Olivia finished removing an IV from a little boy's arm. He looked at her gratefully. The kid's mother smiled and gave a sigh of relief.
"I'm so happy to be getting out of here," she said.
"I'll bet! Now that he has his new heart, he can run around with his brothers," Olivia replied.
"Let's blow this popsicle stand!" The kid yelled.
His mother clasped a hand over her mouth. Hid a smirk. But she couldn't hide the laughter in her eyes. The three of them burst out laughing. The kid kept repeating his line, as kids do when they want to squeeze more laughter out of people. Kids love to make people laugh. Like it's their sole purpose in life. She once helped treat a kid who tried to make his mother laugh by running into a table. Nearly took his eye out on the corner.
"Well, I'll let you two relax for a bit, someone will be by with discharge papers soon," she said.
The mother nodded with a leftover smile.
Olivia went to the door and walked out. Stuffed a hand into one of the pockets of her flowery blue scrubs.
She glanced at her blue leather banded watch on her other wrist. It had a white face set in sterling silver and black Roman numerals. Simplistic in its design. Not an expensive watch. It had been on sale for fifty dollars. Came with a pink band and a black band so she could change them out to match different outfits. The blue one was by far her favourite. It had scuff marks all over it and had conformed to the shape of her wrist. Even when she took it off it stayed open and round. The black one she wore on Sundays. The pink one she'd only used two or three times. Even though it was the same exact band as the blue one, but a different colour, it felt different. Like an alien material.
The time was five fifty in the morning. Her stomach growled at her. Loud enough that she looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. A few nurses passed by unaware. She sighed with relief. A hot meal was calling her name. The cafeteria had a chicken parmesan special that she just had to try. Only three floors stood between her and dinner. She wandered into a corridor on the left-hand side. It was a shortcut to the elevators.
It wasn't a patient corridor. It was mostly bathrooms and closets.
The only sound was the echo of the low droning from various machines and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights mixed with her footfalls shuffling on the tiled floor. Her stomach growled again. Okay okay, I'm getting to it!
She began to think about how Mason was stuck in her house. Probably asleep on the couch with Animal Planet running in the background. Thought about the big mistake they almost made. A repeat of previous times. Something they couldn't repeat again. He was probably her best friend in the world. I think I should make it clear that this can't happen again. Maybe I'll call him and ask if we can talk. It sucks to do it over the phone, but it might be too awkward to do it in person. Yeah, I'll call him.
She drew her phone out of her pocket and dialled Mason's number. Put it to her ear. Listened to the annoying rap music that he had as a playback ringtone. She pressed her back to a cold wall and drummed her fingers against it. Making an anxious rhythm that started to synch up with the music.
"Hellooo?" Mason yawned.
"Hi. Did I wake you?"
"Mhmmm. It's fine. Whaddaya need?"
The lights began flickering rapidly. As if she were blinking at a mile a minute. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Opened them. The lights were still flickering, but slower. Every other second they'd darken, and then go white again.
"Nothing, it can wait," she said.
"No no. You woke me up," he said. "Just say it so I can go back to sleep."
"Well, I was hoping we could talk about, you know, earlier," she replied.
She started dawdling down the hall.
"Do we have to?"
"We don't have to. But we should definitely talk about it later. I mean... Um..."
The flickering lights went random. Off and on for unpredictable intervals. She stopped in her tracks in the center of the corridor. Looked up at the lights. Tried to figure out what was happening. It started to look like morse code. Problem was, she didn't know morse code. She only knew SOS. This wasn't it. A cold spider ran up her spine.
"Liv?"
The hairs on her arms stood on end.
"I'll call you back."
She hung up and stuffed the phone into her pocket. Kept walking, one foot in front of the other. Careful, confused by the lights. What the heck is happening here? Stupid creepy hallway.
She jumped a mile when her cell phone buzzed in her pocket.
She pulled it out and read the screen, expecting to Mason's name. It was a number she didn't recognise. Out of state. Looked like a New York number, or New Jersey. She hit ignore. Stood in a strange stasis of confusion and fear. Unfounded fear. So what if the lights are flickering? Lights do that. It was as if she had been hypnotised by the flickering. Stuck in a trance.
A couple of fingers tapped her arm. She jolted away and whipped around.
Jake was standing there with a clipboard pinned to his side by his arm. He had his white coat on and everything. A strange look on his face, like he was just as confused as she was.
"You okay Liv?"
She nodded as she looked up at the lights again.
"Something's up with these lights," she replied.
He offered a shrug.
"Faulty wiring?" He said. "I'm starving. Let's get some dinner."
Having her cousin there reassured her. Made her snap out of her hypnotic state.
"I was headed there anyways," she said.
He gave a small smile and then took off down the hall.
She began to follow.
Blackness consumed them, for five seconds. She froze. It was an endless expanse of darkness. Fear trickled through her.
The lights came back on at the brightest white she'd ever seen them get. Made her whole mind white on the inside. Whiter than a sheet of paper. Or one of those blank white rooms that people dream about being stranded in.
"Jake?" She called out.
Her eyes began to adjust, and the brightness dissolved. The walls and Jake and the floor all had a film of green over them as the cones in her eyes used other colours to compensate for the insane amount of white.
Jake walked back towards her, staring all around, squinting and shaking his head.
The light in front of her went black.
Then the next one.
Jake came to stand right beside her.
Every single light one after the other switched off. She grabbed Jake's arm so she wouldn't lose track of him.
A bulky shadow flashed by the end of the corridor as the last light went out.
She squeezed Jake's arm and blinked hard to try and adjust to the darkness. If something was about to go down, she wouldn't be able to teleport around. She could only teleport as far as she could see, and at the moment she could see nothing. Not even Jake's arm.
He let out a slow breath.
"Stay quiet." He whispered.
YOU ARE READING
Dusk Harbor 1999
Science FictionYou've been out superheroing all night, and you just got your behind handed to you by a fellow hero who can't keep to his own territory. You come home to see that your beloved cat has brought in a business card, it's an invite to a secret meeting of...
