XXIV
Paige threw her gaze frantically around the chamber she
and Charlie were now in. It was almost
nothing like the dayroom of the geriatric ward she had been in before. The length of it was roughly the same and
the corridor led off it from the same point, but the bare granite walls were
too great a contrast from the industrial beiges and pale greens of the hospital
wards. The fluorescent lights had been
replaced by spitting oil lamps and the cells running along one side, where once
there had been an easy chair and a table, were archaic and draconian.
Charlie gazed up at her, his gaunt, hollow-eyed face now
filled with an expression of confusion.
Tear tracks streaked her face and even now her eyes shone unnaturally
bright. She knew he must be wondering
what had driven her to the state he had found her in and her own confusion
would only alarm him further. She
paused, took a deep breath and did her best to pull all her thoughts together,
holding off on those that wouldn’t immediately help her to deal with the boy.
“Charlie, why did you run off like that? You should have stayed with Henry and
I. I was worried about you!”
The boy gulped and hung his head for a moment. When he looked up again his own eyes were
glistening damply.
“It’s okay, you’re with me now and we’ll head back to the
other ward and maybe find Josh as well.
Would that be alright?”
Charlie didn’t respond, but only stared at her in
silence.
“Are you worried about the fight before?”
A nod.
“Everyone’s just tense.
You understand that, right?”
Another nod.
“Well it can make adults act a little… unhelpful, but,
they’ve both had a bit of time and you and I will make sure they make up,
okay?”
Charlie remained silent and motionless and Paige was
about to continue speaking when he suddenly nodded and said, “alright.” She blinked in surprise, then attempted a
smile.
“First we have to find a way out of here and back to
them. Do you remember the way?”
“No. I got lost.”
“We’re not lost, Charlie. We’ll just have to follow the signs back to the front of the
hospital.”
“I didn’t see any signs.”
“Then we’ll just have to explore for a while. We’ll be fine so… so don’t worry.”
She reached down and clasped his hand. It was cold and clammy, but she felt it
tight around her own. Taking another
deep breath she squeezed reassuringly and took a step towards the corridor.
A series of sudden bangs rippled along the doors to the
cells behind her. She jumped. Charlie let out a yelp and, before the
silence could rush back in, a clamour of voices cried out from behind the
doors.
“Help!” “Darkness! Darkness!” “-eaten alive by rats, but the rats don’t know. No!
The rats don’t-” “Why can’t they see the flames? Licking every wall! Every heart!” “I can hear you out there, laughing. I’ll laugh too, soon enough.” “Help! Help! Help me, God!”
The voices were both male and female, but all sounded
rough and with a trill of madness and there was one voice Paige was all too
familiar with.
“They won’t let me out… I want to go home!”
Paige felt the panic and confusion flood through her as
the voices piled one atop the other, closing in around her like walls as the
wailing old woman’s heart-wrenching tones soared above them all. She felt her breathing stutter, her grip
tighten convulsively around Charlie’s hand and her concentration and determined
threatened to wash away in the tumultuous chorus. But, after a couple of seconds, as Charlie tugged at her hand,
desperate to run, she felt herself start to calm a little.
They’re on the other side of the door. All we have to do is walk away.
Walk away.
Walk away.
“We’re just going to walk away, Charlie.”
The boy stopped struggled and looked up at her, scared
and confused.
“Just walk away.”
Then she stepped out of the room and into the corridor
and let the voices fade away behind her.
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