There are a few souls among us that have witnessed with their own eyes, the eternal battle between heaven and hell. These unfortunate individuals that pierce the veil placed over us, once made aware, are never the same again.
“One-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand, breathe,” Erica Tenison chanted before leaning forward and pressing her lips to the elderly woman’s lips. After she pinched the woman’s nose shut, Erica blew as hard as she could, forcing oxygen into her lungs. With one mouthful of air in, Erica pulled away, took a deep breath and repeated the process.
Ushering death to its intended victims was a task that Erica had long accepted as part of her duties. As the Director of Nursing for Shady Pines Retirement Home, she’d seen her fair share of deaths, but today was different. Today she worked with the fervency of a woman straight out of college, unwilling to lose her first patient.
Behind her an aide stood with a chart in one hand and a phone in the other. “Mary has called EMS. We need to call the director.”
Erica fell away from the motionless woman and slid across the floor. She didn’t stop until she’d backed herself against a dresser. “No,” she whispered and drew her knees to her chest.
The aide frowned as if she’d heard incorrectly and turned to cast a quick glance at the staff that was gathered in the doorway. “I’m sorry, what?” She said when she looked back to Erica.
Erica drug the back of her hand across her face, brushing away tears. “No,” she grunted. This time her voice was firm, almost harsh in its delivery of the word.
The frazzled aide held up the thick green binder and stepped farther into the room. “Building policy states that the Director must be notified whenever a patient-”
“I don’t care what it says,” Erica shouted. She pushed herself to her feet and crossed the room to pull the chart out of the girl’s hands. “She’s already gone. It’s two am and EMS is en route. They’ll have her pronounced before the Director could even get here.”
A stickler for protocol, the aide looked past her superior at the lifeless woman and sighed. “You’re going to explain why she wasn’t called?”
Erica nodded and pointed towards her patient. “I’ll deal with her tomorrow. For now I want her up and on the bed. EMS shouldn’t get here and find her on the floor.”
The girl nodded. Two women hurried into the room to help her carry out Erica’s orders. Erica strode past them and leered at the remaining crowd. “Back to work, people!” She followed the women as they scattered. “I’m going to wait for the ambulance,” she shouted as she headed down the hallway towards a door.
No one responded but if they did, Eric wouldn’t have heard them anyway. Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. The only thing that she could concentrate on was the deep ache that filled her heart. “She’s gone,” she whispered to herself, before she stepped out into the night air to meet the flashing lights.
Eight hours later Erica longed for the shell-shocked mind that blocked out the world around it so well, the night before. The dull ache was still there, pushing against Erica’s chest making her think that it might burst at any moment. But her ears, unfortunately they were working just fine, and heard every word the Shady Pines Director was saying. Hell, with the way that she was screaming, everyone in a ten mile radius could hear what she was saying.
Nadine Heath wasn’t an ugly woman. She wasn’t a particularly attractive one either. She was of average size, maybe a fourteen, had short-cropped, brown hair, a pushed-in, pug nose, and beady brown eyes that reminded Erica of the snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Any other time the thought would have made Eric chuckle. Now there was nothing comical about Nadine. Right now she was down-right scary.
