The movement was subtle at first, but soon it began to fly away more wildly from its normal position, as if a wind from the window was pushing it outward. However, as Jamie looked, it was not from any wind finding its way inside the building. What was, in fact, giving the curtains life, was a mist curling up from the base of the window appearing like a wave crashing into the shore from an ocean current, but in reverse. The mist began to gather, growing thicker and soon Jamie could hardly see the outline of the window for the accumulation of the vapor. She felt her pulse quicken and her heartbeat pound in her ears as the phenomenon continued.
This is no hallucination, Jamie told herself…no drug-induced dream…this is real, to her great dismay and dread. She scooted back in her bed, trying to put as much space between herself and the growing fog as she could. Jamie felt trapped, as if whatever this was, it might entrap her in its mass. Just as she was about to cry out, the form coalesced into an orb, changing from the gauzy, cottony white color it had originally been to a light blue hue, like the sky on a warm summer afternoon. Jamie removed her hand from the buzzer to summon Lucy Tanner to her room and squinted hard to see into the orb. She was glad she had refrained…the orb, she knew now was her spirit friends, once again.
She was not sure how she knew this, but she did all the same. Jamie relaxed as much as she could, though her rapid exhalations continued, her breath hanging as clouds of water vapor in the frigid air. This time, however, the group of six did not materialize as individual forms but remained as a group in the orb. Only vague and indistinct features near the top of the orb gave her any sense of faces. She could still see through the orb as it weakened in intensity, but now what few features she could pick out as facial features were twisted in agony and obvious distress. The orb began to pulse with a slow regularity that resembled the beating of an animal’s chest as the heart pulsed away. Again, the weak chanting-like voices, speaking as if one, came to her:
“beware of Dr. Malone…he killed us…he will kill you too…”
Like previously, the chant was repeated over and over, as if it was on a never-ending recorded loop. The voices seemed to be a combination of the six, but this time there was a definite sense of urgency and danger to them that Jamie had not detected during their previous visit. After a few minutes, the orb began to fade, losing its blue color and returning to a solid white hue as it had been when it had first appeared to her. The orb then contracted to a dense ball, about the size of a large egg and floated toward the window. It then flattened out into a long rod-like shape and a bright light illuminated the whole thing to a near-blinding intensity. Jamie had to shield her eyes from the glare and with a sudden and distinctive popping sound the white rod stood itself upright and whisked away through the bottom of the window, leaving Jamie’s room just as it had entered.
The temperature of her room rose again to where it had been before the mist had leaked through the window. Jamie stared in disbelief, but somehow in her heart, knew this latest warning might have been crucial. The message was the same, but the delivery felt as if it was to make sure she really understood the urgency of her situation. Jamie looked over as Lucy Tanner quietly opened her door and stuck her head inside.
“Everything alright, Jamie?”
Knowing it would only exacerbate her image as the crazy girl, Jamie saw no point in telling Lucy about this latest visit.
“Yep…just settling in to sleep…why?”
“The sensors on the ward indicated a big temperature drop in your room, and I thought I just saw a really bright light leaking out from under your door.”
“Have no idea what you saw, but as you can see, the temperature is fine…nothing I was aware of. Maybe your sensors are malfunctioning…”
“Maybe…maybe…just wanted to check. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. Lucy….”
Jamie listened as her door closed gently and clicked into place. She had effectively gotten Lucy to believe her, but in the nurse’s eyes she could see that there was a high degree of skepticism.
“No worries, Nurse Tanner, Jamie said quietly…the crazy girl is fine…”
Jamie dropped off to an uneasy sleep just minutes later, but her sleep was intermittent at best, her dreams filled with disturbing images of the Malone-thing coming to her in the night with his oxygen mask connected to a tank of lethal drugs to kill her. Each time the nightmare fell upon her, Jamie jerked upright in her bed, gasping for air, her body coated with a clammy gleam of sweat. In her nightmares, she was sure she had cried out, but apparently even so, it had either been just in the dream, or so quiet that no one on the ward had heard her. Neither Lucy nor anyone else on the ward ever came back that night to check on her, as far as Jamie could tell.
Thank God for Google…
Westmore Memorial Hospital
Westmore, NH
April 22, 2017
9 AM
Jamie woke early the next morning, feeling as if she had been through a wringer. Between the latest visits from her ghostly friends, the nightmares of the Malone-thing, and not getting much sleep period, she was not sure how she was going to function that day. Bert would soon arrive and until she spoke with him directly and in private, she felt lost. Jamie forced down the hospital’s concept of a breakfast, but she had purposely avoided the juice and coffee in case the psych ward had thought to include some sedatives in her drinks. This was partly to put something in her stomach which was growling, seeing as how she had not eaten much in the last twenty-four hours, but more to patronize the hovering Lucy Tanner.
Just as she had finished up her toast and a half grapefruit, Lucy reappeared looking at her untouched drinks with disappointment. Jamie was not sure if what she had suspected was true, or if her fatigue was making her read something into the nurse’s expression, but it sure looked as if she might have made the correct decision to avoid the drinks.
