Haunted Hospital Halls (End)

--- Maya ---

(Fuck, fuck, fuck, what am I doing?!)

Grimacing, she kicked the electrotherapy device away from her while also undoing the straps on her Hand Cannons and tossing them out of sight but still close enough that she could rush them in a pinch.

“Okay, look, the, uh, the electrical stuff is gone.” She told the cowering ghost girl, trying to keep her voice calm while ignoring the little voice telling her that this was a bad idea. (If that really is one of you guys I could use a hand here…)

For once her head was silent, neither her voice of madness nor her voice of reason responding. (Fuck I’m on my own…)

“I’m uh, I’m sorry about…” She winced, cutting herself off as the ghost girl flinched away from her. (Okay, don’t bring up the electrocuting her thing. Easy.)

Forcing herself to keep calm, she slowly sat a few feet away from the ghost girl while trying to figure out how exactly she was supposed to talk to a trauma victim. (A skill I really fucking need to work on…)

Running her hand down her face, or at least trying to, she felt her mask. Something that probably didn’t help her with the whole ‘I’m not going to hurt you’ vibe she was going for. Which is why she undid the straps to it so that the ghost girl could see her face.

“Um, uh, my name ‘s Maya.” She introduced with a weak smile as she tried to come up with something (anything) to say. “I’m uh, I’m staying in the hospital upstairs with my, um, my kids.” She continued, figuring that that was the only ‘safe’ way to describe her minions.

The ghost girl looked at her, still clearly scared, but at the very least no longer mumbling about being a ‘good girl’.

“I’ve uh, I’ve got four of them.” She admitted hesitantly. “There’s uh, there’s my oldest DM-1 -I know I’m not the best with names- He’s a bit arrogant since he’s the oldest, and he has a tendency to pick fights with others, but at the same time he’s super protective of his younger siblings. Doing everything he can to keep them safe and make sure they know what they need to know to survive.”

“Then there were my twins LCM-1A and 1B. 1A is my little genius, smartest of all my kids even if he’s a little bossy to his siblings at times.” She smiled. “And while 1B might not be my smartest, he’s always there to support his brother and me when we need help. Heck, I think both of them want to follow in my footsteps if the way they’re always tinkering with my things is any sign.”

“DM-2 is my baby girl,” She laughed. “She’s a bit shy, or very shy I guess. But she’s the sweetest of my kids happy to help when she can, and she’s got three older brothers who love her and want to keep her happy and safe. I can’t wait to see how she’ll react to being a big sister.”

“You… you want more kids?” The ghost girl asked quietly, causing her to blink as she considered the question.

“Yeah, I-I think so.” She nodded with a soft smile. “I mean if you asked me a while back I would’ve told you no, since I grew up in a big family myself, and I was never sure if I’d have kids myself for a bunch of reasons. Not the least of which are my own… issues…”

“Issues?”

“Yeah, I… I’ve got these… problems with my head…” She confessed just as quietly as the ghost. “I hear voices in my head, have trouble focusing on just one thing at a time, and, and sometimes I just, I just feel so much at once that I… I don’t know, it’s like I take everything and push it as far as it’ll go, only for everything to break around me.”

She wiped at her eyes, unable to stop. “I-I mean, it wasn’t as bad after they figured out my meds… even if I don’t take them as much as I should, since they make me feel like someone else half of the time and… Honestly, thinking about it, I can’t help but wonder if I was born just a decade or two earlier… would, would they’ve thrown me in a place like this too?”

Silence was her only answer to a question that she’d asked herself several times over the years spent going to doctors, sorting out her meds, and causing trouble for everyone around her. A question repeated every time she had a manic episode, lost control of her emotions, or turned rabid on some classmate that had pushed her too far.

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“I have a kid too…” A quiet voice whispered.

“Hm?” She blinked, being drawn out of her thoughts. “You… have a kid?”

“Uh-huh.” The ghost girl who couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than her nodded. “Because… because I have… problems, they took her away from me. They said, they said if I was a good girl, that I could see her again!”

She swallowed hearing that, unsure of what she could say to that without making it worse.

