Chapter 10: Run
The busy hour of the hospital's cafeteria was long gone, leaving the place almost deserted. Most people had already gotten their fill at lunch, and the rest were eager to get home to a proper dinner.
The four guests had all picked something to eat, mostly out of sympathy for their starved friend. Carla was selectively picking the good parts out of the only salad that was available while Elliot was delightfully sipping on the cafeteria's last fruit smoothie. Turk had bought an enormous double sandwich containing various contents that not even he seemed certain of. In order to find out, he had started operating on the sandwich, the same way he would do to a human body. JD had, in lack of interest, simply chosen the same thing as Turk and couldn't care less what his sandwich contained. He was devouring it hungrily like someone who hadn't eaten in days. In fact, he had only had a tiny bowl of cereal early that morning and whatever he had for lunch was lost in a toilet on the third floor.
"JD, if you keep on eating like that you're gonna choke," Elliot pointed out and took another sip of her smoothie.
"Sworry," JD answered between his bites. "'Ungry."
"Dude, look at this!" Turk said and pointed at his sandwich. "If you put the mayonnaise here, and cheese here, this sandwich looks just like Jesus!"
"Then what is that...?" Carla asked and narrowed here eyes at the bread.
"That's tuna. It's supposed to be the beard," Turk informed her.
"Oh yes... I see it now," Carla said with the voice of a kindergarten teacher that was looking at a drawing. "And you used the milk for the background, that's... creative."
"That's disgusting," Elliot said with a grimace.
"If you haven't tried it, then how would you know?" Turk asked smugly.
"It just is, Turk!" Elliot said and looked away in dislike when JD lend Turk some of his ham to make "Jesus's" clothing more appropriate.
"I can't wait to have kids," Carla said indifferently and forked a piece of tomato.
"Yeah, they'll make you late for work too," Elliot interrupted and took a look at her watch. "My shift started like five minutes ago."
"No it hasn't," Carla said and looked up at the cafeteria clock. "Your break was fifteen minutes after mine, and my shift doesn't start until-"
Carla went quiet as she noticed how the second hand of the clock wasn't moving. Her eyes widened in shock and she turned her head to a guy at the counter, who was busy playing something on a retro gameboy console. "Joel, put the batteries back!" Carla yelled at him as she scurried to her feet. "Damnit...!"
Elliot quickly got up from her chair and tried to drink the rest of her smoothie all at once, causing her to cough violently and choke on it. Carla took a last bite of her salad, gave Turk a kiss on the head and hurried away with Elliot.
"When does your shift start?" JD wondered and took another bite of his sandwich.
"Not today, bro!" Turk answered victoriously. "I switched with the Todd so that I got the rest of the day off."
"Todd really agreed to that?" JD asked in disbelief.
"Well... Not until he made me promise to send him a picture of Carla naked," Turk said and scratched his neck.
"Are you going to?" JD asked, his mouth full of bread and cheese.
"Hell no!" Turk answered with an appalled look. "I found a nude magazine in the men's restroom yesterday. I'm just gonna pick one of the ladies from there and then photoshop Carla's head onto it."
"What if it's the Todd's magazine?" JD asked.
"Then I'll just pick one of the white chics and change the color in photoshop," Turk answered. "The dude's got the IQ of a seagull. We're cool. And we better leave now, before Kelso finds out that you're still roaming this place."
"Yeah, you're probably right," JD admitted and got up. He glanced at Turk's plate with a raised eyebrow. "What should we do with him?"
Both JD and Turk stared at sandwhich-Jesus who was still lying on Turk's plate, soaking in milk with an almost serene tranquility around him.
"I... dunno," Turk answered and looked down at their glory creation. "Throwing him in the garbage doesn't sound right, does it...?"
"We will burn in Hell, Turk," JD confirmed with a nod. He studied Jesus face, which now started to look pleading. Most likely due to the bread getting soggier.
The friends looked around the cafeteria, noted that nobody was watching them, and then slowly backed away from the tray before hurrying away towards the corridor. The two doctors didn't slow down until they were safe and far away.
"Okay, you go pack you stuff," Turk told JD and gave him a pat on the back. "I'm just gonna get that dirty magazine and we'll meet up at the lockers, okay? It'll take five minutes. Ten tops," Turk continued while walking backwards in the opposite direction. "And don't bother taking Sasha. I'm driving you home."
"Turk, I think that I'm still able to drive," JD said with a confident laugh.
"You sure about that, buddy?" Turk asked in slight disbelief.
