Chimera

Prologue

"Get me some help in here!" came a shout from the Emergency Room. The sound echoed down the hallway and into the small office where Ava sat. Mere seconds later, she could hear the sound of feet pounding the floor as they ran down the hallway to assist Dr. Pax with her patient. More orders were shouted as the nurses reached the small patient room and Ava could just make out the desperate pleading of the family members as they watched the horror before them.

"He was just sitting there talking to us!" cried the wife. Ava could understand the shock she was feeling. When the couple had came into her office to register to see the doctor, neither of them seemed to be in much distress. His symptoms had seemed so mild to all of them, herself included, that she had even spent a few minutes pleasantly talking with them as she completed their paperwork.

"Please!" the wife continued to plead, "take care of him! I need him!" After that Ava stood up and walked over to the door to her office, closing it in an attempt to drown out the wife's cries. From the sound of the ever increasing orders Dr. Pax kept shouting, she knew that things weren't looking very good for the man. Through the registration window minutes later, she saw the nurse Mikayla bring the wife to the waiting area beside her office and tell her to wait. Some family had already arrived, but Mrs. Lawson clung to the nurse, trying again to plead with her to save her husband.

Ava watched as Mikayla hugged her and gave her assurance that the team in the back was doing everything in their power to keep him with her. None of what Mikayla said seemed to even phase Mrs. Lawson, though. With a quick look to the surrounding family members, Mikayla passed off the middle-aged woman to a relative and quickly made her way back to the ER. But Ava knew the hustle was for show: Mr. Lawson was gone. The shouting of orders had ceased just moments earlier, and Mikayla had been ordered to bring the wife to the waiting room to spare her the sight of them stopping work on the man.

With a sigh, Ava opened the door to her office once again, and made her way towards the back to check on what she could. Sure enough, when she walked through the ER doors, she was met with the look of defeat on the doctor and numerous nurses who were now gathered at the desk collecting paperwork to document their futile attempts at resuscitation. This wasn't the first death she had ever worked at the hospital, but she wasn't eager to be sitting within earshot of the family when they heard the grim news.

But, she had no reason to stay in the back, so she took a few deep breaths in and gathered herself before heading back towards her small office. She once again shut the door, this time in preparation of the cries she knew would soon be echoing into the small space and surrounding her in a way that constricted her heart and altered her breathing: the effect of a desperate cry to God and a massive wave of hurt washing over the family and coursing down the hallway, leaving a trickle of its depth with each person it encounters.

As she sat at her desk, knowing the shut door would do little to drown out the cries with the registration window on the other side, she closed her eyes for just a moment to think of Mr. Lawson and the few minutes she had spent with the man. He had seemed normal enough, a pleasant middle-aged man with slightly balding hair and thick glasses. He had talked about his grown son while he was registering in her office, mentioning how he had been the one to insist he come to the emergency room. Mr. Lawson had thought his symptoms mild and had planned to go to bed early hoping they would be better by morning. Ava hated to admit it, but she wondered if things would be different if he had just come in on his own earlier. The anguish she knew his son would soon be experiencing was enough to push thoughts of both of them out of her mind.

In a desperate attempt to flee the area for a few moments more, Ava made her way out of her office to the nurses station down the hall. It was late at night but they were all as busy as ever charting or getting medicines for their patients. They barely even noticed Ava as she went to the back of their lounge to fix herself a cup of coffee. It was stale and old, but was enough to make a small difference. As she stood alone near the coffee pot in the back, she looked around and felt invisible in this group. She knew that she didn't have the medical education that everyone here did, but she was good at her job... even if it was just paperwork. She liked to think that it made a difference since she could be a calm voice when families came in frantic and upset.

With a sigh, she turned to begrudgingly head back to her office. But, as she turned the corner, she saw it. The very thing she was trying to avoid in the first place. She could feel her breath leave her body as she watched the phantom form of Mr. Lawson slowly make his way to his crying wife in the hallway. Though no one else could see him, Mrs. Lawson immediately felt his presence as he reached her. She paused her tears for just a moment to look around the hallway, but to her she was simply alone. Ava wondered sometimes if any of the family members could ever see what she saw. Mr. Lawson reached his mourning wife and gave her a gentle kiss before stepping away. When he looked down the hallway at her, she waved. He seemed shocked that she could see him, but as soon as he reacted to her, he was gone.

They usually disappeared soon after she saw them. Every so often they would choose to linger near their loved ones as long as possible. But Mr. Lawson seemed to accept what had happened to him. It was only those who refused to accept it that truly scared Ava. A few of them still wandered around the hospital grounds unable to escape. Every now and then a patient would claim to see something in their room, though all of the nurses would be quick to assure them that nothing was there. Only Ava seemed to know the truth. But she didn't dare speak a word of it to anyone.