9 Tales Told in the Dark 23

by 9 Tales Told in the Dark

  “Megan, no.”

  Megan quickly pulled the cupboard door open, nearly stumbling backwards and knocking over the candles on her dresser. Fortunately, she steadied herself, her eyes now ablaze.

  “Jeremy I’m going to kill you.”

  “You should have seen your faces. Oh, I’m a spirit from beyond,” he said, waving his hands like one would see on a television show that was portraying a scary ghost.

  “Get out!”

  Jeremy knew that look in his sister’s eyes. He ran out of the room holding his side from the stitch he had gotten from excessive laughing.

  It was now turn for the girls to laugh.

  “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.”

  “You were pretty white.”

  “You were trembling.”

  “I was cold.”

  “Megan Smith, you were scared.”

  “Shut up, this is so stupid. Should we just have ice cream?”

  “Definitely.”

  Cindy didn’t care why Megan wanted to stop, she was just glad it. Although she had to admit, she was slightly disappointed.

  “Shouldn’t we pack this up?”

  “Later, can you take it back to school tomorrow?”

  “Why can’t you?”

  “Dentist, plus your parents are way cooler than mine. If they catch you with it, they’ll want to play with it. I promised I would give it Barbara tomorrow.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Please I’ll get you extra ice cream.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m kind of disappointed, would have been cool to speak to a spirit. Or ask if it can see me? How creepy would that be?”

  “Too creepy,” Cindy responded.

  She took Megan’s hand shutting the door as they ran towards the kitchen, unware the planchette moved to the word YES.

  Megan placed the red armband around her patient’s petite wrist, checking the identification, Jane Doe. Officially, she did have a real name it just wasn’t known yet. Due to hospital policy, any persons without an official name were a Jane Doe. She was found by a stranger beaten and comatose in an alley. Two weeks in the ICU Jane was now laying in a private room at Boston Private Hospital. No name, no family, no identity. Doctors had aged her between 26 and 30 years of age. Megan shuddered when she thought of this, as her 26th birthday had just past. A great one it was too. Three nights in New York City with her fiancée, Thomas, who was a junior neurology resident at the hospital. Megan snapped out of her daydream, looking down at her new patient. If she had seen this lady in the street, she would have easily guessed at least 40 or older.

  “Are you all good?”

  Megan turned towards the door.

  “I’m fine. Are you going home?”

  “Yep, see ya tomorrow, “said, Emma, waving.

  “Oh Emma, coffee.”

  “Two sugars?”

  “Of course, thank you,” Megan shouted back, turning around to finish her examination.

  Usually she would need Julia, her partner in crime that worked with her during the graveyard shift. However, at 45kgs Megan could easily move Jane on her own. Noting down the amount of times she should need to reposition Jane so she didn’t get bedsores.

  “Hey come help me with Betty,” Julia said, scaring Megan half to death.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Oh, so you can scare me shitless yet I can’t do the same to you?” Julia asked.

  “I’m glad you understand how this friendship works,” Megan said, placing the blue chart back into its slot while giving Jane another quick glance before turning to leave.

  The moment she stepped out of Jane’s room was when she heard it. A woman laughing behind her. Megan’s heart almost at once tripled in beats, turning quickly she looked back into the room and let out a laugh. What was she expecting? To see her sitting up and laughing she told herself before walking out and joining Julia to turn Betty. All the while unaware of the smile that briefly spread upon her new patient’s lips.

  Megan yawned rubbing her eyes before directing her attention back to Jane Doe’s file. Fractured skull, multiple broken ribs, deep lacerations, and signs of torture. She had been debriefed that any visitors or calls about Jane were to be monitored. The lead detective, Marcus Ling, must have thought her attacker would come and visit their victim. The detective’s card placed in the plastic sleeve next to an x-ray of the Jane’s mouth, which showed no teeth. The attacker had removed them and burned her fingertips to stop identification of his victim.