JD's brain quickly put together a clip show of today's events. Roof. Daydreams. Restroom. Mirror. Voices. Mailman. Hallucinations. Cell phone. Morgue... JD looked a bit uncertain.
"You know what..." JD started. "Maybe you should drive."
JD was alone in the locker room, preparing a backpack with clothes and some personal belongings.
Should I bring my diary? Could be handy, I might be away for a while. Dr Cox said that I have to go on sick leave for the rest of the week. However, I doubt I'll be gone for that long. Tomorrow by lunch, all those pesky drugs or whatever will be flushed out of my system and that shrink can tell Kelso to suck it. I think I'm gonna go ahead and leave the diary in my locker. I'll just use my pocket one if I need to.
JD put the diary back and changed into regular clothes, a gray hooded shirt and comfy jeans, while putting away his dirty, blood stained scrubs.
All things considered... I'm actually feeling good. Surprisingly good. Man, I can't believe I didn't tell the others sooner. If I had, then- Owies!
JD dropped his scrubs on the floor and gripped his right hand with a pained face.
…then I would probably still have two functional hands instead of just one. Cox is right. It hurts like hell.
He tilted his head with a thoughtful expression. Why wouldn't I tell my friends about my problems? I know I had my reasons back then, but now I can't remember what they were... It's like trying to remember why you were acting like you did in a dream. Because in the dream, it made sense. All those things made sense to me. How crazy is that?!
JD picked up his scrubs from the floor and started folding them again. Well, whatever the reason was, I'm all better now. My mind is sharp like a razor, and my head is clear as a whistle. Or something like that... In any case, I feel invincible! Now I understand how the black knight from that Monty Python sketch felt. You could chop my arms right off and I would just keep on fighting!
JD looked at his watch. Turk should be here any minute now. It'll be nice to go home, but I wouldn't mind staying at the hospital either. I dunno why, but Sacred Heart feels almost more like home than my own apartment. I guess I'm a bit like Harry Potter that way. He rather stays at Hogwarts during the holidays instead of going home to that horrible Dursley family. NOT implying that Turk and Carla starve me or make me sleep under the stairs... But I think there are some similarities between Hogwarts and Sacred Heart.
He spaced out and pictured him and Turk in black wizard robes, walking down a castle corridor. JD was wearing a pair of big, round glasses and Turk had a stuffed rat on his shoulder.
"Dude, you won't believe what happened in transfiguration class yesterday," Turk said in an excited voice. "Some fourth graders were supposed to transform hamsters into doorknobs, and one guy accidentally turned his hamster poisonous!"
"How can a hamster become poisonous?" JD asked in bewilderment.
"I dunno," Turk said and shrugged, making the rat on his right shoulder to wobble dangerously. "He said something about it scurrying around, dripping acid all over the floor... It took the teachers over an hour to catch it since it turned out it was resistant to most magic spells. And fire."
"Dangit, now I want a poisonous hamster..." JD said in a dreamy voice.
"Guys! Wait up!"
Elliot came running through the corridor with almost a dozen books in her arms. She dropped two of them, stopped to pick them up and then dropped another one. She tried to pick up that one instead which resulted in her almost tripping on the two first books. Turk and JD stopped and sighed at her while she quickly scooped up all the dropped books at once in her arms.
"Hermione, we can't stop and wait for you every five minutes just because you have to drop all of your homework along the way," JD said.
"It's not my fault!" Elliot said stressed and tried to stack the books better to prevent them from falling.
"Well, stop carrying around so many then. It's not like you'll need every single one of them right now."
"Yes I do," Elliot stated and walked up beside them. "Maybe I can glue these together or something..."
"Why don't you just use magic?" JD simply suggested. "Seriously, are you really supposed to be the smartest witch in our class?"
"Hey, Harry!"
Doug Murphy waved eagerly to them and ran up beside JD. "Can I borrow a rat? We are supposed to bring the hamsters we used yesterday in transfiguration class, but I accidentally killed mine..."
"No, Neville!" JD answered. "This is the third time you're asking me to lend you my stuff, and everything you return are either killed or scorched. You'll have to solve this on your own."
"Oh..." Doug said disappointed and then turned to Turk. "Well, what about you Ron...?"
Turk took a quick step back, holding a protective hand over the stuffed rat Scabbers, shaking his head fiercely.
"You can't have Ron's either," JD clarified.
"Aw, bummer..." Doug said miserably and walked away.
"I sure don't envy that guy," Turk said.
"These glasses are annoying..." JD mumbled and took them off to take a closer look at them.
