Chapter 7 – The Nurse
It must be said also that some of these things were lying down as well as wobbling towards them. The ones that were indeed lying, however, moved at an increased pace than the standing ones, scurrying towards Danny and Danielle like little rats after fresh garbage. The sounds they made were not so different but rather sounded something as that of a rodent squeak mixed with scraping metal.
"Ready for this?" Danny asked.
"Hell, yeah," Dani said, sounding only a tad unsure, "Lets rock." And with that, they both jumped into the air, over a cluster of these weird walking bodies. Some of the ones nearest to them leaned their fleshy bodies upward and, from their chest, fired a fluid that looked like hot, steaming bile. It was so distilled that some of it seemed to come out in mist, as that of spray from a can. Fortunately, the Phantoms had floated high enough to evade the blast and landed a little beyond the clusters of these things, only to see a few more in the path of their destination. Upon landing, they immediately charged up a few short blasts that knocked over the creatures, allowing both of them to break into a run and conserve ghost energy.
Yet, as these two ran, the fallen creatures let out a grating screech and began wiggling after them. Fortunately, the Phantoms were faster, and it was no time at all before they set foot on Nathan Avenue.
Danny and Dani both swung themselves around to the left, facing more thick fog. Since the monsters behind them seemed to have given up on them, or at least were struggling to catch up, they began to slow their pace. As they ran, they thought they heard a harsh grating sound, as that of two car parts continually scraping together and amplified by some gargantuan distorting speaker. There was also the occasional noise of what sounded like factory machines, which would drone on for a few seconds and then abruptly stop.
"I feel like I'm in that movie Eraserhead," Danielle said as they continued down the road. For a few minutes, the only sounds they both heard were the blowing of wind and the clamping of their feet against the ground. Eventually, they found themselves near what looked like a gas station. There was a car with a pipe sticking out of the engine and two pumps next to it. To catch their breath, they stopped here for a moment, Danielle leaning against the pump.
"Are you okay?" Danny asked.
"Yeah," Dani said, gasping, "I'll be fine." She looked across the street to see what looked like a humanoid figure leaning over another and twitching about like it was fiercely gnawing on it as a cat would a mouse. The twitching figure seemed to look up at Danielle, fell over onto its back, and scurried away into the fog.
"Danny," Danielle said with a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"What is it?" Danny asked back.
"I'm just a little creeped out here," she said honestly.
"I know," Danny said, "So am I. But we've got to keep moving." With that they broke back into a run, making a sharp left turn towards the hospital.
All of the sudden, they heard this hideous screeching noise which sounded like someone continually scraping a knife along a rusty surface. It grated upon both of their ear drums, but they knew they had to keep moving. They eventually saw what was making it through the fog as it got louder, this thing that was floating in the air and looked like two grimy mannequin torsos put together with spinning blades on their heads and sides.
"How could a thing like that make such a screech?" Dani asked herself.
The thing began to fly at them, buzzing just passed Danielle's head and nearly hitting Danny's. Both fired blasts from their hands at the thing, causing it to let out a screech, but that still did not stop it from its noise or flight. Instead it flew right back at them, this time barely hitting Danny and scratching Danielle's arm, causing her to bleed a bit of green ectoplasm.
"Ugh," Danielle said, in pain.
"You okay?" Danny asked, catching up to her.
"Yeah," Danielle said in a hurry, "Let's keep moving." With that, they kept running. Danny looked over his shoulder and fired a few more blasts from his hand, eventually knocking the thing out of the air. Still, as they ran, more of the flying horrors joined and began chasing them down the street.
Up ahead, finally, they were able to see the curve of the wall next to the sidewalk that made its way around to the front door of the hospital. They both made a sharp right turn to get through the alcove to said double doors. Before they ran in, they saw something, written in read on the wall.
It said, "All of our bad parts live here; take heed that you don't upset them," with an arrow pointing to the door. They ran in, despite this notice; it was better than being minced by those pendulum dummy things. Upon entering, they powered down to save energy. Danielle felt a little sick to her stomach but tried to keep herself composed.
What greeted them was darkness, darkness all around. They waited for a minute to both catch their breath and to let their eyes adjust. Unfortunately they had no such luck with the latter case.
"Can you see anything?" Danny asked.
"No," Danielle said, "But I think there's something in here with us." Danny then let out a breath that he could just barely see through the almost nonexistent light. He held up his hand and generated a green ball of light.
Out of the dark, around the corner, a figure approached. It was that of a blonde woman, a nurse, with a white dress and a small red coat.
"Oh," the lady said, "Thank God you're here."
"Who," Danny asked, hesitantly and with stutters, "Who are you?"
"My name is Lisa," the nurse said in a calm voice fitting for a caregiver, "You're two of the Fentons, right?"
"Yes," Danny said, "You've heard about us from the media."
"No," she said, "I don't get word of very much anymore."
"But that freak you work for mentioned us?" Danielled interjected.
"Yes," Lisa said surprised, "but I really don't want to talk about him. How did you know?"
"Let's just say I have my gifts," Danielle responded, wanting to tack on the last phrase, "or curses."
"Anyways," Lisa said, "I wanted to run into you two to give you this." She handed Danny the map of the hospital. "It's the least I can do to help you find your kids and make my little stabs at Vateil's reign over me. Now, hurry. You're kids are in danger." With that, she ran to the reception office door right in front of them, ran through it, and slammed it behind her.
