The Accidental Witch (11 page)

I had no idea Ellie could be so eloquent or passionate. I hadn’t ever seen her without snot dangling out of her nose.

“Thanks, Ellie, but …”

Ellie just handed me her card and walked away. She didn’t give me time to say no again. I looked at my watch. It was time to go to the ER. There were more people to see. I walked over to the nurse’s station to tell them where I was going. Millie was scowling at me. I really didn’t want to deal with her shit, but I couldn’t see my way around it, so I walked right up to her.

“I can see what you’re doing and you have to know that you’re hurting these people more than you are helping them,” she hissed.

“How do you figure that?” I asked

“They’ll never learn to deal with life,” she said.

“Yeah. Because life is teaching them well. It’s teaching them that some people get nothing but shit and others get bowls of gold-plated chocolate. Life is crap. Any relief I can give to the people on the bottom of the pile of shit, I’ll do without thinking, because some people never have to learn to deal with life and others do nothing but deal with it. And you know what, if you get in my way, I will put a curse on you so thick that you’ll have to crawl through your own vomit to get to the bathroom to vomit some more.”

Millie drew back in something that resembled fear. I had never seen Millie back down. I had never seen anyone silence her, but I had. She placed her hand over her mouth. I looked at her and smiled. She just stared into my eyes. I grabbed my clipboard and walked away. That felt so good, I wanted to laugh.

I walked into the ER like I was on top of the world. I had on new clothes and my shoes clacked against the floor as I walked. I felt like a phoenix. I had burnt up everything that I had been and had been reborn out of the ashes. I was new.

Diane watched me walk towards her with a quizzical expression on her face. She was wearing her usual ghost scrubs. She looked lovely, as always.

“Wow,” Diane said as I approached the ER nurses’ station.

“What?” I asked.

“You are on fire,” she said.

“What?” I said again.

“Between the new clothes and the magic, you are glowing. You’re beautiful.”

“Thanks, sweetie,” I said and for the first time in my life I believed what she said might be true.

“Bed eight is for you,” Diane said.

I grabbed the chart and walked down the hall to the room. I looked over the fact sheet before I stepped into the room. Bed eight was a paranoid schizophrenic with a long history of institutionalization who was having command hallucinations telling him to kill his wife and children. On the risk assessment, he scored a ten out of ten. I stepped into the ER room and waved away the security guard, who’d been sitting with him, with a pleasant smile and a wink. I assured the officer I was in no danger. The man who sat on the bed looked harmless. I couldn’t help but think,
What a waste.
He was a beautiful, young man. He looked like a model. His body was perfect, but his mind was lost.

I sat down on the chair across from him and smiled.

“I’m Phaedra,” I said. “I’m the therapist from behavioral health and I’m here to do your screening, okay?”

The young man stared at me and the lights flickered. I looked up and when I looked back down, there was a shadow behind the young man. I had never seen anything like it. I blinked, expecting the shape to be gone when I opened my eyes again, but it only became clearer. It was a figure. It was some kind of living being. It had eyes that glared out at me across the room. I could hear it whispering to the young man. I could hear it telling him to kill me.

I stood up and faced the creature. I looked it in the eyes and it seemed stunned and stepped backwards.

“Kill the witch,” the creature snarled. “Kill the witch!”

I turned away from the demon and faced the young man. He was crying.

“I can help you,” I said to him.

“No one can help me,” he said. “No one. No one. I just want to die.”

Suddenly, I felt like something stepped inside of me. I could see what I was doing, but my hands moved without my permission. I reached out and placed my hands on the man. I put them on his shoulders and pulled him to me, so that I could feel his body pressed up against mine. I placed my hand on his face and a voice curled out of my lips that was hardly my own.

“Be gone,” I said. “This one is mine now.”

