Shining among Darkness
By
WingzemonX
Chapter 35.
He's Still Looking For Her
One day, with two hours left before Carrie's mother, got home from work, Matilda and Carrie jumped into the psychiatrist's car and took a short trip outside Chamberlain. Their unusual destination was an old and lonely junkyard on the road, five minutes from the last house. All the way, Carrie stared out from the passenger window with fright at the thought of heading somewhere other than her home. Though perhaps, it was also accompanied by a particular almost childish emotion.
They parked the vehicle right outside the property and simply walked inside. There was no gate, no dogs, and no watchman; in fact, there were no people nearby for a couple of kilometers. It was the right place for what Matilda was planning; Lucy, the Foundation's tracker, had done her a favor by finding it.
The site was filled with mostly old car bodies, stacked up like the bricks of some wall. As they walked through that place, Carrie looked around, a little confused and curious.
"What are we doing here?" The young girl questioned after a few seconds. Matilda smiled in amusement at the thought that it took a long time for her to ask.
"I just want us to practice your skills a bit," Matilda replied with a small conspiratorial tone. "There is no one here to bother us, so we can act more freely. You would like that, right?"
Carrie looked at her somewhat puzzled but certainly very interested.
"Practice how?"
"For example, what is the heaviest thing you have lifted with your telekinesis?"
The girl thought for a few moments before answering.
"Your office desk, I think... or maybe a sofa."
They continued on for a while longer, until Matilda stopped short, seeing the ideal target right before them. A satisfied smile touched her lips.
"Would you like to try something bigger?" She asked in an almost mischievous tone and pointed ahead with her gaze.
Carrie looked in that direction and immediately detected what she meant. In front of them was an old school bus. The yellow of its original paint was still vaguely distinguishable among all the rust on its body. But other than that, the bus really did look whole. It had all four of its tires, doors, apparently almost every seat, and only two of its windows were broken.
"A bus?" Carrie exclaimed, surprised. "It's too big, isn't it?"
"When your skills are at their peak, the physical weight of objects becomes irrelevant," Matilda pointed out in a solemn voice.
The brunette then placed her bag on the ground and took a couple of steps forward. She focused her gaze fixedly on that great vehicle and tensed her hands a little at the sides of her body. She breathed in slowly, inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. The image Eleven had taught her many years ago was drawn in her mind: her kitchen stove, with one of its burners on low flame, and her hand slowly opening the knob so that the flame grew just enough. When she was ready, she entirely focused on her goal, and the bus began to rise slowly and easily off the ground, like a simple feather blown by the wind. Carrie looked at this dumbfounded.
"With the proper concentration, there is no limit to what you can do," Matilda murmured as she continued to lift the vehicle several feet above them. She left it there for a few seconds and then lowered it again with care, placing it in the same place where it was initially. She sighed, trying to ease the effort and let her body loosen a bit. "Do you want to try?"
"Do you think I can?" The young woman questioned, somewhat unsure.
"We'll have to try."
Matilda stepped back and gave the stage to her companion. Carrie removed her backpack and set it on the floor as well. She took a few steps forward, looking with some fear at the bus in front of her. She was a little scared, yes… but was also excited to find out how far she could go; that was quite evident just by looking at her eyes.
"Look at it, focus on it," Matilda whispered behind her. "Breathe slowly." Carrie began to do just what she was told without taking her eyes off the bus. "Inhale, exhale... slowly... Feel the airflow through your body... Now, focus, try to lift it..."
Carrie instinctively extended both of her hands to the front, pointing at the objective. Nothing happened for the first few seconds, but shortly after that, the vehicle shook slightly, causing a sound of metal hitting metal, and then slowly began to rise. The tires were separated from the ground, and the entire structure began to float like a balloon.
The young blonde smiled broadly, lighting her face with fervent joy at what she was doing.
"Okay, you're doing fine," Matilda commented proudly.
"I can't believe it…" was the only thing Carrie could answer, as she was in awe of what she was accomplishing.
The truck hovered in the air above them, and there it remained a few moments. Carrie had raised her hands to it as he climbed up. She had done well for her first try; better than Luke Skywalker, Matilda thought for a second, feeling a bit embarrassed at having made that reference in her head. However, in a way, perhaps it was inevitable.
