Taint (Formerly Claimed) Dark Midnight 1

Chapter 25

*Here's the update.  If you notice anything weird, as always let me know.  I'll be honest; I have about a billion versions of this chapter floating around on my computer.  It's quite possible that I accidentally posted the wrong one.  So if something doesn't make sense or seems out of place lemme know so I can fix it!  (And I'm tired, so  something probably *is* off, but I really wanted to get this posted) *

Also!  If you remember, last week I put out a message asking for anyone with the skills to make me a cover for this story.  So far some great people have given me some really lovely choices, so i've decided that for a while at least i'll switch up my cover every week or so.  

The first lovely selection is by the awesome AuRevoirSimone!

If you have any photoshop skills, then make me a cover and I just may use it!  I'd love to see what you come up with. :)

-nikki

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The silence lasted until they reached the hospital—not that Miriam really minded.

For once, it was just nice not have to worry about nosy glances. 

Or being ignored. 

Or trying to pretend that she was normal. 

As strange as it was, she didn’t have to worry at all, as she settled back into the cushy leather seat with her head resting against the ice-cold window—even though she sat next to someone who definitely was not normal.

For at least a little while, as the car turned into the parking garage, she could just…think.

Until the car came to a stop. 

They didn’t speak. 

Not even as they got out into the frosty air and headed into the hospital. 

Miriam figured that side by side, the two of them might have looked ridiculous; a midget brown-haired teenager struggling to keep up with a tall red-eyed stranger.

Not to mention her cocktail dress.   

They certainly got their share of odd looks as they headed to the elevators and up to the fifth floor.  But, she took her cues from Eliot and tried hard not to let it show.

Anyway, there was hardly anyone in the halls at all, once they entered the coma wing.

It was weird being on this floor. Her father was nearby, she knew, tending to his patients—but she felt no desire at all to seek him out.

Was that strange?

She couldn’t keep from glancing over her shoulder at the faces of the nurses as she followed Eliot down the corridor. 

They probably saw her father these days more than she did.  

  Everywhere she looked she could hear the beeping of machinery.  The lifeless, comatose bodies of the patients were visible through every doorway, lying beneath the covers.

The hallway was so quite you could hear a pin drop.  

It was like being in a graveyard—only here, the bodies were neatly tucked into beds instead of coffins. 

It was eerie.

Miriam shivered as she followed Eliot to the end of the hall. 

Funnily enough, as they turned into Lizzie’s room the only person there was a very awake, very alive girl leaning against the bed.