The demon wailed. It hissed and spoke a language I couldn’t understand. It cried out in many tongues and the young man looked into my eyes and wept. The demon screamed and the lights flickered again and then it vanished into the floor. As it vanished, it struck out at me and pushed the young man over. I could feel the demon’s claws grabbing at me as it disappeared. The young man collapsed into my arms. I was unable to catch the young man and he fell on top of me with an enormous thud. We both hit the side of the bed together. Pain cut through my side as we crashed into the small bed. I tried to catch him and hold him up. I tried to save him from the fall, but the momentum pulling us both down was too great and he weighed at least sixty pounds more than me. As I tried to lift him up, the bed fell over against the door. We fell with the bed and I hit the hard tile with an alarming crunch. His body fell on top of mine and again I tried to prevent him from falling on top of me. Finally, I gave up and just held him against my chest as if he were a child. He wept on top of me. I felt utterly drained, as if I had just run a marathon. Every part of my body hurt and I could taste my own blood in my mouth.

“It’s gone now,” I whispered into his ear breathlessly. “It won’t come back.”

“Thank you,” he cried.

“You weren’t mad. They just didn’t understand and they never will, but it’s over now.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Suddenly, the door burst open and security rushed in the room. They pulled the young man off of me and helped me to my feet. One of the nurses grabbed me and security started pinning the young man to the bed, restraining him.

“Wait!” I yelled. Everyone froze. They looked at me as if I was insane. My skirt was torn and I was stained in blood. My panty hose were ripped and my blouse was open. I knew what they thought, but they were wrong.

“He collapsed,” I said. “This isn’t what you think. He just fell over. We hit the bed on the way down and my skirt got caught on the lever of the bed and tore. I hit the floor hard and he landed on me. He was too heavy for me, so we both fell over. He didn’t try to hurt me. I think he’s sick. He just fell over.”

He looked at me with dazzling eyes filled with tears and fear. I looked at his name. His name was Jeremy. I smiled at him and wiped the blood from my mouth.

“Someone get the doctor!” the nurse who was holding me yelled. The nurse’s name was Robert. I remembered Robert from school. He had been one of the football players that had made fun of me. We had worked together for a year pretending we didn’t remember each other, but you just don’t forget those types of things. Robert helped me out of the room and down to an empty bed. I hadn’t realized how hard I had hit the floor. As Robert helped me down the hall, I realized I was having trouble walking.

I sat on the bed and Robert cut the pantyhose away from my leg. There was a huge gash on my leg, and as if acknowledging the wound made it real, I suddenly felt exquisite pain all over my body. I fell back on the bed.

“You don’t have to lie for him,” Robert said to me as he cleaned my wound.

“What?” I whispered. I felt faint.

“He’s a monster. I know you care for all the patients here. They all love you. I can see how much you care, but you shouldn’t protect him. What if he hurts someone else?”

“He’s not a monster,” I whispered.

“He tried to kill his wife,” he said as he began cleaning the gash on my forehead. I looked up at Robert. Age hadn’t been kind to him. He was balding and a little overweight. You could see the memory of beauty in him, like a faded rose. His eyes were still bright and lovely. He looked down at me.

“You are an amazing woman,” he said as he looked at me.

“Hardly,” I answered.

“You are. You are one of those rare people that care,” he said as he wiped the blood from my lips. Suddenly, I became aware of how close he was to me. I was aware that he was too close. He was hitting on me. Shit. I had no idea what to do. I had been hit on by maybe five men in my life and I never knew what to do when it happened. I felt vulnerable. He was so close, he could kiss me and I knew he wanted to. I had to get away from him, but there was no way for me to flee without pushing him over and crawling out the door.

“Could you do me a favor?” I asked. “My boyfriend, Dr. Becket, works on the third floor. Could you tell him what’s happened?”

“You’re serious about Dr. Becket?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“But he’s just a player. He’ll only hurt you,” Robert said.

I wanted to push him back. I could feel his breath on my cheek and he was touching me. I knew he wasn’t dangerous. I knew he wasn’t that person. But I didn’t want him touching me.

“I like to play,” I said firmly. I put my hand on his shoulder and pushed him. I felt a small current pass through my hand, like static electricity and he jumped back.

“Please,” I said. “He would want to know.”

Robert shook his head and walked away. The ER doctor, Dr. Woo, walked in.

“He did a number on you, didn’t he?” Dr. Woo said in his slight accent.

“No,” I said. “It was an accident.”