  A sound Megan had only heard once, during her orientation onto the ward sounded, making her hair on the back of her neck and arms stand up. It was the sound of a nurse call button. Not that they were unusual, it was one of the many things nurses acquired as a familiar sound in their career. But not hers. Three of her patients were paralyzed from the neck down, two were brain dead, and her newest patients couldn’t physically be able to press it.

  “Julia I’m going to kill you,” she said.

  Looking up to where her friend had been sitting. It was empty. Megan scanned the hallway. It was growing darker by the second, the lights now flickering softly.

  “Julia?” Megan called.

  Slowly stepping out of the comport of the nurse’s station Megan turned facing the six rooms. The nurse call had stopped. It wasn’t showing up on the monitor anymore. Had it been? Megan thought to herself. Shaking her head Megan calmed her breathing, realizing Julia was probably playing another trick on her. She almost wanted to laugh until she saw something slide out of Jane’s room stopping just out of her reach from where she stood. Megan froze. Every fiber of her body screaming at her to run but she couldn’t. She tried to turn, to go anywhere expect forward, but she couldn’t. Her heart beating faster with each step and her mouth dryer than a desert, she bent down picking up the object. The wavering hall lights made her eyes go out of focus, shutting them briefly before opening again, to which she yelled before dropping the object onto the floor. It was a tooth. Before Megan could comprehend any of what she had seen, she felt the presence of someone standing behind her.

  “Megan…” a deep, inhumane voice said.

  Megan turned slowly around.

  No sound escaped Megan’s mouth, her body stationary staring at the impossible, Jane Doe. Standing right in front of her cuts and bruises still visible. The trachea still attached to the ventilation tube that was dangling from her throat like a limp appendage. Her skin now covered in horrible rashes, her lips and tongue pale and severely cracked.

  “No,” Megan croaked, horrified.

  “Yes,” she said, now laughing like the women Megan had heard earlier in the night.

  Blood now oozed from her trachea site. Her hands outstretched she gripped Megan’s right wrist, laughing at Megan’s screams.

  “Megan! Megan, wake up.”

  Megan bolted upright, her eyes taking a moment to centre where she was.

  “You fell asleep. I was going to leave you but then you started jerking and screaming in your sleep.”

  “What?” Megan asked, wiping the cold sweat off her forehead with a tissue.

  “You had a nightmare.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Megan replied, half-listening. Her eyes darting towards Jane’s room, watching her chest move up and down as the ventilator breathed for her.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Megan placed the tissue in the bin next to her, took a long hard drink of water, and wiped her mouth.

  “Like you said it was just a nightmare,” she said, trying to believe she was convincing Julia, and not herself.

  It had been three days since her horrible nightmare and things were good. No more visions of Jane Doe or any teeth.

  “Babe?”

  “Huh?”

  Thomas moved onto his right side, now he and Megan faced each other. His green eyes looking at her. They had just made love for the first time in three weeks, their shift work making it hard for them to see each other.

&
nbsp; “I asked you what you wanted to eat.”

  “Chocolate bagel with cream cheese,” Megan replied, licking her lips.

  “Your wish is my command,” Thomas said, kissing her on the lips before putting his clothes back on.

  “And coffee.”

  A vibration noise brought their attention to his phone.

  “I better get that. Its work,” Thomas said, reaching for the phone.

  Megan rolled her eyes before getting herself out of bed and walking to the bathroom. She hadn’t slept well after her last shift but with Thomas at her apartment, she had slept like a baby. Her bags underneath her blue eyes were gone, her olive skin now smooth and healthier. Megan scooped her long brown hair into a messy ponytail pulling on a white tee, blue jeans, and black boots. She knew this work call would take a while, and Megan didn’t like to wait for food when she was hungry.

  The streets were busy with business workers who had clocked off for the day. Some rushing off to their families, while some to the pubs and social gatherings. Megan smiled entering Chewie’s coffee shop, holding the door open for patrons before entering herself. She had gotten to know all the employees, making her aware that she came here way too much. She liked to think of it like helping the local community and her taste buds. Megan stood in line waiting behind a tall man who was ordering a small short black with two sugars. Amanda’s voice ringing through the air.

