Page 9 of Unwell
‘Elijah?!’
His name echoed back at me. The sound of a raven taking flight sounded from above.
A rope dangled from a branch, its frayed ends twisting in the breeze. A knot tied it firmly above.
It sent a dart along my spine, and I gathered up my dropped book, dusting the dirt from its corner and holding it tight to my chest.
Before heading back, I searched for a way out, but all I found was tall, pointed metal fencing.
Nurse Nancy was frantic when I stumbled back to the asylum doors, bloodied from the sharp claws of the trees, mulch staining my white dress, and twigs caught in my hair.
‘Good lord, girl. Let’s get you in and cleaned up before a doctor sees you. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’
FIVE
NANCY
‘If you stop feeding them, they won’t bite you.’
Larry hissed as I applied the antiseptic-soaked gauze to the rat bites that covered his hands.
‘They’re going to make you sick. They carry diseases,’ I admonished, like he was a child, despite him towering over me in both height and girth. Not for the first time, I thanked the stars he was a gentle giant, because even half a dozen grown men would have struggled to hold him back if he lost his temper.
As far as I knew, he’d only lost his temper once. That loss of temper had resulted in the gruesome deaths of three children in his class. Three children who thought pushing the odd big kid would be fun.
They were deadly wrong.
And Larry had grown up here at Wellard, with only the rats as his friends.
‘Larry,’ I sighed, applying band-aids to his various wounds. ‘You must be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.’
Tension halted me as Larry gripped my wrist in one gargantuan hand. I exhaled only when he smiled softly and let go, patting me instead.
‘It’s kind of you to worry about me. I’ll be okay, my friends don’t mean to hurt me. Same as I don’t mean to hurt my friends. Accidents happen.’
‘They do.’
Larry’s eyes unfocused for a moment, and I knew he was no longer thinking about rats.
‘Nurse Nancy?’ Ginny broke through my half-trance and I dropped my hands from Larry’s.
‘Yes?’ Packing away my nursing kit, I turned to face her. ‘Can I help you?’
In the weeks since I’d known her, I hadn’t gleaned any more insight into why she was incarcerated at Wellard.
‘Has Elijah tried to visit again?’
Elijah?
‘Who’s Elijah?’ I asked.
‘Well, he’s my boyfriend. The daddy of my little one. He said he tried to visit me and couldn’t because he isn’t family.’
Confusion knitted my brows. As far as I knew, no one had attempted to visit Ginny.
‘Wait…he spoke to you? How?’
Ginny dropped her voice, a rare smile lifting the corner of her mouth. ‘You can’t tell anyone, but he snuck in to visit me.’
