The Cursed Man (22 page)

“This conversation has gone from silly to absolutely ridiculous.”

“Why aren't you scribbling down any notes? Am I cured or have you finally given up on me?”

Anna's eyelids fluttered. “We're running around in circles here. We'd made such terrific progress, but lately we've regressed. I'm disappointed.”

Alister smiled. “Should I apologize?”

“I'm disappointed in myself, not you. I told you when we first started this things would be trying and there would be certain things you'd have to confront that would challenge you. This includes facing your delusions, the conspiracy theory you have running around inside your head and the loneliness you have to endure when I'm gone. And just because I'm not taking notes doesn't mean I've stopped listening or that I've given up on you.”

“I think that was the make-you-feel-bad speech.” He turned his back to her. “I still say you're hiding something. I'm interested in meeting the hospital staff. All of them.”

“I'm not going to bring you around anyone while you're acting like this.”

“And there it is again,” Alister said, and he made the sound of a bomb dropping. “Boom! The perfect reason to keep me here and far away from finding the truth.”

“You're completely unreasonable today.”

“You know something?” Alister kicked off his slippers and got into bed. He looked away from Anna and settled on his side. “I'm done talking.”

“Don't shut down on me like this, Alister. We need to talk through this.”

Alister closed his eyes and fought the urge to retort. The knowledge that she would eventually leave if he kept quiet ruled.

 

 

 

Alister crept into the hallway, his eyes immediately drawn to the door across from his. Curious if the occupant had fallen victim to Anna, he pressed his forehead against the window and peered inside. Though encased in shadow, he could clearly see someone still occupied the room. He was sitting in the chair perfectly still with his back to the door.

Alister raised his knuckles to knock on the door but decided to try the handle instead. The door opened with a slow, protesting creak. Every muscle in his body tightened and his eyes concentrated on the figure in the shadows.

The person did not move.

Alister breathed a sigh of relief and tiptoed into the room. The darkness within swallowed him, and the bed and table reminded him of the mounds of garbage that lined every room in his home. The powerful smell of feces and urine forced him to hold his breath.

Lost within the shadows, Alister stumbled over something and fell to his knees.

“Who's there?”

Alister jumped to his feet. A slow tingle moved down his spine and stilled his feet. He looked at the chair, and the shadowy figure stood next to it.

“Who are you?”

He was tall.

“What do you want from me?”

And wide.

“Why don't you speak?”

He lunged toward Alister. Enough light seeped into the room from the hallway so that Alister could see his features.

“Bruce, it's Alister.”

Bruce stopped and looked over his shoulder toward the chair. “Bruce is here?” He knelt on the floor and looked beneath the bed. He stood and pointed at Alister. “Are you hiding him from me?”

Alister shook his head. “No.”

“If I get my hands on him, I'll kill him. And if you're hiding him from me—”

“I'm not.”

Bruce stepped forward and stood nose to nose with Alister. “Are you looking for trouble or something?”

“No.”

“That's good,” Bruce said, and he returned to the chair and sat. “You should know Bruce is extremely dangerous. If I were you, I'd be careful with him.”

Alister slowly exited the room and pulled the door closed. He bent at the waist and grabbed his knees. “Holy shit.” The surge of adrenaline made his legs wobble and shortened his breath.

Something slammed into the door from inside Bruce's room, and Alister recoiled. Bruce's face was pushed against the small pane of glass, and spit ran from his mouth in a thick wad. His eyes were ablaze with panic.

“Please get me out of here,” Bruce said. “Lester's in here and he's after me.”

Alister ran down the hallway, through double doors and down another hallway. Each turn he made appeared identical to the last.

Lost and wheezing, Alister slowed his run to a walk and tried to figure out his approximate whereabouts. He pondered how many rights and lefts he'd taken.

He was lost.

A black sign with white letters at the end of the hallway caught his attention.

“Medical,” he said, smiling.

 

 

 

Alister stood in front of an illuminated glass cabinet that housed a perfectly arranged assortment of liquid medications.

He leaned forward and read the typed font on a label on one of the bottles.

“Thiothixene.”

He smiled.

“I know you.”

He pulled the handle, but the door was locked. He turned away and hit the glass with his elbow. Jagged pieces fell to the floor with a crash.

He grabbed a vial and inspected it further. A rubber membrane stretched across the top of the small, clear bottle. This prompted him to search through cabinets and drawers until he located syringes. Taking one, he pushed the tip of the needle through the rubber casing and into the liquid and pulled back on the plunger until the barrel was full. He capped the needle, put it in his pocket and exited the medical room. Looking down the hallway both ways, indecision kept him still.

Distant, echoing shouts had nearly escaped his notice. He leaned forward, straining to decipher which direction they were coming from.

Closing his eyes, he focused.

“That way,” he said, his eyes opened wide and aware. He ran through long corridors, navigating lefts and rights as if he knew the layout. The further he traveled, the louder the shouts grew, and that encouraged him to run even faster.

The hallway dead-ended at an employee cafeteria. The swinging doors were chocked open, and long windows that went from the ceiling to a two-foot cement wall divided the cafeteria from the hallway.

Alister pulled himself close to the wall and tried to control his breathing. He was certain the shouts had to do with Michael, and if he were going to offer him help, he would have to gather himself. If he were to rush inside without insight, he wouldn't be doing either one of them any good.

Alister took deep breaths and blew them out through pursed lips. On the wall opposite him, painted portraits of former hospital directors stared at him. The late Director Lofton looked stern and critical of Alister being out of his room.

