The Wish (Nightmare Hall)

by Diane Hoh

  “Could I see her, please?”

  “I don’t see why not. She hasn’t had many visitors. Can’t help feeling sorry for her. But we don’t know how to treat eating disorders here. That girl is anorexic, you mark my words.”

  Alex’s jaw dropped. Kiki? An eating disorder? She pictured Kiki helping herself to Julie’s cookies and candy. “It isn’t anything like that,” she protested.

  The nurse arched a graying eyebrow. “They’re very good at hiding it, you know. Even their families seldom know until the problem is out of control. Go ahead in. Room four.”

  Alex walked down the hall and entered the small white room. But the patient lying in the bed there bore no resemblance to healthy, stocky, ruddy-cheeked Kiki Duff, pride of Salem’s women’s soccer team.

  The girl in the bed seemed shrunken. She was frail and gaunt. Her head turned listlessly from side to side on the white pillow. The face was without color except for purplish shadows under sunken eyes. The cheekbones were hollow, the hair dull and sparse. Above the neckline of a white hospital gown, a sharply etched collarbone jutted skyward.

  Alex stood at the foot of the bed, paralyzed with horror. That couldn’t be Kiki in the bed. It was a mistake…had to be…

  But when she reached out and picked up the chart hanging on the bed rail, there was Kiki’s name, plain as day: DUFF, KIKI.

  No…no.

  Alex leaned against the bed rail, and heard Kiki’s voice in her head, saying, “I’m going to wish I were five pounds thinner.” She hadn’t made the wish that night. No one had had a quarter. But had she gone back later and made that same wish?

  And…had it been granted?

  I have to stop pretending all of this is just coincidence, Alex thought, her hands shaking as she replaced Kiki’s chart. It can’t be. Not all of it.

  She walked over to stand beside Kiki’s bed. Kiki wouldn’t deliberately starve herself. Whatever was wrong with her, it was beyond her control.

  Impulsively, Alex reached down to gently stroke the skeletal cheek.

  The sunken eyes opened. Tears slid weakly down the gaunt cheekbones. The mouth opened. “Help me,” she whispered with great effort, “Alex, help me…”

  But Alex didn’t know how.

  Tears in her own eyes, she patted Kiki’s bony arm and hurried out of the room.

  Something was very, very wrong here. Not wrong like someone attacking Kyle and throwing him off the deck…that was a criminal act. This was…this was different. Beyond ordinary…beyond criminal…what was happening to Kiki had no logical, reasonable explanation. Even if she were anorexic, she wouldn’t have lost that much weight that fast. Not possible.

  Kiki had wished…had wished to lose weight. Julie had wished that her face wasn’t so “ordinary.” Gabe had wished he didn’t have to walk so much. And Marty had wished he didn’t have to give his speech. Kyle had wished for peace and quiet.

  And all of their wishes had come true in a horrible, twisted way.

  If only the doctor could find a logical, scientific explanation for Marty’s loss of speech. Then she would know that what she was thinking was totally crazy, that her imagination was running away with her.

  If not, she knew where she had to go.

  The doctor found nothing wrong with Marty’s throat. “Stage fright’s my guess,” he said when they emerged from the cubicle. “Shouldn’t last long.”

  But Alex knew it wasn’t stage fright. And not just because Marty wasn’t the type…there was more to it than that. Kiki wasn’t the type to starve herself, either, but there she lay in that bed, a shrunken skeleton.

  What was happening to them had nothing to do with logic or reason. Whatever it was, it was beyond their control. Maybe beyond anyone’s control. Except…

  Alex couldn’t believe what she was thinking. Crazy, crazy….

  “I’m going to Vinnie’s,” she told Marty as they left the infirmary. “Want to come?”

  He shook his head. He rummaged in his pockets for a piece of paper. Finding one, and a pencil, he scribbled, Going to bed. But I’ll drop you off there first.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  When they reached Vinnie’s, Alex started to get out. Marty suddenly tugged on her arm and held out two things. One was a scrap of paper.

  Alex took it and read it. It said, Found this under the seat of my car. Thought you might like to have it. And then he handed her the second thing.

