Chapter 7
Disclaimer: Refer to previous.
From that day forward, Sadie spent most of her time in the ER wandering, pacing back and forth behind the glass paneling that looked like it was laced with chicken wire. She knew Frankie and she knew Ruby, and as horrifying a thought as it was, she expected to see her only friend in the world wheeled in on a gurney any minute.
More than once Otto had done a double take while looking at his security monitors late at night. He could have sworn he saw someone, but the screens never showed any evidence that anyone had been there. "Either my eyes are going again, or zee spooks are beck," he'd said to Bobby Druse who had shaken his head.
"Don't tell Mama, or she'll find a way to get back in here again."
"Did vee ever have to tell her before?"
Finally, one day, it happened.
Sadie flitted around, trying desperately to see what was going on. Doctors swarmed. They worked tirelessly to put the broken girl back together. Sadie knew it was pointless, but her mind wouldn't let it alone.
Maybe she'll pull through. She's younger. She's stronger. She's not a druggie like me. What did that doctor say? Massive head trauma. Blood pooling in her cranium. Is that all?
Dr. Hook sighed. He straightened and looked around the operating table.
Sadie's breath caught in her throat.
Finally he spoke. "All right, she's stable."
Sadie collapsed. She lay on her back on the floor and started to giggle euphorically.
She's stable.
"Did you hear that?"
Sadie sat up and leaned back on her arms. Dr. Hook was staring at something. The others were staring at him, equally puzzled.
"Hear what?" a nurse asked.
Sadie followed Hook's gaze to a round mirror up on the wall. He was looking directly at her. She started. He can't really see me, can he?
The doctor shook his head. "Uh, nothing. Never mind. Let's get her a new IV and get her out of ICU. I think she's going to be all right."
Sadie watched the doctors clean up while the nurse prepared Ruby for transit and then followed the nurse that wheeled the girl into a room of her own. Another nurse was waiting and she helped hoist Ruby into her hospital bed.
Hoist may be too strong a word, Sadie thought. She's thin as a rake. She wondered why she'd never noticed it before. Was she really so wrapped up in herself that she couldn't see her best friend's deteriorating health? Why hadn't she let her move in with her? They could have split the rent and…
You would have hit her up for drug money, and what you couldn't get out of her the genteel way, you would steal.
The thought appalled her at first, but she allowed with a resigned sigh that it was true. She would have stolen from her best friend if it meant she could get her fix. Now out of the grip of the dope that had controlled her life for the past three years, she could see that.
It just had to kill her first. How had she let it go this far? She was dead, her best friend lay battered and almost unrecognizable, and it was her own fault. If she had quit the heroin, or even if she could have taken it a little slower, she wouldn't be here. She'd have been able to pay her debts, Ruby wouldn't have had to question where she'd gone, and Frankie wouldn't have had to do what he did.
No, she thought bitterly, No, Frankie didn't have to do anything. All Frankie had to do was play on our weaknesses until we… how had he said it? Until we 'became a liability.'
The only real preventative measures she could see involved never having met Ruby in the first place. She should have never gone to that party. Her parents had been right. She was too young. She hadn't known what she was getting into when, at fourteen years of age, in a basement belonging to a high school senior that she hadn't even known, and stoned off of her ass, she had said yes to something the older kids called 'smack.'
It would make her feel good, they'd said. A high like she'd never known- 10 times more powerful than what she was feeling on that cheap dope they'd smoked only a few minutes ago.
Nice, she'd thought with a giggle and a shrug. "Count me in," she'd said nonchalantly.
Now her eyes filled with tears at the thought of it. It had been amazing, but at what cost? Coming down off of the two drugs had been horrid. She'd missed school on Monday, even though the party had been on Friday night. Why? Because she had gone back for more. She spent the weekend in a stupor, laying in bed with the curtains drawn while her mother nervously flitted in and out periodically to see if she was all right.
Her mother. She hadn't seen her mother or her father in two years. She missed them. That was no secret, but she couldn't have gone back. She had been found out. Her father, finally fed up with his daughter's failing grades and declining attitude toward all things authoritative, went through her room and discovered the needles she'd stashed under her bed. When she got home late from school that day, he was waiting for her.
Sadie shut her eyes against the memory.
She heard something stir within the room. She opened her eyes again and saw Ruby move a little under the bed sheet.
Stop the self-pity, she chastised herslef. Your time's up. Your best friend could be dying. Be there for her.
"She's not dying!" she said aloud, startling herself with the sound of her own voice.
Ruby moaned and her eyes fluttered open. She regarded the room curiously for a moment before her eyes settled on Sadie.
She started. "Can you see me?" she asked before she could stop herself.
Ruby blinked. Then, Sadie knew that something was wrong. Those weren't Ruby's eyes. Those eyes were dark. Ruby's eyes were hazel.
Sadie backed away.