“Anything else?” Lucy asked as she collected the tray.
“I’m good, thanks.” Jamie replied.
“Bert just arrive, by the way…OK to send him in?”
“Absolutely….”
Lucy nodded and went to the door to motion for Bert to come in. He tried to put on a happy face, but he was horrified that he might have been responsible for Jamie’s move to the psych ward. He kissed her and sat on the end of her bed. Bert began to speak, but Jamie put a finger to her lips and communicated with him in sign language that they had both undertaken for some volunteer work at Brownington the previous year.
“We need to speak in private. I do not trust that the rooms are not being monitored…it being a psych ward and all.” Jamie signed.
“Really?” Bert signed back.
“Just humor the crazy girl, OK?”
“Not funny…but alright. Let me see if I can get the OK to take you to the sunroom so we can chat. I have news.”
Jamie felt her spirits lift and waited for Bert to return. He was back in just a minute or two and nodded that all was cleared for them. Jamie slipped on her robe and slippers and slid into the wheelchair as Bert guided her along the hallway to the solarium at the other end of the corridor. He locked the wheels and sat close by so they could now talk quietly but in private without fear of being overheard or recorded.
“Sorry they put you here, Jamie. I am afraid it may be partly my doing.” Bert whispered.
“Your doing?” Jamie asked.
Bert nodded and with an embarrassed countenance filled her in on how he had gone to Lucy with his concerns over her mental state. Jamie listened quietly. It had not been ideal, she guessed, but in the end, she knew Bert had had her best interests at heart.
“Never mind, Bert…it’s OK.”
“You think they have your room bugged?”
“Maybe I’ve seen too many movies or maybe my paranoia is on full alert. In either case, I just want to protect myself so I can get out of here as soon as possible. You said you have news?”
Bert nodded as he glanced around them and down the hall. After wha
t he had discovered overnight, he thought that maybe Jamie’s instincts might be warranted.
“I do. And it’s big.”
Jamie’s eyes flew wide as Bert quietly laid out all that he had found about the former Orleans County Regional Hospital and Dr. Frederick Malone. Jamie felt her pulse quicken as Bert told her of Malone’s suicide and how the old Orleans County Regional Hospital had been razed in the aftermath back in the 1950’s. How the current Westmore Memorial facility had been erected on the same exact spot.
“It was quite the scandal at the time,” Bert went on as he read from the printouts he had brought along from his search. “I know I am not a big proponent of your beliefs in the paranormal, Jamie, but now, after digging this up, I guess I owe you an apology.”
“Forget it,” Jamie replied. “There is more I am afraid.”
“More?”
Jamie nodded as she lowered her voice even more.
“Did you find anything about Malone maybe being responsible for a series of unexplained deaths at the old Orleans County Regional Hospital?”
“Nada. Just his sudden and grisly suicide.”
Jamie took Bert into her full confidence then, explaining about the multiple visits she had received from what she now called her spirit friends.
“You think Malone killed them and they have been coming to you to warn you, huh?”
“Sure seems that way.”
“Guess the suicide of their hand-picked chief of hospital operations was enough at the time,” Bert added. “To have it be a public historical record might have been too salacious at the time to let out. Let me poke around some more and see if I can find anything connecting Malone to six unexpected deaths at the old hospital. Westmore is an old place. I am guessing that in the college archives or an old bookstore or some perhaps now defunct newspaper office somewhere, there is a link that the elders of Westmore have done their best to cover up.”
“Thanks, Bert. But move fast. The last visitation from my friends seemed to have the tone of real imminent danger.”
He nodded and wheeled her back to her room before setting off on his mission. If anything had been suspected or overheard, Bert was unaware of it as Lucy was as friendly and warm toward him as ever. He assumed this would not have been the case if they knew what he and Jamie were up to.
………
Jamie lounged in her bed trying to read a novel that Lucy had retrieved for her from the hospital library, but she was too anxious and keyed-up to concentrate on the old story from Eugenia Banks. Lucy loved Eugenia, but it was no use. She just kept reading the same paragraphs over and over without taking anything in. It was more to put up an appearance of normality for the psych staff as she had read the book several times anyway. It was also partly to try and distract her from thinking about what Bert was up to and what “plan B” might be if he came up empty. The late morning flowed into the afternoon and Jamie began to get more antsy as the sun from the afternoon sky was growing weak…still nothing from Bert. Though she was sure his search would not be so simple as just popping into a place and having the proprietor say, “oh, sure…multiple murders at the old hospital…I was just waiting for someone to come along and ask.”
