Whatever was going on with her, she knew it wasn’t normal, and just that knowledge helped her to deal with it a little bit better.
She got on the elevator and rode it up to the fourth floor. When the little bell chimed, she exited and went straight to the nurse’s station.
“How’s it been tonight?” she asked the nurse behind the desk. Elizabeth looked at her nametag… Julie. She felt bad for not remembering these nurse’s names. Hell, it was all she could do lately to remember her own.
“Not too bad,” Julie answered. “Got two in early labor, but I doubt they will deliver by morning. There is one lady, Mrs. Grand, in room six. That little one is giving us some grief.”
“What’s going on?” Elizabeth asked.
“Heart rate keeps becoming unstable. We have just changed the internal monitor and had mom turn over for a while. Last check was thirty minutes ago and she was six centimeters.” The nurse pecked at her computer keyboard while she talked.
“I’m going to go have a look, if that’s ok,” Elizabeth told her.
“Yeah, she’s a patient of Dr. King’s, but he’s off tonight, so she’s yours anyway.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. She hated when the nursing staff referred to the mothers as property. “Ok, thanks,” Elizabeth said as she turned to walk away. She headed right for room six.
She knocked lightly on the door and opened it. “Hello?” she called into the room.
“Come in,” a small, female voice said.
Elizabeth entered the room and closed the door behind her. “Hi, I’m Dr. Rone. Dr. King is out this evening. Is it ok if I treat you tonight?” she asked the expectant mother. The woman was exhausted already. Her hair was damp with sweat and it stuck to her head and ears.
“Yeah,” the woman said. “I’m really tired.”
“I can tell. The nurses told me that your little one has been moving around a lot and making the monitors go nuts,” Elizabeth said. “Mind if I check you out just to make sure everything is progressing Ok?”
The mother nodded and shifted until she was on her back. She pulled her knees up and assumed the position.
Elizabeth smiled. Every expectant mother knew the drill by this time in her delivery. “I’m just going to check your cervix,” she told her.
“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said. “Everyone in this hospital has already seen my Pikachu anyway. Especially the third time they changed that monitor thingy in his head.”
Elisabeth’s head snapped up. “They changed it three times?”
The mother nodded. Elizabeth ground her teeth together as she placed her hand under the sheets to begin her exam. She felt around and realized that this woman was progressing much faster than the nurses thought. “Listen, Mrs. Grand,” Elizabeth said softly. “I am getting that you are nine centimeters. Almost ten. It’s show time. Are you ready to go?”
The soon to be mom smiled. “Yes. Let’s do this,” she said.
“Ok, I am going to step outside and get a few people. This is a big production, you know,” Elizabeth said with a wide grin even though she could clearly see the baby’s heart rate falling on the monitor. “I’ll be back in less than a minute.”
Elizabeth stepped outside the room and closed the door behind her. Julie was walking in her direction. “Julie,” Elizabeth snapped. “Did you put three internal monitors on that baby’s head?”
“Yes,” she answered. “They keep malfunctioning.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes so hard she was sure she saw her own brain. “One might malfunction. One. Not two and definitely not three,” she barked at the nurse. “And I just checked her. She is nine, nearly ten. Get the team and get in there now!”
Elizabeth hated to take that tone with the nurses, but she hated putting a newborn at risk even more. She was pissed off way beyond reasonable measures. She took a few deep breaths before going back into the room with the mother and her unborn child.
When she was calm enough, which only took a few seconds; she went back into the room. “Mrs. Grand,” she said gently, “Your baby’s heart rate is too low,” she said.
She saw the undeniable fear cross the woman’s face. “Don’t you worry,” Elizabeth continued, “I am going to get him out as quickly as possible. Everything is going to be ok.”
Elizabeth heard the team of nurses coming in the door. She tried to be as gentle as possible with the mother while barking orders at her team. The nurse from the nursery wheeled in the bassinet, along with all the baby supplies needed. Elizabeth pulled at the handle directly above the bed to pull the light down from the ceiling. She moved quickly with the nurses to get the mom’s feet in the stirrups and the end of the bed dropped down.
