Chapter 9. |Hospital and Hoaxes|

The hospital stench was getting to me.

After school today, my mom had called from work to ask if I could kindly swing by the hospital to drop off some files she had forgotten in the process of her rush this morning. Molly and I were about to have some sandwiches at my place for lunch when she called, I agreed and we packed up some tomato sandwiches and pink lemonade to go for all three of us.

After taking the bus heading out of town and a very long hour or so, we got to the psychiatric hospital where my mom has worked as a nurse since before I was born. She appreciated the lunch we brought her and after a few minutes of sitting around and eating, I was already impatient and ready to leave. Molly, on the other hand had made herself completely comfortable on the office couch and was ranting to my mom about how she had been saving for some new designer boots that had gotten even more expensive over the weekend.

Sometimes, I thought Molly was very vain but looking at her in her faded denim jumpsuit dotted with multicolored patches and her soft, oval face framed with long chestnut brown, I decided she had a lot to be vain about. I fingered my shoulder length, thick, black hair and felt a flash of jealousy which disappeared as fast as it came.

Mom thought Molly was the best thing since the invention of technology, so our friendship was something she loved and encouraged heartily. I on the other hand didn't really like our friendship all that much, people always saw me as that Molly's friend, she was the reason I was popular too and I hated it.

"Sophie," Molly called my mom, speaking softly her voice dripping like honey. "You've got bags under your eyes, you need to rest, you've been working yourself too much."

My mom gave an agreeing nod, placing a hand to her forehead and leaning back on her chair. Molly was actually right, my mom did look stressed out with her hooded, heavy eyes and grey streaked black hair put up in a tight bun but I hated that she was the one to point it out, it should have been me caring about my mom not her.

"You're right, dear," my mom sighed, straightening up to reach for her plastic cup of lemonade and clutching it tightly. "It must be the graveyard shifts I've been taking lately, but I'll be fine. Don't worry about me, Molly."

"Sophie, you're like my mom, I'm always going to be worried about you."

I was sick to the stomach at this point and I rolled my eyes, getting up from the couch I had been seating on with Molly. I jammed my hands into the pockets of my gray sweatpants and cleared my throat loudly.

"I'm going to the bathroom," I told them, wanting to leave their presence but it wasn't a total lie too, I actually needed to use the bathroom.

"Sure, dear." My mom only glanced at me once before turning back to Molly.

"Want me to come with?" Molly asked, excitedly and I suppressed the urge to say a cuss word. That was the problem with her, she was so nice and genuine, you couldn't find a reason to hate her.

"No, I'll be back soon." I tied my hair up in a high ponytail. "And then we'll leave."

I had had enough of them. I strolled down the depressing hallways and said a few words of greetings to the few of my mom's colleagues I was familiar with. This whole place screamed sadness and depression and after glancing at the tiny, black 22 on the back of my hand, I felt the same type of depression radiate off me in waves.

22 days. I was going to die in 22 days with the way were going. I hadn't heard a word from the devil since after calculus two days ago.

Somehow, I had left the route that led to the bathrooms and was now standing right in front of a sign that contained two blue opposite faced arrows that each pointed out the words, Staff welfare and permanent residents.

The right arrow which pointed out permanent residents really interested me and I found myself turning and following that direction as though controlled by some powerful external force. I found myself in an hallway with dimmed lights that contained doors which went all the way down the hall on both sides and I slowly walked down the silent hallway.

Peering through the see through glasses, I noticed the rooms were all similarly basic and simple with small beds, a small cable TV and a desk table complete with chair. Some of the rooms contained people, some just stared at me blankly while some sat up to watch the television, others seemed to talk to themselves and one particularly chubby, redheaded woman raced to her window side when she spotted me and banged at it repeatedly.

I quickly walked away from her after that.

At the very end of the hallway, I noticed a large window, huge enough to contain three people at the same time and I peered out of it and noticed that climbing this building was going to be relatively easy. The old pipes stretched out around the faded bricks and I dismissed the insane thought as quickly as it had come. I glanced at the late evening sky and my heart quietly sunk at the thought of yet another day coming to an end.

I needed to act fast on the Blake issue.

