hey! sorry i'm late posting, i know i promised chapter 8 on thursday, but there were technical difficulties.
Chapter Eight: Unusual Suspects
We didn't have the name of the victim, but he was easy to spot in the ICU. Among all the beds filled with the sick or injured was a space that had been closed off with a pale blue curtain, with several doctors dipping in and out. The space was guarded by two men- the sheriff and the mayor.
My stomach did a flop and I glanced towards the door we had just entered through, wondering how quickly the receptionist could unlock it for me and how suspicious that would look. I took a step back, but felt Daphne place a hand on my shoulder, pulling me down slightly as she leaned up towards me.
"Be cool," she whispered through gritted teeth. "Just remember: there's nothing he can do to you without giving himself away."
I nodded, swallowing as the four of us approached the two men, who puffed out their chests at us like tropical birds.
"Fred," my dad said, clearing his throat, "I was wondering where you got off to last night."
"I was out," I muttered. I tried to look him in the eye, but it felt as though our gazes were the south ends of two magnets- able to come close to each other, but never meet.
My father nodded. "Out, huh?" He raised a charcoal-colored eyebrow at me. "Do anything interesting?"
"Yeah, actually," I said, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm my racing heart beat. "Daph and I stopped by that party you were supposed to be hosting at The Silver Angel, but we didn't see you there."
"How funny," my dad sneered through gritted teeth.
"I don't know how many times I'll have to tell you kids this," Sheriff Stone interjected, "but there's nothing going on here worth nosing about over. This is all routine stuff. Best the three of you just head on home- especially you, Jones."
I turned, noticing that our group had in fact been reduced to three, with Shaggy nowhere in sight. I figured that he'd probably ducked out at the first sign of trouble and headed down to the hospital cafeteria, where we'd promised to take him after we met with the victim to get Jello cups for Scooby-Doo.
A chime filled the air and we all glanced up as a voice cracked over the PA system.
"Will Sheriff Stone and Mayor Jones please report to the pediatrics wing?" The voice sang. It was a low and seductive feminine tone, which spilled out over the nearby speaker that perched on the ceiling. "I repeat, Sheriff Stone and Mayor Jones to the pediatrics wing. Thank you."
My father huffed and slid his glasses up his nose, pushing past the three of us and marching to the exit of the ICU. Sheriff Stone paused as he began to follow my father, pointing a fat and calloused finger right in Velma's face.
"I mean it," he scolded, "go home."
"Alright, Alright," Velma mumbled, stepping away from the sheriff as he turned to leave. "Don't spill your cocoa over it."
The sheriff spun around, but we all just stared at him with wide and innocent eyes, pretending we hadn't heard her remark. He scoffed and turned back towards my dad, chasing after him and leaving us alone with the victim.
Tentatively, I pulled back the blue curtain, revealing the victim to myself and the girls. He laid motionless, wrapped almost from head to toe in bandages, with one leg suspended in the air. His heart monitor was keeping a steady beat, which was a good sign. No flowers or balloons were present around his bed, which I supposed was to be expected. He was from out of town, after all.
A pair of dark eyes shot toward us and we all jumped. The man watched us for a moment before slowly parting his cracked lips.
"You just gonna stand there?" He muttered hoarsely, as though he'd just woken from a long nap.
I sat down gingerly on the edge of his bed. I almost offered him my hand to shake but, noticing the bandages that coiled around either one of his large hands, thought better of it.
"My name's Fred Jones," I stammered.
"Jones," The man cooed. "Any relation to that mayor of yours?"
"No." I lied, a little too definitively.
"Good." The man nodded slightly, "what can I do for you, Mr. Jones?"
"I-" I started before quickly stopping myself. "We... We just want to know what happened to you. The mayor and the sheriff don't seem to care about the truth."
The man's heart monitor picked up at this. I glanced toward Velma and Daphne, silently wondering if I'd said the wrong thing and pleading for a quick save.
"I came to town for Mayor Jones' summit about boosting the local economy in small towns- increasing tourism and whatnot." The man said, barely above a whisper. "Where I come from in Georgia, folks aren't too keen on change, so the mayor took me out on the town yesterday evening, hoping to butter me up before the summit."
"What about his party? You didn't go?" Daphne interjected. The man shook his head.