  It was a tiny gold football.

  Alex stared at it. It was dull and scratched and dusty. It had definitely been rolling around under the seat of a car…not lying safely in a brown envelope.

  Marty hadn’t stolen Kyle’s smooth, shiny football from the hospital. And he hadn’t left his in the bottom of a plant on the sixth-floor observation deck.

  The smile she gave him then was dazzling. He brightened, and, returning her smile, scribbled quickly, You’re welcome. I hope you take better care of it than I did.

  “I will,” she promised, giving him a hug.

  He was smiling as he drove off.

  Alex turned toward the restaurant. She knew what she had to do.

  Taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders, she started walking. She entered the restaurant and headed straight to the back.

  There was no one at the red booth when she reached it.

  Alex looked The Wizard full in the face and whispered, “What are you doing to my friends?”

  Chapter 18

  THE PALE, BEARDED FACE stared back at Alex, its glassy blue eyes cold and unseeing.

  “I said, what have you done to my friends?” she repeated.

  Nothing.

  If anyone came in and saw her talking to The Wizard, she’d be carted away to a padded cell.

  But she wasn’t giving up. Some of the things that had been happening could have been the work of a maniac. After all, she had seen with her own eyes someone throwing Kyle off that deck, and it certainly hadn’t been The Wizard. There had been something odd about him, about his arm, but it wasn’t that the arm was mechanical. That had been a real person, she was sure of that. The accident could have been just that…an accident following a bad storm. And the driver of the shuttle bus…well, she couldn’t be sure what was under that raincoat. It could have been the same nut case that tossed Kyle.

  But there were too many other things that couldn’t be explained. How could someone steal Marty’s voice and most of Kiki’s body weight?

  If, crazy as it seemed, The Wizard had heard the things they’d said when he first arrived, and had granted their wishes, then…oh, God, she was losing her mind…then maybe he could hear her.

  If he was willing to listen….

  “Answer me, damn you!” Alex hissed. “I want my friends to be all right! Why are you doing this?”

  There was another moment or two of silence. And then the familiar whirring and clanking began and the arm lifted…

  And as it did so, Alex saw again the scene on the observation deck of the tower, saw Kyle’s attacker pointing at him, and saw what she hadn’t been able to remember before: the arm he was pointing was much longer than his other arm.

  She looked carefully at The Wizard. Both his arms were the same size.

  Besides, she was sure that Kyle’s attacker had been a real, flesh-and-blood person.

  She didn’t know anyone whose right arm was longer than the left.

  A card appeared in the little cup on the outside of the booth.

  Alex didn’t want to reach for it. She was afraid. She was so afraid that her palms were icy with sweat and her fingers felt too stiff to move. But she needed answers…

  Breathing erratically, she picked up the card. And read, YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR.

  This was no common, garden-variety fortune from a machine. He was talking to her.

  So. She’d been right. He could communicate.

  Knowing she’d been right strengthened her resolve. “No,” she said, staring straight into the cruel face, “you have gone too far. You ha
ve to stop, right now. You have to give Marty back his voice and make Kiki well. Do you hear me?”

  And, just for a second, she thought she saw his eyes move, just a little bit to the right. Then her knees turned to butter as the clanking and whirring began, faster this time. The arms lifted up and out and another card shot into the cup.

  YOU DARE TO THREATEN ME? She’d barely finished reading it before another card shot into the slot, and then another, the arms moving furiously, accompanied by a rushed but agonized creaking.

  NO ONE DEFIES ME.

  YOU ARE FINISHED.

  For just a second, Alex faltered. Look what he had done to Marty and Kiki, and here she was, daring him, on her own, with no backup.

  And at that moment, as if she had wished aloud, someone said, “Hey, Alex, you playing with that thing again?”

  The cards still in her hand, Alex whirled to see Gabe approaching. She was surprised to see him back on crutches. Smiling, he leaned against the wall, lifted the right crutch and pointed it at her, saying, “You’re going to go broke on that thing.”

  And as he pointed the crutch at her, Alex knew why, in the dim light on the tower’s observation deck, Kyle’s attacker had seemed to have an unusually long right arm.