“Everybody ready?” she asked.
A chorus of yesses rang out, including the mother. “All right, let’s do this,” Elizabeth said. “Push for us. Push now.”
The mother grabbed the back of her own knees and beared down as hard as she could. Elizabeth couldn’t see the baby’s head yet. “Again,” she demanded and the mother obeyed. Ten pushes later and the baby was still in the same position. “Call the OR,” she told one of the nurses in a whisper.
“Mrs. Grand,” Elizabeth said gently, “The baby isn’t coming down like he should. His heart rate is too low and I am afraid that he is going to be hurt if we don’t get him out now.”
“Oh God,” the mother cried out. “Do something!”
“I am,” Elizabeth told her. “We are taking you to the OR for an emergency C-Section.”
“Surgery?” the mother asked desperately.
Elizabeth pulled her gloves off and moved around the bed. She took the mother’s hand into her own. “Listen. He is in trouble. Once we get you in there, I can have the baby out in less than sixty seconds, but we have to move now. So I am asking you, will you give me permission to operate and save your baby?”
The mother had tears in her eyes and it was a long second later before she nodded her approval.
“Let’s go then,” Elizabeth told her with a smile. “Let’s go have a baby.”
The team transferred the patient from the bed to a gurney as quickly as possible, and while that was going on, Elizabeth ran ahead of them. She had pulled her radio from her belt and was giving orders over it while she ran to the pre-op area to scrub up.
This was that feeling. The high. The euphoria she used to get in the ER. She was working against time and she was going to save a brand new life. She had every confidence in her own skill and this was what life was all about.
She entered the OR and the mother was already there. Anesthesia was already there too, sedating her and tying her arms down. “Ok everyone, let’s get going,” she announced. She stepped up on her step stool so that she was tall enough to do her work. She ran a fingernail across the mother’s abdomen. “Can you feel this?” she asked.
The mother said no, and she said no to the prick of the needle that Elizabeth administered as well.
Elizabeth took her scalpel in hand and made a precise cut along the pubic line. For just a moment, she had the flash of a memory. Cutting into a chest. A heart that wasn’t beating. It was only a flash, but it felt like a memory of something she just could not grasp. She shook it off and made her second cut, this time into the uterus. Very gently, the skin and muscle was spread and Elizabeth got her first look at the unborn child.
Carefully, she grasped the amniotic sack that surrounded the baby and sliced it open. Fluid gushed out, only to be suctioned back out by a nurse. Elizabeth reached in and took the baby by the butt. She had to wiggle a bit, but she managed to pull him free of his mother’s pelvic cavity. “And here is the problem,” she announced. “He’s got a necktie,” she said, pulling the umbilical cord free from the baby’s neck.
She held him upside down for a moment, and then handed him to the waiting NIC-U nurse, who went to work on cleaning him up.
“How is he?” the mother asked.
Before Elizabeth could answer, a shrill wail lit up the room
and a chorus of relieved sighs followed. “I think he is going to be just fine,” the NIC-U nurse told her.
Elizabeth went to work on putting the mother back together. While she stitched and listened to the lovely sounds of the new baby wailing like a banshee, she tried to remember what it was that she couldn’t remember. She hadn’t cut into anyone’s chest lately that she could remember. And a dead heart? That just about described her. If only she could figure out the whys of it, she could maybe figure out why she was so damned depressed all the time.
CHAPTER FOUR
GREED
Ash watched the elevator doors open to another office type lobby. It looked exactly the same as Sloth had. Before he and Mali could open the double doors leading into the sanction, they opened on their own.
A tall, willowy woman came out. Her hair was like fire, red and blonde, and it waved around her long face as if each strand was alive. “I didn’t realize it was you,” she said to Ash. As the others did, she started to bow.
