Taken

by Bolton, Karice

  “Doesn’t it though?” She narrowed her eyes at me and placed her hand on the railing that was along the entire stretch of hallway. “That’s how it gets you. The occurrences start out subtle. Make you doubt yourself at first. Then the events become more noticeable, more frequent until it’s undeniable. Whatever it is. It’s made me even doubt my own sanity.”

  “Have all the nurses experienced it?”

  She bit her lip and dropped her head. “The ones who say they haven’t are probably lying. Afraid that voicing it will make it more real. But I can tell you it is real, living.”

  “What was the first thing you noticed?” I asked. “The first strange occurrence?”

  “I’ll never forget it because I could never prove it,” she began. “It was my first weekend here. I went to check on a female patient who was sleeping. I heard a mumble coming from her. I thought she was just having a nightmare or something, so I placed my hand on the bed, and as I leaned over her she shot up and grabbed my neck. I managed to wrestle her back down and get released from her grasp.”

  Bethany’s eyes were wide with horror as she relived it.

  “Wow. How horrible,” I replied.

  “No. That’s not what got to me. It was when I looked into her eyes. They were blazing red. Her irises weren’t human. I was so startled I remember letting out a scream, and that’s when the other nurses came running in. By that time the patient had closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping. It wasn’t until she woke up that I thought that I’d be able to prove my story. Rather, it only made me look like I’d lost my mind. Her eyes were as a blue as a glacier. They weren’t red at all. But I knew what I saw. That was only the beginning.”

  “Whatever happened to that patient?”

  “She expired soon after.”

  I nodded and looked down the hall, surprised that I hadn’t seen Arie surface at all. I wondered if she’d found something.

  I began walking to the next room when I felt it. I was surprised that the wickedness was strong enough for me to pick up on, even as a mortal. I stopped and turned toward Bethany.

  “Have you ever had any problems with this patient?” I asked, grabbing the chart and scanning the information. It was a child’s room. Her name was Eleanor.

  “Oh, heavens no. This one’s an angel. We hope we can send her home soon. The doctors think they’ve got the bug almost licked.”

  A little girl’s voice began singing an eerie melody that was quite inviting.

  “She must be feeling better. She’s never sung before,” Bethany smiled widely. “I never knew she had such a beautiful voice. This is what makes everything worth it.”

  I smiled at Bethany, wishing the song was that innocent, but something told me there was more to it.

  I slowly pushed the door open to see a little girl with blonde hair cascading down her back, sitting on the side of her bed. She appeared to be alone, but I doubted that. I just couldn’t see whoever else was in here with her. I was at such a disadvantage as a mortal.

  “A beautiful song, Eleanor,” I told her as I walked into the room. She was facing the window, so I couldn’t see her expression. “You have a lovely voice.”

  The singing stopped. She turned toward me and kept her head down, staring at the floor. The frail, little body was certainly not holding the soul of a ten year old. Her skin was pale and wrinkled around the eyes.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked, walking closer to her.

  She looked up at me confirming my worst fear. She was possessed, but by what I wasn’t sure.

  “Are you Lilith?” she asked.

  “No. My name is Ana. I work at the hospital, I’ll be taking care of you tonight.” My body was stiff with anticipation as I worried about what she could possibly be capable of. “Who’s Lilith?”

  “Somebody told me she’d be coming for me,” Eleanor replied.

  “Who told you that?” I asked, as a sickening feeling spread through me. If they were willing to turn children, there’s no stopping them.

  She didn’t answer me. Rather, she began singing again and closed her eyes as the melody wrapped around the room. I turned to look at Bethany and she was no longer in the hallway. Where did she go? Was she involved in this? I backed up to the wall, keeping my eyes on the little girl trying to gauge her behavior, when a breeze swept by me.

  “What more do you want? You already have the little girl. What else do you plan on taking?” I asked.

  It was quiet.

  I continued scanning the room seeing nothing but the little girl. What was in here with us?

  The drape by the window moved slightly. The being was taunting me and enjoying it.

  “You’re not frightening me,” I lied. “I would just like to know what you have in store.”

  Still silence.

  “Eleanor, would you like to lean back on the bed? It looks like you’re tired.”

  Her eyes flashed open, exposing brilliant, glowing red eyes staring back at me. She turned away from me and slid off the bed, walking slowly toward the window. Whoever was in here with us, wanted to make an example of this little girl. He wanted her to jump.

  I ran to the window, standing directly in front of it in an attempt to block Eleanor from it, but I wasn’t sure what I was up against. She might be in a small shell of a body, but her strength might be far more than mine. My heart was pounding as she stared directly into my eyes. She looked further detached with every step she took toward me.

  “I won’t let this happen,” I said to no one in particular.

  She stopped walking and a whisper crept slowly from her mouth, “Interlude.”

  To what? What was she saying?

  Eleanor dropped to the ground on all fours like a beast, not a human and charged at me. Her body slammed into mine with strength that no ten year old could embody as she anchored me to the ground. I never accounted for this when I conducted the mortas process. This wasn’t one of my better plans.