A sharp whistle was suddenly heard through the corridor. "Oi there, Harriet!"
Everyone turned around and saw Dr Cox walk towards them. He was wearing completely black robes and his wand was visibly peeking up from one of his pockets. He stopped by the two wizards, but all of his attention was solely directed towards JD.
"I've just corrected your latest potion test," Cox explained with an unimpressed look. "And I've got to tell ya, it was so god damn awful that actually showing it to a troll would make it even dumber than it already is. But, if you do have a good reason for this obvious lack of brain cells, I'll give you 10 seconds to explain it, starting now."
Cox picked up an hourglass and turned it over while looking gravely at JD and Turk.
"Well, professor Snape, I was going to study for that test yesterday," JD explained. "But Ron and I found this amazing mysterious looking tunnel behind the three legged witch statue, so we decided to see where it went."
"And...?" Cox asked with a raised eyebrow.
"After nine hours of crawling, we landed in professor McGonagall's bedroom, got one month detention, and since it was past midnight the fat lady refused to let us inside the common room. Which, ironically, was the place where we had left our textbooks."
"Wow, Sabrina," Cox said in pretend amazement. "That was quite some story you had there, I might just give you a gold star and an Emmy for best writing if you put it on paper and hand it to me by Thursday."
JD beamed, as if Cox just had given him a compliment, while Turk gave him an encouraging pat on the back. Elliott rolled her eyes, but was interrupted by a sharp whistle.
"Listen up here, Wendy," Cox said threateningly. "I don't expect much from you. Honestly, just, seeing you being able to manage the simplest spells makes me wanna start believing in God almighty instead of magic, since only a miracle could possibly allow that to happen. But despite that, I AM expecting you to either show me that you learn something from my classes, or don't bother to show up at all. Or else I'll turn you into the little inferior insect you are, crush you, and use you in my potions. I have the permission to do that, right Dumbledore?"
Kelso suddenly stopped by, dressed in a purple rob with golden moons and planets, a tall wizard hat in the same color, and a long white beard. "I couldn't care less," Kelso answered grumpily.
"You don't really act like Dumbledore," JD kindly pointed out.
"That's because I'm not gay," Kelso answered and walked away.
"Anyway, to be honest with you, professor Snape," JD said with dignity. "I don't have to stand here listening to you threatening me outside of class. Ron and I are going to the lake to get the ten armed giant squid to eat Malfoy's boxer shorts. ...Don't ask me how we got those, but we are on our way there, so I'm sorry, sir, but- OOF!"
As JD just turned around to walk away, he tripped on something and fell face first to the stone floor. When he looked up, he saw the Janitor standing over him. He was dressed in a brown, filthy coat and gray pants that seemed ancient. The color scheme of his whole get up seemed to be "dirt". He was studying JD while holding a mop, which he apparently just had used to make him fall.
Turk quickly helped JD up while Cox gave the Janitor an interested look.
"Looks like Mr Filch got you good," Turk sighed and brushed off some invisible dust from JD's robes.
"Ouchies..." JD breathed.
"I pay you ten galleons if you do that to him daily," Cox offered the Janitor.
"Twelve and I'll poison his food too," the Janitor suggested.
"Done," Cox said and they both shook hands.
"This is such waste of time," Elliot sighed and started to walk away, but then screamed as a big pile of feathers fell from above and landed in a heap in front of them.
"Why meeee..." Ted's voice was heard from the depths of the feathers.
Turk and JD helped him up on his feet. He was dressed in some kind of bird costume, with a beak and the ugly glasses from before.
"Ted! What are you doing here?" JD asked surprised.
"Apparently I'm an owl..." Ted muttered and picked up something from under his left wing. "And this is to Mr Ron Weasley."
"Really?" Turk said surprised and Ted handed him a bright red letter. As soon Turk realized what it was, his eyes stared at it in horror.
"Whoa..." JD breathed, both impressed and terrified. "You got a howler..."
"I know what it is!" Turk said angrily, and watched the letter in fear as it began to glow and emit smoke.
"Quick! Pour water over it!" JD yelled to no one in particular.
"This is fricking magic, dude!" Turk yelled at him in panic. "Do you seriously think that splashing water on it is gonna work!?"
"This will be fun," Cox said in a jolly voice, and leaned against a wall with a big grin.
"Throw it away then!" JD suggested.
"Not gonna work!" Turk stated, and looked more and more frightened as the letter started to catch fire.
"Oh come on, just open it already," Elliot said. "Get it over with."
