Chapter 11

“Sorry for not telling you about this earlier. You really don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Zach mumbled to Blue as they waited for the bus. He only had a few hours until he needed meet up with Andrew for their exorcism. Just enough time to do something what was well overdue. “I wouldn’t have held it against you if you spent the day doing something else.”

“Well if exorcists are as common as Ryan made them sound, better safe than sorry,” Blue admitted before floating up and looking around. “Oh hey, looks like the bus is coming this way.”

She floated back down as Zach watched the bus turn the corner and come to a stop in front of him. He got on and Blue floated down on top of it.

Last time she’d hitched a ride on vehicle, she’d unlocked a memory. Maybe she’d get lucky and it would happen a second time?

Half an hour, the bus was coming to a stop and Zach was getting off. He glanced over at Blue who was floating down to his level. He’d already known about her plan, so when she sadly shook her head, he didn’t have to wonder what it meant.

Instead, he turned towards his destination, South Palm Memorial Pediatric Center. Blue stopped in place in front of the hospital and for a split second, Zach wondered if she’d unlocked a memory after all.

He was proven wrong a second later when Blue suddenly frowned and started floating towards the front door. Zach quickly followed behind her, wondering what this was all about.

“Good morning, may I ask the reason for your visit?” The receptionist asked as Zach walked up to her. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Blue floating around near the elevator. Her ghostly tale’s wagging and the pout on her face made her impatience clear to the one person in the room who could see her.

“I’m here visiting a friend. Her name’s Tyler Jones in room 5-14.”

“Just one second,” the receptionist typed a few things in her computer before turning back to Zach. “Okay it looks like she’s available for visitors today, can you please stand right there and tell us your full name?”

Zach went through the whole process and by the time he was getting into the elevator with a sticker of his name and face on it, Blue looked completely done with everything around her.

“Are you okay?” he asked once the doors close and they had an ounce of privacy. Like they had discussed before they left, a hospital was probably one of the worst places to be caught talking to something no one else could see.

“No,” for a second, Zach was worried her answer would end there, “I can’t explain it, but there’s something about this place that gives me the creeps, and I can’t figure out what it is.”

“Do you want to leave?” Blue swiftly shook her head.

“No way, staying here feels like a bad idea, but letting you stay here by yourself feels like an even worse idea.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Any further conversation was cut off as the elevator doors opened and two nurses got in. Blue floated up to the corner of the elevator to not accidentally go through either of them. She had no idea what would happen if she did, and this was not the place to find out.

Eventually, they reached the fifth floor and everyone got out. Zach made his way through the hallways, still remembering the path to Sammy’s room from the last time he was here. He said hi to the few nurses he recognized and was quickly let in to see his friend.

Blue floated after him and froze in place as she saw Tyler for the first time. The dark-skinned girl was laying down on a bed near the window, starring out into the city below. From this angle Blue could clearly see the empty sleeve where her left arm should have been.

“Hey there Tyler, how you doing?”

The girl quickly turned around and beamed when she saw who was at the door.

“Zach, you’re finally back in town!” Blue watched as Zach entered the room before looking back into the hallway.

“Yeah, just made it back yesterday. I would have come see you but some stuff came up,” he explained as blue felt slightly guilty for being the ‘stuff’ in question. “So how are you holding up in here? Last time we talked on the phone, you said you were bored out of your mind.”

“Man, I am losing it. There’s nothing to do but sit around and watch TV in-between my physical therapy.” She pouted before moving her left arm over her chest. Both Zach and Blue saw the way her hospital gown moved near her left shoulder, but neither brought it up.

“So you’re never going to believe what I found while I was out in Green Brook,” Zach started to say as Blue narrowed her eyes at him. The girl hadn’t reacted to her presence yet, so she doubted she could see her.

“You said something about having a ghost story for me when you came back right?” Tyler asked as Zach gave a quick nod.

“That’s right, and like all good stories, it is a tale of love, betrayal, and murder most foul,” he dramatically gestured each part as Tyler’s eyes widened.

“Come on, start the story,” she demanded as Blue started floating back. Zach saw her give him a quick nod before falling through the wall. It was starting to get a little awkward just floating around while Zach had to pretend she wasn’t there. She could keep an eye out for whatever was giving her the creeps while staying close to Zach.

But if what she floated away from was awkward, then what she floated into was even more so. On the other side of the wall in Tyler’s room was a small office. Two doctors were sitting at a table looking at cups of coffee.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I just don’t get it,” one of them grumbled before taking a sip, “they were fine just a week ago, why are they relapsing?”

“Relapses happen, it’s a fact of life,” the other one answered even as they themselves sounded unsure, “but…”

“Why so many of them, and why all of them at the same time?” The doctor reached a chart on the table. “It’s even going down a line. It started in room nine and going down the hall,”

“Who’s next then?” The other one asked.

“You know we can’t start thinking like that. There has to be some sort of rational explanation,” the first doctor demanded only for the other one to just stare at him. After a few seconds, the other doctor looked down at the chart in defeat. “The Jones girl in room fourteen. If the pattern holds, and it has no reason to, she’d be next.”

Phantom case: The hospital harvester

Case started

“Well, that’s not good,” Blue said to herself as she floated over and made a mental note of all the kids on the chart. Once she was sure she had it down, she passed through the wall to the first one.

Meanwhile, Zach was telling Tyler about his time in Green Brook. Specifically a certain night that had changed his life.

“And then just as Dad finishes telling the story… Thomas Pickerpepper jumped out of the bushes and came running right for us!”

“No way. You have to be lying,” She clicked her tongue at him. “And what kind of name is Pickerpepper anyway?”

“The kind a family that picks peppers would have,” Zach quickly pointed out before continuing the story. “But I’m telling the truth, Thomas Pickerpepper came running for us, or at least I thought it did.”