  She glanced at the window above us providing a momentary distraction so I reached up and grabbed her shoulders, slinging her off me. Her body landed with a crash as she slid into the bed. I jumped off ready to start again when I saw Arie turn into our room.

  “Ana, are you in here? We should prob—” Arie stopped dead in her tracks. “You’re bleeding.”

  “That’s the least of the problems. Get the restraints,” I shouted. “She’s possessed.”

  Arie opened the drawer and grabbed the belts, the buckles clanking together as she threw one set to me.

  “Interlude,” Eleanor whispered again.

  “What’s she talking about?”

  I shrugged as I readied myself for what Eleanor had planned for round two. I felt better at least knowing I had Arie in here with me.

  “We aren’t alone. There’s someone else in here.”

  “You’re sure?” Arie asked, walking very slowly up behind Eleanor.

  “Almost positive,” I whispered not taking my eyes off of Eleanor. Her eyes were no longer blazing red and her demeanor was slowly changing. She let her arms fall to her sides as if she was giving up.

  Arie gently touched Eleanor’s arm, and Eleanor jerked away but then allowed Arie to guide her to the bed.

  “There may not be anything that can be done for her at this stage, ”I whispered. “I just want to keep her away from the window.”

  Arie secured her into the bed.

  “I bet whatever you think was in here left,” Arie replied.

  “I think you’re right.” I pulled the covers over Eleanor and she closed her eyes. I touched Eleanor’s cheek and signaled to Arie for us to leave.

  As I closed the door and we walked down the hallway, the singing began again.

  “Well, I think it returned to her room.”

  Arie frowned and let out a sigh. I watched Bethany walk to the break room she had shown me earlier.

  “Guess it’s break time,” I replied, as I watched Arie’s mentor head to the same area.

  “No
w what?” Arie asked, folding her arms. “I’d like to get out of here as soon as possible.”

  “You and me both.”

  “I saw a patient in my wing and her name was Charlotte,” Arie said.

  “Really? What did her chart say?”

  “She unresponsive, delusional.” Arie frowned.

  “It makes me wonder how long this has really been going on.” I wiped the blood from my brow.

  “A lot longer than we originally thought. That’s for sure. Are you okay?”

  “I just wasn’t on my game,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “This mortal thing is pretty difficult.”

  “Only when we start sticking our heads into situations like this.” Arie replied, handing me a tissue as we walked down the hall. “I went to the fifth floor to the room you said that woman was in and it is empty.”

  “That’s not comforting. Every day that goes by more souls are stolen and I’m not sure we’re going to find what we’re looking for.”

  “Do you smell that?” I asked. “Like something’s burning?”

  Arie nodded, and I sprinted down the hall toward the stairwell with Arie following quickly behind.

  “I think it’s coming from downstairs. We might be finding ourselves one step closer after all,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  We dashed down the steps until we were at the bottom of the stairwell, staring at a metal door, not unlike the ones on every other floor.

  “Shoot,” I mumbled, wiggling the door handle. “This one’s locked. They never are.”

  “I saw a ring of keys near the nurse’s station,” Arie whispered. “I’ll go get them, and we’ll hope for the best.”

  “Thanks.” A locked door in our normal form certainly wouldn’t present a problem like it does now.

  Arie ran up the stairs two at a time. We only had another hour or so of our shift left, and I wanted to find out what we could so we hopefully wouldn’t have to come back. This mortal form was far too dangerous.

  The longer I stood outside the door the more my eyes began stinging from the smoke or fumes in the air. I wasn’t sure which it was, but it was thick.

  Arie’s steps echoed down the stairwell, and I ran up to meet her halfway. I grabbed the keys from her with a jangle and began searching for the right one.

  Finding a B painted on the largest key, I slid it into the lock, feeling the bolt release as the door sprung open. The adrenaline racing through my body produced a nonstop thumping in my ears. Please let this be what we needed to find.

  The room in front of us looked like nothing out of the ordinary. There was a concrete floor, covered in dirt, like it hadn’t been disturbed in quite a while. There were stacked boxes on the side, old metal desks in a corner, exactly what could be expected in a basement. But the fumes — the fumes were far worse. Tears began rolling down my face as I squinted my eyes to avoid any more contamination from whatever was lingering in the air.

  “Shall we?” I turned to Arie who was facing the same dilemma as me. She was frantically wiping the wetness from her cheeks.

  I pulled my cotton shirt collar over my mouth as I entered into the shadows. Dust coated everything that had been stuffed down here, and I wasn’t sure we’d guessed right. Maybe this wasn’t where the dark demons were hiding their activity. We scooted in between chairs, and rusty bed frames until we weaved through a makeshift path to somewhere that looked like nowhere.

  The basement was huge, but we quickly found ourselves staring directly at a cinderblock wall.

  “I don’t believe it,” Arie whispered as she attempted to stifle a cough. “Nothing.”

  I touched the cement in front of me, noticing a pattern that was different than the rest of the wall. My hand traced the blocks until I found an opening.

  “No. There’s something here,” I whispered, trying to get a better grasp on what I was dealing with.

  “All is not lost,” I said smiling.

  “Should we go in?” she asked.