A loud crack abruptly brought Matilda out of her thoughts. She looked at the bus strangely. She didn't see it at first, but as more of those creaks kept coming, she realized what was causing them. It was the body of the bus, bending inward as the entire structure of the vehicle seemed to begin to contract into itself as if it were rubber, and someone began to crush it little by little between their fingers.
Matilda quickly lowered her gaze to Carrie. Her fingers were tense and trembled slightly. She was staring at the bus, but the expression on her face had changed entirely. She no longer looked amazed or surprised; instead, she looked almost… excited, but not in a way that conveyed calm to her.
"Carrie?" She murmured slowly, but the girl didn't answer her. The bus's windows began to shatter from the pressure, and pieces of glass fell like snow towards them, so Matilda had to back up a bit; Carrie didn't even move. "Carrie, put it down..."
"No, not yet," the young girl answered in an absent voice, and abruptly the truck began to contract further, to bend and tear.
The feeling that accompanied that act was not one of curiosity or exploration, but one of absolute violence… It was as if Carrie enjoyed destroying it, squeezing it as if she were doing it between her own fingers and watching the metal twist. Matilda suddenly felt somewhat frightened. She wasn't able to know what was going through her mind while she was doing this, but she had some ideas...
My mother says that God punishes all the sinners and wicked, and protects His faithful. I've always tried to be faithful, but I have never felt protected by Him or by anyone. And I have never felt that He punish those who hurt me.
And as much as I have prayed to God to exercise justice for me, to make all His fury fall on them, nothing happens...
They have mistreated me all my life. Wouldn't it be fair for once to return it to them?
"Carrie," Matilda said forcefully, grabbing the girl's shoulders and shaking her a little, but she didn't answer her. Carrie looked totally lost in the destruction she was wreaking over their heads. "Carrie! Stop!"
Matilda herself looked up at the bus, and using her own telekinesis, pulled it hard to the ground abruptly. The great steel structure fell like a rock in front of them, creating a loud crash and kicking up a light layer of dust.
Carrie was startled, surprised by the sudden change, and they both recoiled in reflex. Once the shock passed, the young blonde turned to Matilda, noticeably furious.
"Why did you do that?!" She yelled at her angrily, like Matilda had never seen her before. "I was doing it… feeling it… It had never felt so good before!"
Until that moment, Matilda had never seen her like this. Her shy, introverted personality seemed to have faded for a few moments. Now, she seemed totally beside herself, intoxicated by a myriad of sensations that washed over her entire body like adrenaline.
"You must not use your abilities that way," Matilda replied, almost as a reprimand.
"Why not?!" Carrie yelled at her again in the same way as before. "Why shouldn't I do whatever I want with my powers?!"
As she exclaimed that last, Matilda could feel how several of the vehicles stacked around her shook as if a mighty wind had hit them. Still, Matilda knew that it had not been such a thing.
She stared at her in silence. That angry face, resentment, and anger… that was what Carrie hid under her submissive and quiet air: latent rage about to explode…
Matilda had seen some of it since that afternoon at the cafe, but she hadn't been able to perceive how intense it was. But she must have seen it before.
"It was a mistake to come here," was her blunt reply, and she immediately took her bag and, without saying anything, began to walk to the exit. Carrie startled in confusion, watching her walk away.
"What?" Exclaimed the young girl. "Where are you going? I'm Sorry. Wait, please..."
Carrie picked up her bag and hurried to catch up with her.
After finishing their breakfast at Denny's, and Cody being picked up, Matilda and Cole headed to the rental car to set off for Silverdale themselves. About two hours' drive awaited them, so they'd better get going as soon as possible. However, Matilda looked somewhat uncomfortable, and not precisely because of the journey they had to make. When they were halfway to her vehicle, she glanced over her shoulder, still expecting to see Cody's vehicle driving away. But there was no sign of it.
"I've never seen him like this," she suddenly murmured, almost unintentionally.
"Like what?" Cole asked curiously.
"I don't know, so… irked. All the time I've dealt with him, I've always seen him quite calm."
"Well, even the calmest of us can have bad days. Or several…" They both reached the vehicle, and each stopped at one of the doors; Matilda in the driver's, and Cole in the passenger's. Before entering, Cole looked at her above the roof of the car, intrigued. "Didn't you know he had a girlfriend?"
Matilda looked away, a little embarrassed.
"We haven't talked in a while. Besides, we're not exactly that kind of friends..."
"What kind of friends are you then?"
