“The formula, dear. What is the formula? Something is missing, isn’t it? I can help you,” she murmured, startling a bit as he began to scream again.
“I had hoped he would be in one of his lucid states when we arrived. I suppose we’ll have to make a return trip, but in the meantime—,” Robert paused, turning to look at me. “Abigail, can you take down the letters and numbers he’s screaming? I can’t quite make them all out. I believe it’s some sort of chemical composition, but I can’t be sure,” he said. I nodded, grabbing a notepad from my purse and trying to take note of what was being screamed.
“Oh Lord, oh Lord,” Isabella repeated from behind me, and I held up a hand to shush her as I strained to make out the screams. It was almost too shrill to distinguish, but I managed to get everything down aside from the bit that he seemed to skip over—almost garbled.
“I’ve got it. Agnes, do you think this has something to do with the chemical that’s been spilled into the lake?” I asked, tucking my notepad back into my bag. She nodded quietly, seeming lost in thought. As she ceased the stroking of the boy’s hair, he began to writhe more frantically, slamming his skull back against the wall behind him. The thuds were sharp, sounding as if he was moving so violently that he’d put a hole in the wall. Isabella pushed past me, her body continuing to quake as she approached the bed. The boy looked at her with wild eyes, baring his teeth like some kind of animal before continuing to try and bash his head in.
“Call for a nurse,” Isabella managed to get out, her voice gruff. She dropped to her knees on the bed, her back turned to us as she gathered the boy in her arms as best as she could manage. He began to fight her, scratching and biting as she struggled to keep him from injuring himself any further. “Get a nurse!” She repeated in a shout, and I quickly turned and rushed out of the room. Why weren’t the nurses coming already? Couldn’t they hear how severe the situation was? They had tranquilizers that would calm the boy down, didn’t they? I could still hear him screaming as I made my way to a nurse’s station, spotting an older woman typing away at her computer.
“U-uhm. The patient in room twenty two is hurting himself. I think—,” I began, cut short as she glared at me.
“Not my department,” she replied coldly, returning her attention to her computer. My heart clenched painfully in my chest as I realized just how little she cared about the boy. Certainly someone had to be able to help him. I continued to make my way through the halls, mysteriously devoid of the nurses Isabella and I had passed on the way in. My heart was hammering, panic gripping me as I heard the boy’s cries growing weaker. He could have shattered his skull with the way he was banging against that wall, and I couldn’t find anyone to help. I raced through the halls, looking in every open door that I passed. The patients I saw were in a dead sleep, so still that I might have thought they were dead. No nurses. No nurses! The halls were quiet, somehow too quiet. It struck me belatedly that the screaming had stopped altogether. I panicked, rushing back towards room twenty two and praying that a nurse had stepped in. I stopped outside the door, startled to see Agnes lingering outside with a stricken expression.
“Is... is he okay?” I asked desperately, peeking into the room to see Isabella still holding him in her arms. Agnes nodded quietly, brushing her hair away from her eyes and taking a deep breath. If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost think she were about to cry.
“Isabella got him to calm down,” she said softly, her voice devoid of emotion, as if she were carefully schooling herself. I raised a brow, a bit confused as to why Isabella had been so afraid to enter the asylum, but had also been the only one to take any real action to keep the young man from bashing his brains out. I hesitated outside the door, hearing a softer sound than before. It was crying, full fledged, devastated sobbing. I edged into the room, watching as Robert wrung his hands nervously.
“Did you find a nurse?” Isabella inquired, seeming to have detected my presence. Her voice was choked up, and as I drew closer, I could see blood dripping onto the sheets beneath the boy. She still clutched him tightly, and I couldn’t bear to see the shape he must have been in. The dark haired woman swayed back and forth slowly, and I just barely refrained from bursting into tears. “A nurse. Did you find one?” She repeated, her voice a bit more steady.
“N-no. The only person I found said that this wasn’t their department,” I explained reluctantly, wincing when she only laughed hollowly.
