Page 74 of Until You Found Me

His breath hitches as he tries to find his words. “Not mad. Love you too much to be mad. Is it hard for you to be here again?”

She allows the change of subject and welcomes the offer of a temporary truce.

Tessa was the patient during her last visit. The smell is the same, antiseptic and bleach plus whatever they use to try to cover it, and it rolls her stomach all over again. She could lie and say she’s fine, but what good is that when they’re supposed to trust each other? “It’s not pleasant, but I’ll be okay. I didn’t like being here alone at night last time. It had this strange vibe to it, creepy almost.”

“Like a liminal space.”

“A what?”

“Places that feel off somehow. Like they don’t belong. Old McDonald’s with eighties decor, silent subway stations at night, empty hospital halls when the rest of the world is asleep.”

“Yeah, exactly like that. Some sort of portal to another world,” she half teases.

“Maybe. I felt it too every time I stayed here. When I was a kid, it was worse. All the machines were so big, and the nurses were nice enough, but they got busy, had other things to do than sit with me. I’d be in one of these rooms under the covers, fresh off a diabetic coma or some other bullshit, thinking whatever lurks in the shadows was about to get me.”

“No one stayed with you? Your sister?”

“No. My momma did before she passed, but then she was gone and after that, I was better off with my old man drunk at home instead of here with me. Didn’t want Carley around. She’d just fight with me about something. There was this one time…”

He trails off and the heart rate monitor ticks up at the same time she feels a flutter under her ear. “What?”

“You’ll think it’s weird or that I’m making it up.”

“I won’t unless you tell me it’s a mermaid again.”

He huffs. “Not this time.”

“Then try me.”

“I was ten or eleven. Wasn’t even here for diabetes, had a broken arm and a concussion from some bike accident, they wanted to run a bunch of tests and back then the state paid for everything, so I got to stay overnight. Sometimes it was good, ya know? To get away from that house. Was safer here, liminal spaces or not.”

She hums out a sound of understanding, stroking the fabric of his shirt to draw casual shapes across his chest.

“But this time was different. I met someone. It was late, the halls were dark, only one or two staff left. I’d gotten hungry and went to fetch a bagel from the break room and someone else was there doing the same thing. He was my age, all bruised up and bandaged, digging in the fridge. Told me he was in a car accident, that he didn’t like being here alone and I said I didn’t either. He spent the night in my room and we talked about school and TV shows. It was easier to fall asleep when I wasn’t alone, but he was gone in the morning.”

“I bet the nurses panicked when he wasn’t in his room,” she replies.

“That’s the thing. No one came looking. And when I asked if I could talk to him before I left, they looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Like I was playing some sick joke on them.”

“Oh no…”

“Found out later there was a kid that age brought in the same night. Car accident. He didn’t make it.”

She lifts her head off his chest to find his eyes. “So you’re telling me this clinic is haunted?”

He nods. “Probably. Definitely. That creepy liminal space shit isn’t the half of it.”

“Well, I’m glad we’re here together then. You don’t need a ghost companion tonight. I’ll keep you safe instead.”

He smirks, sad and subdued. “You believe me? About that story?”

“Of course I do.”

“No one else did. Told my sister and she said if I told my father, he’d just beat the crazy outta me until I landed back in here again. You’re the first one I’ve told since. Why do you think he stayed with me all night?”

“Because you were both two lost souls who had no one else, so you found comfort in each other. It’s a sweet story, ghost aspect aside.”

“Wonder how many others lost souls wander these halls. Don’t want that to be me.”

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