Chapter 5 - Facing the Enemy

Following the signs to the infirmary, I started screaming, hoping that someone would be there and could help us. Finally a team of nurses ran out and saw us. They did a quick visual assessment then wheeled him away, leaving me heartbroken and alone in the hallway.
The adrenaline had worn off and panic set in. My racing thoughts were of no comfort to me as reality set in. Leaning against the wall I slid to the floor and burst into tears. For the first time in a very long time I prayed, begging who or whatever was up there to take me instead and to let Josh live. I looked up and saw a young nurse, around my age, fretting around me. She would get close and then back off, get close and then back off, as if grief were a contagious disease that she didn’t want to catch. Wiping away the tears I tried to fix my appearance and then I realized it was hopeless until I got in front of a mirror.
“Aslynn,” I said extending a hand and trying to be civil in the middle of all of this chaos.
“Abigail,” she said, completing the shake and looking relieved to be of some help to the poor puddle of a person on the floor.
“Can I get you some scrubs to change into?” she hesitantly asked and I noticed for the first time that I was covered in Josh’s blood. So I nodded and grumbled something resembling a thank you, wanting nothing more than to rewind back to the perfect moment in Josh’s room right before he got stabbed. She led me to a bathroom and handed me a pair of fresh scrubs.
“Take all the time you need. He’ll be in there for a while.” I felt as if I should have said something to her but I was too upset to even think so I just shook my head and she disappeared behind the closed door. I broke down and ripped off Josh’s blood covered shirt and cranked on the sink. Bawling my eyes out over how much of a train wreck this day had become I scrubbed at my skin. I was still scrubbing even after the blood was gone because I was trying to wash the nightmare away. When I felt like I had done a sufficient job I turned off the water and put on the scrubs. I noticed I had cried myself out of tears yet my body was still trembling with grief. Running to the toilet, I lost whatever tiny amount of food I had consumed over the last 24 hours. I lay on the cold tile floor in a crumpled heap, crying, shaking and weak. A nurse found me there and plucked me off of the ground as if I weighed nothing more than a feather. She placed me on a bed where various needles were placed in me. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up the nurses were gone and I was connected to only one IV bag filled with blood. Even though the world was a little fuzzy I could tell that Abigail was seated at the foot of my bed.
“Josh is in our ICU down the hall. The knife missed his spinal cord but it was covered in some kind of poison that prevented his blood from clotting and made his brain swell. All of this caused him to slip into a coma and they’re not sure if he’ll come out of it. If he does manage to come out of it no one knows how severe the damage to his brain was and there’s no way to tell,” she filled me in.
“I have to go see him,” I insisted, trying to sit myself up. I didn’t get far before Abigail was pushing me back into the bed.
“You passed out from dehydration and have been on a steady dose of blood since then,” she explained checking my vital signs. I knew that I had to see Josh and she was not going to stop me so I formed a plan.
“Is there anything to eat around here? I’m absolutely famished.” I knew I had said the right thing because a giant smile made its way onto her face.
“I’ll go ask what you can have,” she said playing right into my hand. I hauled myself out of bed, ignoring the wave of nausea and pain, and dragged the IV machine out of the room with me.
Working my way down the hall, I was careful to avoid people. Finally at the end of the hall I found his room. It was blindingly white and there were more tubes attached to him than I would have thought possible. Letting myself in I crept slowly to his side. His eyelids were fluttering, but not in a way that indicated he was waking up, more like he was stuck in a nightmare with no way of escaping. Remembering how much I had relied on him I climbed up next to him, wary of all of the tubes. Laying my head on his shoulder I closed my eyes, pretending we were back in my room the first night I was here. I opened my eyes and noticed his eyelids had stopped fluttering and allowed that small comfort to carry me to sleep.
Once again when I awoke there was Abigail. I took my first good look at the young nurse and noticed her perfect oval face was lined with concern. Her platinum blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail and her emerald green eyes sparkled with understanding and set off her rosy lips and cheeks perfectly. All of this was wrapped up into a perfectly sun kissed 5’ 5” package.