“Figures,” she muttered under her breath, finally drawing away from the boy and laying him out on the bed. There was so much blood staining the linens, and in spite of how desperately I wanted to avoid seeing the shape he was in, I couldn’t help to look away. Only... he was surprisingly unscathed. His eyes were closed peacefully, his breathing soft and steady to indicate he’d fallen asleep. Isabella slipped off the bed, her head ducked as she turned around and shuffled past me. “I’ll be back. This isn’t going to stand,” she muttered hoarsely. I watched her go, realizing with a start that a trail of blood was dripping on the floor with every step she took. I made to go after her, but Agnes gripped me roughly by the arm and held me in place.
“Let her go,” she ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument. Even still, I was tempted to disobey, frantic to see if Isabella was okay. Agnes leaned back against the wall, her hand still tightly gripping my wrist. After a moment, it shifted to tangle our fingers together, and Agnes drew me near to her with a shuddering breath.
“What happened?” I asked gently, surprised to see tears streaming down Agnes’ face.
“He’s a very sick young man, Abigail. He couldn’t help himself,” she mumbled, and I glanced up as Robert stepped out of the room. He had the bloodied linens and dropped them in a bundle on the floor. He offered me a strained smile, gesturing back in the room.
“They’ll need to be changed. I’m simply expediting the process,” he explained. I parted my lips to demand further explanation, from either of them, falling silent as I spotted Isabella at the end of the hall. She was all but dragging the woman from the nurse’s station towards us, her face still turned downwards as if she couldn’t bear to look at any of us.
“I don’t want any legal issues, so make this quick,” she hissed, shoving the nurse inside. I watched as the older woman took a syringe, shooting the boy up with what I could only assume was a sedative. I didn’t really see the point, considering he was still asleep, but the nurse forced a smile as she stepped out of the room, making her way down the hall once more. “It’ll keep him out longer,” Isabella supplied, answering the question I’d yet to ask. “He needs to rest. Really rest. Now, can we please leave?” She asked, finally tilting her head up. Her lip was bloodied, her eye blacked and from the looks of it she’d had a tooth knocked out.
“Izzy...” I began, putting the pieces together. She must have held the boy, keeping him from hurting himself and allowing him to take his rage out on her. I could only assume he had tired himself out, but one thought lingered at the forefront of my mind. “Why?” I implored, reaching out to touch her cheek. Less obvious were the scratches on her arms, the indentation of teeth on the side of her neck, though now that I saw I couldn’t begin to fathom how I’d missed them.
“I’m leaving. If you want to stay, stay. I’ll walk back if I have to,” Isabella bit out, turning her back on us and walking stiffly down the hall. I glanced towards Agnes, who seemed to be trying to regain her composure.
“What happened?” I demanded once more, biting back a growl as Robert and Agnes exchanged a look.
“It’s not really our story to tell, dear girl. Now come along. She’s probably halfway down the street by now,” Agnes said wearily, and that was seemingly that.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Are you just going to be surly all day, now?” I asked mildly, though it might have been a poorly phrased question. I knew it seemed inconsiderate, but for the duration of the car ride home, Isabella refused to even acknowledge the rest of us. She was too caught up in her own mind,
it seemed, and though it was difficult to blame her, considering the circumstances, I wasn’t quite sure what else constituted the circumstances. There had been something amiss from the moment we reached the asylum—as soon as it had been in our sights, something was just wrong. Agnes seemed to regret the trip, but had been making an effort to sooth the girl as best as she could, offering some of the chocolates she kept in her bag. I didn’t realize she kept chocolate in her bag, but it seemed to be a new development in any case.
“Leave her be, dear girl,” Agnes murmured, offering Isabella another piece of chocolate. Izzie considered us from the corner of her eye, accepting it with a wan smile.
“Sorry for bleeding in your car, Robert,” she said mildly, munching on the small square. Robert chuckled, waving her off as we pulled back into the driveway of the cabin. Agnes was swift to lurch out of the car, circling around to help the younger woman to her feet. I sighed, slipping out as well. I felt as if I was missing out on some big piece of this puzzle, not just missing out—it was being intentionally kept from me. I shook off my dismay, helping Robert unload the samples and fishing gear from the car.