  He had been pointing a crutch at Kyle.

  Chapter 19

  THE WIZARD HAD FALLEN silent.

  “Gabe,” Alex said hesitantly, “what…what are you doing here?”

  “Bummed out about being back on these wooden walking sticks,” he said, moving toward her. “Thought maybe this place would cheer me up. I’m told I should have my head examined for playing on Saturday. Coach blames himself, but I’m the one who told him I was fine.”

  He was still smiling. He looked so sweet, so friendly…and Julie loved him, and Julie wasn’t stupid…

  “It was you, wasn’t it? You tried to kill Kyle…” Alex began.

  Gabe raised the crutch, lifting it high in the air.

  Alex took a step backward, heard a sound behind her, began to turn around…

  And then something slammed against the side of her head and everything went dark.

  Chapter 20

  ALEX AWOKE TO UTTER darkness. And silence. Her head ached. She was half-sitting, half-lying on a cold, hard floor.

  Where was she?

  What…what had happened?

  She lifted a hand to touch the place on her head that hurt. Her fingers came away wet and sticky. Blood.

  And she remembered, then. Gabe…the crutch…something had hit her…

  Using the wall as a support, she stood up, and reeled with dizziness. Still holding the wall, she made her way forward, hand-over-hand, searching for a door. There had to be a door.

  Her hand closed around a doorknob. It turned easily.

  Slowly, carefully, she turned the knob all the way. Slowly, carefully, she pushed the door open, a quarter of an inch at a time. Where was Gabe? Waiting, outside this place…a closet, wasn’t it?…to attack her again? Or had he gone, made his escape before she could come to?

  As the door opened wider, light came in. Enough light for her to see that she was in a small closet. The shelves were piled high with empty white pizza boxes and fat packages of white napkins wrapped in clear plastic. A fishing pole leaned against the wall in the front corner.

  She was in Vinnie’s storage closet.

  But…there was no sound coming from outside the open door. Silence…only silence. The quiet of an empty restaurant.

  Alex’s heart sank. Everyone had gone home, even Vinnie? She was here alone?

  Or was she?

  The phone…the phone was on the wall outside the closet. If she could get to it, if he wasn’t waiting just outside the door for her…she could call the police.

  No…no…. too risky…too scary…he might hit her again before she could even dial…

  You have no choice, Alex, she told herself. You can’t stay in this closet forever. The telephone is right there. Go for it!

  Taking several deep breaths, Alex pushed the door open all the way, but remained in the doorway, afraid to move….

  And found herself staring directly into the face of The Wizard.

  A wave of dizziness assaulted her, and she swayed, putting one hand to her head.

  When the dizzy spell had passed, she looked to each side of her. There was no one there. Gabe had gone. She was alone. She could call the police and they would take her out of here and go arrest Gabe. At last she would be safe.

  Then a voice said, “It is your own doing.”

  Alex jumped and stumbled back against the closet door. The knob jabbed her in the small of her back, and she cried out.

  “You brought all of it upon yourself by doubting me,” the voice continued. It was deep and cold and…Alex shivered…inhuman. “No one doubts the power and goes unpunished.”

  There was no one in the alcove.

  No one but her and…

  She wouldn’t look at him. She wouldn’t!

  “It was I who summoned up the terrible wind that tormented you high above the ground,” the voice went on, “and it was I who locked the door to your little booth, and I who banished all light and removed the means for you to seek aid.”

  She wouldn’t answer it. Since he wasn’t really speaking…because how could he be?…she wouldn’t answer. None of this was really happening. She wasn’t really standing in this doorway. She was, obviously, still unconscious, lying on the floor of the closet.

  Then she remembered Kiki, lying in the infirmary bed, wasting away, and Marty, stricken into silence. Gabe couldn’t have done that. No human could.

  Alex lifted her eyes. And met his.

  They were no longer cold, icy, marble-like. They glowed, hot, hot, blazing blue, red around the edges, and they were fixed on her…angry, glowing eyes fixed on her….