“Please, don’t bow,” Ash told her.
“Yeah, he is kinda weird about that,” Mali piped in. “Doesn’t like it one bit. Might get your head bit off if you do it.”
Ash tossed an elbow at the little man and was rewarded with a grunt. “What he means to say is,” Ash said, “that I do not want anyone bowing to me. I have a job to do here, just like you. I’m Ash.” He put his hand out to shake hers.
She looked Ash up and down thoroughly, then at his hand quizzically for a moment, and then took it into her own. “Nice to meet you, Ash,” she said with a come-hither grin. “I’m Shelly.”
Ash inclined his head once. “Are we going in?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. She held her head high and with a flick of her hand, the doors opened.
Ash walked through them without hesitation. Once the doors closed, he could see the inside of Greed.
People, men and women alike, were shackled to the floor by their ankles. In front of each soul was a pile of rocks of various sizes. Ash watched as each soul picked up the heavy rocks, some of them as big as boulders, and placed them into their piles. “What are they doing?” he asked.
“Well, honey, this is greed. These folks spent their lives taking and taking, with no respect for others. They had it all and they still wanted more. Therefore, they will spend the rest of their eternity gathering their payment to leave.” Shelly smiled wickedly. “Of course, no one leaves.”
“Why do they think they can leave?” Ash asked.
“Because that is part of this hell. Each of them sees gold and silver all around them. They believe that if they gather enough riches they can buy their way out of Hell. But you see, once their piles of rocks get high enough, it disappears. They must continue to nurture their sin.” Shelly shook her head. “It is really quite boring.”
“What if one of them gave their rocks to someone else?” Ash asked her.
Shelly’s eyebrows rose. “As in to help another person? Knowing they wouldn’t be able to gather enough for themselves?”
“Yeah,” Ash answered. “Wouldn’t that be a selfless act?”
She thought about that for a moment. “I guess that would have some kind of effect, but I have been here for a thousand years. It’s never happened. I doubt it ever will.”
“That’s pretty sad,” Ash remarked more to himself than to anyone else.
“Yeah, but that’s the way of it,” Mali said. “Come now, we still have a lot of ground to cover.”
Ash followed Mali back to the elevator.
***
By the time they reached Gluttony, Ash had a better idea about what to expect. He wasn’t as taken back by the sight of souls that were bone thin and surrounded by excess. There was a buffet, a feast, really, fit for a huge party. Cakes and chocolates lined one never-ending table, while steaks and hams lined another. There was yet another table filled with breads and crackers.
Everywhere he looked, there was stuff. Clothes, designer perfumes, any and everything anyone could want. But the tenants could never have any of it. Each time they touched something it turned to dust in their hands. It was their punishment for overindulging in life.
The leader of Gluttony was a jolly man; he rather reminded Ash of Santa Claus. He was round in the belly and had a white beard, and boy did he laugh. Every time one of the souls gave in to temptation.
Envy and Pride were about the same. Ash met their leaders as well. In Pride, the souls had to beg for everything, including toilet paper. In Envy, they were forced to watch others have what they coveted but could never have.
The leader of Wrath was more like a demented Marine Sergeant. His name was Marcus and he looked human. Mostly. His eyes were weird though…solid black with no irises. The souls trapped there were the object of their own sin. They were beaten repeatedly and were subjected to the leader’s anger.
He wasn’t at all surprised when he saw the inside of Murder. The souls there were sliced and diced, then put back together for another round. It was an eternity of torture, delivered by Adule, the demon leader. Adule looked every bit the demon that should run Murder. He was tall, black skinned, with one horn protruding from the top of his head and curling over his skull. His shoulders were broad and muscular and his arms led down to hands that had sharp claws at the tips of his fingers.
He had a small situation while in Lust.
He was talking to the beautiful leader, Ameris, discussing how the sanction worked. The souls there were shown something, whether it was a man or woman, to stoke the soul’s desire. Once they acted upon it, their genitals shriveled and became useless to them.
