72 St. Margaret’s Way Chapter 10
Things got even weirder from there. James knew he’d been asleep or unconscious or something, but he didn’t know for how long when he felt himself fading out of a dream. She was there, she was watching him. And a part of him wanted to go to her, to scream that he was here and have her take him. Even if he knew he was nothing to her. But Adele held power over him and if he didn’t get away, he was going to surrender.
James surfaced slightly and it felt like there was fire bubbling under his skin, the flames burning, but contained for now. He’d been woken up by the feeling of fingers carding through his hair. The touch was businesslike, but soothing as the image of Adele faded back into the darkness.
The movement paused just behind his ear. Then they went to pull away and James accidentally let out what sounded suspiciously to him like a whimper. He knew he should feel pathetic, and he did a little, even among the confusion and that creeping feeling of something burning along his veins. Then they were back, the hesitant stroking smoothing out the pain just enough to help him fall back to sleep.
James woke up again with a clearer head at some point later, snapping awake in horror. “She has keys,” he blurted out, sitting up and letting the covers fall off of him.
Amelia and Bradley were in the room with him. Bradley swore and jumped backward, but Amelia didn’t blink. “It’s okay,” she said gently, picking up a cup from the dresser and bringing it over to him. “James, it’s alright.”
“No, she has a key,” he insisted, locking eyes with her as the horror of what he’d done tried to settle in at the base of his brain. “I gave her a key. Here and home. Amelia-”
Through the lingering haze, he saw the fear in her eyes before she nodded. “Alright,” she said. “Alright.”
“I gave her a key.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She didn’t quite run out of the room, but she hurried, leaving James alone with Bradley. Had he thought about killing…yeah, all of them.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Bradley nodded and Amelia was back before he could say anything, if he had anything to say. She handed James the cup she was still holding and the scent of strawberries made his stomach turn.
“Fixed,” she lied.
“It’s not,” James insisted. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, glancing down at her phone. “We’re safe, I handled it. Drink up.”
“I don’t want it.”
“I don’t care.”
Her voice was firm, but her eyes were kind as he looked at her. She had brown eyes, maybe a little hazel? They were nice. Not as nice as Adele’s blue ones though.
Horrified, he put the cup to his lips and drained it, not stopping to breathe until it was empty. “Where’s Madelyn?” he asked.
“She’s here, it’s fine.”
“I need to talk to her,” James said, standing up.
“Later,” Amelia said, taking the cup out of his hands as she blocked him from moving toward the door.
“No, now.”
He tried to dodge her, but Bradley moved beside him. The antidote roiled in his stomach and he could feel it about to come back up, but he needed to focus. “Madelyn,” he started. “I need to apologize to Madelyn.”
“Later.”
James thought back to the antidote he’d just drank. “I’m about to pass out, aren’t I?”
Amelia nodded as James’s knees gave out. He fell heavily against Bradley, who staggered slightly, but caught him. He vaguely thought he heard Amelia say, “Sweet dreams” as the lights went out.
***
Adele was in the room with him, but she wouldn’t talk to him. “Adele?” James called to her. “Adele, I’m sorry, please come back.”
No, that wasn’t right, he didn’t want her to come back. She poisoned him, that was why he felt like his heart was pumping fire through his body. She’d poisoned him and she’d…she’d done nothing.
There was nothing for them at…
“ADELE!”
James distantly felt someone pressing his shoulders down into the bed, but then it was gone and he was looking for Adele. She couldn’t have abandoned him, not like this. He needed her, she was the only thing he had. “ADELE!” he screamed again. “ADELE! PLEASE, WHERE ARE YOU?”
He was covered in blood, his clothes splattered with it and none of it his. There were voices nearby, but none of them were hers. He had to find her, so why was he stuck here when Adele was walking away?
Then James was back at the wellness fair, standing in front of her station, the blood dripping off of him and onto the shiny wooden floor of the Orson Center. Adele turned to face him and he saw the hatred on her face, the glowering smirk as her eyes raked up and down his body. “You’re nothing to me,” she said, all the shine and beauty he’d thought he’d seen gone from her voice, replaced only by hate. “Go. You’re nothing.”
There was screaming and he vaguely realized it was him. Was he dying? It felt like it. But maybe that would get him away from Adele.
He screamed again as Adele ran her tongue down the side of his throat.
***
He woke up calling for Madelyn again at some point later. This time Graham was sitting with him. Graham didn’t say anything, he just handed James another cup of strawberry flavored antidote. James drank it without thinking, then fell back against the crumpled pillow.
“I’m so sorry, Graham,” he said, eyeing the shadows in the far corner of the room. Was that Adele?