  “Thank you, have a wonderful day.”

  A moment later the tall man stepped to the left, Megan plastered a huge smile on her face to greet Amanda who she had become quite good acquaintances within the past year. Freeing her view, Megan clenched her jaw so not to scream, her feet cemented to the floor. Right in front of her was Jane Doe. Standing in a hospital gown again, smiling her toothless smile. She looked exactly like she had in her nightmare.

  “Come play with me…” she said, in the inhumane voice Megan had heard at the hospital.

  Megan’s blood drained from her face, her hands becoming unsteady, when she felt a nudge on her shoulder. She turned around.

  “What do you want with me,” she shouted.

  “I…I was saying it was your turn to order Miss,” stated a middle-aged man, who stepped backed from Megan.

  Megan blinked, shifting her eyes around the coffee shop. Its patrons now staring at her before returning their gaze elsewhere, pretending not to look.

  “Megan?” She heard Amanda ask.

  Megan turned still hesitant at what she would see when she let out a sigh of relief to find Amanda staring at her with concern in her eyes. Turning and stepping forward after apologizing to the man behind her, she ordered her coffee and chocolate chip bagels. Her hands still slightly trembling when she handed Amanda a twenty-dollar bill.

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah I’m fine. Thanks,” she said, taking her bagel and coffee from her.

  Megan returned to her apartment to find Thomas gone, a note detailing there had been an emergency at work. Just what Megan needed to hear. Having lost her appetite, she chucked the bagels onto the kitchen counter, sipping on the coffee. She had no intent of sleeping before her shift, taking the fresh pot of coffee she made, sitting it onto the table next her.

  Megan stared at Jane Doe, her eyelids drooping over her eyes. Her body now aching for sleep that she had deprived it off. Coffee her greatest friend. She hadn’t been able to get that voice out of her head, even now, she swore she could hear it. Her fingers starting to tremble inches away from touching Jane, from fear and from the effects of caffeine that ran in her system.

  “Is she due to go on her back?” Julia asked.

  “Yes,” Megan bluntly responded, staring at Jane’s face.

  “You sure you don’t want to have a sleep. I’ll wake you up if I need you.”

  “No sleep.”

  “Have break at least.”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “Okay. Do you mind if I nip to the vending machine and get some chocolate? I’m dying for some.”

  Megan forced her gaze upon Julia, her breath drawing in at the sight she saw. Julia’s jaw looked like it had been wrenched open, easily fitting Megan’s whole pen between her lips. But her lips had been cut off, the wound cauterized. Her teeth had been removed, her mouth wedged so wide the corner of her lips touched her ears. Her jaw broken so to extend and widen the creepy smile she now bore. Blood pooling in her mouth and down her chin. Her eyes sewn wide open, full of desperation and pain. Her hands outstretched cupping her teeth.

  “Megs the sliding sheet.”

  Megan looked at her friend’s hands now seeing a large red silk sheet gripped in them.

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  Megan looked up staring into her friend’s concerned eyes, and why shouldn’t she be? Megan thought. She’s working with a total nut job.

  “Nothing, just boy troubles,” she lied.

  “Not seeing him much?”

  “Not really,” she said, sliding the sheet under Jane’s hospital gown trying to ignore the unsettling feeling that had just washed over her, sticking like a second skin.

  “He’s nearly a fully qualified consultant. Then he will have his own team to boss around,” Julia laughed, Megan forcing a fake laugh.

  “Done,” Julia said, placing the sliding sheet back into the draw.

  Megan relieved to be out of the room slumped back into a chair before realising Julia wasn’t behind her, she was at the entrance to the ward. Her favourite black pouch in her hand eagerly waiting for the escalator.

  “Wait I’ll come with you,” Megan stated.

  “Don’t be silly Megs, you know you can’t leave the ward unoccupied. I’ll get you a chocolate bar, I promise. Now don’t let the patients bite,” she responded, disappearing into the escalator.

