Behind Sanity

Chapter Fifty-One

Behind Sanity

Chapter Fifty-One

1

Her blue eyes springing open with urgency, Morgan’s gaze met with the ceiling of the hospital room she’d been assigned to.  The girl would admit that she felt safer here than if she was off on her own – or if she was off in that dreadful Wonderland place – but at the moment, she was so worried that she could scarcely control herself.

She jerked the sheets away and leapt off the bed, running for the door with her gown wrinkled and her golden hair twisted in messy tangles.  Her hand was no sooner on the handle than the door opened from the outside.  Morgan, in all her concern, ran straight into the legs of the woman who was coming in. 

As if possessed, the child fought viciously against the long skirt of the one who stood there, fighting back tears that she couldn’t quite contain.  There was only one thing that was running through her mind: getting to her aunt.

Finally, grips on her shoulders from firm but kind hands finally coaxed Morgan into opening her watering eyes, and with them, her ears as well.  Then she could hear the calming voice of Nurse Elisa Duncan as he knelt down before her.

“Morgan, whatever’s gotten a hold on you, child?” she asked, concern filling her warm, brown eyes.

Only then did the girl seem to realize where she was, pausing in her sobs to look around briefly at the interior of the room before collapsing about the pretty nurse’s neck and continuing to cry softly into her dress.

"There, there.  It’s all right,” the woman consoled, though she had no idea what exactly she might be dealing with. 

Gently, she pushed the door closed behind them so that no one passing by might see the girl in hysterics and think drastic measures needed to be taken with her.  Elisa hugged the girl protectively for a few moments, hoping that the patient would pull herself together shortly.  She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for the little cherub.  No sooner than she had recovered from her coma then did the rest of her family slip away into comas of their own, and with her aunt sliding in and out of her strange state again and again, it was uncertain what would happen to Morgan if none of them woke up ever again.

Elisa had seen many horrible things in all her years at Rutledge’s – even more terrible since she’d been working as an assistant to Doctor Robertson – and she couldn’t claim that she’d not grown a bit harder at her heart.  Still, whenever a sweet child was suffering, she always tended to get in touch with her long-forgotten emotions.

“Were you having a bad dream, dear?” she tried sweetly – but Morgan shoved away from her then with such ferocity that the nurse only sat back, shocked.  What had come over this girl?  Her small face spoke volumes of exigency.

“I have to see my aunt!” Morgan exclaimed in a cracked voice that was chipped by emotion. “I have to tell her!”

“Now, now.  What’s so important?” Elisa asked, trying to calm the girl down. “Why don’t you tell me what’s bothering you?”

“No!  I must tell my aunt!  It’s terribly urgent!  I remembered – !”

“Morgan,” Elisa said regretfully, cutting her off and hating to have to break the news over again. “Your aunt is…out…at the moment.  The doctor has ordered for her not to be disturbed, and she’s trying to help your mummy and daddy, so don’t you think it would be best to let her do as she can?”