The Soul Guardians

chapter 3

Yaseerah and I found ourselves in a small, dark space. Her ragged breath was heavy and hot on the back of my neck and the air was laced with soapy, chemical odours and the smell of pure dust. As I looked around, the tiny slivers of light coming through the cracks of the doorway allowed me to see a few stacked buckets, some mops, brooms and cleaning equipment.

"This is the janitors' closet," I whispered as softly as I could.

Yaseerah didn't reply because I guess she was too busy trying to catch her breath while I shifted to make myself as comfortable as I could in the cramped space.

I ended up crouching low enough to see the shadows casted across the floor at the edge of the door. Two sets of feet, walking down the corridor. I heard voices too. Two different voices, muffled and clearly trying very hard to stay quiet. I swallowed hard as the shadows stayed in place for an uncomfortably long time... were they waiting for us to come out?

I moved towards the keyhole, where a single streak of light shone right into the closet, and pressed my cheek up against the door to let my eye peep outside.

The corridor was dimly lit and suddenly, the voices sounded like they were coming closer but the speakers didn't come into view. I made out that one had to be a male, his deep voice echoing off the corridor walls. His voice was extremely smooth and low. Like if velvet had a voice, it would definitely sound like him. And the other voice belonged to a female, her tone soft and melodic. Satin would sound like her, if it could speak.

The velvet and satin voices started walking towards the closet, finally close enough for me to pick up the conversation.

"She couldn't have gotten very far," the velvet voice seemed to boom through the doors of the closet, making me cringe slightly. "Not in such a state."

"Will she be okay?" the satin voice asked, "She didn't look too well..." the woman spoke in a hushed voice.

My hands flew to cover my mouth as I tried to stop myself from gasping when I recognized the satin voice. The Spanish accent. I fell back into Yaseerah's arms. It was Nurse Maggy's voice. But this wasn't her ward, and she never worked the night shift... And if she caught us in here we'd be in an insane amount of trouble. The restricted access and constant surveillance type of trouble. My parents could use this as another reason to finally send me to the psych ward, like they've been trying to for months.

"She's going to die anyway. Even if I have to see to it myself. And we have to get there first, no matter what," the man said curtly.

It suddenly dawned upon me that they might have been talking about the old woman. She was going to die... and the way the man spoke made me think it wasn't going to be of natural causes.

They walked past the closet and I couldn't hear what more they said over the sound of their loud footsteps.

"Since when does Nurse Maggy work the night shift?" I whispered, shocked by what I'd just heard.

Yaseerah was quiet. "Yas?" I whispered loudly.

Panicking for a second, I pulled out my phone to light up the closet and there she was: sitting with her hands over her ears, eyes shut tight, face scrunched in a frown.

I took a step towards her, setting the phone down as I bent. "Yas? Are you okay?"

She didn't respond. Her hands stayed covering her ears. Her knees were shaking and as I held her by the arms, I could see the goosebumps all over her skin.

"Yas," I whispered again. I was met with silence. I tried to gently shake her shoulder but she didn't seem to notice. She was in a complete state. I placed my hands on hers and gently removed them from her head.