Into The Vale of Shadows // Max Mayfield

II; xi. the psychotic nurse

chapter eleven
the psychotic nurse

     THE TRIP TO the hospital took longer than anticipated. They arrived there with the sun already set, Raven not feeling her knees after having it folded for a long time, pushing herself out of the car and forcing herself to stand up straight in her feet. She tried stretching the joint a couple of times, each time having it crack until she can feel it once again, stretching her back before following after the group.

     Raven wrapped her arm around Will's shoulder, the boy still slouched, hand on his lower back with a grimace on his face. "You all right?"

     "Yeah." He stretched his back, hearing cracks from it that made him slightly panic. Raven fed into it, eyes widening in exaggeration, a hand to get mouth, dropping her arm to her side. "What? What is it?"

     "Your back—" She cut herself short, Will's eyes now filled with panic that made her giggle. "Your back's fine. I bet it feels good."

     "Yeah," Will scoffed, twisting his torso before standing straight and letting Raven lead him the way.

     As soon as they stepped foot into the building, the smell of medicine, rubbing alcohol, and the copper smell of blood took over Raven's nose, overwhelming it that made her sneeze. She heard beeps from the medical machines, heart beats and footsteps, but the loudest of them all were the voice of the receptionist, a phone to her ear as she spoke into it.

     "Yeah well . . . This is honest, she won't find out." Raven gave the receptionist a look, listening to what the other side of the phone was saying, she heard something about a party and not inviting a woman called Romelyn after what they heard from this other friend Linda, invested into their gossip through the phone as they kept walking down pass the reception table. "See, you're the only one who gon' tell— Woah, woah, woah! Excuse me!" The group stopped, the lady stood from where she sat, phone still in hand as she looked them one by one. "Where do you think you're going?"

     "Oh, uhm . . ." Nancy turned with a polite smile plastered across her face, "I was just going to visit my grandma again. And— and this is . . ." She gestured to the children and to Jonathan, trying to sound convincing but the lady didn't seem to buy. "This is my family."

     The woman looked over to Lucas, plastering a smirk on his face as he said, "Extended."

     So if this is a family, does that mean Jonathan is her husband. Or is he her cousin? If so, doesn't that make their relationship incest? Raven bit her lip, holding her breath as she held back her laugh, growing red the longer she held it in.

     The lady turned to the now red Raven, who let go of her lip as she looked back to the woman. "Are you okay, dear?"

     The corner of Raven's lips threatened to rise, she pressed her lip into a thin line, shaking her had into nodding quietly before looking down at her shoe.

     "Look, I don't care who they are. You know the rules," she reminded Nancy, "Two visitors at a time."

     "Yeah, but—" Nancy tried to retort, but was cut off by the woman.

     "Two!" she said, sighing before sitting back down and putting the phone back to her ear, continuing the conversation with her gossip buddy. "Girl, this child has lost her mind. She brought a whole zoo in here."

     With the nurse focused back into her conversation, the group huddled together, dropping their voices into hushed ones as they commenced this small meeting. "You guys wait out here, we'll go up."