“Okay so did it or didn’t it?” Zach could see Thomas was now clearly confused.

“Listen all I knew at the time was that a pale man with an arrow in his chest came running out of the woods at us. So I did what anyone else would do in my place. I tripped him and booked it out of there!”

“You attacked the ghost?”

“I attacked what I thought was a ghost,” Zach chuckled, “it actually turned out to be my cousin in a costume.”

“And you tripped him? How much trouble did you get into?”

“None, my parents were too busy laughing to say anything about that…” he trailed off as he felt an unwelcome sensation on the back of his neck.

“Zach, you okay?” Tyler asked as Zach rubbed the back of his neck and found the hairs standing up on edge.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” he laughed, trying to hide his nervousness. Why was his ghost sense going off now? Blue wasn’t here, and she didn’t even set if off anymore? “So as I was saying, it was actually my cousin…”

Their conversation continued as Blue floated through a wall a few doors down. She frowned as she found herself watching another awkward situation. On the bed was a little boy, maybe seven years old. He was laying down on the bed, unconscious, with a tube in his arms. Sitting next to his bed was an older woman who looked just like him, probably his mother. She seemed to be praying for him even as the boy was putting his hand on her shoulder. The room was almost completely silent except for the regular beeping of the machines and the boy’s pleads to his mother.

How was he doing that despite laying down in bed? Well it was simple, his ghost was floating over his body and resting his arm on his mother’s shoulder.

“Mommy, why won’t you talk to me?”

Oh, and it sounded like he hadn’t figured out he was dead yet. Or was he? On a closer look, Blue could see that his ghostly tail was still attached to his body.

“Huh,” She accidentally said aloud, causing the boy to turn around in surprise.

“Who there… who are… what?” He sounded confused as Blue awkwardly waved at him. “Are you a ghost?”

“…Yes,” Blue said as she kept her distance.

“But if I can see you than am I…” he started looking down only for Blue to start waving her arms around in an attempt to keep his attention.

“No, you’re not, I think…” she said before the boy had a chance to look down. She grabbed the end of her tail and held it up. “See my tail just floats behind me. Yours is still connected to your body, so I think you’re still alive.” By the time she was finished the boy was looking down at his tail and staring at the point where it connected to his body. He looked somewhat calm so Blue slowly floated towards him until her hands were resting on his shoulders.

“I’m still alive?” he whispered as Blue gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“Pretty sure yeah, so just… hang in there?” She gently told him as she wondered about the possibilities. Was this the cause, was something turning all the kids on this floor into ghosts somehow?

“But what about the clown man?”

“The what man?” All of the gentleness in Blue’s voice evaporated as the kid explained.

“Yeah, the clown man, he comes every night and keeps trying to pull me out of bed. I try to tell the doctors, but they don’t believe me when I tell them.”

“…What?”

A few doors down, Zach was finishing up his story of leaving the cabin… with a couple of parts taken out. “And that’s when I noticed what time it was and booked it out of there before my parents grounded for the whole summer.”

“Don’t lie, you got scared. I’ll bet you my bottom dollar that’s what happened,” She kept talking even as Zach stopped listening to her. There was a spectral head rising up from the floor. And it wasn’t Blue.

He stayed silent and did his best to keep his expression neutral even as the figure finished floating through the floor and came to a stop next to Tyler’s bed. His every movement was punctuated by the sounds of soft bells that Zach could always hear no matter how much Tyler spoke.

The figure was a tall man in a ‘white’ body suit with ‘black’ gloves and slippers. Around his neck was a ‘black’ collar with bells on it. His skin was chalky white, like it had been painted so. He wore a ‘black’ jester’s hat with more little bells on the ends. Zach had to guess what all the colors were, since the clown’s obviously ghostly nature meant they were all shades of blue. But even if the man wasn’t blue, Zach would still be able to tell he was a ghost from his face.

In place of eyes, the man had two empty pits of pure darkness.

He watched him carefully even as he tried to pay attention to Tyler’s own story about her physical therapy. But the constant need to split his attention cost him. He only noticed the ghost reaching for something behind his back once it was too late.

Blue metal flashed as the ghost produced a hook and stabbed it into Tyler’s shoulder. His eyes widened as she groaned in pain as the ghost started tugging at her.

“Sorry about that,” she gave him a pained look. “Ever since yesterday, I’ve been feeling these weird pains in my chest. The doctors have no idea what it is.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Zach’s hands shook as the ghost gave one final tug. For just a split second, Zach could see a smidge of blue start to come out of Tyler’s body before rushing back in. Tyler leaned back in the bed as the ghost took the hook out.

“Sorry, just felt… really dizzy all of a sudden.” Zach clenched his fist tightly as the ghost slowly inspected the hook.

“It’s fine. You’re the one who needs to take their time and recover right…” he was cut off as the ghost suddenly spoke.

“Not yet, she’s still too strong,” and with that, he sunk back down through the floor and out of sight. A second later, Blue floated back through the wall she came in. She looked freaked out and ready to bolt it out of there as quickly as possible.

“Hey, if you need to rest, just say the word and I’ll get out of your hair,” Zach said as Tyler leaned back on the bed and took deep breaths.

“I’m fine…” she let out a deep yawn. “Okay maybe I’m not fine. I think I’ll take you up on that offer, I’m just… super tired for some reason.”

Zach and Tyler said their goodbyes as Blue protectively coiled her tail around Zach’s shoulder. Tyler fell asleep before they were done, and Zach quickly made his exit from the room.

When they pair entered the elevator, they gave each other quick looks said much without either of them saying a word. They both had something they needed to talk about, and it was probably about the same thing. By the time they were out of the elevator, they knew they needed to contact Andrew as soon as possible. They were going to need an exorcist.