The letter suddenly exploded and ascended to the air, burning like an angel of death, and started to talk in Carla's voice.
"Ronald Weasley!" Carla's voice screamed furiously. "How dare you leave the house in such a mess before you went away!? I had to spend the whole morning cleaning it before the guests arrived! It's time for you to take some responsibilities at home, young man! Next time, I'll make you pay dearly for this! Mark my words!"
The letter suddenly turned to JD and continued, in a much softer voice. "And I don't blame you, Bambi. Please take care; I'll make you some brownies for Christmas. Real ones with sugar. Take care."
The letter crumbled into a small ball of burnt paper and fell to the floor. Turk stared at it and then looked at JD. "My mom likes you."
"Yeah, I know," JD confirmed. "I wonder what it is that makes witches like me so much? Is it because of my troubled past of constant mistreatment from my abusive aunt and uncle? Or the daily bullying from my fat cousin Dudley. Or maybe it's because of the fact that I'm pretty much everyone's hero since I am the reason why lord Voldemort disappeared, and thus basically saving the world. And of course, I don't think I need to mention that chicks dig guys with scars. And my charming personality-"
"Oh for the love of Merlin...!" Cox groaned and picked up his wand and pointed it at JD. "Silencio!"
A flash from the wand hit JD in the chest, causing him to take a step back in surprise. He looked at Cox in shock and tried to say something, but not one word left his mouth.
"Huh. This thing is useful," Cox smiled at his wand while JD was talking hysterically, trying to make people understand what he was saying.
"Don't worry, dude," Turk said reassuringly. "I'll fix this. Just give me a second..."
JD seemed to panic even more and shook his head violently while waving his arms in protest and pointing at Elliot.
"You want Hermione to fix it?" Turk asked uncertainly and JD nodded eagerly.
"Okay, sure," Elliot said and walked towards Turk. "Here, hold these for me..."
Elliot dumped all of her textbooks in Turk's arms, making him drop to the ground like a sack of rocks. She turned to JD, picked up her wand, and took a deep breath. JD shouted something impatiently and Elliot looked confused.
"He says 'hurry up'," Turk translated with a pained voice from the floor.
"I get it, I get it," Elliot yelled back. "Don't rush me!"
"Hermione...!" Turk panted with a weak voice, slowly suffocating underneath the books.
"Calm down, I'll get to you in a second!" Elliot yelled. "I'm trying my best here!"
JD began to jump up and down in frustration, screaming something and Turk started to chant "hurryuphurryuphurryup...". Elliot eventually almost threw her wand at JD's direction in panic while screaming. "FRICK!"
She pointed the wand at JD, who immediately froze when a small yellow flash hit him in the face. He stumbled backwards and looked up terrified. "Hermione! What the hell?" He yelled frustrated.
"Dude! It worked!" Turk said impressed.
JD prodded his face, as if he was making sure that his nose or eyebrows didn't disappear in the process. When everything seemed to be in the right place, he looked up at Hermione happily. "Thanks, Hermione!"
"No problem," Elliot answered, looking incredibly proud of herself.
"May I interrupt you girls for one moment?" Cox wondered and pointed at JD. "You, Glinda, are gonna have to retake that potion test tomorrow morning. I would suggest that you skip to wherever you're currently keeping your books and start studying for it. Unless you want me to turn you into a hamster and offer you to the fourth graders' transfiguration class."
"Already on my way, professor," JD said reassuringly. "I think I left my books in-" As JD turned around, a locker suddenly appeared right before him. "…in my locker," JD said with a low voice and eyed the object suspiciously. "That's... my locker. My real locker, at the hospital. But what is it doing here?"
JD turn around to the others. They all stared at him with blank faces, like a puppet theater waiting for directions. JD eyed them in confusion and turned back to the locker again. "This is not supposed to be here..." JD continued and took a step closer. "Harry Potter doesn't have a locker. Especially not my locker. What's going on here? Why is..."
JD walked around it and then stopped in front of the door with a puzzled look. He placed his hand on the handle with an uneasy feeling. He braced himself and then jerked the door open.
A flood of thick blood poured out, soaking JD completely in red liquid. He was drowning in it, and just as he was about to gasp for air, he was suddenly back at Sacred Heart in the hospital's locker room.
JD was standing in front of his locker, breathing rapidly while forcing air down his lungs way faster than necessary. He quickly checked his clothes, but there was not one stain of blood on them. He stopped his searching and his face turned pale in realization.