  I nodded as I grabbed one of the loose blocks and pulled it from the wall. And then I removed another and another until we made an opening large enough for us to fit through.

  I slid my body through the hole and as soon as I made it to the other side, I wanted to go back the way I came. The fear was almost incapacitating. Rather than the darkness that my eyes had been used to, candles were blazing in every direction. There was definitely activity down here, and it was highlighted by walls of flames everywhere I looked.

  Cobwebs were exposed as the orange-red flames danced as we walked by. We followed the flickering trail down a hall that was no longer part of the building. The cement gave way to dirt walls. The demons had dug tunnels under the hospital, leading deeper and deeper into the earth. There was no one directly around, but they had to be close, whoever they were.

  A low chanting started in the distance, and I reached behind me for Arie’s hand as we made our way through the candlelit room.

  “Do you think we should keep going?” she asked. “It seems like we’ve found enough to point to this area.”

  She was right. We were completely vulnerable, but my curiosity was hard to quell. My last ordeal didn’t go particularly well, and I was sure whatever I might be facing next could be far worse, but I couldn’t help it.

  “Stay right here. Actually, go back into the basement,” I whispered, as I ducked while I entered the tunnel, following the dull glow.

  With every step forward, the humming became louder. If I could just get a glimpse, I’d feel so much more productive.

  I reached a T in the tunnel system, and quietly stood trying to decipher which direction the voices were coming from. Darn my mortal ears! Unable to figure it out, I decided to hang a right and very deliberately found my way to a spectacle I wanted no part of.

  A large shadow was dancing off the wall that was closest to me. It was double my size, definitely not a mortal. Its arms were raised as the choir of voices continued their chants. I slid along the wall, hoping to see what we were up against — what kind of creatures were protecting the gates.

  I craned my head slowly around the corner, startled to see red eyes staring back at me, only a few feet away. The singing stopped, and I took off as fast as I could down the tunnel toward the entrance. They weren’t going to be far behind.

  “Run!” I yelled, spotting Arie in the basement.

  “Would it be okay if I mentioned I’m panicking?” Arie shouted as she ran to the door.

  “Absolutely,” I yelled, running toward her as fast as my legs would carry me. “Come on! We’ve got to get out of here.”

  I reached for a chair and dragged it quickly with me back through the basement. Arie slammed the door behind us, and I wedged the chair between the door and the wall.

  “You do know that’s not going to do anything to stop them.” She hopped over the railing, landing on the stairs.

  “Good point,” I yelled, running behind her. “Think it’s safe to say we found the entrance.”

  We reached the main floor and no one and nothing was following us. They could have caught up to us. What or who was telling them to hold off. I reached for my nurse’s hat that had completely fallen to the side of my head, tucked my stray hairs back underneath it, and plopped it back on top of my head. We didn’t need to cause any more attention on our way out of the hospital.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Arie whispered as we walked straight through the entry with no intention of signing out.

  I busted through the doors only to have Athen and Cyril walking toward us ready to snatch us out of the place.

  Athen scooped me up in his arms and kissed me.

  “You were fifteen minutes late,” he whispered, hugging me tightly.

  “I know. I’m sorry. But the good news is that we found what we were looking for, and we made it out alive.”

  “Very true,” Arie chirped. “It’s really not fun to be a mortal.”

  “For sure.” I shook my head.

  “Let’
s get out of here and get your green eyes back,” Athen replied coyly, but then his voice became somber. “I saw you up in one of the rooms. I got worried.”

  “I did too,” I confessed. “The patient was only ten, and I was no match for her in this state.”

  “Well, it’s time to change that.” Athen pulled me close as we walked to the car.

  I glanced back at the hospital, and I knew I was no match in this condition for whatever was building up in those walls. We needed to end the mortas process.

  Chapter 6

  “One of the nurses I spoke to felt the building itself was possessed.” I was sitting on the edge of our bed, looking forward to some sleep before we went back in as a team. Unable to shake the chills, I had a quilt on my lap.

  Athen rubbed my back gently as I mentally prepared to turn back into a white demon. Turning into a mortal was a lot simpler than the other way. I wasn’t looking forward to it.

  “With the amount of evil that is running through that place, I don’t doubt her for thinking that,” Athen replied as his fingers glided along my shoulders sending shivers through me.

  “Granted I couldn’t tell for sure that she was mortal, but I think she was. Whoever is responsible is smart enough to keep some of the staff as mortals. But it makes me wonder if maybe some of the doctors are in on it or what might have started it in the first place.” I barely took a breath.

  Athen sat next to me and placed my hands in his. “We are going to do the best we can, but you can’t place the burden of saving everyone on your shoulders.”

  “Arie saw Charlotte. That woman the shoe salesman spoke about…”

  “And?”

  “She’s definitely possessed,” I paused and looked into Athen’s eyes. “I know we won’t be able to turn everyone back once we close up the gates. But I hope we can at least turn quite a few.”

  “One step at a time,” Athen whispered, squeezing my hands.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. He was so intoxicating.

  “When we shut this place down I want to go to the snow, to the mountains. I want to get away from everything for a little bit,” I murmured.

  “Sounds good to me.” He brought his lips close to mine, but stopped short.