by Terri Reid
They brought over their cards, bedazzled with glitter and colored markers, and gave them to him. Stanley studied them for several minutes and then looked up at the girls, his eyes moist. “These are the most beautiful cards I’ve ever gotten in my whole life,” he said. “I will treasure them always.”
Clarissa shrugged. “They’re really not that great,” she pointed out frankly. “We kind of made them in a hurry. But we can make you better ones if you want.”
He smiled at them. “Well, I still want to keep these,” he said. “But I would sure like getting more cards from you.”
“Okay,” Maggie said. “We can make you a card every week. Then you’ll really feel like a superstar.”
“I really will,” Stanley agreed.
Just then, Margaret’s phone buzzed. She looked down to see that she had a text message from Mary. “Bradley says everything’s okay. Enjoy the adventure.”
“Who was that?” Clarissa asked.
“That was your mom,” Margaret replied, “telling us to enjoy our adventure.”
The girls shared furtive glances with each other and then Clarissa met Margaret’s eyes. “Um, Grandma, can I go to the bathroom please?” she asked.
“Oh, me too,” Maggie added. “I have to go really bad.”
“Well, I got a bathroom right here in this room,” Stanley said. “You can use that iffen you’d like.”
Clarissa shook her head. “Oh, no, we don’t want to do that,” she said. “That would be…um…imposing. We can just go down the hall. Okay?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Margaret replied. “This is a public building.”
“We’ll be safe, I promise,” Clarissa begged. “We won’t be long either. And we’ll stay together.”
“We promise,” Maggie added.
Margaret sighed. “Well, I suppose so,” she said, trying hard not to smile. “But hurry back.”
“We will,” Clarissa said, grabbing Maggie’s hand and running to the door. “We’ll be right back.”
Chapter Fifteen
Clarissa and Maggie hurried down the hall towards the elevator then stopped together in front of the doors.
“Should we really do this?” Maggie asked.
Clarissa stared at the shiny, stainless-steel doors in front of her and took a deep breath. “If we can’t do it now, how can we do it when we’re grown up?” she asked, still staring straight ahead.
“But when we’re grown up, we’ll be older,” Maggie replied. “And it won’t be as scary.”
Clarissa shook her head. “Even my mom and dad were scared,” she said.
Maggie looked at her. “They were?” she asked, her eyes widening. “You didn’t tell me that.”
Clarissa turned and looked at her friend. “I didn’t want you to be too scared to go,” she admitted.
“I think I am too scared,” Maggie said, shaking her head.
“Okay, let’s just take the elevator and see, okay?” Clarissa pleaded. “If it’s too scary, we can come right back up here.”
Maggie looked at the elevator doors and then back at Clarissa. “Okay,” she said with a sigh. “We can go down there and see. But—”
“If it’s too scary,” Clarissa inserted. “Yeah, I know.”
She stepped forward, pressed the down button, and the elevator doors opened immediately. Both girls swallowed audibly, grabbed each other’s hands, and stepped forward into the empty elevator. The door closed behind them, and they took a deep breath. No sooner had they released that last breath than the doors opened again.
The lobby in front of them was dim, and a flickering fluorescent light gave the shadows movement. Still holding hands, Clarissa and Maggie stepped forward onto the floor and looked around.
“We’re supposed to go through those doors,” Clarissa whispered, pointing past the nurses station.
“Why are we whispering?” Maggie whispered.
Clarissa turned to Maggie and a nervous giggle escaped her lips. “I don’t know,” she giggled. “In case the ghosts are sleeping.”
Maggie giggled too. “Do ghosts sleep?”
“I don’t know,” Clarissa replied and then, instead of a giggle, she snorted. She immediately clapped her hand over her mouth and turned to Maggie. Maggie’s nervous giggles turned to laughter. And it was contagious. In a few moments both girls were laughing so hard, there were tears running down their cheeks.
“What’s so funny?”
Maggie stopped laughing immediately and turned towards the voice.
“What?” Clarissa asked, instantly aware of Maggie’s movement.
Maggie reached back and grabbed Clarissa’s hand, so both of them could see the little girl standing next to the nurses station.
“What’s so funny?” the young girl repeated.
“Clarissa snorted,” Maggie said.
The ghost’s lips turned upward. “That’s all?” she asked.
“It was pretty loud,” Clarissa admitted. “It kind of echoed.”
The ghost’s laughter rang through the room. “That is funny,” she said. “Do you want to meet my friends?”
The girls glanced at each other and then turned back to the ghost. “Sure,” Clarissa said. “But we can’t be too long.”
“We’re supposed to be going to the bathroom,” Maggie admitted.
“You snuck away?” the ghost asked, excitement tinging her voice.
Clarissa nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty easy,” she said.
The ghost smiled. “I like you,” she said. “I like you a lot.”
Chapter Sixteen
The hallway beyond the swinging doors was even darker than the one just outside the elevator. Maggie and Clarissa continued to hold hands for support as they followed the little ghost girl who glided up the hallway in front of them.
“Are your friends close by?” Clarissa asked.