She glanced over at her empty lunch tray, wondering when the inquisition as to why she was avoiding all her drinks would come. She sighed with frustration and restlessness, tossing the book to her table. Just as she looked up toward the window, she noticed an odd shadow was obscuring the full sun from her room. Jamie felt her blood curdle and a shiver race up her back as she looked up to see that the Malone-thing had resurfaced…
Dr. Malone Makes Rounds…Again
Westmore Memorial Hospital
Westmore, NH
April 22, 2017
4 PM
If she could have found her voice, Jamie supposed she would have cried for help. But then again, if the past had been any indication, the Malone-thing would vanish into thin air as soon as anyone came to her aid. Even Bert it would seem was enough to make the ‘doctor-who-wouldn’t-die’ simply evaporate. At least she had convinced Bert that these ghostly visitors were not all in her head. For now, though, it was apparent that Jamie was on her own. She looked directly at the presence, doing her best to not let on as to just how petrified she was. This latest version of the Malone-thing seemed to have reverted to what Jamie would say was Malone 1.0. If she had not known better, she would have sworn to anyone that the ghost in front of her was a flesh and blood man.
Though not completely solid in form, he was as close as could be expected, Jamie supposed. You had to look very close to see that there was just a glimmer of the room visible through Malone’s shape. This time around, however, the pretend visage that the former chief of hospital operations presented was long gone. There was not a human on the planet, Jamie thought, that would have willingly allowed this vile, menacing-looking care provider anywhere near them or a family member, no matter how dire the situation. Malone looked as if he had crawled from a musty and mold-infested enclosure, as strips of blackened fabric hung from his tattered and ripped clothing.
His smile was not one that would encourage anyone to return it in kind. His lips, or rather what was left of them, were drawn back in an almost snarling presence, what Jamie had seen on dogs or other wild animals backed into a corner before attacking. The thing’s teeth were chipped and broken and stained with a mixture of some sort of black and olive-green substance. Great swaths of flesh trailed from his arms and neck, swaying to and from as he moved closer. But worst of all was the smell. Jamie was not sure how to describe it, other than the stench of decay and death. The former eyes that looked just black and dead were now gone. Only empty sockets remained, both of which were filled at the edges with long, yellow-white worms that exuded a sickening slurping or sucking sound as they crawled and squirmed and writhed about the orifices.
“Jamie…. Jamie…. Jamie….” the Malone-thing said in a slow and hideously unnerving tone. “You just could not let it be, could you? Had to keep poking around, huh?”
She was not sure what was creeping her out more, his vastly deteriorating appearance or that he knew her by name.
“I tried to be nice…really I did,” the thing went on. “I offered you the painless way out…the way with no suffering…but I guess that was not to your liking, eh? I offer all my services through two options: the easy way and the hard way. Your choice seems to have fallen with the latter…”
Jamie shrunk back until she could move no further away from the approaching specter. In her mind, she was hoping Bert would burst through the door at any minute to rescue her…but that was just how it happened in the movies, she thought. There would be no cavalry coming to her aid.
“So sorry, but I just cannot have the truth about my…compulsion…coming out now. The good people of Westmore have gone to such lengths to bury that part of my legacy, you see. And you seem intent on fucking that all up…” it continued.
Jamie was reviled completely at this point, but oddly enough it was mostly due to how he said the word “compulsion”. Just an ordinary word, she knew, but his tone and inflection made it sound utterly vile and as if it was just something he had no control over. Before Jamie could react any further, the Malone-thing lashed out, whipping a thick electrical cord around her neck and began to pull it tight. In the split second before it snugged tight, Jamie slid two fingers between the cord and her throat, and that was all it took to save her voice which she suddenly found again. At this point, Jamie was sure she had to take this step even if it meant bringing the whole psych ward down on her. It was that or join Malone and his band of not-so-merry men in whatever pit of hell they were trapped in.
Her scream did indeed bring the staff running, with Lucy Tanner leading the charge. Perhaps Jamie had been wrong all along about the room being surveilled, or they would have seen what was going on before Malone tried to strangle her. Of course, when Lucy and her staff burst in, there was no one but Jamie there. Just Jamie with a cord wrapped
about her neck as she screamed and wailed for help. One again, calling out had sent the Malone-thing back to the ether. Lucy pulled Jamie to the mattress as her two burly attendants from the ward held her down firmly. They quickly removed the cord assuming, as was the most likely conclusion in this ward, that Jamie had tried to kill herself.
Lucy had the men secure her to her bed with the heavy leather restraints that were common among less cooperative patients on the ward. Jamie was now held fast to her bed, both her arms and legs bound tightly. Lucy, with the attending physician’s approval injected her with another strong sedative so she would not struggle against the binding and hurt herself. Just before Jamie passed out, the last thought she had was that if Bert did not arrive soon, she was dead. If they were not surveilling her room, then the Malone-thing could return at his convenience to finish her off. Though perhaps since they thought her a suicide risk, maybe a camera had been activated…
………
In a bit, Bert returned to the hospital, having finally uncovered the whole truth behind the Malone/ Orleans County Regional Hospital scandal. Jamie had been right. In documents that had been unsuccessfully hidden away, Bert found excerpts from a police report that gave the details of Malone’s escapades that led to his suicide. Never underestimate the volume of material that can be found in school archives, Bert thought. However, as he came out of the elevator and onto the psych ward floor where Jamie was being held, he was shocked at the flurry of activity in the normally quiet hallways. Lucy spotted him and came hustling over.
The Haunting of Westmore Hospital - Behold the Doctor of Death Page 4