Limbo's Child

by Jonah Hewitt

  “Speaking of benefits…” Schuyler continued, “What exactly are you in this game for?”

  “Huh? What?” Tim responded in a shaky voice.

  “C’mon, Tim,” Schuyler went on, “Why are you here?”

  “Whaddya mean?”

  “Surely you’ve thought about bolting. You could have done it while we were in the trunk and it was still daylight. Parked the car and made a run for it. Unless this beater is just too precious to you,” Schuyler muttered that last part under his breath, but if Tim heard it he ignored it.

  “Wouldn’t you have just hunted me down?”

  “Probably,” Schuyler mused, “but that doesn’t mean you didn’t think about it, did you?”

  Tim just shrugged. “What would it matter? Hokharty would find me, wouldn’t he?”

  “Again, probably, but there’s always a carrot to go along with the stick – if you know what I mean – what’s YOUR carrot?”

  “What do you mean?” Tim said.

  Schuyler continued, gesturing the whole time with his lollipop. “Look, no Renfield ever did something for nothing, there are always promises, usually false promises, of course…” Tim looked really nervous when Schuyler said that last part. “But hey, that’s the way vampire masters work.” Schuyler paused for effect. Miles had seen Schuyler play people like this before. He was planting seeds of doubt in Tim’s mind, trying to unnerve him, trying to find a way to wheedle himself in between Hokharty and Tim. Hokharty had obviously placed a great deal of trust in Tim; Schuyler had to undermine that trust a little. After that, he would then turn friendly and comforting and start giving Tim advice – advice that conveniently played to Schuyler’s interests. Schuyler truly was a piece of work.

  Schuyler kept working his angle with Tim. “So what did Hokharty promise you? Fame? Women? Money? Power? It had to be something."

  “Well…I dunno…” Tim said uncertainly.

  “Oh, c’mon!” Schuyler got petulant and acted hurt, or at least faked it well. “We’ve totally been bearing our souls here, dude, now it’s your turn. What was it?”

  Tim just sighed. “OK. Hokharty said he could make me the greatest doctor in the world.”

  “No way,” Schuyler sounded impressed.

  “Yeah. I always wanted to be a Physician’s Assistant, but he started talking up the idea and…well...”

  “Good for you, dude.” Schuyler paused for effect. “Well, here’s hoping,” Schuyler trailed off. He had lit the fuse of doubt in Tim’s mind and any moment it would go off. Inside his mind Miles counted down the seconds… 5, 4, 3, 2….

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Right on cue Tim took Schuyler’s bait.

  “Well heck, Tim, it ain’t no secret vampire masters aren’t exactly great promise keepers.”

  “Yeah, but Hokharty’s different, dontcha think?” Tim’s doubts were growing.

  “Well…” Schuyler paused, “Maybe, but in all the years, I’ve been a vampire, I’ve never seen a Renfield get rich or famous or powerful. In fact, there’s only one of two ways they end up – dead…or undead, as a vampire.”

  Tim swallowed hard. Schuyler smiled; he’d hooked him.

  “Sorry to break the bad news to ya, but that’s the way of it, but if it comes to it, you should really consider the vampire option.” Schuyler was speaking casually as if giving advice on financing a new car. “Let’s hope it works out, but when it comes to vampire families, Tim, it’s like they say in the song…you can check out any time you like…”

  “But you can never leave,” Tim finished Schuyler’s sentence, but his voice was far off and distant. His mind was in another place as if some revelation was dawning on him. Schuyler looked at Tim and narrowed his eyes at him. Something important was communicated between the two in that moment, some silent bond, but exactly what, Miles couldn’t tell. After a brief silence, Tim spoke.

  “Hey, that reminds me.”

  Tim reached across the car to the glove compartment in front of Schuyler. Schuyler leaned back out of the way. Leaning over dangerously while keeping one hand on the wheel, Tim rummaged around his eight-track collection, found the one he was looking for, dusted it off on his pants then shoved it in.

  The eerie sounds of the intro music drifted through the car and then the singer began some bloody thing about desert highways and mission bells. None of the songs of the day made much sense to Miles, and this one was worse than usual, but he had at least heard this one before.