The ghost looked back over her shoulder and smiled. “Uh-huh,” she said. “Back here in the special place.”
They were nearing the end of the hall, and Maggie looked around. “But, there are no more rooms left,” she said, confused.
The little girl nodded. “That’s what they wanted people to think,” she said. “But there’s more. Just a little bit further.”
Just beyond the last room, the ghost turned to the right, into a small alcove and the same door that Bradley and Mary had seen the night before was in front of them.
“Wow, I would have never guessed this was back here,” Clarissa said.
The door slowly opened toward them and they both caught their breath. Then, they could see the little boy pushing the door open from the other side.
“This is Jack,” the little girl said. “He’s usually on guard duty.”
“Guard duty?” Maggie asked.
“So the bad people can’t get to us anymore,” the little ghost replied.
“I’m Clarissa,” Clarissa said. “And this is Maggie. We didn’t get introduced earlier.”
The ghost smiled. “Sorry, I’m Anna,” she said. “I’m the oldest of the gang, so I always check things out.”
“I’m nine,” Clarissa said. “How old are you?”
“I’m eight,” Anna replied. “And Jack’s six.”
“Are there a lot more kids?” Maggie asked.
Anna nodded her head. “Yeah, there are thirteen of us,” she said sadly. “The doctor used to call us his baker’s dozen.”
“The doctor?” Clarissa asked. “Was he trying to get you better?”
Anna thought about that for a long moment. “I think so,” she said. “That’s what he told us.” She sighed, then looked up and smiled, brushing the sadness away. “You want to meet the other kids?”
“Sure,” Clarissa said. “That would be great.”
They followed Jack and when the door closed solidly behind them, they both jumped. Anna laughed. “Scaredy-cats!”
Maggie laughed half-heartedly. “Yeah, I guess so.”
There were windows on their left, but they w
ere darkened with dirt and only seemed to look out onto a brick wall. The corridor was narrow, and the rooms on the right side were tiny, only big enough for a small bed and a table. Each room had an adjoining bath with a minuscule shower, sink and toilet.
“They’re all kid sized,” Anna explained. “That’s what they told us.”
About half-way down the corridor was a nurses station with television monitors at the desk and a room behind it.
“That’s where they put the medicines,” Jack said as he rubbed his tiny arm. “Medicines hurt.”
Clarissa nodded. “I know,” she said. “I hate shots. Did you have to get shots?”
“Lots,” Jack said. “Lots and lots.”
Maggie released Clarissa’s hand and walked behind the nurses station. The countertops were empty except for a thick layer of dust. She pulled open a drawer to find a couple of pencils, a pen and some rubberbands. “There’s not much left here,” she said to Anna.
Anna shook her head. “No, one day they all left,” she said. “No one ever came back.”
“They left you here?” Maggie asked, shocked. “They just left you?”
“Maggie,” Clarissa called. “I can’t see anything anymore.”
Maggie began to hurry back around the counter when she saw a ring of keys hanging from a small hook underneath the top counter. She quickly grabbed them and pushed them in her pocket. She reached over and took Clarissa’s hand.
Suddenly the hall was filled with other ghost children, all wearing hospital gowns. Their eyes were shadowed, and their faces were drawn. All of them were thin, and some had purpling bruises on their arms.
Clarissa’s heart jumped at the sudden onslaught of so many ghosts.
“Are these your friends?” Maggie asked, her voice shaking slightly.
Anna nodded. “And we haven’t had new friends for a long time,” she said. “We want you to be our friends.”
Taking a deep breath, Clarissa tried to smile at Anna. “Well, we would like to,” she explained. “But, like I said, we can’t stay very long.”
Anna shook her head. “If you want, you can stay forever.”
Chapter Seventeen
Margaret paced in front of the elevator on the fourth floor, stopping every few moments and checking her phone. Those girls had been gone for over twenty minutes and she was feeling more than a little nervous about the whole situation.
She glanced back at her phone again and made a decision. She accessed her message application and texted Mary. Girls still not back after 20 minutes. Should I go down?
She pressed send and waited. And waited. And waited.
Three minutes had passed. An eternity. What was Mary doing? Maybe she hadn’t seen it.
She copied and pasted the text and sent it again.
Tapping her foot impatiently she looked up at the elevator’s lights, willing it to light up and have the girls walk out. She looked down at her text, still unanswered.
“That’s it,” she said aloud and stepped forward to press the down button. Nothing happened. She pressed it again still no electronic response. She hurried back to the nurses station.
“Hello!” she called. “The elevator’s not working.”
“Oh, not again,” the nurse replied with a smile. “That one is always offline.”
“What?” Margaret asked, panic shooting through her. “Well, I have to get downstairs. Right away.”
“Sure,” the nurse replied, pointing in the opposite direction. “There’s another elevator around the corner.”
“Does it go down to the third floor?” Margaret asked.
The nurse shook her head. “No, but that really doesn’t matter because the third floor on this side of the hospital is under construction.”
Margaret took a shaky breath and nodded. “But what about the other side of the third floor?” she asked. “The part that isn’t under construction?”