"What
the
hell?"
Ruby stirred and sat up, strange black eyes staring Sadie down.
"You're not Ruby," Sadie whimpered.
Ruby opened her mouth and a male voice spoke. "No shit, Sherlock."
"Who are you and what are you doing with her? Leave her alone. Can't you see she's hurt?"
A smile crept across Ruby's face and the voice chuckled. "What're you gonna do about it?"
"You're pretty tough picking on a girl."
The smile was gone and the dark eyes flashed. "I'd watch it if I were you, missy. If we're going to be roomies, we're going to have to learn to get along."
"You don't scare me."
Sadie watched as the eyes rolled up in the back of Ruby's head and her body flopped lifelessly back onto the bed.
"What can I do to change your mind?" That same rasping voice that had come from Ruby now whispered in her ear.
Sadie spun to face it and came face to face with a vampire. Grotesque, yellowed fangs glinted as he bared them, his face twisted in a ferocious sneer. She shrieked and turned to run, but he was there again in front of her. She covered her face. "Leave us a lone! Please, just leave us alone!"
"Don't scare ya, huh?"
Sadie opened her eyes and looked up into the face of a boy- not a vampire, a boy. He looked young, around 15 or 16 years old. His black eyes regarded her amusedly.
"How did you do that?" she blushed, embarrassed that she'd been scared so badly by a boy. She had faced the Gatekeeper, scary teeth and all. Seems to be a trend around here.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
"Isn't it a little late for threats like that?"
He stepped closer to her. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you can't be harmed."
"Whoa! Okay, why don't you just stay over there."
He smiled. "Make me."
"What are you, twelve?"
"Actually, 65." He shrugged. "But who's counting?"
Sadie shook her head. "Look, I don't know who you are, but I am really not in the mood for this. I have a friend over there. Her name is Ruby, and she's hurt bad. I'd really like to be there when she wakes up."
"She's not gonna wake up."
"What?"
"I said, she's not going to wake up," he said, enunciating the words slowly.
"You bastard!" she cried, glaring at him incredulously. "How dare you!"
He smiled, almost innocently, but he said nothing. Instead, he twiddled his fingers in a "toodle-oo" gesture as he slowly faded from view and disappeared into thin air.
Sadie turned back to her friend.
-
"Have you ever experienced déjà vu?" Hook asked Chris as he crawled into bed next to her.
Chris laughed. "Once, I think. During a Joni Mitchell concert. Why?"
"I think I just had a spell."
"What?"
Hook laid on his back a minute, collecting his thoughts before he spoke: "There's a Jane Doe upstairs. She was found alongside the highway- no purse, no wallet, no I.D.- with extensive head trauma."
"Whoa."
Hook nodded. "Tox screens have come up negative for drugs."
"So, no withdrawal to deal with this time?"
"Exactly."
"Well, that bodes well, doesn't it?"
"I hope so." He turned over and faced her. "There's something else." He paused, wondering if she would think he was crazy.
"Yeees?" she said, when he made no move to go on. Always with the drama, she thought.
"I think something was in the OR with me today."
"It wasn't an anteater, was it?"
Hook chuckled. "No, not an anteater." He thought back. "I don't know what I saw, or if I saw anything at all. Maybe this last case was harder on me than I thought-"
"Hook," Chris stopped him. "What did you see?"
"A girl," he said, watching for her reaction. "A girl with brown hair and street clothes. She was sitting on the floor and I saw her in the mirror. And I didn't just see her- I heard her laughing. I know how this sounds, but-"
Chris furrowed her brow. "Oh, no. Oh, no,"she groaned, interrupting him again. "I thought our ghost hunting days were over!"
Hook shook his head. "Who knows. Maybe Sally was wrong."
"You say it was a girl? Like Mary?"
"No, she was older. A teenager. Maybe in her early twenties? I didn't get a very good look."
"What was she wearing?"
He thought back. "Now that I think about it, not much."
Chris raised her eyebrows. "Oh, really?"
"Well, I don't know," he said sheepishly. "Black boots, short skirt, halter top. She was dressed to entertain. I can tell you that." He blushed despite himself when he saw Chris' amused expression. "What?" he said indignantly. "It's not like I made her up."
"Of course not, dear." Chris giggled.
"I didn't!"
"Hey, it's perfectly healthy for a man of your age and profession. You lead a very stressful life."
"Yeah, right. Come over here. I think I need a little stress-relief."
Chris laughed again as he leaned over and kissed her.
Later, Hook lay wide awake as Chris began to drift off to sleep. "I didn't imagine her."
"I know," Chris said drowsily.
To be continued…
AN: -GASP- Another chapter? In the middle of finals week?? What madness is this?? All right, people, I've got two months of vacation time coming up starting next week (oooh yeaaah), so things should start picking up around here. Don't lose faith! Good things are coming… ;)