  Megan turned swirling on her chair, her breathing labored looking at the patients. Her eyes stopping on Jane. Every inch of her body screamed at her too stay out of the room. Her sheets, Megan thought, they had moved. Something was wrong. Jane’s sole of her left foot visible. It was dirty, like Jane had been walking. Megan ignoring the return of Julia who had gone to check on her patients before sitting down. Megan inched off the seat towards Jane’s room when a scream pierced the air forcing Megan to run towards the source, Betty’s room. Julia stood with her hands over her mouth to stop her from screaming. Her eyes wide with horror, her shaking hands reaching for the emergency button on the wall. The room belonged to Betty Davis who had been driving drunk in a car that crashed leaving her paralyzed and in a coma five years ago. Megan ceased in her tracks placing her right hand over her mouth, not to stop the screams that would escape but the bile that now burned her throat. Running towards the sink outside the room, she vomited it up. No, no, no she told herself. It can’t be real. She knew it was. Betty’s eyes had been sewn open, her lips removed and her mouth wedged so wide the corner of her lips touched her ears. Her jaw broken so to extend and widen the eerie smile she now bore. Blood pooling in her mouth and down her chin. Blood pooling in her mouth. Her teeth scattered on the bed. Smile written above her bed in blood. The sound of squeaky wheels and the rush of multiple bodies rushed past her and into Betty’s room. Gasps and shouts of foul language could be heard. It was too late Betty was dead from aspirating on her own blood in seconds. Megan wiped her mouth and looked at Julia who was talking to the medical emergency team leader and security. All turned their head and looked at her.

  Megan sat on the toilet seat in one of the women bathrooms on the second floor. Her left knee shaking when the phone buzzed in her hand. It was Thomas. She had rung him leaving a message regarding what had happened.

  “Thomas? Baby I really need you to come to the hospital. Something terrible has happened.”

  “Thomas can’t come to the phone right now.”

  Megan’s breathing become shallow and labored. “Please no.”

  A women’s laughter sounded before the phone started heating inte
nsely in her hand forcing Megan to drop it onto the ground. Picking it up to find it had completely ran out of charge she placed it in her pocket, moments after feeling it cool down.

  Megan took out her mace spray Thomas had given her for her late finishes for safety. Holding it firmly in her hand, she cracked open, the bathroom door enough to see one of the hospital guards stationed near. After replacements had been called in Megan and Julia were to be kept and questioned by the police. Megan opened the door, the male security guard giving her a gentle smile. He looked to be in his mid-fifties, she had said hello to him in the past. He was always warm and kind to her. She counted to three walking a few steps before grabbing onto the wall and fainting to the floor. Megan heard the security guard rush over to her, kneeling beside her and taking her shoulders to gently squeeze them for any response. She needed to be quick. Positioning her finger over the button Megan opened her eyes wide and very swiftly and quickly sprayed him in his eyes. He covered his eyes with his hands yelling out in pain. Darting upwards and apologizing when she ran past him, taking his radio. She raced down the stairs throwing the radio down the steep stairwell listening to it crash onto the hard-concrete floor. She knew she only had minutes until the alarm would be sounded for her retrieval but she didn’t care. Haltering at the bottom of the stairs she took a couple of deep breaths before opening the door and blending into the men and women now making their daily commute to work. Reaching the end of the street, she broke into a run.

  Megan’s body screamed at her to stop, she hadn’t run so fast since her junior year in college. Her mind flashing to the horrible image of Betty’s face. Racing up the stairs, she found the door to her apartment opened a small crack. She pushed opened the door, her shoes squeaked with every step she took as the deep puddles from the night’s rain had soaked them.

  “Thomas?” She called, half expecting to hear a woman laughing.

  Megan set of in a run rounding the corner. Warm tears running down her cheeks when she saw Thomas. His back towards her he was sitting up reading the paper. She would always tease him that he was such a dinosaur. She had urged him multiple times go get a subscription online but he flat out refused.