To Outwit an Angel

23. There's No Place Like Home

Loretta's POV:

What was that annoying beeping? Light filtered into my vision, and the drab blues and grays of a hospital room flickered into my sight.

 Tubes ensnared my left arm, and my sight was mostly obscured by an oxygen mask strapped over my mouth and nose. Both left me effectively tied to this strange hospital bed. At least I wasn't dead. Maybe a coma or something, but I felt reasonably alive now. But why was I here? Where was the rain-slicked mudslide and Rob's dirt bike? Where was Sharlene?

 And then, it all came rushing back to me.

 Just seconds ago, I'd been freefalling off the roof of a Paris opera house.

 And now, I arrived back in Kentucky.

 I had to find Sharlene, and we had to get out of here before the Phantom kicked down the hospital door. Acting on panic's instincts, I ripped a handful of tape and tubes off my arm. Pain shot up from the hole left by a shockingly long IV needle. When I severed the life-sustaining tubes from my body, I half-expected to fade from consciousness and drop dead.

 That didn't happen. Instead, alarms blared through the hospital. Huh, they must have thought I was flatlining. That would be surprising when they realized Sharlene and I had entirely disappeared. Because Sharlene and I just had to get out of here.

 Although the world spun around me and my legs threatened to give out, I wobbled to my feet and threw back the curtain beside my hospital bed. Please, let Sharlene be right next door.

 Luckily, she was. She sat on the edge of her bed, hands clenched around the tubes similar to mine. Her eyes were wide, head turning side to side at the shrill sirens. Those alarms would be our demise if we didn't act quickly.

 "Let's go."

 Though hoarse from disuse, it was my voice, not Christine's, to jump out of my throat. My voice! I never imagined how much I could miss that simple thing!

 "Okay." Sharlene whispered. She grabbed the car keys on her bedside table and swung out of the hospital bed. "Follow my lead."

 As if I would argue that right now. Without warning, Sharlene grabbed a nearby chair and rammed it through the window beside my hospital bed. Shards of glass rained over the bleary gray floor, refracting off the buzzing fluorescent lights.

 The chair landed on the ground below. At least we were on the hospital's first floor. That simplified our escape.

 Footsteps hammered against the floor outside.

 Fuck it. It's not like we could explain any of this.

 I grabbed Sharlene's hand.

 "Ready for another jump?"

 Her laugh was reckless.

 "What do I have to lose now?"

 She still grasped her mom's car keys in the hand not holding tight to mine. That meant her mom, if not also her dad, was nearby. She worked here, so that might explain it, but I didn't want to scare Sharlene's mom like this, not to mention my mother and Jinjer. But what choice did we have? We had to evade the Phantom.

 We leapt out the hospital's window. The concrete parking lot jolted our spines, as our feet made contact with the ground. We didn't have time for breath. Not a moment was spared to discuss our next step. We both innately knew: we had to locate Sharlene's mom's car and take off.

 Naturally, the parking lot was massive. King's Daughters Medical Center was the biggest hospital in Boyd County! And probably every county over until the University of Kentucky's main hospital. Sharlene and I were both born at King's Daughters. One day, which appeared a whole lot closer than I intended, we'd probably die here too.