Matilda pursed her lips a little in annoyance, not so much because of the question, but because of its possible answer. The uncomfortable truth was that her relationship with Cody, and with virtually everyone at the Foundation, was basically professional. They helped her in her labors, she helped them in theirs, and little more than that. She didn't know much about anyone's private lives, including Cody. The only exception might be Eleven, as she knew her family, her husband, and her children in person. However, she didn't really know much about them either.
Maybe the word "friends" didn't quite apply in that situation.
At what point did her studies and work become so absorbing as to get to that situation? As a child, she had several friends with whom she played and had fun; what happened to them? Had she slowly pushed everybody aside to concentrate on other things? Or had each of them ended up telling her something that she didn't like, like Eleven did, and had she gotten mad at everyone?"
Thinking about it all affected her, but she couldn't and shouldn't get carried away by that right now. She had to focus on what she would have to do in Silverdale.
"That doesn't matter," Matilda answered thoughtfully, opening the car door. "Come on, we'll be late."
"I'm following you, boss."
They both got into the vehicle and sat down. Matilda put the keys in the ignition but didn't turn it. Instead, she turned to look directly at Cole with some sternness.
"We must make the rules clear," she stated firmly. "The doctor I spoke with told me that Evelyn is lucid, expresses herself clearly, and can answer questions. But she tends to ramble and often dissociates about where or when she is. We'll have to proceed very carefully in our conversation, so let me lead. Okay?"
"Whatever you say, bo..." Matilda looked at him even harder, anticipating that he would call her "boss" once more. "I mean, whatever you say, Dr. Honey."
Matilda sighed heavily and immediately started the vehicle. The engine thundered loudly.
"I hope we really get something out of this."
"You seem quite reluctant to talk to this woman," Cole pointed out as an observation. "Are you afraid of what she might say?"
Matilda just silently glanced at him, started driving out of the parking lot, and shortly after onto the highway.
That seemed to be a good day for Evelyn, the mysterious patient at Silverdale Psychiatric Hospital. The girl almost always spent it in her room, somewhat isolated, and focused on her personal projects. That morning, however, she asked to go out into the garden for a few moments, sit on a bench, and look at the trees and the sky. She didn't do much more than that. She didn't speak to anyone nor walk around. She just sat there, alone and silent, with an unusually cheerful smile on her face.
Around noon, she asked to go back to her room, and there she spent the following hours entertained in her project. This project was basically about cutting out newspaper articles and photos, recently and old ones, and sticking them in one of the many albums she collected. Her room was filled with newspapers stacked on the corners, many from different Washington cities, but some even from other states. Every time a nurse put their hands on some unusual newspaper, they gave it to Evelyn before throwing it away. Then, she took it to see if she found something interested; she rarely said no.
Evelyn spent her days going through a newspaper to other, article by article, choosing the ones that interested her the most, cutting it out and pasting it in her album. She also pasted them in an unusual order; it did not appear chronological or subject matter. It seemed to be something that only made sense to her.
Many of the patients at that institution had their oddities and obsessions. What Evelyn did fit more into the classification of a hobby; one very important to her, but without falling into either of the other two categories. It seemed to relax her and keep her calm, and the doctors didn't think it could do her any harm, so they let her.
Not much was known about her, except for a few minor facts. She had been in that hospital for twelve years, had given birth to a girl whom she tried to drown. And before that, practically nothing. She hadn't talked much about who she was or where she came from in all the time she'd been there, except for a few little clues that the doctors hadn't entirely understood. All of this was not really so unusual. There were at least two other cases at that site for which much of their identity was unknown, but the State took care of them.
The most unusual thing on Evelyn, leaving aside her curious hobby, were some comments she sometimes made. About events that happened a long time ago right there in the hospital, in the women's shelter from which she came, or that they did not occur as she remembered. Sometimes, she also mentioned things that were about to happen, and of which she was only correct half the time. It was as if her mind was wandering between several ideas at the same time.
But she was not an aggressive patient, quite the opposite. She was always calm and cooperative, which was why she was a favorite of the staff. So much so that she was one of the few that had certain special amenities. Besides all the newspapers and albums, she was one of the few that was allowed to have scissors in her room for her clippings, plus a little old television.
Just before 2 PM, while she was sitting at her small desk clipping and humming, the door to the room opened, and a large, shaved-headed male nurse came in carrying a tray of food.
