Layla
Bailey’s eyes are growing heavy despite the third cup of coffee she’s consumed in the last two hours. We’re in the supply room, years and years of notes taken by a variety of nurses spread out on the plastic table between us. She brings the coffee to her lips, shaking her head. “What are we going to do?”
“Nothing until your doctor friend gets here tomorrow,” I tell her, swiveling from side to side in the computer chair while the printer beside me works in overdrive. We’ve been going through the computer system, printing out everything and anything pertaining to Aunt Penny’s care. The notes only go back ten years or so, but that should be enough to give this new doctor a clear idea of what’s been done to her.
“What about Vera?” Bailey asks, her eyes rimmed red with fatigue.
“I’ll handle Vera this weekend. I’m going to call the lawyer af
DaltonAfter I put Layla to bed, I return immediately to the shed. I look down at the dead man with a mix of pity and rage. He’s not much older than me. He was handsome, with blond hair and eyes that used to be blue. But now, they’ve started to decay into his skull. The skin is flayed from his fingers, revealing bone, but the rest of him is in surprisingly good shape considering how long he’s been here.I remember him. Henry, that was his name. Henry Swanson, from Mississippi, an architect apprentice who never made it back after traveling here to visit his girlfriend.The last night nurse.I wrap a bandana around my nose and mouth and crouch, picking up the knife Layla discarded upon discovering the poor bastard.That’s what he is, too. Discarded. This wasn’t his fault.I wonder what was going through that young nurse's head as she put each brick in place. A glance at
LaylaI wake up in Dalton’s bed around 5:00 in the morning, and he is no longer there, of course. I have no idea where his studio is located in the tangle of hallways on the third floor. It’s the only place I assume he’d be right now.The house is quiet as I pad downstairs after checking on my aunt and Bailey, both of which are still asleep. I go through my normal morning routine. I’m wearing nothing but a pair of boy shorts and one of Dalton’s shirts. I smell like him, which makes me think of him, and thinking of him makes me wonder if I’m falling in too deep with a man I barely know.I make a pot of coffee and pour myself a mug before stepping out onto the back porch to watch the sky turn from a dark gray to a pale silver, but as the morning shadows stretch across the grass, memories of last night come flooding back to the forefront of my mind.I clutch my mug so tight my knuckles turn
Layla“Layla!”I skid to a stop in the hallway between my bedroom and Aunt Penny’s room. Bailey shuts Aunt Penny’s door with a soft click and beams at me. I force a smile to my lips, but it wobbles as she looks me up and down.“I’m headed out. She’s asleep. She’ll probably sleep all night, I’m guessing. I’m going to take off, but I’ll see you in the morning. Did you talk to the lawyer?”“Yeah,” I manage to choke out, but my mind is reeling, and my throat tightens as I continue. “He’s going to talk to the estate executor about the assisted living home the doctor mentioned.”“Oh, that’s good news,” Bailey says with a sigh of relief. “She’d do so much better there. Anyway, I’m glad I caught you before you left because I just got a call from my mom.”“Oh, yeah?”
DaltonI sealed my fate by telling her this. I can feel the shadows beginning to crowd the room as I step toward her, reaching out to her, looking at her for what could be the last time.I made a deal with the devil in her name. I signed it with blood. I was tricked. I failed to protect her.I knew Vera would do this. Her plan was already in action years ago before I was hired to start bringing this hellhole back to life–a life Amos was desperate for. He wanted to see the return of the golden age of the property, when parties raged, and there were plenty of minds for him to plunder and the promise of further generations to keep fueling his fire.Layla, a young, impressionable nursing student, stood out to Amos. She has no idea he’s been stalking her from afar for years now, biding his time. Why he waited to try to get into her head until now, I’m not sure, but I imagine it had something to do with the way
LaylaI don’t look behind me as I run out of Dalton’s studio. Whatever was in the room with us–I don’t want to see it. The feeling of it watching me—watching us–still drifts over my skin as I grab the banister and slide down the stairs, nearly falling all the way down in my haste to get to Aunt Penny’s room.I can’t hear myself think over the blaring music. The song plays over, and over, and over, the screeching of the ancient record sending shockwaves through the house.But I know one thing is true. Dalton isn’t lying. I believe everything he told me. It’s unbelievable, but so is everything that’s happened to me since I arrived at this place, and Dalton has been the only real, tangible thing keeping me grounded.There has to be a way out of this for both of us.I yank Penny’s door open and fly into the room.“It’s
LaylaDeath is cold and empty. It’s silent. It’s lonely.I feel weightless, like I’m being carried. But there’s no sound, no feeling in my body. Just a faint, flashing light.Everyone talks about seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Follow the light--into death.Whenever people talk of the light they follow into heaven—or in my case, it’s probably hell—I always imagined it would be bright white.Not flashing red and blue like this light.“Come on, darling. That’s it, now. Breathe deep.”Air fills my lungs–cool and rich, and my body explodes back to life. My eyes fly open, the flashing lights of half a dozen police and fire vehicles filling the space all around me, blurring my senses.“Big breath for me now,” Robert Wilson says, one of his hands cupping the back of my head as the other keeps an oxygen mask fast
Julia“It’s… Well, uh–”“Can you imagine it, Julia? The garage will go there, and over here–” He waves his hand to the far side of what looks like it used to be a driveway of some kind, but grass has started spreading through every crack in the concrete. “I’m thinking three, four stories. With a pool, of course.”I cross my arms under my breasts, my heels clacking on the concrete. “I’m not seeing it, Jake.”Jake, my husband, rolls his brown eyes as he turns his back to me and spreads his arms wide. “This is twenty fucking acres, babe. We can’t get this in New Orleans.”“I wanted ocean views.”“Then I’ll cut down some trees, baby. Hell, the Gulf is right out there.” He whirls back to me, giving me that charming, cocky smile that made me fall in love with him three years ago. “I promised I’d build you
BaileyI watch the sun gleam off the roof of my car through the window of the breakroom at the Sunshine Clinic, a little urgent care tucked on a busy corner on the outskirts of New Orleans. I check my watch. It’s nearly 6:00 P.M., which means my shift is almost over, thank God. I roll my shoulders and slouch in the creaky, plastic chair, drumming my fingers on the vinyl table top. Jazzie, a fellow nurse and the clinic manager when the doctors aren’t around, walks into the breakroom looking bored and withdrawn. She opens the fridge and pops open a can of diet soda with a heavy sigh. “It’s hotter than hell.”“At least it’s slow today,” I say, glancing at my watch again. It’s now 5:57 P.M., just three more minutes….“Just go, Bailey. None of the doctors are even here right now.”I glance up at Jazzie as she leans against the counter near the fridge and presses the cold soda can to her temple. Her blonde hair is pulled back in a tight bun, and her hairline is peppered with sweat. “Are