  “Is this ok?” Tim was talking to Schuyler.

  “It’s cool.” Schuyler tried to sound indifferent, but he was already tapping his hand in time to the backbeat on the vinyl upholstery.

  For his part, Miles just stared out the windows at the passing farms and trees. Harrisburg wasn’t far off now, and he’d had little time to reflect on the events of the past 24 hours.

  Wallach was dead. Ulami and Forzgrim were dead. Whatever humiliation Wallach had forced him to endure to keep his secret, that was over now. The family had a new master, one who claimed to be the Father of All Vampires and who, by all appearances, was the most powerful vampire in the world, in history in fact. He had made promises to all of them, even Tim.

  Tim and Schuyler were both nodding in rhythm to the song now having entered into a silent truce. Something about the song had made them understand each other in a way Miles couldn’t understand, but Miles was still worried. Miles knew Schuyler had been trying to place doubt in Tim’s mind, but he had placed it in Miles’ mind as well. What did they really know about Hokharty? Or this mission? And who was this girl they were being sent to retrieve? Why was she so important? And what about all the things that Tim had seen? Was it really the end of the world? And what was under Laurel Hill anyway and how could it be worse than stitched-up meat and mutant, pickled babies?!

  By the time the singer had gotten up to the part about feasting and stabbing beasts – whatever the bloody heck that meant – Schuyler and Tim were singing along in unison, enthusiastically. Schuyler was even singing into his lollipop like it was a microphone. By the time they reached the guitar solo at the end, they were both wailing away on air guitars. They played the song another eight times before reaching the outskirts of Harrisburg. Long before that Miles was already wishing they had just stuck to arguing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Hospital

  Lucy stabbed repeatedly at a block of Jell-O that was the consistency of ballistic gelatin. A broad, thick-necked nurse sat directly opposite her unsmiling, her heavy arms folded firmly across her chest, waiting for Lucy to finish. Lucy was doing her best to drag dinner out as long as she could to avoid getting sent back to her room for the night, but neither the Jell-O nor the nurse were looking very flexible at the moment.

  Lucy’s afternoon had been even more tedious than her morning. Running out into traffic to chase Yo-yo had caused the hospital to re-evaluate its policies regarding crazy orphans. She hadn’t been given more than a three-foot lead since then. Lucy couldn’t blame them. “Orphan Child in Hospital’s Care Dies in Traffic Accident” was not a headline any hospital administrator wanted to see on the front page of the Patriot News. There was even talk of turning her over to someone from the legal department or public relations until she was foisted off on Child Welfare Services in a couple days.

  In the meantime, everyone was on edge and didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with her, so they just kept her under annoyingly close watch. And everyone kept asking her if she needed to ‘talk.” Gad no! How come when you just want to be left alone, that’s exactly when everyone decides it’s the best time for a heart-to-heart and an endless discussion about your feelings? “You want to know what I’m feeling?” she thought, “I’ll tell you what I’m feeling!! I feel like telling you to GET LOST!!”

  She didn’t say that of course, and she had tried to be polite because they were only trying to be nice, but it was infuriating. Her mom at least knew when to give her space. Here, she was being loved to death. Every t
ime she saw a doctor or a nurse later that afternoon they had scolded her like a two year old and then afterwards they all tried to hug her and tell her it would be ok. Ick. She had never endured hugs or lectures from so many complete strangers in all her life. They knew she had been through something traumatic, but they also thought she was a little crazy, and once someone thinks you’re crazy, they can’t help but treat you like you’re crazy. Get a little angry or upset, and it just couldn’t be because you have a rational reason like, I dunno, your mother is dead and a strange and evil, longhaired woman is haunting you. Oh no, it was because you were mentally unstable and you would feel so much better after we talked it out and had a good cry. Barf. She hadn’t even mentioned the longhaired woman or Yo-yo to anyone. THAT would have only made the situation worse.

  The orderly from that morning was at least nice enough not to keep talking about it. The adventure in the park had finally allowed him to break the ice with the receptionist, so he was feeling pretty grateful she guessed. But he had been released from crazy-kid watching duty hours ago, and since then Lucy had endured a long string of humorless orderlies, nurses and lower admin. staff that seemed to have only one thing in common: a complete contempt for children. This latest one was the worst – an emergency room nurse more used to dealing with drug addicts and gunshot victims than thirteen year olds.

