“What’s all the excitement, Lucy?” Bert asked as the nurse guided him to an out of the way spot down one empty corridor.
“We had a suicide attempt, I am afraid.” Lucy said in a quiet voice.
“Wow…” Bert replied.
“Bert…” Lucy said as she touched his arm, “it was Jamie. I think maybe we need to have a serious discussion about committing her to a full-time mental facility where she can get the proper treatment.”
Bert felt his mouth drop open in shock and his legs quiver. This was not right. There was no way Jamie would do that…no matter what. In his absence, Bert knew the Malone-thing had returned. Apparently, Jamie had fought him off again and in their haste the psych staff had somehow interpreted this as a failed suicide. He recalled that each time he or the staff at the hospital had come running from Jamie’s cries, that her room had always been empty. Jamie had done what she needed to in order to survive until he came back. It would seem Jamie called them for help knowing it would be a short-term reprieve from Malone. Bert gathered himself once he had figured it all out and played along.
“I see…is it possible for me to at least see her?”
“We just strapped her down and sedated her, Bert. For her own safety. But I guess it would be OK for you to drop by just so you know she is fine now.”
Bert nodded to Lucy and followed her to the room. She unlocked the door and let Bert step inside. He went to her bedside and saw that she was breathing slowly, but regularly. He bent down as Jamie opened her eyes just a slit, smiling weakly as Bert sat in a chair at her head.
“Was I right, Bert?” Jamie whispered, trying to conceal her voice from the vigilant Lucy Tanner.
“On the nose…did he come back?” Bert replied as he smoothed her hair.
Jamie just nodded weakly.
“But it was much worse this time, Bert. He’s pissed now. Knows we are close to revealing it all…something about tarnishing his legacy or some such bullshit….”
“We need to get you out of here. My guess is Malone is trapped, stuck in this place. Once we get away, most likely we will be free of his reach.”
“Sounds good. But how do we get past Nurse Ratchet over there, and her storm troopers?”
“Not sure, but….”
Before Bert could go on, a deafening alarm began to fill the hallway and a blast came from just outside the room, making him startle. Cries of pain and surprise followed and when Bert looked over, Lucy Tanner was down on the floor. In a natural response, Bert ran to the prone nurse. She was breathing, but unconscious, a large gash on her temple. Bert hated to do this, but he knew this was their chance. He ran back to Jamie as all hell was breaking loose on the ward.
“You with it enough to get out of here, Jamie?”
“Just get me moving…”
Bert released her restraints and eased her into a wheelchair, making sure her ankle was well padded and secured. He could see Jamie was much groggier and more out of it than she had let on, but now that she was in the chair, he was sure they could escape. He slid Lucy from the opening in the door, sure that she would get taken care of by the staff. It was not ideal, but Bert knew the longer they tarried, the less chance they had of getting away clean. He wheeled Jamie through the door and looked to the left and saw people running amok as smoke filled the corridor. In a deft motion, he spun the chair away from all the furor as they took off in the other direction.
He was tempted to break into a dash, but upon further thought Bert was sure a controlled velocity would be more believable…like he was just getting a patient to a safe place. He moved on along down the hall as all sorts of hospital personnel dashed by him in response to the explosion. Jamie touched him on the arm.
“Think this is Malone’s doing, Bert?”
He had not even considered that, assuming it was just some random accident on the floor. As he looked up, Bert dodged away just as a fire extinguisher flew by his head, missing him by inches. There was no one around who could have launched the projectile his way. Guess that answered that question.
“I had not thought of that, Jamie, but I guess you may be onto something. You must have really pissed this guy off…”
“Eh…I do what I can….”
Though it was certainly not appropriate, Bert could not help but laugh. He regained his feet and continued on down the corridor. They reached the elevator, but Bert had just not been thinking clearly. All those signs in public buildings about elevators being out of service during fires? Damned if they had not been posted for no reason. All the lights above the elevator door as well as the floor selector were flashing, and a message above the doors read:
ELEVATOR OUT OF SERVICE DUE TO EMERGENCY—USE STAIRS TO YOUR WEST
“Guess we’re walking from here, Jamie….”
“You have got to be shitting me…” she replied, her speech slurred as she talked.
Bert pointed to the flashing message.