“Oh, just... leave that! I’ll come back for it,” Agnes called back, ushering Isabella inside. I idly wondered if she kept medical supplies handy for just such a situation, but didn’t want to get caught up overthinking the issue. Robert seemed oblivious to her command, or perhaps he simply didn’t care. I shrugged a little, opting to help him with some of the samples. The fishing gear could wait, at least, but if we’d been keeping a live fish in the car, there certainly had to be a better place to keep him. I glanced into the jar, making a face at what essentially looked to be an oversized minnow. It had been inexplicably strong, but perhaps that was just all part of the mystery of the lake.
“I sincerely appreciate the help, Miss Bean. Come along. I’ll show you the lab,” Robert announced, carrying his field bag under his arm and leading me towards the cabin. As soon as we stepped inside, I could hear the two of them bickering, over God knows what. Agnes was moving to wrap a bandage around Isabella’s arm, and I could hear her ordering her housemate to gargle. At least, attempting to order her. “It’s so strange,” Robert mused, pausing where I stood to stare towards the bathroom. Agnes was meticulously cleaning each of the wounds on the younger woman’s arms, dabbing a bit of antiseptic to Izzie’s neck and tutting when she hissed in pain.
“Oh, don’t be a diva,” Agnes said softly, a little bite to her tone.
“I live for the theatrics of it all, Aggie. Why do you think my life is so darn tragic?” Isabella muttered in return, glancing out of the bathroom towards where Robert and I were standing. She raised a brow, but said nothing as she returned her gaze to the elder woman.
“They are an odd pair. I like to think we’re an odd trio, the three of us,” I murmured, giving Robert a little nudge to urge him onwards. He smiled a bit, shaking his head in what appeared to be disbelief as he led me deeper into the house.
“Agnes has never been particularly affectionate. It’s obvious how much she cares about you two girls. She never showed such tenderness towards me... not that I grudge her for it, granted,” he chuckled, pushing open a door that I’d thought led into a closet. Instead, there was a staircase leading to some sort of basement. I hesitated before following behind him, knowing that he would have little luck with murdering me and then hiding it from the other women. It wasn’t necessarily like he seemed a murdering type, but I was still a bit suspicious of him. Something wasn’t right. I couldn’t quite identify what, but something...
I nearly bowled him over as he came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the steps, flipping a switch to bathe the room in light. I stared through wide eyes at the sterile and high tech room, which looked every part the lab out of some kind of science fiction novel. I carried the fish over to what looked to be a containment tank, looking towards Robert for permission before dumping it inside. It thrashed a bit as it hit the water, but soon settled in, the faintly red sheen of its scales all the more apparent in the light of the tank.
“Agnes has always been kind to me. There have been times where she’s been cross, but of course, she always makes up for it. I consider myself truly blessed to be able to join her on these journeys,” I murmured, looking around for some sort of fish food or... something. “Do I feed it?” I asked with a sigh, tapping my fingertips against the glass.
“The little fellow should be fine for now, though I gently advise you to not let Agnes catch you tapping the glass,” Robert murmured.
“Too late,” the elder woman piped up from the bottom of the steps, and I jolted away from the tank with a chagrined smile. “Honestly, Abigail, pestering the fish? I thought I could expect more of you,” Agnes murmured, though there was a teasing lilt in her voice. I rolled my eyes, slumping into one of the chairs scattered across the lab.
“Yes, well. I can’t be expected to know as much as your former assistant, here. I am just the new girl, after all,” I said blithely, and Agnes raised a brow before shaking her head and focusing her attention on the samples.