  “Get a move on, kid,” Nurse “Manhands” huffed.

  Lucy reluctantly took a bite of the stale Jell-O. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, but she needed to stall for as long as she could. She had had to beg the staff to let her eat in the cafeteria. She had hoped it would give her a chance to duck out into the waiting room and make her rendezvous with Yo-yo, but that plan soon evaporated the second Nurse “Monobrow” had shown up to be her chaperone. Still, the cafeteria was the only place she could think of other than the lobby where she could keep a watch on the large, plate-glass windows and the park across the street. It was twilight and the sun was already down. She was hoping she could catch a peek at him, maybe give him a signal or something that she was under house arrest, but she hadn’t seen him yet and was afraid she had missed him already. She was afraid she might have missed her last chance to get some answers.

  Just in case he hadn’t shown up yet, she had ordered everything she could stomach and had even gone for seconds. It was hard to put that much hospital cafeteria food down in the first place, but she still managed to drag out the meal as long as possible. She begged her warden for a second desert but by then, this ancient brick of lime Jell-O was the only thing left, and she hated Jell-O, especially lime Jell-O with pineapple chunks, but that wasn’t about to stop her.

  She took the smallest possible bite she could and chewed each one for as long as she could. She wasn’t sure she could keep up the pretense very long. Even the toughest Jell-O didn’t need to be chewed fifty-two times. After a while, she could tell the nurse was counting how many times she chewed each piece. Her monobrow was slowly turning into a deep, hairy v-shaped furrow of displeasure. Nurse “Mustache-wax” was getting annoyed, but Lucy didn’t care. She used the time to think about Yo-yo and the woman with long hair and cold, grey eyes. There were so many questions. They were miles from the accident scene. How had Yo-yo gotten there? How had he found her? And who was this strange woman they both kept seeing? A ghost? A witch?

  That sounded crazy to her. Lucy’s mom had always been very skeptical and had taught her to be the same. They read fairy tales of course, but her mom never let her believe in anything like that for very long. They said grace over dinner, but not much else. Once, when Lucy had asked her mom if she believed in God, her mom just sighed and took forever to answer. Eventually, she just said she had hope and that that was enough for her. She was practically phobic about any discussion of anything remotely supernatural. They hardly ever talked about ghosts or angels or what happens to you after you die or anything like that. Lucy figured that stuff like that made her think of her dad, and that made her sad and that’s why her mom didn’t want to talk about it. It made Lucy sad and not want to talk or think about it either frankly, but now she had no choice and no other explanation for the visions she was seeing.

  Even chewing each bite forever, she couldn’t make the block of Jell-O last any longer. She had kept one eye on the large, plate-glass windows and another on Prison Nurse of the Month, but she didn’t see any sign of Yo-yo. She felt like crying, but she eventually took the last miserable bite and pushed the empty plate away.

  “Finally!” said the nurse. The nurse’s chair scraped so hard across the floor when she stood up the whole cafeteria turned around to look. She walked over to Lucy’s side of the table and held out her massive ham hand. Lucy sighed. Ever since they had been together the nurse had insisted on holding her hand everywhere they went like she was a little girl. Lucy was small for her age, but she wasn’t that small. She was thirteen after all and resented being treated this way, but it was hard to assert your maturity against an ape in a nurse’s uniform, especially when you were wearing lurid pink and purple princess kitty pajamas. So with all the eyes in the cafeteria looking at her, Lucy sheepishly got up and limply held out her hand. The nurse grabbed her hand roughly and started dragging her out like a little kid that had just said a dirty word in church.

