Gran. She wasn’t going to let that happen, but she wouldn’t let herself hope that it would show up either. She'd be very happy to spend a long, sleepless night in the closet bored out of her mind. She tried to review what she knew about Shadowmen, but it wasn’t much. Mr. White had impressed upon her their alienness. They weren’t human and never had been. Of that he was sure. What they were was a mystery. They fed off humans. What they took from their victims, though, wasn’t clear. Victims of Shadowmen grew irritable and sickly. He said that he knew of no reports of them outright killing someone. What was left unasked was: how would they know if a Shadowman had killed someone? Mary wondered how Vicky was doing. She hoped someone was with her. She also wondered about the patient they had saved. She hadn’t had a chance to ask anyone if he had family or friends. If he was alone, he was in danger.