Chapter 35: The Death of Mary

Mary entered into the now empty hospital. She gazed around the now eeriely silent waiting room. Elli had been sitting at the desk filing papers just mere moments ago. Where was she now? A cold chill past over Mary as she thought an unthinkable thought. Could it be that the murderer had struck again?

Mary quietly tiptoed through the rooms to where Carter was sleeping. She hoped more than anything that Elli was in that room, tending to her ailing friend. She peeked around the corner of the curtain of Carter's room. She saw nothing more than Carter's body in his bed, his chest slowly rising and falling as he slept blissfully unaware of Mary's fear. Well, that was good and all, at least he hadn't been killed, but the Doctor and Elli were still unaccounted for. She turned to leave.

A hand placed itself on Mary's shoulder.

Mary screamed and jumped in surprise. She turned to face the mysterious person only to find something hot and wet splatter upon her shirt. Mary yelped and stumbled backwards. As she fell, she grabbed the curtain that divided the room. It supported her for a brief instant, then, with a serious of loud clangs, the rings holding the curtain up snapped. As the great white sheets enveloped her, she began to thrash wildly, trying to escape their bondage, but only succeeding in tangling herself up worse. In a few short moments, she was completely immobilized in a prison of her own making, able to do little more than jerk slightly from side to side. She screamed again in terror.

"Mary, calm down, please! It's just me, Elli."

Mary immediately stopped struggling and waited patiently in embaressment as Elli went about unwrapping her. It took a little while, but Elli finally got Mary's head free. She gasped, "Oh my dear sweet Harvest Goddess! Look what I just did to your face! I'm so sorry Mary. It was an accident."

"Relax Elli, that was why I came to see you anyway. I had that already. I want to get it looked at." Mary reassured her. Now it was Elli's turn to be embaressed.

"Yeah, that's probably going to need stitches. We'll try to get that fixed right back up as fast as we can."

An awkward silence set in, neither of them knowing what to say next. Elli tried to start the conversation back up while she worked, "So... I assume you've heard about the new murders."

"Just vaguely. I don't really know anything about them yet. Don't even know who was killed."

"Well, Kai and Popuri were killed on top of Mother Hill. Decapitated is what they say."

Mary paled at the thought, "That's kinda morbid..."

"Yeah. But I thought there was something funny about it."

Now Mary's curiosity was sparked, "What?"

Elli lowered her voice, "Well, don't go spreading this around. The last thing we need is wild rumors running rampant. But don't you think it's kinda odd. With the first murders, they were beaten to death. These most recent ones were, well, not."

Mary had just gotten one of her arms free and was helping in the untangling, but now she just stared up at Elli stunned, "Are you saying you think there are two murderers?"

"There may well be. It seems to me like somebody was trying to take advantage of the chaos to mask their own agenda. Hoping that their murders would get blamed on the other murder. And I think the new murderer is Gotz."

Mary laughed a forced laugh, "That's silly! Gotz wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Is it so silly? Doesn't he have an axe which would be perfectly convenient for decapitation? Didn't he find the bodies first thing in the morning? Seems like unless somebody knew exactly where those bodies were, it would be awfully hard to find them. Something is fishy with the whole thing."

Mary finally wiggled free of the curtains, and decided to change the subject, "Well, I'm certainly glad to be out of that mess. I don't think I'll ever look at curtains the same way again. What were you doing anyway?"

Elli looked slightly sad at the now empty cup sitting nearby, "Well, I was getting a cup of coffee, but you kinda startled me when you all started screaming and stuff and I spilled it on you." She gestured to the large coffee stain on the front of Mary's shirt, "I think we ought to get you some dry clothes or you'll catch your death of a cold. I'll get you a hospital robe to change into while those clothes dry out."

Mary's thoughts instantly turned to the scars covering her body. She couldn't let Elli see them. "No! I mean, no, I'm fine. I just need this thing taken care of." She pointed to her cheek.

"How did you get that anyway?"

Mary immediately considered lying, but she knew that wouldn't do any good for the situation, "My mom slapped me and her ring cut my face." It wasn't the whole truth but it was enough of it.

Elli sensed that Mary wasn't telling everything, but she let it slide, "Oh you poor dear. How could Anna even think about hitting someone as sweet as you? You know I consider you to be like a daughter to me. You can always tell me anything that is bothering you." Little dear, what have you gotten yourself into? Elli didn't know, but she wanted to comfort her nonetheless, so she hugged Mary tightly.

Mary smiled as she returned the comforting embrace, "I know..."

"Come on Mary, let's go get the Doctor and clean up that face of yours."