"Wait," Danny said, walking after her, "Where are they?" He opened the door to find the reception office room was empty, save for a desk with loads of paper work and two filthy filing cabinets. Danny looked at the floor where Lisa had tread and found that the path was lined with drops of coagulated blood.
"You do realize she was a ghost, right?" Danielle asked.
"Yes," Danny said, "but not like a ghost from the ghost zone. She seemed more human."
"She's not from the ghost zone," Danielle said, looking down at the ground, "She's trapped in her own private Hell." She looked up and changed the subject. "Does the map have any markings?" Danny was still holding his hand up but then rejoiced that he would have to no longer when he found a pocket flashlight on the desk. He picked it up, turned its fortunately working light on, and examined the map.
…………………………………….
It was a typical evening in the Ghost Zone Asylum. Miss Box Lunch was getting irritated by the amount of people coming in to see loved ones. All she wanted to do was go into the real world to visit her human gamer boyfriend, Iggins, and take turns playing Vampire Piggy Hunter 14. Instead, she was working overtime. Hey, it was more money, right? That is what she had to tell herself just to make it through the night.
Her evening changed when she saw Dr. Spectra walk through the door; she had not expected to see her here at such an hour. She approached the counter, her red dress moving with her body perfectly.
"Hey, Box Lunch," Spectra said, "I'm here to see Mrs. McLain."
"Beware!" Box Lunch shouted. She paused a moment and got a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry; it just kind of came out. Habit, you know."
"It's okay," Spectra said.
"Yeah," Box Lunch said, "I'll just buzz you in. Oh, how is your husband doing, the Ghost Writer? Is he still writing?"
"Yeah," Spectra said with a smile, "He's got a new Christmas story coming up."
"Good to hear," Box Lunch said, returning it, "Well good luck with her. She's been a bit cranky today." She pressed the button, buzzing the door to let Spectra in, who proceeded down the hallway, reviewing the paperwork from the envelope she had been carrying under her arms.
After she got married, Spectra went back to school and got her doctorate in psychology. She decided it was a futile effort to continue work in the Earth world and tried a more legit route in the Ghost Zone.
She met her husband shortly after the meteor incident, and the two hit it off quite well. One manipulated through gazes while the other through the power of the written word. Their love grew quickly, and, in two years, they were married.
Hey, at least she had some male figure around, since Bertrand disappeared.
Spectra saw Skulker standing at the door of Ember, watching his wife rest on the bed in her straight jacket, the medicine having calmed her down a little bit. With how large and frightening he was, no one dared tell him visiting hours were over. He turned and saw Spectra coming his way.
"How much longer?" he asked rhetorically in a sullen voice. "My nights without her are becoming unbearable."
"Don't worry," Spectra said, "We'll get her to come around." She then opened the door. This prompted Ember to sit up. Ember looked at Spectra, a wide-eyed, haunted stare with drool unnoticeably coming out of her mouth. "Ember, honey, you remember me, right? Your friend, Spectra. They said you'd only talk to me."
"I knew," Ember said in a mumble, the medication slowly dissipating, "you'd believe me, or at least that you'd listen."
"Of course," Spectra said with a short, nervous laugh, both out of pity and shock that her friend would be like this, "That's what friends are for, right?"
"Yeah," Ember spoke slowly, but her speech was becoming less slurred, "I keep having these dreams. But, eventually, they weren't dreams. I started seeing him in the daylight hours. Across the cliffs, through each door, through the green highways, still turning that wheel of his. He made that woman cry. She may have deserved it, but it's so sad. Then he showed up, the one with the iron triangle for a head. I saw him once outside, when I tried to kill that Walker guy. He was one of them. I could swear it." Her voice slowly got louder. "He was with the pyramid headed thing. I knew it." She twitched a bit, lowering back down into almost a wisper. "But something's coming. Something big that could affect both the Earth realm and the Ghost Zone. Literally bring Hell on Earth. Don't you hear me?" She got louder and stood up, walking towards Spectra, who already looked very disturbed. "Don't you understand? THE CRIMSON GOD IS COMING! SAMAEL WILL BE RESURRECTED! THE ROOM WILL AWAKEN!"
No sooner had the rambling started when the orderlies rushed into the room, turned Ember over, and shot her in the leg with a tranquilizer. Spectra walked out of the room. Skulker was slouched over, sitting on the floor with is back to the wall.
"She didn't ever act like this before," he said. He still had a strong, unshaken tone despite his sorrow.
"I know," Spectra said, looking away, "It pains me to see her like this. I knew she had picked up the psychic or clairvoyant powers all those girls and women were getting over a decade ago. See, it didn't just start at 2010. A human girl named Gaz Membrane got them a little before that. But then it spread to everyone else; Ember was one of the lucky ones to get it I guess. But now, she, along with many other women, has ended up here." She paused. "I really do respect you, Skulker, and I wanted to be honest with you about this without hiding anything. Your wife is not the only one who's displaying these symptoms and visions."
"Knowing this doesn't help anything," Skulker grumbled. He stood up, a slight snarl on his mouth. "I'm going home. I'll visit her again tomorrow." He turned to go.
"Of course," Spectra said, stepping after him, "And I know your mind is wrapped around this, but try to do something to distract yourself for a little while. You need to stay sane yourself. I'm headed home myself; I need to see my husband after this."
"Sure," Skulker said, "Give him my regards, will you?" He then proceeded down the hall, cold and alone, his love locked away from him in a padded cell.