Dr. Woo shrugged. “You are going to need some stitches and I think your leg may be broken. I’ll do the stitches and then we’ll have to send you over to x-ray. I’ve already had one of the nurses call the psychiatric floor and Heather is on her way to finish your shift. Greg wants you to take a few days off after this.”

Greg was the CEO. They had worked fast. It occurred to me that this was a sentinel event. This was a potential lawsuit and then some.

“Why did you ask security to leave?” Dr. Woo asked as he jabbed a needle in my leg.

“He seemed harmless enough and I can’t do a confidential interview with those guys in the room. They talk and they’re rude to the patients.”

“Still,” Dr. Woo said. “You have to know that was a bad idea.”

“Yes,” I said because I lacked the energy to fight. He was sewing me together like a ragdoll. I closed my eyes. I knew I was in trouble. I knew that Jeremy was in trouble. They didn’t believe me. I was a bleeding heart and everyone thought I was lying to protect a psycho. God only knew what they were going to do with Jeremy. They would probably commit him.

I heard the door open and shut. I didn’t open my eyes to see who came in, but I felt Aaron’s arms around me. I felt him kiss my forehead and I leaned into his arms and cried. He stroked my hair while Dr. Woo fixed me. He helped me into my wheelchair. He walked with me up to x-ray and held my hand while the police interviewed me. He stood beside me while they photographed my injuries. He talked to the police with hushed tones after they were done talking to me. I could almost feel their whispers; they were so loud. There was a little group of them. The police, Robert, Aaron, Dr. Woo, and the security guard. I watched the police take Jeremy away. They had given me something for the pain, hydrocodone I think, and I felt myself begin to drift.

“They don’t believe you,” Jeremy yelled to me as they pulled him away.

I smiled through my split, stitched lip. “Don’t be afraid,” I said. “It’ll all be right as rain in the morning.”

Diane wheeled me away from Jeremy and the police. She wheeled me to the nurse’s lounge and gave me a glass of water and sat down with me.

“What the hell happened in there?” Diane asked. “You look like you were mauled by a tiger. He did more than fall on you.”

“I saw it,” I said. “He was possessed. There was a demon with him. It was eating away at him. I fought with it. I cast it out and we both fell when it left. It was mean. I think some of the injuries came from the demon.”

Diane was temporarily speechless. “You saw a demon?” she whispered.

I nodded.

“Jesus Christ, Phae,” she whispered. “You cast out a demon on your own?”

I nodded.

“I’ve seen covens fail at doing that,” she whispered. “Are you sure it’s gone?”

I nodded.

“They think he tried to rape you and that you are so soft-hearted or soft-headed that you are protecting him.”

“I know, but I’ll take care of that.”

“How?”

“I’m going to use a spell I found in an old book. It looked easy enough. I’ll call upon the Lady of the Lake.”

“Do you even know who that is? You’re insane, Phaedra. You’re going too far.”

I shrugged. “Please,” I said with a grin. “What’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like I’m operating heavy machinery.”

Aaron drove me home. He was quiet. There were things he didn’t want to say to me. I knew I looked like hammered hell, but he was kind. He picked me up and carried me out of the car.

“You’re going to slip a disc lifting me,” I said as he picked me up. “I’m not a delicate flower.”

“You’re not a hippo, either. Aren’t you a psychologist? Have you ever thought you might have body dysmorphic disorder?” he asked as he carried me to the house.

I thought it was funny that Aaron knew what body dysmorphic disorder was. Few people knew about that particular mental illness. It was a delusion most commonly seen in people with eating disorders in which the person believed they looked much different than they did. Skinny people looked in the mirror and only saw fatness. Pretty people saw only blemishes and moles. Fat people thought they were beautiful and thin.

“I didn’t know internists read the DSM,” I responded.

“I did go to medical school. There was a psychiatry rotation,” he said.

I laughed. “I forgot about that,” I said. “I thought most doctors repress the psychiatry rotation.”

“I tried, but I keep having flashbacks.”

I smiled and kissed him.

“You are nothing but trouble, you know that?” he said.

“I’m a boring, middle-aged therapist. How could I be trouble?”

“You’ve besotted that poor nurse.”