Finally we get to meet crazy Great-Aunt Mildred!
"We're hoping to see a Mildred…Delaney?" I guessed, hoping she had the same surname as Liz.
I was proven correct when the lady at the reception desk nodded. "Fortunately she didn't…want to go on the field trip." This was lucky. We had arrived at Sunny Stones nursing home to find the lobby mostly deserted, an oddity when compared with the nursing home where I used to visit my grandmother before she passed away ten years ago.
"Can you tell us her room number?" Derek pressed after a moment where the young brunette just sat there scrutinizing our faces.
"I'm sorry, but how are you related to Miss Delaney again?"
"We're…" I faltered, looking about to the others wildly for any ideas. "I mean, I'm her great-niece. Elizabeth Delaney." Tori shot me a swift look but didn't further protest. I just hoped Liz had never actually visited her here, or if she did it was long enough ago that I could be mistaken for her. We are both blonde…
"Oh," a knowing look crossed her face. "Yes of course. And these are your…"
"Friends." I said firmly.
"Letting them in isn't strictly protocol…" she chewed on a painted lower lip thoughtfully.
"We've met Miss Delaney before," Simon assured her.
"Yep," Aliena played along, too, nodding enthusiastically. "You must not have been the receptionist that day…I think she was a red-head…"
"Jill," the receptionist broke out into a smile. "Well, if she let you guys in before, then I suppose it's all right. She's in room 78."
"Thank you," I flashed a blindingly fake smile and followed Derek out into the beige painted hallway that was punctuated by doors on either side, each sporting bronze number plates.
When we were out of earshot Tori leaned over to Aliena and whispered, "How did you know the other receptionist was a red-head?"
"There was a picture of a red-headed woman in a wedding dress and a man on the desk," she whispered back. "It was just a guess that she also worked there, but it worked, didn't it?" Tori nodded approvingly as Simon looked on in awe.
"Room 78," Derek announced from the front of our little procession. He had stopped in front of a mediocre white door, so similar to the others but for the number on the plaque. "Ready?" he turned to us.
"Wait, should we wait for Liz?" She had left yesterday, saying she needed to check up on some things but that she would be back to talk to her great-aunt Mildred.
"We can't afford to wait," Simon pointed out.
Reluctantly I nodded. "Ok. Let's go."
Derek raised a fist and rapped sharply on the door.
A moment later it creaked open, just enough to reveal a pair of piercing blue eyes, crinkled around the corners.
"Who's there?" A harsh voice barked.
I stepped forward. "Miss Delaney?" she grunted. "We're friends of Liz…"
"Liz." she said it fervently, almost like a prayer. The door squeaked open fully, revealing a woman with a long braid of coarse gray hair running down the length of her back. She was clad in a tattered and worn yellow robe accompanied by thick carpet slippers. "Do come in," she ushered us inside what may have been the strangest room I had ever been in.
The walls were papered with a collage of religious posters, everything from a Jewish star to a picture of the Koran. Crosses hung on the walls in a surplus, and a bible was open on the bed's pillow. There was not an electrical appliance in sight, the light streaming in from the windows. Candles melted down to stubs were situated around the room, supposedly for when it got dark.
"Liz. They killed her." she settled down on the bed with a matter-of-fact expression on her face.
Surprise halted our words as we stood in the doorway in numb silence at her bluntness. How had she even known?
She took our silence as confirmation. "Ah. I see I am correct. Such a shame, a shame. I tried to warn her…" she gave a disgusted shake of her head, braid swinging behind her.
"Miss Delaney?" Derek started, leaning against a lopsided wooden dresser on which balanced some elaborate knotted rope.
"Mildred." she ordered. "Call me Mildred."
"Mildred," his face set in a firm expression. "Have you ever heard of the Edison Group?"
Panic flashed in her eyes as she glanced fearfully back and forth. "The light bulb club! Don't trust the light bulb club!"
"Is that the Edison Group?" he pressed.
"Oh the light bulb club!" she moaned, seeming to deflate a little. Her shoulders slumped and a defeated expression pasted itself onto her face.
"So you have heard of it?" he confirmed. Being Derek, he needed to be absolutely positively sure he had his facts straight.
"What do you know?" Tori leaned forward eagerly, choppy brown hair swinging into her eyes.
"My sister. They took my sister." the old woman seemed to calm down a bit, straightening up again. "She could do things…move things with her mind. When she got angry, she threw things. Without touching them." her eyes glazed over with memory. "One day she got mad at me. I borrowed her new dress. She gave me this." In one swift motion she tugged down the collar of the robe to reveal a long puckered scar scraping across the top of her shoulder. "She threw a belt at me…"
"What did they do to her?" Aliena's eyes were lit with a feverish glow as she stared intently at the old woman.
"Experiments." she met Aliena's gaze with a steely glare of her own. "Terrible experiments."
"Like what?" I asked.
"Like-"
"Mildred?" A high pitched nasally voice called from behind the closed door. "Are you awake?"
"Go away!" she rasped.
"Now, now, Mildred." The door was pushed open to reveal a young nurse in floral scrubs. "You remember what we said about being anti-social- oh!" she had just noticed us standing around the edges of the cramped and cluttered room. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had guests over-"
"Guests? Oh, them." where her blue eyes had been carefully studying us a moment ago, they now spared us an offhand glance. "Isn't it time for Bingo?"
"Yes, but if you have guests you can be excused…" the nurse kept glancing from us to Mildred, clearly unsure how to handle the situation.
"No. I want to play Bingo." Liz had said she had gone crazy. For a few minutes there it had seemed Mildred was on the verge of helping us reach valuable conclusions about the Edison Group, but now it appeared we had lost her to Bingo.
"Well, what about your guests?" the nurse shot us an imploring look.
"They can come too."
So that's how the five of us ended up sitting in the corner of a musty room crammed with tables and wheelchairs as a dozen or so old people played Bingo.
"You know," Tori muttered under her breath, as if to herself, "I used to have a life. Look what it has been reduced to; Granny bingo." right on cue, one old lady in the far corner croaked "Bingo!" A nurse bustled over to check and shook her head. This happened most of the times someone called "Bingo", which happened after each card was read. It appeared most of the old people would just place their bingo chips on any random space, making the pace of play excruciatingly slow. I was ready to rip my hair out by this point.
"Think they'd let us play?" Simon looked towards the prize table wistfully. I didn't see what he wanted so badly; it was mostly plastic notebooks and yoyos and other cheap dollar store junk.
Tori elbowed him. "Stupid. Why would you want to?"
"Bingo's fun," he defended.
"Yeah, when all your players are still breathing." Aliena jerked her head at one geezer across the room who was slumped over in his wheelchair. I snickered into my hand.
Derek cocked his head, listening. "Don't worry, everyone's still breathing. And about 50% of them are snoring right now…"
In only a matter of minutes the five of us were laughing in the corner, trying (and failing) to disguise the giggles as coughs. Some of the hovering nurses were shooting us annoyed looks but no one came over to stop us.
But of course, that's when the Edison Group had to arrive, armed with their guns and sorcerers, leaving little old men and women scurrying for what was left of their lives.
Sorry for the slight cliffhanger. Will post ASAP. In the meantime…please review!