“Oh, well, you would actually need to go back down to the first floor and then back to the main lobby and use that bank of elevators,” she said with a wince of apology. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
“The stairs,” Margaret suggested. “Can I use the stairs to access the third floor?”
The nurse nodded and then shrugged. “Well, yes, in the wing that’s open,” she said. “But the door to the area under renovation is locked. You know, for security reasons.”
Margaret nodded, trying to present a calm façade that she didn’t feel. “And how often do these elevators stop working like this?” she asked.
“Lately they’ve been really bad,” the nurse replied. “I’ll call them right away to get someone on it.”
“Well, thank you,” Margaret asked. She hurried down the hall towards the original elevator and the staircase. Lock or no lock, she was going to get onto that third floor.
Chapter Eighteen
Mary looked through the packages of thick slab bacon and finally decided on the one she wanted. The small butcher shop in Lena only carried locally raised meat, and Mary’s mom had raved about the taste of the bacon the last time she visited. The only problem was that the old brick building that lay in the shadow of the water tower had absolutely no cell service. But, Mary decided, with the girls under her mother’s care and Mike as a backup, she would have no problem running the twenty-minute errand from her office to the butcher shop.
She picked up one more package of bacon and then looked at the other fresh meat and deli selections offered. She thought about the menu for the upcoming week and selected several more items before placing her basket on the checkout counter.
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” the owner called from the adjoining office. “I’m just taking a meat order.”
“No problem,” Mary said. “I have plenty of time.”
She automatically pulled out her phone and looked at it, then shook her head when she saw there were no new messages or emails. “Duh, Mary,” she whispered to herself. “No bars, no information.”
She casually flipped through recipe cards displayed on the counter and decided a couple of them looked like something she’d like to try.
“Oh, you can take those recipes if you’d like,” the owner said, coming up to the cash register.
“Really? Thank you. They look great,” Mary replied.
“I tried the stew last week,” the owner said. “It was great. But if you really want to change it up a little, I can give you a couple of tips.”
Knowing her limited epicurean skills, Mary nodded eagerly. “I would really like that,” she said.
The woman looked at her and finally said, “When I was in my last months of pregnancy my mind was like a sieve. Would you like me to write it down?”
Grinning, Mary nodded. “I would love that,” she said. “My friend told me about pregnancy brain and I’m so glad she did. I thought I was totally losing it.”
The owner laughed and nodded. “I’ll be right back. Let me just run to the office for paper and a pen.”
Chapter Nineteen
“We can’t stay forever,” Maggie replied. “We have to go to school tomorrow.”
“I used to go to school,” Jack said, floating up next to them. “Before I got sick.”
“That’s so sad, Jack,” Clarissa replied. “What was your favorite class?”
Jack smiled shyly at Clarissa. “I liked art,” he replied. “Especially finger-painting.”
“I bet you were good at it,” Clarissa said.
“If you stayed with us, you wouldn’t have to go to school,” Anna suggested.
Maggie looked around them. All of the ghosts were forming a semi-circle that blocked them against the wall. She started to feel a little nervous about the situation. But all of the ghosts were smiling at them. That was a good thing. Right?
“What happened to your families?” Clarissa asked.
Suddenly the faces of the children changed. They were no longer happy and open. They were angry.
“We don’t have families,” Anna sa
id defiantly. “And we don’t need them.”
“Families are stupid,” Jack shouted. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”
“No, they’re not,” Clarissa argued.
Maggie squeezed her hand. “Don’t argue,” she whispered frantically. “Don’t make them angry.”
Suddenly all of the doors started to slam shut, one after the other, the sharp blasts echoing off the walls.
“What’s that?” Clarissa asked.
“We don’t need families,” Anna said. “We just need new friends.”
“Crap,” Maggie whispered. “This is not good.”
“We can be your friends,” Clarissa said, trying to be calm. “But we just can’t stay here with you.”
Anna shook her head. “You can’t leave,” she replied.
“I thought you said you were our friend?” Clarissa replied. “Friends aren’t mean to other friends.”
“You lied to me,” Anna said. “You didn’t want to be our friends. You lied to us.”
“Lied to us,” one of the other ghosts repeated. “Lied to us.”
“Lied to us,” another one whispered. “Lied. Lied. Lied.”
“This is so not good,” Maggie said, her heart pounding. “We need to get out of here.”
Clarissa looked at the ghost children who were all chanting now. “I need to tell them about the light,” she whispered to Maggie.
“Do they look like they want to listen to you right now?” Maggie replied.
Looking back, Clarissa saw the anger and the determination in their eyes. She shook her head. “No, they look like they want to hurt us,” she said.
“Or keep us here. Forever,” Maggie said, her voice trembling. “What should we do?”
“Mike!” Clarissa called out. “Mike, can you help me?”
A soft, glowing light appeared at the end of the hall and slowly made its way towards the group. Jack saw it first. “Look,” he said pointing. “What’s that?”
The ghost children turned and watched as the light intensified as it got closer to them.