"Oh god, no..." JD whispered and glanced at his hand. He had been clenching his fists so tightly that the new bandage was spotted with red.
Without warning, the other lockers around him burst open too, and a cascade of red sticky blood gushed out from every single one of them. JD stared at the scene in horror as he backed into a wall. "No, no, no, no..." he mumbled in terror.
His legs slowly folded underneath him as he sank to the floor. His clothes getting drenched in blood when he sat down. He shut his eyes tightly and covered his face with his hands as he screamed. "TURK!"
He didn't move. He didn't look up. For what felt like forever, JD didn't do anything. After a long while, he slowly removed his hands, revealing a strange, dazed expression. Almost like a person in deep trance.
JD got up from the floor in an unsteady manner, but eventually managed to stand up.
As I was cowering in fear like some kid who had lost his parents at the supermarket, I realized that Turk wasn't coming. It wasn't that surprising, considering that he had never really cared about me in the first place. Just like everyone else. They said that they did, but deep down, I knew that there were no way they could like a pathetic little liar like me.
JD grabbed his head with a pained expression. "It hurts..."
He looked up and saw how the ceiling was being cut open, as if a giant scalpel was slicing through it. The cut started to bleed and revealed a reddish, ominous void that was spreading across the ceiling, like cancer. Growing bigger by the second while emitting some kind of dark and toxic smoke. It was climbing down the wall, reaching for the door...
JD's eyes grew wide and he bolted through the door, leaving the locker room behind him.
I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, please let me out, please let me out, LET ME OUT...!
Doctors and nurses turned their heads when the young man came running through the corridors as if he was being chased by Death himself. JD was breathing heavily. His lungs were burning, his heart was beating him senselessly, and his head felt like it was being cut open just like that ceiling in the locker room.
This isn't real. This isn't real. Oh please god don't let this be real...
What the hell is wrong with me?
JD almost ran head first into the wheelchair of an older woman. She stared at him as if he had just aimed for her purse. "Pervert!" She yelled with impressive ferocity for her age.
The near-crash had JD slightly disoriented, and he was spinning around on the spot trying to remember where he was going. He flinched as a hand grabbed his arm. "Hey, you okay there?"
The voice belonged to the doctor in charge of the wheelchair. JD jerked his arm back and started running in the opposite direction. It was getting harder to breathe. The air felt like tiny razors in his throat.
That darkness it's... It's trying to trap me here. It doesn't want me to leave. They don't want me to leave...I'm gonna die here.
Stay here. Stay there. Stay, stay, stay... This is what they wanted all along. They knew. They left me here because they knew. They knew that if I stay here I will- Ow, ow, my HEAD...
Even though they wanted me dead, I was gonna miss Turk and Carla and Elliot. They had a point after all. I did deserve to die.
JD stopped and turned around. "Who said that?" JD asked.
"Dr Dorian...?"
A voice behind his back had JD spinning around. A young woman was standing in front of him and looked at him with a worried face.
Oh. An intern. I think I recognize her. I'm supposed to know her name... I'm pretty sure Cox has called me it.
"Are you alright?" The intern asked.
Alright...? No, Debbie or Angela or whatever your name is. I'm quite sure that I'm anything but alright at the moment. I just don't know what's wrong with me. God, all these voices... How did I get here...? I-I-I don't feel so good... My head is weird...
...I'm trapped. I can't get out. I can't breathe. I don't wanna be here...! Let me out, PLEASE LET ME OUT!
JD ran past the confused intern and dashed through the corridor until he reached the hospital's entrance. He stopped a few feet away from it, gulping down air in lungs.
I need to leave the hospital. It's safer outside. They won't get to me if I'm outside. I can hide. I can run. I'm never gonna let them catch me. I'm not gonna die here.
JD hurried out. He passed a couple of patients and people on his way, but ignored them and kept pushing through the crowd until he finally was outside. When he reached the parking lot, JD suddenly stopped and winced in pain.
Ugh, it's like someone is hitting my skull with a jackhammer... Okay, the further away from this place, the better. Gosh, weird colors... Very weird colors, why are things blurry all of sudden? My head feels crowded somehow... Too many thoughts. I can't tell them apart. I can't concentrate. None of this makes sense. H...Help...
JD hurried away in a random direction. He had only one clear thought in his mind, and he was clinging to it as if it was the last parachute in a burning plane.
I have to get away from that hospital.
Next time: A shorter chapter. How will the others react when they find out that poor Bambi is gone...? We'll meet Carla, Elliot, Turk... And even The Janitor will pay a quick visit. Hmm...