“It’s fine, man,” Graham said, putting a hand to his forehead instead of hitting James like he deserved for what he’d done. He realized Graham’s other hand was on his wrist, checking his pulse. Right, Graham had studied…did he go to med school? What was his deal? James couldn’t remember.
“Were you a doctor?” he asked.
Graham laughed. “Nah,” he said. “I considered it and did some internships, but went the academic route instead. I was a CNA for a while though.”
He smiled and James felt a little safer.
“Want some water?” Graham asked.
“I can go get it.”
His mouth burned slightly and he could feel that sensation of fire starting to form in his chest again. “Adele poisoned me,” he choked out as his heart started pounding.
“Yeah,” Graham agreed. “But the antidote’s washing it out.”
“No, I mean the…the…” James closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. “The antidote. It hurts.”
“I know,” Graham said. “It’s strong. It’s too painful to handle without the sedatives.”
“I need to…” James trailed off, looking into the corner again. It was daytime, but those shadows seemed darker than they usually did.
“Come on,” Graham said. “Let the antidote do its work and you’ll feel better.”
He tried to answer, but passed out again before he could.
***
It was her in the corner of the room, James had been right earlier. Adele hated him and she was going to kill him and whoever else was in this room right now. James sat up and looked at her, his heart in his throat.
“She’s here.”
“No, she’s not,” Jolene said from where she was sitting beside him on the bed, and James was suddenly aware of the blood pressure cuff around his arm.
Behind Jolene, Adele walked slowly toward the bed, the knife James had hidden under his desk gleaming in the light from the streetlight outside the window. “She’s here,” he insisted over the sound of a car passing by outside.
Jolene gave him a smile as she took off the cuff. “Still a little high,” she said. “Alright, let’s get you your next dose. It’s going well, all things considered.”
Behind her, Adele slipped closer and closer, a finger raised to her lips as Jolene packed her cuff into her bag. “JOLENE!” James screamed. “SHE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!”
Adele swung. The blade sliced through Jolene’s chest, the sharp point of it sticking through the front of her purple shirt as Adele stabbed her. Jolene looked at James in shock, then slumped over, her body heavy on James’s legs as he tried to stand up to get help.
“HELP! SOMEONE HELP!”
“Stop, stop, it’s alright.”
The Jolene on the bed was gone and a real, living Jolene was holding his hands as James screamed, then held her probably too tightly for her thin frame.
“She’s not here,” Jolene insisted, and he could feel her heart beating under his ear, where it hadn’t been stabbed through.
Adele smiled at James from the corner as he screamed again.
“James!”
His mouth was filled with sticky sweetness he knew was the antidote, but tried to spit out anyway.
“No, honey,” Jolene was saying as he continued to grasp onto her. “Come on, you have to drink it.”
He was unconscious before he even finished.
***
James groaned as he heard his phone ringing somewhere nearby. He must have fallen asleep in the gray bedroom after his last shift, he could identify this room by vibes alone after so many years. He almost felt hungover, which meant that the last shift must have been a nightmare and he was fine with keeping it out of his memory until he absolutely had to.
The phone kept ringing and, squinting in the dim room, James moved toward the sound, tumbling off of the bed as his legs gave out under him. He grabbed the phone and managed to pull himself back onto the bed as he answered. “Hello?” he murmured, covering his eyes with his other arm.
“James?” McGovern said, his voice far away. “James, good, I was concerned.”
“Hmm?” he groaned. “Am I late for work?”
“What?” McGovern asked. “No, I heard about what happened and wanted to check in.”
“About what happened…” James echoed as memories of blood and fear and mind control fell back into place.
The noise he let out wasn’t dignified and, on some level, maybe he was embarrassed by the obvious terror in it. He thought he heard McGovern say something else, but Amelia was running into the room, closely followed by Gabriella. James dropped the phone and Amelia picked it back up as Gabriella climbed onto the bed with James, pulling him close as she tugged the blanket over both of them. But no, she shouldn’t be taking care of him. He was supposed to protect her, not clutch onto her like his life depended on it.
“Who is this?” Amelia demanded into the phone. “Tell me who the hell you are!”
Gabriella held him tighter and James let her, his heart hammering in his throat as he remembered what was happening.
“Do not call him,” Amelia ordered. “He’s injured and I’m acting captain, you call me.”
Gabriella was talking, her voice almost too quiet to hear, but the sound of it soothing as the fire in his veins searched for a way out. “You approved waiving the safety measures to speed it up,” Amelia said. “It worked, we solved the mystery two days early. I hope you’re happy.”
What mystery? Amelia must have hung up, because she sat down on the bed beside them. “You’re due for another antidote,” she said wearily as James looked up at her.
“Where’s Adele?” he asked.
Nobody said anything as he tried to remember if he was still alive.