“It’s just one floor. If I kneel down in front of you, think you can climb on my back and hang on?”
“Piece of crake…. cake, whatever.”
Bert locked the wheels on the chair and got in place. Fortunately, Jamie was light, even with her newly attached cast. He felt Jamie flop on top of him and he knew right away she had been more optimistic about what sort of shape she was actually in. Her arms fell over his shoulders and Bert stood, reaching back to scoop her legs onto his hips. He lifted his foot and kicked open the bar on the door and they began their descent to the ground floor.
Home Free
Westmore Memorial Hospital
Westmore, NH
April 22, 2017
7 PM
The emergency lights were flashing in the stairwell as Bert moved slowly down each step, making sure of his footing. The lights were mildly annoying but not nearly as much as the blaring siren that was echoing off the walls of the constricted stairwell shaft. Bert made it down the initial run of stairs with no problem to a landing, where he made a turn so they could descend the last section and get outside. To add to the fun, Bert could hear the approaching sounds of both police and ambulances that had been dispatched from the ER entrance to the front entrance of the hospital. As he repositioned Jamie on his back, the jostling was apparently enough to bring her to a higher level of consciousness. She kicked at his legs, playfully with her one free uncasted heel:
“Wahoo!! Giddee up horsie!! Ride ‘em cowboy!!!”
“Wanna take it down a notch there, Annie Oakley?” Bert said as he looked back over his shoulder at her.
Jamie opened her eyes wider and somehow grasped the situation, through her stupor.
“Sorry…”
Bert stepped down and step by step they found themselves on the ground floor. Bert kicked out again to open the door and they moved into the hallway just below where they had begun this trek. As he looked around, Bert spied an unoccupied wheelchair. Just what he needed. They were on the home stretch, now. He shuffled along and positioned himself in front of the chair and plopped Jamie, a bit unceremoniously, but successfully, into the new chariot. He re-secured her ankle and cast and moved to the rear to figure out the quickest way out of the madhouse that the hospital had become in the last few minutes. Paramedics and police and other firemen rushed by Bert and Jamie, not giving them a second glance. As Bert had assumed, he was just a normal person getting an injured patient to a safe place. It was one less task for them.
Bert checked a map of the floor that was posted on the wall just to his right and saw that though it was circuitous, the route to their left seemed to be the most direct way out. Based on the number of emergency personnel coming from that direction, that seemed correct as well. He spun the wheelchair around and off they moved at a brisk, but controlled pace. Bert had to negotiate a few obstacles such as fire hoses and such, but at this point he saw this as just a minor inconvenience. Jamie bobbled along as the chair jostled her over the lumps. The one positive thing Bert noticed was that she seemed to be coming around mor
e, minute by minute.
“How you doing?” Bert asked as he got them over yet another length of hose in the corridor.
“No problemo….” Jamie replied.
The long hallway was about to hit a T-junction ahead, but before they got there, doors on both sides of the corridor began to flail open and closed, whipping out at them violently. Some were just hanging on by single hinges, while others had blown off their moorings completely.
“Hang on, Jamie…we’ve got to make a run for it!”
“Malone again?”
“Who else?”
Bert put them into overdrive as he gripped her wheelchair firmly in both hands and began a sprint through the impending gauntlet toward the junction. His timing was perfect as they dodged in and out of flopping doors as miscellaneous contents flew at them from each new room they passed. For the most part, Bert was able to avoid the flying projectiles. A few smaller items such as bed pans, and plastic meal trays, and such bounced harmlessly off his shoulders or caromed off the churning wheels of the chair. Jamie had the presence of mind to lean over and duck down as a few heavier pieces of equipment whizzing from open doors, becoming imbedded in the opposite walls.
Likewise, if it had not been for Bert’s quick decision to make a mad sprint, he would likely have been crushed between diagnostic carts and the wall. The lights flashed on and off and many began to explode overhead as they raced along, Malone throwing all he had at the couple in desperation. Bert slid them with a combination of expertise and recklessness as he hit the T-junction, the wheels of the chair and his sneakers slipping sideways on broken glass bottles and the various fluids they had previously contained. He slid hard into the wall on his left as his momentum could not be slowed. It felt like hitting concrete, but Bert shrugged it off and regained their forward progress as he saw the door that led outside just ahead.