"Good afternoon, Evelyn," the nurse greeted her. "I brought you your lunch."
The man came in and placed the tray on a small table next to her bed.
"Thank you, Sully," the young woman thanked him, without taking her eyes off the article she was clipping.
Nurse Sully approached her desk carefully, leaning over the young woman's shoulder to look at what she was doing.
Evelyn was a pretty girl, although the years she'd been there had undoubtedly made her run down a bit. She was slim, with two large light blue eyes, long and curly straw-brown hair, somewhat misaligned; many times, she let it fall on her face, and this did not seem to matter to her. Like her other personal information, her exact age was unknown. Still, possibly it was not more than thirty years old, because when she arrived at that shelter twelve years ago, she was just a young girl who did not appear to be more than sixteen or seventeen.
"You look very active today," Sully pointed out. "It's good that you have a hobby."
Evelyn didn't answer him. She finished cutting the article and quickly moved on to placing it in her album, leaving three pages empty before finding the right place. All this while she continued whispering slowly that strange song, but apparently she liked it so much. Sully prepared to retire and go about his business. He started for the door when Evelyn spoke to him again.
"I'll have visitors today," she commented suddenly. The nurse stopped and turned to see her, a little surprised.
"Seriously? How do you know?"
Evelyn took a few seconds to finish perfectly arranging the clipping on the album before answering.
"I just feel it," she murmured slowly. "Can you pass them here as soon as they arrive?"
Sully snorted wryly, though he tried to be discreet.
"Sure, I'll do it," he replied, trying not to sound too sarcastic.
"Thank you."
Sully withdrew, closing the door behind him. He didn't want to tease her; he was not that kind of person. But the truth is that it was unlikely that she would receive any visitors, not that day or ever. No one knew who she was, and therefore no one knew if she had family or friends outside of that place. But it was nice to see her have that kind of hope. He hoped she wouldn't be too disappointed if things didn't turn out the way she expected.
When Sully finished making his rounds, he headed to the reception area to greet Maria, one of the security guards whose shift began at two o'clock.
"Hi, Sully," the woman greeted him from behind the visitor registration bar.
"What's up, Maria?" The male nurse greeted her enthusiastically, leaning on the bar. "Guess who just made another prediction."
Maria turned to see him curiously.
"Evelyn?" She asked uncertainty, to which Sully nodded slowly. Maria gave a small amused laugh. "Now, what did she say?"
"Nothing huge this time. She only said that today she'll receive visitors."
"Seriously?" The guard inquired, arching her left eyebrow in disbelief. "If no one has come to see her in… how many years?"
"I don't know. But hey, from all the patients here..."
Sully had no chance to finish what he was going to say because, at that moment, a man and a woman approached the registration area. The nurse stepped aside to give them free space, and the two of them stood in front of Maria, who looked at them carefully, waiting for them to announce what they wanted. The visiting woman was the one who stepped forward to speak first.
"Good afternoon," the short-haired brown woman said. "I'm Dr. Matilda Honey; he is my colleague, Detective Cole Sear. We came to see a patient admitted here named Evelyn; no last name as I understand it."
Both Sully and Maria were shocked when they heard that, and they looked at each other as if they were wondering each other with their glances if they had listened to the same thing; indeed, it seemed so. The two visitors looked at this strangely.
"Everything is fine? The blonde man questioned, forcing them to react.
"No, nothing," Maria answered hastily. "Did you said Evelyn...?"
"Yes," replied the brown-haired woman. "I spoke two days ago with Doctor..." She looked inside her bag at that moment for a piece of paper on which she had written down the name, "Dr. Horton, and he confirmed that she is still here. She was admitted twelve years ago if it's any use to identify her."
Again, both employees of the place looked at each other. Was that a coincidence?
"Yes, she is here," Sully replied, trying to sound calm. "And, in fact, I think she's waiting for you..."
That statement seemed to surprise the visitors, who now were the ones who had to look at each other.
After registering and leaving two IDs at the front desk, the nurse guided Matilda and Cole to Evelyn's room. They walked a few steps behind, while the man in white walked ahead down the long hall. What they had said a few minutes ago left them both thinking a bit. Taking advantage of the fact that their guide did not see them, Cole moved a little closer to Matilda and whispered slowly:
"Do you think she...?" He murmured, and then with his hand, made the gesture to imitate a flickering light. A somewhat crude way, but Matilda understood what he wanted to ask her because she thought so too: could Evelyn shine?
