XXVIII - Paige
Paige stared at the lift in disbelief. It looked so normal as to be completely out
of place in the nightmare of the last half an hour or so. Charlie stood a few feet in front of her and
was gazing back with an expression she had not expected. He seemed eager, excited even. It was not at all like the quiet, disturbed
little boy she had found in the apartment block.
She stepped forward, took his waiting hand and
entered the elevator. They didn’t need
to hit any buttons. The doors closed
behind them and then they were descending.
She watched the display above the door, telling them which floor they
were on. To begin with it displayed a
series of incomprehensible symbols and then they began to show numbers far too
high to be any floor in the hospital; 99, 98, 97, 96…
“We’ll be back with the others soon,” Charlie said
in his small voice.
Paige looked down at him. She had no idea how she must appear to him now, but she felt old
and tired and as if the real world were a million miles away from her
senses. It was hard to believe
Charlie’s assertion that it might only be another few floors.
“Did you see that back there?” he asked when she
didn’t reply.
She didn’t want to talk about it. How could he? He was only a child. How
could he comprehend any of it? How
could his mind deal with it at all?
“Yes I saw it,” she said at last.
“I think it was important. We were supposed to see that.”
She blinked at him.
“Charlie, I don’t think we were supposed to
see any of this. This is all horribly
wrong. You shouldn’t think about it too
much, okay? Just stick with me and
we’ll find the others and find a way out.”
His eyes widened a little and his cheeks reddened.
“We were supposed to see it. This is all important somehow. I think Henry might know.”
“Henry doesn’t even believe any of this is really
happening. I’m not sure I do
anymore. He won’t be able to
help.” She squeezed his hand in a weak
gesture of comfort. “Trust me, it’s
better not to think about it.”
The boy looked like he was about to argue back again
but instead he looked past Paige at the numbers above the doors and said,
“Almost there.”
Paige followed his gaze and saw the numbers still
descending; 10, 9, 8, 7… The elevator seemed to be slowing. 5, 4, 3.
The lift stopped, the doors opened with another
disturbingly mundane ding and then they were gazing out onto the third floor of
the hospital and at Josh, who was staring back at them with an expression of
surprise and relief.
“The lifts are working?”
Paige nodded as she stepped out onto the floor,
bringing Charlie along with her.
“Why where you using them? Where’s Henry?”
She gazed at him in his youthful arrogance, his
untidy denim and tall, confident pose and suddenly she felt a wave of anger
wash over her.
“Well,” she said, trying to remain calm, but fraying
a little at the edges, “after your little delinquent outburst, Charlie ran off
and I had to leave Henry behind to find him.”
She was starting to raise her tone and Charlie tried to pull away from
her tightening grip, unsuccessfully.
“So I run the length of the hospital, on my own, chasing goddamn
creepy voices and who knows what else before I actually find him and then,” she
took a deep breath, her tone verging on a scream, “and then we get assaulted
by… by I don’t know what – visions, nightmares - I don’t care. I’ve had the shit scared out of me
and all you can do is ask about the elevators and Henry and you’re not even
sorry are you? You don’t care what
we’ve had to face without you, do you?”
Charlie finally managed to release himself as
Paige’s arm went limp to her side. Josh
simply returned her gaze, impossible to read.
Then he took a step forward, holding out his hand towards her.
“I’m sorry”, he said, then, turning to Charlie,
“really sorry. I didn’t mean to scare
you, okay?” He turned back to face
Paige. “The reason I want to find Henry
is that, firstly, I want to apologise and, secondly, I want us to all stay
together from now on. You aren’t the
only one to have experienced something weird in the last half hour.”
Paige let out a sigh, “I know. It’s not your fault, but…” she felt a lump
forming in her throat, “I’m just not able to take much more of this, you
know? It’s too crazy and I can’t take
it all in.”
“Don’t worry about it for now. We’re back together at least, and we’ll sort
something out soon enough. It can’t
keep on like this forever, right? But first we find Henry and get out of the
hospital. I think he was right about
one thing, we should head for the city centre.”
“Okay, I’ll try and stay calm.” She took a deep breath. “I left Henry in that room we went to
first. He should still be there
assuming… assuming nothing happened to him as well.”
“It was just down this corridor wasn’t it?”
She nodded.
“Well let’s go see him then.”
This time it was Charlie who nodded and then took
the lead. Josh gave Paige a questioning
glance and then, together, they followed the boy to the room at the end. They found it with the door closed. The glow of the television set flickered
around its edges.
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