Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The smell was familiar… and unpleasant. It took a few moments for Natalie to wake up enough to identify it.
As she slowly swam up through the murky depths, moving from unconsciousness to consciousness, other things teased her senses.
In addition to the antiseptic smell was a steady mechanical beep-beep nearby.
And the sounds of people moving around, both close like they were right next to her and at a distance, muffled.
Even before she opened her eyes the answer was clear. One word hit her.
Hospital.
Forcing her eyes open, she winced as the brightness of the overhead lights assaulted her.
“Oh, thank God.” Suddenly Harper was there, in her field of vision, close as she leaned over the rail toward Natalie lying prone in the bed.
Natalie swallowed and realized how raw and dry her throat felt. She glanced around and saw she was surrounded by a curtained enclosure in a small space.
“Harper. Where—” Natalie stopped. Her throat felt like sandpaper and her words came out barely audible in a gravelly whisper.
She clasped a hand to her throat.
Harper reached for her own bottle of water and pressed it to Natalie’s lips. She took a sip and swallowed it painfully, coughing on even that small amount.
“Take it slow. You’re in the ICU in the hospital in Cooperstown. Don’t try to talk. They had you sedated and intubated until just a little while ago. But you’re awake now. Liam will be so happy. He’s been beside himself.”
Natalie had to try to talk, in spite of Harper telling her not to. She had to tell Harper, Liam, everyone, that they hadn’t contained the brain ghost.
It was still out there. Doing harm. To possibly more people than just her. Because now that she’d reached full consciousness, the memories poured into her mind. The mental attack. The painful pounding of her heart. Collapsing and being unable to breathe. Unable to move.
“Get Liam,” she said, glancing wistfully at the bottle of water again. But more than needing something to soothe her throat, she needed to tell Liam what had happened to her.
Harper cringed. “I wish I could get Liam. He was, um, kicked out.”
“Wh-what?”
“They wouldn’t let him in to be with you here in the ICU.
Visitors are restricted to immediate family only.
He called me to come be with you because, as he put it, he kind of lost it and had been removed from the building.
He’s not allowed back in. I’m so sorry. But I’m texting him right now with an update. ”
As Harper pulled out her cell, Natalie tried to reason out what had happened. Liam must not have any friends or contacts working in Cooperstown like he did at the hospital in Albany.
This was a good news slash bad news scenario. She must not have been bad enough to be airlifted to Albany, like Alice. But if she had been, Liam would have called in any favors, pulled any strings necessary, to be with her in that hospital.
“How are you here?” Natalie asked, glancing up at Harper when her sluggish brain realized that somehow Harper had been able to bypass the ICU rules.
Harper glanced up from her cell with a small smile. “Well, I can be here, silly, because I’m your sister. Immediate family is allowed.” Then Harper mouthed silently. “I lied.”
Natalie nodded, tears of gratitude in her eyes for Harper’s quick thinking and proficient ability to lie. The only thing worse than waking up in a hospital would be waking up here alone.
Liam might have thought to lie as well if he hadn’t been so crazed, probably because she’d almost been run over by a train.
That thought resurrected another memory. “The train… I couldn’t move.”
Her heart pounded again, hard, just at the thought. The beeps beeped faster.
Harper reached out and covered Natalie’s hand with her own. “Shh. I know. I know. He told me. It’s okay. Don’t think about it. Liam was there. He pulled you off the tracks in time and called for help. You’re okay and that’s all that matters.”
Her being okay was definitely not all that mattered. That an evil entity with the power to kill was still on the loose was the only thing that mattered now.
“No.” Natalie shook her head and tried to sit up. “I have to get up… get back to Mudville.”
“Natalie, stop. You can’t. You almost died—again. You have to rest.”
“I can rest at home.” Natalie frowned at the railing keeping her contained.
The low double rail might as well be a prison cell given how impossible it was for her to figure out how to lower it so she could get out of this bed.
She shook the railing and noticed the tubes and wires attached to her arm, and elsewhere. Her exit might not be as easy as she anticipated.
Harper’s cell vibrated with a call, interrupting Natalie’s escape planning.
“It’s Liam,” Harper announced before answering it. She’d barely said hello before thrusting the phone at Natalie. “He wants to talk to you.”
Good. Liam would listen to her. He’d help her escape this place. She grabbed the cell. “Liam. I have to get out of here.”
She heard the whoosh of breath through the receiver and Liam saying, “You’re okay.” It was more comment than question.
“I’ll be better when you get me out of here.”
“I don’t exactly have any pull at this hospital.
Especially now. I’m lucky they haven’t had security escort me off the property completely.
Harper’s been keeping me informed of your progress since they won’t even answer my questions when I call.
I’m keeping out of sight, sitting inside the Jeep parked in the lot opposite the front entrance. ”
Liam was here. Parked right outside the building.
How long had he been sitting out there, just to be near her? As much as that thought gave her a squishy warm feeling in her chest, they were in a code red situation here. There’d be time for romance later. Fighting evil was the priority now.
“Stay there. I’ll sneak out. Pick me up outside.” She glanced around, hoping her clothes were somewhere nearby. She’d have to pretend she was just a visitor, leaving. But it would be infinitely harder to slip past the nurses and security wearing a hospital gown.
“Nat. You were in acute respiratory failure when I found you. As much as I hate to say this, because I can’t be there with you, but I think you need to stay another night.”
“Another night?” Her voice, still scratchy, somehow rose an octave higher than normal at that revelation. “How many nights has it been? How long have I been in here?”
“Just one night,” Harper supplied.
“Twenty-one hours,” Liam answered more precisely.
Twenty-one hours.
Nearly a full day. A whole day during which that thing was out there doing God only knew what to the people of Mudville.
“I need to be home. Now. The brain ghost is not contained. It’s what attacked me. And can attack again.”
Both Harper and Liam were silent for a moment. Natalie could only see Harper’s expression of horror though.
She had to imagine Liam’s reaction to the news until he finally spoke, biting out an obscenity before saying, “I was afraid that was the case. The battery in my cell phone had been drained. The neighbors’ phones too.
They heard me shouting for help and had to use a landline to call 9-1-1.
It was gathering energy for the attack… The lights— Fuck!
They flickered right before your attack.
This thing can harvest electricity. I should have realized.
Dammit! It’s my fault for assuming the solution would be as easy as a stupid lead pig. ”
“Liam. Stop. It’s not your fault. We all thought it worked. But I need to be in Mudville. We need a plan.”
This was going to take a full town effort and she needed to be there for it.