Dancing with the Dead ✔

Chapter Twenty-Seven - The Perks of Living in a Small Town

"I-I assume you're Sheila McKinney's nurse in charge?"

"Yes." She gives her glasses a push upward. "You must be Miss Howard."

"Nice to meet you." I try my best to smile and extend my hand for a shake. She greets it with a cold handshake and a flat expression that leaves me in an even more awkward position.

"Well then... Shall we?" I flash an awkward smile before I proceed to knock on Sheila McKinney's door.

The second they hear me knocking, they stop arguing. I swear I can hear the boy gasp loudly.

I push the door and greet the two surprised teenagers. A girl is laying under a white cotton blanket in her mint-green hospital gown. Her long blonde hair is a mess and her face is puffy. The dark circles around her doe eyes suggest she hasn't had a good sleep in the past couple of days. But who can blame her? She does believe she is haunted to the point that she had to be sedated when she first got here.

After closing the door, my eyes dart across the room to the boy standing in front of her bed. I stop in an instant as my eyes widen out of surprise when I realize he's the boy who tried to kill me a few weeks ago.

Now their earlier conversation starts to make sense. If Sheila is addicted to Adderall, this guy must be addicted to steroids. I mean, look at his body, for God's sake! He has grown even bulkier than the last time I saw him. The string of incidents happening in the past couple of weeks must've sent him to a complete fitness frenzy. He should really stop taking the steroids before he ODed.

Stephen's tanned complexion turns pale in a split second. "Y-y-you again..."

Ah. It seems like I'm not the only one who's surprised here.

"I-I-I really should go." He grabs his backpack which was lying on the floor and bolts past me. When he gets to the door, he's so nervous he bumps into the closed door. His look turns quizzical and frightened when he tries to push the door to no avail.

Does he honestly believe I'm locking the door with my 'power'?

Trying my best to hold my laughter, I grab the door's handle and pull the door for him. He gulps and quickly gets out of the room. It doesn't take long before he's out of my sight. I close the door and turn my gaze back to the young lady.

"Good morning," I say, walking towards the bed. "So, Miss McKinney... Can I call you Sheila?"

"Sure." She straightens her shoulders a little while avoiding my gaze.

I stop beside the bed. "I'm Doctor Howard, I'll be the anesthesiologist for your surgery. You can call me Alexis," I say, trying to be as friendly as I can.

Nurse Callaghan, who's now standing on the other side of the bed, places the files on the bedside drawer and the tensimeter on the bed before wrapping the manset around the girl's thin arm.

"So, how are you feeling today? Have you been experiencing any trouble sleeping or dizziness?"

"No... not really." The fact that she's blinking repeatedly when she's uttering the words tells me she's lying.

"Any headaches?"

She shakes her head and continues to avoid my gaze.

"Okay." I grab my stethoscope and bend a little. "Now, I'm just gonna do a quick check, is that okay?"

She gives me her consent by nodding softly. I press the stethoscope on her chest and begin listening to her heart rhythm. It's still uneven and disrupted, a possible side effect of the heavy amount of medicine she took. While I continue checking her vital signs, I take a quick glance at her face. Her small but plump lips are dry and cracking while her complexion is pale. I observe her eyes and her fingernails only to find them extremely pale in color. The signs lead me to believe she's also suffering from anemia, which tells me she has been abusing the Adderall for quite some time.