I turned from the window, wanting to leave this creepy hallway when someone watching TV in the last room caught my eye. She looked even older and more sickly now with her washed out blonde hair in tufts. She had on the hospital's orange dressing gown which looked huge on her tiny frame and almost like she knew she was being watched, she turned and her black eyes met mine.

Mad Maria! After all these years, she was still here.

She stared at me for a full minute then got off the bed in a movement that looked almost mechanical, like she was being controlled and went over to her tiny desk. I stared, mesmerized by the lunatic and even though I knew the doors were all locked and there was no way she could possibly get near me, I couldn't shake off the sudden apprehension I felt.

She was a holding a pencil now, and was holding a roll of toilet paper, she gave a grim smile and then unrolled it a bit to move the pencil across. It looked as if she was trying to write but with quite a lot of difficulty. I was about to finally walk away when she suddenly clapped with apparent excitement and ran over to the glass barrier where I stood on the opposite side and held up the roll of toilet paper.

I strained my eyes for a few moments before deciphering the letters.

ELBIB SLIVED EHT

What the heck was that supposed to mean? I frowned knowing I had wasted my time and hating myself for it when I noticed her begin to shake her head furiously as she pointed at her lunatic words. With the way things were going, I was going to get a ward next to her very soon. Then I noticed Maria leave the glass and go to her metal door and pull at it desperately, her eyes panicked and I wondered why she wouldn't just talk.

Giving up on the door, I noticed the roll of toilet paper fly out of the small door hatch left on all the doors probably for passing items to the patients. I went over to the paper and picked it, then held it up to watch her continue to shake her head furiously.

"What the heck is this, Maria?" I waved the toilet paper in the air. "What are you trying to say?"

I was pacing about now, hands jammed into my sweatshirt pockets.

"You once said I was shadowkissed by the devil, what does that mean?" I was desperate for answers at this point, any answers. "If you know what it all means, help me. I'm going to die in 22days."

Mad Maria had gone back to the bed and was now completely focused on the TV with one bony finger jammed into her ear. If she heard me, she didn't act it as she continued to stare at the TV which was airing some low volumed news.

"Fine, thanks for nothing!" I snapped, crumpling the paper and jammed it into the pockets of my sweatpants. I stalked away, annoyed, confused and worried all at once. I retraced my steps to the bathroom, and after a quick splash of water on my face and observation of my pale, sickly looking appearance, I headed back to the office. It was time to break up the dream team of Molly and my mom.

Standing at the bus stop, half an hour later, I was beginning to realize that maybe leaving the hospital was a bad idea because we could have followed my mom back home way later in the night. A loud clap of thunder struck overhead and I felt Molly's glare from the back of my head.

It was going to rain. Heavily.

"Ruby, this is all your fault," Molly hissed for what sounded like the thousandth time since we've been standing here waiting for a bus." I told you so, and now it looks like it's going to rain."

"Would you calm the fuck down? We'll soon get a bus or a cab and be back in town before the rain starts." I was trying to reassure myself too, at least, they always said to maintain positive vibes in bad situations.

"We better get out here and fast, you know what rain water does to my hair." I resisted the urge to smack her as she patted the perfect ringlets of brown.

We waited about 15 minutes more and then the worse that could happen, did happen. With another loud clap of thunder, the rain droplets started falling hitting us with what felt like intensity of missiles and I hated myself and what I had subjected us to. Molly would never let me hear the end of it.

As we ran down the block, looking for the nearest shelter and running from this rain that was fast making us feel like drowning ducks, a ray of sunlight came in the form of a yellow cab appearing down the street.

We flagged him down and he surprisingly stopped, and shivering all over we got into the backseat, grateful to be away from the storm. I called out our directions to the driver with the large, black cap and settled into the backseat. Molly already had her eyes closed and her lips moving in what seemed like a prayer.

I reached for her hand, wanting her to know I was really sorry for putting her through this experience and I felt her hand squeeze mine gently in return.

She wasn't mad anymore.

We were gonna be okay.

And then I noticed the head of the familiar looking black, cobra tattoo from the neck of the cab driver and the pale, yellow and long, bony fingers gripping the steering wheel and guiding the small car through the heavy rain.

And then I realized I was very wrong.

The last thing we were gonna be was okay.