"The plan had been to go out for dinner, then attend the party afterwords," he explained. "Of course, I didn't make it that far. You see, I got up to use the restroom before desert, and as I was coming back, I swore I saw the mayor slip something into my drink. I didn't think much of it, but as we were leaving the restaurant, I felt the strangest sensation come over me..."
The man's monitor continued to pick up speed, and we felt the tension in the room increase. We all sat on the edge of our seats, hungry for more information.
"My vision turned to a sea of swirling colors, and all I could hear was this... Growl. I raced back to my hotel, the horrible noise following me as I went. It wasn't until I got back to my room when I finally saw it..." The man stared blankly, his eyes filled with terror as though he were reliving the moment that got him to this point. His monitor sped up again.
"Saw what?" Velma asked, looking up from the notepad she'd been writing on.
The man opened his mouth the speak, but froze at the sound of the curtain behind us being ripped open. We all turned around in shock, expecting to see my dad or a hospital attendant there to scold us and send us away, tearing the truth we'd worked so hard to find right from our clutches. Instead, it was Shaggy. He was eating a cup full of Jello, and neatly closed the curtain behind him before sitting down on the bed.
"Where were you?" Velma whispered, scolding Shaggy for having left the group.
"Will you cool it?" Shaggy snapped in return. "Besides, you guys should be thanking me. How'd you like my little trick with the PA?"
We stared at him with wide eyes, all a combination of disgusted and impressed at his quick thinking- not to mention his grotesquely convincing sexy nurse voice. A billion questions burned in my mind about my enigmatic friend, but I pushed them all aside, returning to the matter at hand.
"You can finish, Sir," I said, rolling my eyes at Shaggy and turning back to the man.
"I'm sure you'll think I'm nuts," He began, chuckling cynically to himself, "but it was a monster. Blacker than the night, with fangs and claws like nothing you've ever seen. Af first I thought I was just seeing things, but then-"
"No." I interrupted, "there's no way it was a monster. You were high, for Christ's sake, there's no way to be sure. It was probably just a bear."
The man chuckled at me, and peeled back one of his many bandages, revealing a gash unlike anything I'd ever seen. A whole section of skin on his torso had been peeled off, leaving in it's place a gaping hole filled with puss and muscle tissue, with thick red blood pooling inside and spilling out. Harsh bruising surrounded the gash, with many more gory cuts surrounding he central wound.
"You ever seen a bear do this?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
My stomach churned, not only at the sight of the wound, but all the new information being thrown at me. I placed a foot on the floor, hoping it would help the room stop rotating. The man refastened his bandage.
"You ever seen a bear get into a locked room without breakin' nothing?" He continued. "I promise you, boy, this was no bear. This was something else... something evil."
I stood up suddenly, pushing open the curtain and stepping back out into the ICU. I dodged rushing doctors as I stormed out of the room, my head spinning as I tried to grasp everything going on around me.
Monsters weren't real. It was something I'd been able to say with a great deal of certainty for most of my life. The idea that the boogeyman, or some other creature that went bump in the night, had been attacking the politicians in town was troubling, to say the least.
I barreled out of the hospital and onto the sidewalk, where the cool breeze blew at my tee shirt and sent a shiver through my spine. I stood in the street, running my hands through my hair as I gathered my thoughts.
I heard the hospital door swing open behind me and my friends ran out. Daphne reached out to touch my back but I shrugged away from her, turning to walk down the street without saying a word to them.
"Fred, wait!" Daphne called, reaching out again and taking my hand. I spun around to face her, my face going red with anger and confusion.
"I told you guys- I'm done! It's over!" I snapped, "My dad's a drug lord, monsters are killing people- it's insane! We shouldn't have come here today, and we aren't coming back!"
"We thought you cared about helping people." Velma said. It was like a knife driving directly into my heart, but I didn't allow myself to crack.
"You know what guys?" I said, snatching my arm back from Daphne. "We're done. See you around."
I turned down the street, and the gang didn't chase me. I supposed they didn't have a reason to, considering as I'd just severed our friendship. It was hasty, and I instantly regretted it, but it was the only way to definitively separate myself from this mystery. I'd never felt so alone, but in a strange sense, I also felt a weight lifted off of my chest.
It didn't last, though. These things never did.
this wasn't really my favorite chapter, but i didn't want to waste time trying to change it. chapter nine is one of my favorites so far, and will be coming soon!