“I take it you’ve not gotten over your trivial jealousy, then?” She inquired after a moment, and I couldn’t help but indignantly squawk as Robert rumbled a laugh. Agnes smiled to herself, seeming to take pleasure in getting my goat, as it were. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of being surly and pouting, as much as I was tempted to. I simply spun in the chair I sat in, watching the room pass me in a blur. “Do see that she doesn’t bump into anything important,” Agnes ordered, and Robert laughed. I managed to catch his mock salute as the chair spun towards them, and even I couldn’t resist a giggle. Alright, for as suspicious as I thought the man was, he was rather intriguing. He seemed a generally nice fellow, outright sweet if I were being honest. He looked like a proper English gentleman, with his black bowler and silver tipped walking stick. I wondered if he felt some measure of jealousy that Agnes had been so swift to give something out of her personal collection to Isabella, but he didn’t seem the type to easily get jealous. It was something I could learn from him.
“So what do these samples have to do with the boy in the asylum? I’ve gathered that he was shouting out the chemical breakdown of some sort of component, something I assume was very important to him before he lost his everloving mind,” I called out, coming to an abrupt stop in my chair as Agnes gripped my shoulder. She looked at me with a mildly chastising expression, and I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck as she drew away.
“The boy is very sick, and I’m quite sure that his situation was beyond his own control,” she murmured, a rather distant look in her eye before she focused on the samples once more.
“I’m not blaming the boy, but it’s pretty clear that he’s out of it. You seem to regret even going to the asylum. I take it that it has to do with Izzie’s little mishap. It would be much easier for me to be understanding if you would actually explain what I’m missing here,” I pointed out, trying not to sound awfully snide. It didn’t seem to work, as Agnes turned towards me with a rather incensed expression.
“It is not my place to tell, especially considering I don’t know the whole story myself. I know enough to understand why the asylum was such a hard trip for her to make, however, and you can’t blame me for feeling terrible for subjecting her to it,” she said bluntly. I frowned, brushing my hair away from my eyes.
“Of course! I feel awful too, especially considering how desperately she begged me not to go into the place. She used my name. My actual name—not just Little Bean. I should have known something was wrong then, but...,” I paused, the sounds of the stairs creaking causing me to silence myself.
“Oh don’t quiet down on my account,” Isabella announced from the stairway, her cane clanking on the concrete pad of the floor as she scrutinized the three of us. If she seemed bothered by our conversation, she didn’t show it too much, only striding across the room to consider the fish in the holding tank. “He really is small. Is he coming home with us? I�
�ve always wanted a pet,” she murmured, tapping the glass a bit.
“Stop that,” Agnes bit out, seemingly without thinking. She looked immediately remorseful, and Izzie raised a brow as she allowed her hand to drop to her side. “I’m sorry—,” Agnes began, but she was quickly waved off.
“Don’t sweat it, Aggie. I shouldn’t be stressing out your little grandson,” Isabella smiled, sinking into a chair beside me. I began spinning begin, more out of nervousness than anything. I wasn’t exactly sure what to say to her besides apologizing profusely, but it seemed as if apologies were the last thing she wanted. Her words struck me belatedly, and I stopped the chair to look at her with a sly grin.
“If the fish is her grandson, does that make him your little baby?” I teased, receiving a cheeky smile in turn.
“Well, I mean. After so long, I can’t leave the old biddy waiting for an actual grandchild,” she mused aloud, and Agnes snorted from her place observing the samples. “Besides, I don’t want to share her attention. If there’s another kid in the picture, our Aggie time will be compromised, Little Bean. Could you imagine anything more terrible?” Isabella sighed dramatically. I giggled, giving her a slight shove and watching as her rolling chair slid away.
“I’m not as needy as you. I do share her with you, after all. I found her first, technically,” I pointed out, and Agnes turned to face us with a disbelieving expression.
“Girls, girls, our girl doesn’t particularly like being talked about like she’s a possession of sorts,” Robert began, and Agnes began to thank him. “But if she belonged to anyone, she was mine before either of you. I’m just a kind fellow, isn’t that right poppet?” He teased, tipping his hat to Agnes. She exhaled a deep sigh, rising to her feet and rummaging through the cabinet above the containment tank. There was a variety of dried animal foods, and I wasn’t terribly surprised to see it was stocked with fish flakes. She peppered some in the water, yelping as Isabella slid her chair up beside her and stared up at her with a big grin.
The Peculiar Case of the Red Tide Page 5