If what the nurse had said was right, and indeed she knew that they would come to see her without anyone giving her advance notice, it was quite likely that it was so. Also, they couldn't ignore the unique abilities her biological daughter possessed. That thought reminded her of that conversation she'd had with the Mother Superior at the women's shelter.
If it is a mental illness that the little girl is suffering from, I am afraid that maybe she could have inherited it from her mother. That works like that, right?
It wasn't a mental illness they talked about, but it could be inherited. Although most of the cases Matilda had seen were not like that, or failing that they were usually inherited from grandparents to grandchildren. But there were some cases in which a child with the Shining had inherited it from one or two parents who also possessed it. Was Samara one of them?
"We'll know in a second," the psychiatrist pointed out simply.
When they were near the room, Evelyn's voice began to be heard humming the melody that she had repeated throughout that afternoon. Matilda paused for a moment, trying to perceive it more carefully. Every word or tune she heard confirmed the thought that had arisen in the beginning: she had heard that song before, and recently.
"Something wrong?" Cole asked her, seeing that she stopped without warning.
"No, nothing. It's just that song…" She then pointed upward with her finger. "I've heard Samara singing it sometimes."
Cole stared at her, then glanced at Sully, who was already waiting for them in front of the door they were heading to. It was evident that the person who was singing was in there. And if so, then that person should be Evelyn.
"So strange," the cop commented. "Wasn't Samara supposed to be adopted when she was just a baby?"
Indeed, she was. It wouldn't make sense for her to remember a song her birth mother sang to her since, at most, she'd been with them for a few weeks before they were separated. It might mean nothing.
"Maybe it's a familiar song around here," Matilda pointed out, trying to downplay it and quickly started walking again.
Sully unlocked the room door with his access pass. Once the door was opened, the song's sound became louder, which confused Matilda even more.
"Hello again, Evelyn," Sully said, entering first. "You were right. You have visitors."
Matilda and Cole entered cautiously behind the male nurse, each taking a quick look around the room. Everything looked pretty standard, although they had no reason to think it wouldn't be. The woman they were going to see was sitting at a desk at the back of the room, illuminated by natural light coming through a window just above her.
Evelyn kept clipping articles, and her attention was fixed on that work, despite the sudden arrival of her visitors.
"Thank you, Sully," was the only thing that escaped her lips, barely as a whisper.
Matilda inched toward the center of the room, staring at Evelyn's back, covered by her abundant brown hair. She didn't feel anything in particular when she was in that room and in the presence of that woman. Her Shining did not alert her to anything, for better or for worse. But this was, in turn, a bizarre feeling; it was as if no one was actually sitting there. But there she was, Samara's biological mother, the embodiment of the secret she had been keeping from her newest patient since she found out a few weeks ago. The woman who gave her life and tried to drown her when she was born.
Only then did she meditate on the fact that they really weren't so far from Moesko Island right now. Samara and her biological mother were relatively close, possibly without knowing it.
"Can you leave us alone for a few minutes?" Matilda heard Cole from behind her, asking the nurse.
"Sure. I'll be around in case you need anything, Evelyn."
"I'll be fine, Sully," Evelyn replied in a muffled voice, without turning to see him.
Sully left the room, closing the door behind him. As soon as she heard the sound of the door latch, Matilda was encouraged to continue advancing towards the desk, with the caution of a hunter trying not to scare her prey. Cole, for his part, stood a meter from the door, waiting in silence. He had told Matilda that he would let her lead, and so he would. Still, he would pay close attention to every word that was said; he needed to listen to everything...
Matilda stood just behind Evelyn's chair, at a suitable distance so as not to be invasive.
"Hello, Evelyn," she murmured softly and gently. "My name is Matilda, and he is Cole." The woman did not answer or look at her. "Did you know that we would come to see you?"
Evelyn was silent for several seconds, and it seemed that again she would not say anything. However, in the end, she replied:
"Not quite. Only sometimes… I have hunches."
The psychiatrist discreetly glanced over her shoulder at her companion. Cole shrugged, not knowing what else to add. It sounded like a possible perception, but perhaps not so much that it warranted labeling it as Shining.
Matilda peeked subtly over Evelyn's shoulder, overseeing her cut up of a newspaper, specifically the photo of a train that accompanied an article.
"Do you collect newspaper clippings?"