  “I never did anything to you,” she said defiantly, although her body trembled and her hands felt like ice.

  The voice rose to a roar that shook the red metal booth. “You doubted! You questioned my power! And then ridiculed your friends for their faith in my power.”

  Alex shrank back against the door. “I…I didn’t mean….” Then Kiki’s skeletal face appeared in her mind, and she stood up straighter, angry again. “Kiki didn’t doubt you. And look what you did to her.”

  The voice quieted. “I only gave her what she asked for.”

  “You’re killing her!”

  “Your friends are idiots. Never satisfied. Wishing for foolish things, failing to appreciate what they already have. It was time they learned a lesson.”

  “They’ve learned it! You have to stop it now! Give Marty back his voice, make Kiki well.”

  “And if I choose not to?”

  “I’ll…I’ll smash you to bits, I will, I swear!” Alex’s eyes scanned the small alcove for something…a tool of some kind. There had to be something….

  And that was when she saw the crutch. Just the tip of it. Poking out from behind The Wizard’s booth.

  Gabe. He hadn’t left, after all.

  Her first instinct was to run. For the front door. It would take him some time to make it out from behind that booth.

  But if the door was locked, she wouldn’t be able to get out. And then he’d be on her…

  There had to be another way…

  Without making a sound, Alex took several small steps backward and, with her right hand, reached behind her to grab Vinnie’s fishing pole from its corner.

  Curling her fingers carefully around the edge of the hook, Alex said softly, “You can come out now, Gabe. I know you’re behind The Wizard.”

  The crutch moved slightly.

  “You have to come out, Gabe. Because I’m going to the phone now and calling the police.”

  And she did exactly that. She turned, pulled a quarter from her jeans pocket, and deposited it, keeping her eyes on the crutch.

  The coin had barely clinked into place when the crutch moved again, and this time, it was picked up
off the ground and used as support for the figure that emerged from behind The Wizard.

  Alex dropped the receiver and let it dangle, but not before she’d managed to punch the “0.” “Gabe,” she began, and then stopped.

  Because it wasn’t Gabe who emerged from behind The Wizard.

  It was Bennett.

  Chapter 21

  “BENNETT?” ALEX SAID, HER fingers relaxing on the fishing rod. “Where’s Gabe?”

  Bennett, resting on his crutches, leaned against The Wizard. “Taking a nice, long nap, just like you.” He shook his head. “Tried to interfere. Can’t have that, can we? He didn’t seem at all happy that I’d sent you sleepy-bye. Came right at me with that crutch of his. I barely had time to toss you in that closet. Bad timing on my part. If I’d known he was going to show, I’d have waited for a better time. Oh, well, these things happen.”

  “You…you hit me?”

  “Of course. You thought it was Gabe? Gabe wouldn’t hurt a fly, Alex. Everybody knows that.” His eyes on her face, Bennett began humming, The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round…

  “That was you, too? You were driving the bus?”

  “Yep. Quite a ride, wasn’t it? Stole that bus right out of the campus parking lot. Driver left the keys in it, went off to get a cup of coffee. I should report him.”

  “Why weren’t you hurt? When you jumped off? We were going so fast…”

  He grinned. “Football padding, lots of it. And a helmet, under that rain hat.”

  Alex thought hard, her mind racing over everything that had happened. “Oh, Bennett, no…you threw Kyle off the tower?”

  Bennett stiffened. “Had to. It’s what The Wizard wanted. We thought, The Wizard and I, that I could just will Kyle off that tower. You know, borrow The Wizard’s power. But it didn’t work. So I had to throw him off.” Bennett shuddered. “It was awful.”

  Yes, it was. Her hands tightened on the fishing rod. “And you’re the one who stole Kyle’s football charm from the envelope in the hospital?”

  “Had to. I remembered that I’d given mine to that stupid girl.” Bennett’s upper lip curled in contempt. “She gave it back, and I lost it that night on the tower. I told you it was home, in Utah, but I knew if anyone asked that girl, she’d say I’d had it here, on campus. So I helped myself to Kyle’s.” Bennett laughed. “It’s not as if he knows it’s gone.”