Page 12 of Mara
“Forgive me. What are the spirits saying today?”
Alice concentrated again, a tear sliding down her cheek as she looked up at me.
“Dubi is gone? I can see him there. He said…‘Tell Alex that he is finally free.’ The voices are gone.”
I tried to remain composed, but the haunting chill climbing my spine made me face the area she was inspecting. I didn’t see anything, of course. Maybe word of Dubi’s death made it to the patients from last night’s gossiping nurses.
“Alice. Here is your medicine. Let the spirits sleep so you can too, okay? They need to let you rest.”
Alice nodded and waved off the spirits in the room, reaching out her frail hand to grab the medication.
Alice was one of my favorite patients, and seeing her name on the schedule for Dr. Hyde tomorrow morning made me uncomfortable.
We guesstimated that he was…experimenting in some fashion, but nothing was ethically done in that dark, dirty basement of the facility. I gave Alice’s hand squeeze. Tomorrow was my day off, and I didn’t trust my co-workers to protect her already fragile mind and body.
“Alice dear, your head hurts? Oh, you should cancel your appointment with Dr. Hy-Halstead.”
Alice seemed confused until I gave her the slightest nod. She looked beside me and then back at my eyes.
“Yes, Nurse Abara. My head is pounding.”
Sighing in relief, I marked the change on her chart and accepted the consequences I knew I would face later.
I finished my rounds before heading to the breakroom to clock out for the night.
Ping.
I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket and saw the screen flash with Gigi’s name. I figured it was a text letting me know she was thankful for hanging out…it wasn’t.
When I opened my phone, it was a video. At first, I couldn’t make out what I was seeing. I cupped my hands over the screenand leaned into the corner near my locker. The image was inside a dark room, the faintest color of powder blue visible behind a shadowy figure.
No, there were two shadowy figures. I rewatched it again and again, trying to piece together what my sister sent me.
Finally, I slowed down the image and pulled it apart frame by frame. I could just make out my sister’s curly, long hair and skinny body. The video appeared to be of her wall, and I recognized the color blue from her living room in the apartment.
My sister’s shadow was mishapened. It appeared that she was arching into something behind her, another shadowy form trying to absorb her’s. The second shadow was taller, broader, and more manly. Just as the video cut off, a slight turn from the wall was visible, and a hand came into view—a blurry tattooed hand of a skull.
My cochlear implants picked up the frequency as soon as I felt the vibration of the sound.
I jumped so hard that I dropped my phone, typed a few characters into the message box, and sent it on impact from the fall.
Shit!
“You okay? I can’t tell if you’re watching porn or a scary movie on your phone.” Alex grimaced at my reaction and held up their hands. “Oops. I’m sorry, Mara, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
I scrambled for my phone to see what ridiculous response I had just sent for a video message I barely understood.
Oh, how nice. I sent a trash emoji and a sweating face.
Were my social media scrolls so bad that I either lusted after a post or thought it was trash?
I tried to delete the message, but two little green checks underneath it told me I was screwed.
“Oh, for fucks sake,” I said out loud, vigorously tapping my phone to delete the response.
Bubbles popped up and I held my breath, not really understanding why my sister was sending cryptic shadow puppet messages in the first place.
The bubbles disappeared, and no message was returned.
