You're Cute When You Scream

Zacky turned around and faced the guys just as they were trying to maneuver their large bodies in through the small window frame. “Actually, guys, I was thinking…since I’ve got her alone now, with no outside interruptions, well, I was gonna finish up her punishment by giving myself a bit of a reward, if you know what I mean.”

Shadows and the Rev exchanged mischievous, knowing smirks as they crawled back out onto the ledge. “Alright, big boy, you’ve got thirty minutes,” Shadows grinned, “I know you’ll use it well.”

“What are we gonna do then, Shads?” Rev complained.

“Oh, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind joining me in terrorizing the lobby and waiting rooms?”

The Rev replied by eagerly lowering the cart and running off, presumably through the parking lot and right into the front doors.

“Hopefully they won’t harm anyone too badly,” Zacky muttered, closing the window behind him.

He sat back down on the edge of the bed, dangling his right leg off of the side. “Nice excuse you used,” I smirked.

He leaned in closer to me and whispered, “You know, it wouldn’t take too much work to turn that excuse into reality.”

I felt my cheeks burn bright red as he continued to stare at me with his vibrant emerald eyes. By all means, I could tell that he was undoubtedly serious – he wanted to have sex in a hospital room. How classy.

“I’d be all for that…but I…I just don’t think it’s right to be doing something like that, not after what’s happened to Randi, and the suffering that Myra must be going through right now,” I declined, admitting to my guilt.

His smiled drooped. “Oh, yeah, I guess you do have a point,” he grudgingly agreed.

“I’ll tell you what,” I proposed, “if you can help me save Myra and myself, then the first thing I’ll do when we are truly free is give you the best sexual experience of your life.”

It was kind of entertaining to watch his face dramatically light back up with hope. “You’ve got yourself a deal. Although I’m still really adverse to helping Myra out in any way, I’ll do it for you,” he replied.

Curious, I asked, “Zacky, what do you have against her? What do all you guys have against her?”

He avoided eye contact, spending his time staring down at the tiled floor instead. “That’s a really long story that can be told some other time. Ok, look, Katie, we need to make a plan now while they’re distracted.”

He did have a pretty valid point there. I nodded, “Alright, so what did you have in mind?”

*Nicole’s POV*

Working the night shift at the hospital was never exactly my dream come true, but I will admit…it paid the bills. I’d already done all that was assigned to me – checking up on the first floor patients, consulting the doctors, helping to file some records at the main desk, etc.

So now until 6 AM, I had nothing better to do than relax in one of the waiting rooms, watching reruns of South Park on the small TV, while sipping on some soothing coffee. Hmm, while I’m at it, I guess I could start coming up with something to do for New Year’s, I mean it was only like 4 days away. And the best part of it all is that I’m off work that night!

The nearby front doors buzzed open and shut as someone walked inside. Hopefully Judy was still at the desk because I sure as hell didn’t feel like getting up from my comfy spot to help some weirdos at 3 AM.

“This place looks like a fucking ghost town,” one guy complained, knocking over some furniture or something that could cause a loud noise.

Another guy responded, “Dude, it’s a hospital, there has to be someone here.”

I really didn’t like the tone that these two guys were using…it made me nervous, maybe even almost scared. It sounded like they were looking for someone to start trouble with. Quickly, I turned off the TV and pulled the blanket over my head. The lights were already off in the room so, presumably, they wouldn’t even bother in here. Even so, I kept my eyes open, alertly watching through an opening in the blanket.

A shadow came strolling down the hall, meeting up with the guys. It was Doctor Manor! He’d surely make those creeps go away. I was beginning to feel a bit of relief, which was unfortunately short lived once I started to actually listen to what was being said. “Can I help you gentleman?” the doctor asked.

“We were just…waiting for one of our friends to finish visiting a patient here.”

“Ah, are you lost then? Would you like to join your friend?” the doctor offered.

“No we’re quite fine here. But just wondering, this is a hospital, correct?”

“Why, of course it is.”

“Then were are all the nurses?”

“That’s strange,” he said scratching the back of his head, “I know there aren’t that many working right now, but I know that Nicole should be somewhere around here…”

“I really need a nurse right now,” the other man spoke up.

“Um, what for?” “I’m bleeding. My finger got caught in the car door and I don’t think it looks so good…”

“I’d like to help you with that, but I’ve been trying to find one of patients. Now it looks like I’m going to have to find the nurse as well!” Doctor Manor was making a turn to head in the opposite direction, but one of the men stopped him.

“Enough with the bullshit already, doctor.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re not going anywhere, you bastard. You turned us in multiple times now to the local police, and we’re not very happy about that.”

The doctor cringed, “I knew you two looked familiar. L-look, I didn’t mean to get you two into that mess. I’ve got a deal that I think you may be interested in.”

One of the men’s fist was lowered and they seemed interested in where this could be going. So was I. “We’re listening.”

“I’ve got some…staff members I’d like to be ‘taken care of,’ if you follow what I’m saying. Well, technically they are the hospital’s board members. They’re out to get me fired as the hospital’s head doctor.”

“And why exactly do you think we would just jump and help you out?”

He sighed, almost looking guilty for what he was about to say, “I’ve known about you guys, about what you’ve done to Myra and Randi, since we were all back in California. I didn’t believe it then, but when you brought Randi in here, I couldn’t let it pass. Her father and I were best friends in college, and I just then found out he had a daughter. At the time, I made a promise to myself and Randy that I would keep his daughter and Myra safe. I heard what you said…that Randi was dead…so I spent some time thinking about it. If you at least don’t kill Myra, and instead kill these board members, then I will throw the police completely off your trail.”

The man scoffed, “We’ve been doing just fine with the police until your ass got involved. Why should we believe that you’ve got anything better to offer us.”