“And, and I have been a good girl!” The ghost assured her. “I’m, I’m in my room by nightfall and, and even though the nurses haven’t brought us food, I haven’t left the mental ward at all!”

“You haven’t?” She asked, once more wondering how the deadman in front of her was maintaining herself despite having nothing to eat.

“No, I haven’t!” The ghost nodded a madness clear in her toxic green eyes. “It would hurt and I’d get so hungry that I couldn’t think, but, but then I’d remember my little girl and I’d, I’d be a good girl and the hunger wouldn’t be so bad. And, and it doesn’t matter if I’m hungry, because I can still see my little girl once the doctors see I’m being a good girl!”

“That’s…” She licked her lips, as her throat became as dry as the desert. “That’s good… that you’re a, uh, good girl…”

“Uh-huh!” The ghost smiled before looking away nervously. “And, and I’m sorry I was bad…” Glowing green eyes jumped to her. “Please don’t tell the doctors! I’ll do whatever you want, just please don’t tell the doctors I was a bad girl!”

“I… w-what do you mean?” She asked, her voice shaky.

“Good girls do what they’re told and bad girls get zapped. Good girls do what they’re told and bad girls get zapped.” The ghost girl told her, beginning to spiral once more.

“It was my fault!” She shouted, desperate to keep the Deadwoman in front of her from losing it again. “You weren’t a bad girl, but I… I made a mistake and thought you were.”

“N-not a bad girl?” The ghost repeated not really understanding.

“That’s right you were a good girl.” She told the other girl softly. “You don’t deserve to get zapped, not again.”

“Th-that’s good.” The ghost nodded, seemingly in shock before her eyes once more jumped to Maya’s. “Does that mean I get to see my little meadow flower?”

“I’ll, I’ll talk to the doctors.” She lied, unable to suggest otherwise.

“R-really?!” The young mother smiled.

“I-I will, but it, it might take a while.” She warned the ghost.

“Oh…” The other girl said despondently, all energy draining out of her. “That’s what all the nurses say…”

Seeing the girl’s glowing eyes dim to a dull glazed shade, she shivered feeling like she was looking into the eyes of something that was dead in all meanings of the word.

“W-well, I’m not a nurse!” She told the Deadwoman. “I’m a hero!”

“A hero?” The ghost repeated not all there.

“That’s right!” She nodded, forcing a smile onto her face. “And a hero’s job is to help whoever they can. And it sounds like you need help!”

The Deadwoman didn’t respond to her, causing her already tense smile to become even more brittle.

“Your name!” She realized. “If I’m going to talk to the doctors I uh, I need to know your name!”

The ghost blinked a little too slowly before muttering, “Elizabeth…”

“Alright, Elizabeth, I’m Maya.” She introduced herself, before grimacing as she remembered she’d already done that. “And Elizabeth I’m going to help you find your daughter.”

Elizabeth blinked again, this time a little faster than before. “Find my daughter?”

“I promise.” She nodded with another smile. “I just, I just need you to be patient okay?”

“Okay…” Elizabeth agreed, though from the tone of her voice Maya wasn’t actually sure how cognizant the ghost was at the moment.

Feeling something cold and bitter inside of her chest, she swallowed down her building dread before promising that, “I’ll be back in a few days alright?”

This time the Deadwoman didn’t respond to her at all.

Nodding once more she forced herself to her feet and made her way out of the mental ward.

And the moment she was far enough away that she didn’t think the young mother would see her, she collapsed against the wall with a choked sob.

“Oh god, I am so in over my head here…”

She’d known she could handle fighting the ghost or sneaking through the hospital, and she’d thought she could handle talking with the ghost when the option became apparent, but (I was not ready for this shit!)

It wasn’t until she was actually dealing with Elizabeth that she’d realized that the poor dead girl was… (dead.) And that that had meant (she died…)

And she definitely hadn’t been prepared for the, the (fucking tradgedy) that she saw while talking with the other girl. What’s more once the girl had begun spiraling into another panic attack she’d made the (stupid) mistake of making a promise that she had no real way to deliver on.

“Fu-u-uck! What the fuck am I supposed to do now?”