“You weren’t supposed to escape,” she said half jokingly half serious. I groggily apologized but made no attempt to move.
“Luckily, the Elders are understanding and are willing to move your things into this room so you guys won’t have to be separated.” There was an edge to her voice when she said the word Elders but I couldn’t identify any veiled meanings or malicious intent. Once again it was of little comfort under the circumstances. Then I remembered the necrolancer was going to be “human” again within a matter of days.
“Hell no! I have to get out of here,” I shouted, ignoring the look of shock on Abigail’s face. I started removing the IV and looking for a band-aid. “Jesus Christ this is a hospital where the fudge are the band-aids?” I screeched, tearing the room apart.
“The only way you’re leaving,” Abigail started and handed me a band-aid, “is with a medical escort.”
“Then escort me back to Josh’s room so that I can pack up a few things,” I said heavily mocking the word escort.
“Fine,” was all I got out of her before she turned on her heel and walked away. I pondered whether or not I could trust Abigail the whole way back to the dorm, while she babbled on about something or other. When we reached his room I hesitated at the door and Abigail looked as if she was getting ready to catch me. There was a pool of dried blood, that I carefully maneuvered around, where Josh had laid only hours before. Retrieving the encyclopedia and my locket I fought the urge to vomit from the memories suddenly flooding my brain. Just wanting to leave the dorm area, I quickly surveyed the room before locking the door behind us.
“Where to now?” Abigail asked in an annoyingly perky voice. Shrugging my shoulders I started walking in a random direction, hoping I would find some clue as to where to find the necrolancer. By attacking Josh it had made this fight personal and now I was out for blood. Trying to think about where it could be hiding I realized that I didn’t know enough about the school to even begin searching. That left me with two options: one bring Abigail in on the secret or two give up completely and let Josh’s attacker go without a second thought. After weighing my options heavily I stopped walking and turned to Abigail.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, alarm evident on her face.
“Nothing. How familiar are you with the supernatural?” I asked feeling like that was an appropriate place to start. Pondering this for a moment, she shrugged and looked at me, urging me with her eyes to continue. So I took a deep breath and started from the beginning, editing out a few details that I would prefer to keep private.
After I had finished she didn’t go running for help, or even call the psych ward like I thought she would. Instead she stayed silent, as if processing what I had just told her. When she did speak it was my jaw that fell open.
“If I was the creature I would hide out in either the abandoned gym or the basement. Either place is creepy enough,” she joked, fear clearly present in her voice.
“Let’s start with the basement,” I suggested. I didn’t have a clue what we would do if we found the necrolancer but it was worth a shot.
After heading down several flights of steps and multiple winding hallways, we finally came to a stop deep within the bowels of the school. In front of us was a wooden door that looked like it hadn’t been opened since the Middle Ages and we were surrounded by stone walls. It was freezing cold and if there weren’t lanterns every few feet it would have been pitch black. The door wasn’t locked and was a lot lighter than it looked but the creaking hinges gave away its age. As soon as we walked into the basement a few lights tuned on allowing us to see a little better then the lanterns did. The basement was fully furnished with hardwood floors and heavy velvet curtains covered the walls. In the middle of the floor there was a piece of black onyx the size of a twin bed and melted wax all around it. Other than that the room was bare and relatively well kept. There were no spiders or their webs and not one dust bunny in sight.
“Well if they were going for the devil worshiper look they achieved it,” Abigail joked to try to cover up her fear.
“Yeah. I don’t see it let’s try the gym,” I said just wanting to get out of there. So we silently walked back up to the warm inviting lobby. Reluctantly we headed outside and into the blizzard. The snow was up to my thighs and coated everything in sight. Within a matter of minutes we were soaked and only halfway to the gym. By the time we got to the front doors we had to have looked like drowned rats. My scrubs looked like I decided to swim in them and Abigail was shivering so much she looked like she was convulsing.