At this point, Bert was hesitant to slow down, but the glass doors that led outside were a serious impediment. He guessed that since a lot of the power was malfunctioning due to the explosion, that the automatic sensor would not be working here either that would throw open the doors as they approached. Just when Bert was not sure what to do, a huge projectile flew high over their heads and shattered the glass in both doors, solving his dilemma. They shot through the opening and they were out of the hospital and standing on an asphalt turnaround. Bert put on his own personal brakes and he and Jamie came to a sudden skidding stop.
He turned the chair so they could both look back at the disaster behind them. The explosion had apparently spread rapidly throughout the upper floors and as Bert bent over to catch his breath, he knew they had left just in time. Another few minutes, and he was sure Malone would have finished them both off.
“Had no idea you could move like that…” Jamie said as Bert looked down at her. “Impressive…”
“Guess you never know you can until you have to….” he replied.
“From a guy who keeps telling me he is not very athletic…”
They both laughed. Bert had gotten them out in one piece, but unfortunately on the opposite side of the hospital from where his car was parked. On top of that, there was so much emergency equipment not to mention fire trucks, ambulances, and police vehicles clogging the way, that he was in no mood to wheel her around the building.
“What do you think of trying to hail a taxi and worry about my car later?” Bert asked.
“Sounds good, but it may be a real challenge finding a taxi in all this mess…”
Bert scanned the grounds and their luck seemed to be still with them as he saw the familiar bright yellow image of a Westmore Cab pulling just a few feet away from them near the turnaround. Bert motioned to the driver and he acknowledged them. It would be impossible for the cabbie to get to them, though, through all the mess.
“We’ll come to you, pal…” Bert shouted.
The man tipped his cap in appreciation as they set off toward the car. Bert helped Jamie up and into the cab, taking great care with her leg before jogging around to the other side of the taxi and hopping in.
“Where to kids?” the driver asked as he engaged the meter.
“River Point Drive, please….” Bert said as he exhaled deeply and let his head fall back on the cushion of the seat.
There was something about that voice that Jamie knew, but in her still woozy condition she could not quite place it. Following the whir of the meter, Bert heard a loud clunking sound and saw that all the locks on the doors had been engaged. He looked over and what he saw filled him with a panic: there were no door handles on the interior anywhere in the cab.
“River Point Drive, you say?” said the cabbie as he put his arm on the back of the front seat and turned and smiled.
Both Bert and Jamie froze in place. The voice came to her at once.
“How about we go to a little place I know. You’ll love it. It has gone by many names over the years, but I always preferred the simplest one…I’m sure you’ll recognize it. It’s called hell…”
And with that, Dr. Malone raised a privacy screen between him and Bert and Jamie as they madly clawed and kicked ineffectively at the divider and the doors, leaving them nothing to hear but his maniacal, terrifying cackle of laughter as he drove them away from the hospital…
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The Haunting of Magnolia House Preview
Prologue
3rd August 1972
Magnolia House
London
6:54 PM
Evelyn Summers stood in her silk underwear in front of her bedroom mirror. She held up a floor length mustard dress in front of her and looked at her reflection. She threw it on the bed then held up a pink chiffon dress and did the same. Neither were quite right. She wished she had bought herself something new to wear. Evelyn and her husband were hosting a dinner party that night. She had prepared the prawn cocktails, and the duck a l’orange was in the oven. She was ready to serve snowball cocktails and brandy, and the table had been set. The last step was deciding on what to wear.
Evelyn heard the sound of a car approaching. She went over to the window and drew back the net curtain. She looked out onto the street, and the empty parking space below her house. The car was the next-door neighbour arriving home in his Ford Cortina. She breathed out a sigh of relief at having some time left. Evelyn watched him get out of his car and go to the front door to be greeted by his wife. Evelyn and her husband lived in the end house on a very nice street where each newly built house looked the same as the next. They had only recently moved in, and were keen to impress their new neighbours that night. Evelyn wandered over to her dressing table and picked up her bottle of Charlie fragrance. As she was spraying it on her neck, she saw a face in the mirror. She was being watched.
The Haunting of Westmore Hospital - Behold the Doctor of Death Page 5