It was there that Ash saw a glimpse of a woman who had long dark hair and was wearing what looked like scrubs. Her frame was petite, but he could tell that she wasn’t skin and bones. Although he could not see her face, he felt as if he knew her.
“Who is that?” Ash asked when he saw her.
“Who?” Mali had asked him in return.
Ash pointed at her. “That woman there,” he said. He tried to ignore the immediate, raging hard on the figure inspired for him.
“Oh no, Boss,” Mali said, pulling on Ash’s arm. “I don’t see anyone, so that means it is Lust doing it to you. It knows your weakness. It fucks with your mind. We gotta get you out of here before you become the victim of your own sin.”
Ash had reluctantly followed Mali out of Lust, but still, he couldn’t shake the image of the woman from his mind.
That, of course, was put on the back burner when they entered what was lovingly called, The Playground.
“There is a special place in Hell for those who commit crimes against children,” Mali told him as they entered the heavy doors.
Ash didn’t know what to think. Everywhere he looked, there were children laughing and playing. The sound of so many children playing made his heart swell, and for a brief moment, made him sad as well. He could never have children. He didn’t even know he wanted any until that moment.
“I don’t understand,” Ash said.
“Look closer,” Remmie, the leader of The Playground, told him.
Ash did, and he realized that there were in fact, adult souls in the sanction. They had their eyes trained on the ground. None of them looked at the children. “What are they doing?”
“Doing their best not to think unclean thoughts about those kids,” Remmie said. “If they do, the realm knows. Just wait, some sap will do it. They always do.”
Right then, as if on cue, someone screamed.
Ash turned toward the sound and saw a man in his fifties on his knees and holding his abdomen.
“When they look at the children with anything but pure love, they are punished. Their own body attacks them from the inside out. I’m told it feels like being eaten by a tiger, only in reverse.” Remmie’s chest shook with silent laughter. “Sick fucks. Serves them right.”
“Who are these children?” Ash needed to know. There should never be kids in Hell as far as he was concerned.
> “Oh, don’t worry there,” Remmie told him. “Those are the children in Heaven. Some have lived and died, and some haven’t been born yet. They can’t see us, but we can see them. It’s almost like an alternate reality, existing together.”
Ash shuddered. It made perfect sense, though. He was glad that he wasn’t a sick fuck who liked to prey on kids.
After the tour ended, Mali took Ash to the top floor in the elevator. “This is where your office is,” he reminded Ash. “Go in, get situated, and get some rest. It’s been a long day.”
“Thank you, Mali,” Ash told his little assistant. “I appreciate your help.”
“No problem,” Mali answered with a proud grin. “Just give me a call if you need me.” And then he was gone. Didn’t leave, just disappeared.
Hell was just like one giant office building. Each floor was dedicated to a certain kind of sinner, and each one had a waiting area. Ash had always thought Hell was one big, never ending inferno. Turns out that wasn’t the case at all. It was organized. Tidy. It was just creepy, that’s what it was.
Ash shrugged his shoulders and faced two heavy wooden doors. There were thick brass handles on each door, but they appeared as if they would just push open. He stared at them for a long time before making the conscious decision to go in.
CHAPTER FIVE
Ash pushed the heavy door open and looked at his office for the first time. The first thing he saw was an enormous wooden desk. It was stained a dark mahogany and had delicate designs carved into the wood. Behind it was a tall-backed leather chair. However, what really caught his attention was the huge man sitting in that chair.
He was bigger than Ash, with shoulder length black hair, chain mail on his chest, and a huge set of shimmering white wings. There was a steel helmet sitting on the desk, and a huge steel sword propped up against the side. The angel’s feet were settled on the corner of the desk and he was tossing potato chips into his mouth, four or five at a time.
“What the hell?” Ash asked.
The Keepers of Hell Box Set Page 13