“My brother is the chief of New York City’s police department. He knows that I’ve had encounters with you before. I can tell him you’ve left the area.” Both men took a moment before finally accepting the terms of the deal.

The world was suddenly spinning and I found myself struggling to swallow the lump that I just now discovered in the back of my dry throat. The doctor was going to have these men kill all of the board members? My father is a member of the board! I…I need to warn him, but I can’t do much now with them being right outside the door.

Maybe I could send him a quick text. Surely, they won’t see the light for the brief amount of time my cell phone will be in use. I dug through my pockets with shaking hands, tightly gripping my cell phone. Still hiding under the blanket, I typed a quick message: [text=8]Plz don’t go 2 the board meeting this wk. There will b an ambush. Just overheard the planning[/text]. I went to hit send, but there was an error sending.

My body was now trembling all over and I lost my balance somehow. I fell backwards onto the floor, landing perfectly on the TV remote control. The TV flashed on, producing a glow across the darkened walls, and of course through the glass windows. I quickly pulled the blanket over me on the floor and continued trying to send my text message.

I heard footsteps walk off in the opposite direction, while a different set of steps came toward the door, followed by the haunting sound of the doorknob being pulled down and the creak of the door’s hinges. “You know,” one of the men said, “last time I checked, TVs don’t just turn on by themselves.”

They flicked the lights on, causing my heart rate to speed up about five times faster than the average rate. I focused on my phone’s screen, watching as the ‘failed to send message’ warning kept flashing in front of me. But I never quit hitting send.

“Well, well, well it looks like someone might be sleeping on the job,” one of the men cackled as he gripped the end of the blanket and tugged it off of me.

I hit send once more, not having time to check the status of the message, before shoving the phone in my pocket and coming face to face with…M. Shadows and the Rev. They were the men who did all those horrible things to those girls back in California! Things couldn’t get much worse than that.

*Aliza’s POV*

Only three miles from home, and still my car had to run out of gas. In the middle of the woods, of all places! I shivered as I continued to walk a few feet away from my car, occasionally glancing over my shoulder in hopes of finding a pair of headlights behind me. I have yet to see such a sight.

This is the absolute last thing that I need right now. After dealing with my parent’s divorce a couple of years ago, everything seems so shitty now. I can’t remember the last time I’d heard from any of my brothers except when they would end up in jail, or needed help being bailed out. My mom re-married some sleaze ball, and well Christmas wasn’t exactly the happiest this year either.

Even still, I wanted to be at the place I call home more than anything. With each step I took, the air seemed to get colder and colder, while the snow became harder and harder to trudge through.

Just about when all hope may have been lost, and my body was about frozen solid, I saw a set of lights coming from a house up ahead! I somehow managed to discover some remaining strength and ran the rest of the way up the snow-covered hill. As I was heading for the front door, I could’ve sworn that I was being followed, or at least watched. But that’s impossible…it’s the middle of winter at 3 AM, who in their right mind would be out here besides myself?

“H-hello?” I called out, through a shiver. “M-my car broke d-down a little ways down t-the road. I j-just need a place t-to say till m-morning,” I explained.

“Well that’s quite unfortunate,” a man said from behind me, causing me to jump with surprise. “You came to the wrong place for help,” he grinned, reaching forward and effortlessly throwing me over his shoulder.

I tried screaming for help, but my voice was so constricted from my shivers that it was essentially useless. Not like it would’ve mattered anyway, we are in the middle of nowhere.

My body welcomed the warmth that covered me as soon as we entered the house. The man carried me into the living room before throwing me down onto the carpet. Glancing around, I noticed how nice the house looked. They even still had all their Christmas décor up, making it look incredibly cozy and inviting, at least compared to my mom’s shithole house.

The man who had brought me inside went upstairs for a couple of minutes and returned, dragging a girl down behind with him. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. This girl – about the same age as myself – barely even looked human anymore. The clothes she was wearing were tattered and covered in dirt and blood.

Her face was more blue, purple, and yellow than it was white. She was covered in cuts and lacerations from head to toe; some of the wounds seemed to still be bleeding slightly, while others were slowly becoming infected. Her eyes were swollen with dark circles surrounding them, probably from lack of sleep…or crying. Her lips were chapped and sliced open in multiple locations. Her body looked incredibly thin and weak.

I wanted to cry just looking at her…or maybe it was because I was afraid that the same thing could happen to me.

It looked like the man from earlier was taking this poor girl somewhere, although I was surprised that he would be willing to take her anywhere in public and risk being arrested on the spot. No excuse could cover such a horrible appearance.

I dusted some snow off of my jacket and crawled over toward the couch. As I turned around I saw that there was someone else in the room now. And it was a face I never thought I’d see again.

“R-Ronnie?”

*Nicole’s POV*

“If it isn’t little Nurse Nicole,” Shadows grinned, reaching down and roughly gripping my forearms and throwing me down onto the couch.

“I bet she just heard everything we just said,” Rev pointed out.

Shadows looked thoughtful, “You know, you’re probably right. We can’t let someone like that run free around the hospital, or even running to the police. And besides, I’ll be needing a replacement for that other bitch, after she completely rots.”

The Rev nodded in agreement, pulling out a knife. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way…”

Before his threat was entirely completed, a cell phone began ringing. It was a generic ring, meaning it could’ve been any one of ours. But it ended up being Shadows’.

“Syn, man, what’s up?”

“You’ll never believe this, but we just caught a chick on our property. We’ve got ourselves another whore.”

He laughed, “Dude, then you’ll love this. The doctor at this hospital made a deal we couldn’t resist and we got ourselves another whore too!”

“Talk about a great night, huh? Well, I’m bringing Myra down there for a test, so you guys might as well just wait there.”

“Not a problem at all,” he said, sending a wicked smile in my direction.