"Only the ones I find interesting," Evelyn replied, much faster now than before. "They help me get my mind in order and locate where I am."
He took the perfectly cropped photo of the train, then flipped back at least five pages in her album to place it on a page with barely a little free space left, much smaller than the size of the photo.
"You were doing it before you came in here, right?" Matilda pointed out, and at that moment, she reached for something inside her bag. She then took out a small book and held it out to her left. Evelyn slowly tore her deep, clear eyes away from her album. She looked at the book in confusion… but also in fascination. "This belongs to you, right? It was in your suitcase, the one you came to the women's shelter with twelve years ago. You remember?"
Evelyn stared at the small book in silence for a while before finally reacting and taking it gently between her fingers, almost as if she were afraid to break it. She ran her fingertips lightly over its paste, feeling its texture, drawing with them the lines that formed the pattern printed on it. Meanwhile, Matilda watched all her reactions. In general, her expression was absent and gone, but deep down, she could perceive small flashes of emotion. Still, it was difficult to tell if it was a good or bad emotion.
"The nuns were very nice," she whispered suddenly, but it didn't seem like she was saying it to her, "with me and..."
Evelyn fell silent abruptly, and her eyes widened in an expression of astonishment or even fear. Matilda leaned toward her a little.
"Samara?" She whispered slowly. "Do you remember your daughter, Samara?"
A small murmur came from Evelyn's mouth, like a groan. She raised her alarmed face to her then, and as soon as their gazes met, Evelyn jumped from her chair and backed away.
"Who are you? What do you want?" She questioned altered, raising her arms in front of her in a defensive position.
"Evelyn, keep calm," Matilda murmured, raising her hands in front of her. "I am a psychiatrist, and I am currently treating Samara. Do you remember her?"
"Samara?" Evelyn began to shake her head insistently. "No, no, no... It's not possible... she died..."
"No, she didn't. She is alive…"
"You are wrong," the patient interrupted sharply. "She died, I felt it... and I saw it..."
Matilda did not understand what she meant by that statement. Did she tell when she tried to drown Samara in the fountain? Did she think she had managed to drown her back then? It would be strange, since commonly, patients who committed these acts used to denial and completely blocked everything related to that act. Besides, it would be quite odd if her doctors had never dealt with that matter in twelve years and tried to convince her that she didn't do that.
Or was it something else?
"No, Evelyn, she is alive. She grew up big and strong and is now a beautiful girl."
She didn't know how a good idea it would be to face her with reality head-on, especially without her current doctors' supervision and advice. But she decided to take a chance. She looked inside her bag again and carried out a square photograph, taken from Samara's file. It was a photo of the girl before she was admitted. She was wearing a blue dress, and she was looking at the camera with a cold expression and just a very tiny smile peeking across her thin lips.
Matilda handed the photo to Evelyn, and she looked confused as if it were something that she couldn't recognize its shape with the naked eye. Evelyn approached it carefully and took it between her fingers with the same delicacy she had taken the notebook. She brought it closer to her and looked at it carefully, analyzing every noticeable feature of the girl.
"Samara...?" Evelyn whispered slowly incredulously. Then she moved carefully towards the window, making the light coming through it illuminate the photo, perhaps so that she could see it more clearly. "It can't be… If she's alive, then…" She lowered the picture and looked out the window at no particular point. "What did I see? Who did I see die in that well?"
"Well?" Cole exclaimed, confused, although that sentiment was also shared by Matilda. What well was she talking about? Was she referring to the fountain of the women's shelter? Did she think it was a well?
"No, no, no…" the patient repeated again, then beginning to walk up and down the room, hugging herself as if trying to calm the cold. "If she is alive, then He is still looking for her... He will find her..."
"He…?" Matilda murmured, but before she could ask anything else, Cole abruptly intervened.
"Who is he?" Cole asked with some haste, approaching her. "Who is looking for Samara?"
"Detective…" Matilda screamed, but Cole held up a hand to her, signaling her to wait a bit.
Evelyn kept walking from one side to the other uncontrollably. Cole dared to get close enough and took her by the arms to stop her, though without much force.
"Evelyn, look at me," he asked, almost pleading; the young woman turned to see him just a little, unable to entirely hold his gaze. "Who is looking for Samara? Who were you trying to hide her from? You can trust me."
Evelyn stammered very slowly for a few seconds, apparently meaningless words.