  Past the swinging double doors of the cafeteria and out into the hall, Lucy had one last chance to check out the lobby while she was dangling like a fish on the line from the massive nurse’s hand. She hoped that Yo-yo would be there, that she could at least mouth some message to him. They went down the hall towards the information desk. The elevators were just past it so this would be her last chance. As they turned the corner, she saw the front lobby waiting room. She spun her head frantically around to see the whole room, but it was difficult being pulled along like a dead dog on a leash. She saw several kids, boys and girls with parents, but no Yo-yo with his distinctive ball cap, shorts and striped shirt. She tried to hang back a little longer, but the nurse just yanked on her arm and said, “C’mon!” She was anxious to end her shift tending “Little Orphan Crazy” and drop her off with the night nurses upstairs.

  Lucy was almost in a state of total despair and about to give up when she saw something. It was just half an eye, peeking out from behind the far end of the information desk. It was him!! He was hiding. Of course he’d be hiding! Why hadn’t she thought of that? As she saw him he came out a little further. Yes! She could definitely see his dirty face and the distinctive yo-yo in one hand. When he saw her being dragged away, the yo-yo dropped to the floor with a dead bounce. He looked terrified. She was about to silently mouth “I’ll be back” to him, but when she saw how forlorn his face looked as the nurse dragged her away it almost broke her heart. This was about more than just getting answers anymore. Right now this kid needed her, but what could she do?! What would her mom have done? She wished her mom was here. Right then Lucy didn’t know exactly what her mother would do, but she did know she wouldn’t stand for being dragged around like a shopping cart by a nurse whose chief distinction from a gorilla was walking upright. She kicked off her slippers, dug in her calloused heels on the hard vinyl floor and leaned back, pulling the nurse to a complete stop and nearly knocking her over in the process. She didn’t like that at all.

  “WHAT?!!” the nurse turned and yelled at her, but when it became apparent that the receptionist at the information desk and several people in the waiting room gave her a disapproving glances for yelling at a little girl she spoke more calmly, but no less forcefully.

  “What is it?!”

  “I…I…I…” Lucy stammered.

  “C’mon! Out with it! What’s this all about?!”

  Lucy thought hard. She couldn’t tell the nurse about Yo-yo. “I…I was just wondering…”

  “Yes?!”

  “If I could, y’know, take a look at the gift shop?” The gift shop was in sight and it was the first thing she could think of.

  “Oh, for Heaven’s sake! I was supposed to have yo
u back to the fourth floor over an hour ago! Let’s go.” The nurse started yanking again, but Lucy spread her toes to increase friction and her feet squeaked on the smooth floor. The nurse turned on her again, nostrils flaring.

  “What is it now?!” She remembered not to yell this time.

  “Um…what about play area? I thought I might…”

  “Aren’t you a little OLD for the play area?”

  Sure, now they wanted to start treating her her age. That was just Lucy’s luck. Lucy thought fast.

  “But they have some books over there and I thought I might read some?”

  The nurse huffed and softened a little. She looked at the play area. Then she looked at Lucy. “I’ll see that they bring some up to your room, ok? Now let’s go.”

  Drat. The dragging was starting again and Lucy had no more ideas, she turned to look back at Yo-yo, who looked like he was on the verge of crying. She mouthed “I’m sorry” to him, and then his face went strangely calm. Suddenly he turned to look at another pair of double doors opposite the information desk that read “EMERGENCY” in large, bold letters. At the same instant there was a loud crashing sound, and several troubled voices from inside, yelling. The nurse pulled up to a dead stop.

  “Come with me,” she said tersely and she began dragging Lucy in the direction of the Emergency Room doors. She was nearly there when a young man in scrubs burst out of them and almost ran into her.

  “Marjorie!” the startled young man said.

  “What’s going on!” the stern nurse replied.

  “I dunno, everything was fine and then three patients that were stable just crashed all at the same time…then Perkins tripped over the surgical cart and cut himself up pretty badly, he’s bleeding all over the place. We need all hands on this one. I was about to…”

  “Three?!” The impatient nurse didn’t wait for him to finish. “Let’s go already!” Then she turned to the receptionist to bark some brief commands with the forcefulness of a drill sergeant and turned back to the young man and shouted, “Outta my way! I’ve got work to do!!” The young man immediately turned around to go back through the double doors he had just come out of. The nurse plunged ahead, then stopped and looked down almost surprised to see Lucy still there hanging on the end of her arm like a growth. The young man popped his head back through the door when he realized she had stopped following him.