We sat down to rest and I did a survey of the gym. It had the typical springy gym floor and high ceilings but the windows were completely covered with velvet so it would block out the sunlight. The basketball hoops were in place, the lights were on and the bleachers were pulled out; as if someone had just left. I heard a door open and all of my senses went on high alert. Abigail must have heard it too because she was suddenly right next to me. We could hear high heels clicking as if someone was walking up steps. Then the door leading to the locker room swung open and there was the necrolancer. The flesh had grown and was now up to her forehead.
“Oh I see I have visitors,” she announced with a smile, “if I had known you were coming I would have done a little remodeling. Her voice was smooth as honey but oozed a forced sweetness as if she was growing impatient but didn’t want to set us on edge. Her eyes were the color of dark chocolate and her lips were a deep red that reminded me of blood. I looked over to Abigail only to see that she wasn’t there anymore. Her disposition had completely changed and her features had contorted to a look of malevolence. She had taken her hair down so now it was hanging at her waist and her eyes held a dark presence in them.
“Abigail?” I asked, slightly afraid that my friend had changed so suddenly.
“Abigail had to go away for a little bit. My name is Jessica,” she said shooting me an evil glare. Now I was really on edge because it appeared that Abigail had multiple personalities and I wasn’t so sure if Jessica was a friend or foe. I stood up and got in front of Abigail … Jessica … which ever she was, so that I was in between her and the necrolancer.
“Now dearie why would you do that?” the necrolancer asked. She moved her hand to the side and an invisible force pushed me knocked me out-of-the-way. “Jessica and I have been talking for a while now. Haven’t we dear?” she crooked her finger at Jessica and the same force urged her foreword. Jessica practically ran over to her, like a puppy to its master. “It seems that she doesn’t like Abby too much and wants the host all to herself,” the necrolancer continued.
“Don’t talk about Abigail that way!” I shouted ashamed that this creature knows more about my friend then I could ever hope to. Even though I had just met Abigail I knew that we were going to be friends and I could trust her with anything. The necrolancer just clucked her tongue at me.
“I convinced Jessica that if she sacrifices Abigail to me she will have the body,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken.
“If she sacrifices Abigail then she sacrifices herself. Kill the body and you kill them all,” I said drawing on the little information we had covered in health class about Multiple Personality Disorder.
“I will miss my loyal servant but she understands she’s sacrificing herself to a greater cause,” she said without a note of sadness in her voice. Drawing out a silver dagger she stabbed Abigail right in the heart.
I screamed but the necrolancer tipped her head back as if enjoying the pure ecstasy of Abigail’s death. Remembering that she has to drink the blood for the sacrifice to count towards her body I hurled myself at the both of them. The necrolancer let out an awful scream and dropped Abigail’s body. Her blood spilled everywhere and there was just so much that I couldn’t believe that she was only stabbed once.
“I was going to spare you but seeing as you made me drop my final victim I’ll have to settle for you instead,” she said anger spilling into her words. She drew the dagger up to stab me but I rolled to the side and she stabbed the floor instead. I jumped up and ran to the closest door: the woman’s locker room. Flinging myself at it I tumbled down the stairs and when I came to a stop at the bottom I had a deep gash along my cheek and I was pretty sure my cheekbone was broken in at least one place but I kept going. I heard the necrolancer’s heels clicking down the stairs and ran into the locker room. There was a door off to the left and I ran to it only to find that it was locked. Running down the rows of lockers I kept searching until I found one. It was a locker that was big enough that I could fit inside and close the door behind me.
Just as I closed the door I heard the necrolancer enter the locker room. She seemed to have stopped to check the locked door off to the left but when she found it was locked she just let out an evil laugh.
“I know you’re in here! Come out come out wherever you are!” she screamed like a madwoman. I heard her heels click down each row of lockers and she must have punched a few of them because every now and then I’d hear the loud thud of flesh against metal. Finally she got to my row of lockers. I held my breath and once again found myself silently praying. She stopped right in front of my locker and I had to come up with a plan and quickly. As if she could hear my thoughts she said, “Good luck dearie.”

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