"Father Burke told me He had chosen us," she suddenly murmured, much more understandable. "He told me that He would give life to the one who would come to transform the world through us. He showed him everything in visions… He made him do it… I couldn't help it… I couldn't help it…"
Her voice had abruptly taken on a feeling of despair. Her breath hitched, and her entire body trembled slightly.
"Evelyn, everything is fine," Matilda exclaimed in alarm and quickly approached her. Cole stepped aside to make room for her, and now it was she who took her gently by her shoulders. "Breathe, calm down... It's okay; you're safe."
The young woman began to breathe more and more calmly, but she continued to babble uncontrollably.
"I tried to stop him… I wanted to do it when Samara was still a baby, but they stopped me. I thought someone else had done it, I saw it and felt it, but it wasn't... She is still here, and He is coming for her..."
"Who is he, Evelyn?" Cole insisted on behind Matilda. "Who? Tell me, please."
Her breathing steadied gradually until she seemed as calm again as when they first entered. She then turned her face back to the window, also not looking at anything in particular... or, perhaps, looking at something far beyond what was actually seen through that window.
"I long ago stopped hearing His voice from the sea," Evelyn whispered suddenly as if it were the lost verse of some old song. "I thought He was gone... but now I believe He just forgot about me."
She turned back to Matilda, now looking at her more directly than before.
"You... you must. You must finish what I couldn't."
"What do you mean? Are you talking about Samara? Is that why you wanted to drown her?"
"I did it because she asked me to… It was the only way to save her from Him…" She dropped the notebook and the photo of Samara at that moment, and instead, she now took Matilda from her arms, with more force than her small body could make it look like she possessed it. "Only water can do it; only water can release her. You have to do it before she hurts others... Because she already did it, right?"
Matilda fell silent, stunned by everything she heard. Was she asking her what she believed? Was she asking her to kill Samara? She too? It all abruptly turned into deja vu of her conversation with Anna Morgan, which paralyzed her for a moment. Not only her adoptive mother but did her biological mother want her dead as well?
No, she should calm down and not get carried away by emotions. It was evident that this was all a delusion, something that had been accompanying her for twelve years. She couldn't have a clue what she was saying.
"Evelyn, you're confused," Matilda answered in a calm voice. "You have spent all these years obsessed with these ideas, but you need to let go of all this. Otherwise, you can't ever recover..."
"You're not listening to me!" Evelyn yelled loudly and jerked her arms violently to free herself from her grasp. She backed toward the window again and leaned out of it, almost pressing her face entirely against it. "Maybe it's too late... maybe He already has her..."
Before Matilda or Cole could say or do anything else, the door opened, and nurse Sully returned, apparently alerted by Evelyn's latest cry. He approached the woman and took her delicately to try to guide her to the bed.
"Evelyn, are you okay?" He whispered slowly, but the young woman did not answer anything. However, she did allow him to guide her without resistance. "Sorry, I think you better get out."
Matilda seemed reluctant to leave; that had just begun. But she felt Cole put a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.
"Come on, Doctor," he instructed, then nodded toward the door. "Let her calm down..."
Matilda didn't say anything, but inside she wasn't happy with the idea. But she still allowed herself to follow him to the door without many more options, not before picking up the notebook and Samara's photo again.
"Round... we... go… The world… is… spinning…" They heard Evelyn hum very slowly, but still audible thanks to the acoustics of the room. Matilda stopped and turned to see how the nurse laid her on the bed while singing that same melody again. "When... it... stops… it's just... beginning… Sun... goes... up... We live... and... we cry... Sun... goes down..." Evelyn turned to look at the doctor directly, just before she chanted the last verse. "And then... we all die..."
A sensation finally ran through Matilda's entire body at that moment, like a cold, worrying jolt. She had felt something similar before when she touched the white blanket that came in the suitcase from the shelter for the first time. One of Evelyn's possessions.
Cole touched her again to wake her up, and then they both managed to leave the room to let Evelyn rest for a few moments.
END OF CHAPTER 35
Author's Notes:
— Evelyn is wholly based on the respective character in the movie The Ring 2 of 2005, taking into account some aspects that were shown in the film Rings of 2017. The most significant change to consider is concerning her age. Here, she was seen relatively younger due to the change of time applied to this franchise's characters. Her appearance is described a bit more based on her appearance in Rings, where she was seen younger in memories and visions.