He got on his hands and knees and crawled along the floor, employing the short cement wall as cover. Just a few feet shy of reaching the cafeteria door, a shrill stopped his advancement, confused his courage and roused his fears.

His taut fingers tried to grasp the cement floor, and he searched the hallway behind him.

Empty.

A distant memory that didn't form fully made his body tremble and forced a whisper from his mouth.

“Mother.”

He didn't know why and tried to remember.

“Look at me when I'm talking to you.”

Alister clamped his eyes shut and braced himself for a smack.

“I told you to look at me.”

He didn't want to, but something inside told him he should.

“You dare defy me?”

The words came from the cafeteria.

His fears were calmed by a curiosity so strong that it compelled him to peek over the wall.

He ducked back down, his heart hammering inside his chest. He fought the compulsion to flee.

“I want to hear your fear,” Anna said, her voice loud. “I need to feel your terror.”

Alister looked over the wall again. Anna stood in the center of the room, and a bloody, beaten woman begged for her life at Anna's feet.

“Say it like you mean it, and I might let you live.” Anna kicked and punched the woman. Alister cringed as he watched, unable to look away.

The woman took the blows, one after the other, without guarding herself.

“Don't you give up on me,” Anna said. “You die only when I'm ready to let you die.”

Anna paused in her assault and pointed at someone across the room. Alister followed her finger and saw Michael with his daughter. He held her close and shielded her eyes from Anna.

“Please,” Michael said, “I've done exactly as I was told.”

“Tell her not to give up on me,” Anna said.

Tears streaked Michael's face. “Get up, baby, please. You have to be strong.”

Anna looked at the woman. She was still.

“She's weak, and I don't believe a word you say,” Anna said. She wrapped the woman's hair around her wrist and pulled upward. “He isn't convinced the stories he's been told are real.”

Anna drove the woman's head downward with a stomp and her face smashed into the ground. A dull, meat-smacking thump echoed throughout the room, and a spray of blood stained the floor.

“And that,” Anna said, pointing at Michael, “is because you told him something you shouldn't have.”

Michael knelt and protected his daughter in a hug. “I didn't. I swear.”

“You swear?” Anna laughed. She looked to the woman and said, “Die.”

The woman convulsed and gurgled.

“No,” Michael said.

Anna walked toward Michael and he moved his daughter behind him.

“Not behind you. Over here,” Anna said, pointing to the floor by her feet.

“Don't do this.”

Anna turned toward the woman again and said, “Live.” The woman's eyes flicked open as she gasped and choked, and blood oozed from her mouth.

“How many times she experiences death depends on your ability to listen. Bring your daughter forward.”

Michael encouraged his daughter to stand where Anna had instructed.

“I don't want to go to the bad woman,” the young girl said. She cried and remained where her father placed her.

“You have to, baby,” Michael said. “Just for a little while.”

The woman continued to gasp and spit blood. The little girl looked at her mother and then back at Anna.

“Please help her.”

“Do you believe your father is telling me the truth?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don't.”

The little girl started to sob.

“Can I have my mommy back?”

“Maybe,” Anna said. “Your answers depend on it. If you were to lie to your parents, what would they do?”

“They would be mad with me.”

“Is that all?” Anna smiled and stroked the girl's head. “It's OK to tell me everything. I won't let them do anything to you. Not anymore.”

The little girl looked to her father. “But I don't want you to hurt them.”

Anna knelt in front of the girl and took her hand with a firm yank. The girl whimpered.

“You need to tell me if they got mad at you, what would they do to you?”

“They would hit me and send me to bed without any dinner.”

“Just hit you?”

“Beat me,” the girl said, and she looked to her father. He stared at the floor and muttered incoherently. She looked at Anna. “They would make me wear long clothes so people wouldn't see the bruises.”

“They would do that to you?” Anna said. She kissed the girl's head, stood and walked to the woman. “But you're just a child.” She helped her stand.

Anna looked to the girl. “How much of that can you take? How long until you've had enough and fight back?”

Anna picked the woman up by her throat until her feet dangled off the floor and squeezed.

“No more,” Anna said, and she twisted her wrist. The neck bone snapped, the sound forced a scream from the little girl, and Michael fell forward and cried.

Anna looked at Alister. “Can't you see that I can protect you against those who might do you harm? I can help make you strong.”

Alister leapt to his feet and ran through the corridor until he no longer had the stamina to carry on.

Bent over at the waist with his hands on his knees, he struggled to catch his breath. A peculiar noise coming from a darkened room caught his attention. He approached with caution.

“Hello?”

The door was open, but the light from the hallway didn't penetrate the darkness.

Hack.

Alister moved away, wary not to walk into a trap.

“Is there someone there?”

Hack.

The sound had an element of distress, and Alister pushed his apprehension aside and moved forward. He peered inside the room and could see the silhouette of a man hanging from the ceiling by his neck. The person flailed, gasped and reached out for Alister.

 

 

 

Alister ran into the room and grabbed the man by his legs. He tried to lift him to take some pressure off of his neck.

“Try and loosen the noose,” Alister said. He gave it everything he had to hoist the man higher, and his limbs trembled under the strain. He grunted and started to lose his grip.

“Please,” Alister said, “I can't hold you much longer.”

“It's too late for him,” Anna said from outside the room.

Alister's tired limbs wanted to agree, but his will defied it. He wasn't going to give up and hand her another life. “Help me,” Alister said. “I can't hold him much longer.” He staggered but regained his balance.

“It's OK to let him go.” She slipped her hands into her pockets. “We're much better without him.”

“No,” Alister said, and he growled as he lifted the man higher. “I won't let him die. You've taken too much from me, and I won't allow you to take any more.”