Jane fought through the drugged blurriness to find herself tied down to a gurney inside an ambulance. She could feel that the vehicle was in motion, but thankfully there was no siren.
She pulled a little at the bindings, but did not have the energy or the will to try a full-on attempt at escape. At least I’m safe from that ax-wielding monster, she thought to herself. I certainly hope that he was apprehended. Still, I don’t understand why I am in this ambulance. I wasn’t hurt.
Lost in her thoughts, Jane didn’t realize right away that she had company. But a quick flurry of movement brought her to awareness. A young man in a blue uniform sat at the far end of the ambulance, near the doors. He paid Jane no mind, as he wrote notes in a folder.
But that was not what had caught Jane’s attention.
A young woman sat on the empty gurney opposite her own. She stared at Jane with a sad look on her face.
Jane peered at the stranger. There was something odd about her.
“Who are you?” Jane whispered. “And why are you here?”
Silence from her strange companion.
The EMT had heard Jane, and he closed the folder. He looked over to his patient, surprised that she was awake. As he got up, the young woman turned to look at him.
Jane let out a startled scream.
The woman’s head was caved in, as if she had been hit with something heavy.
Like the back of an ax.
The EMT rushed over, grabbing a vial of medication. He emptied it into Jane’s IV as she screamed in terror, her eyes fixed on the opposite side of the ambulance.
Jane pointed. “It’s her! The girl who was killed. She’s right here!” She tried to pull out of the bands around her body, but the sleep meds kicked in rapidly. Jane fought the drug, but eventually she lost.
As she slipped back into oblivion, she heard a woman’s voice whisper, “Help me…butler…”
Nell had followed the ambulance to the hospital, and caught up with Jane’s gurney as they were wheeling her into an observation room.
A nurse caught her sleeve. “Are you family?” she asked.
“About as close as you’ll find, I’m afraid,” Nell replied, glancing worriedly at the struggling, moaning figure in the bed.
“We need to locate family members. Can you help?”
Nell shook her head sadly. “She’s alone in the world. I’ve known her a long time, and not once has she mentioned any relations at all.”
The nurse jotted this information down. Then she said apologetically, “I’m afraid you won’t be able to stay in the room. Family only.” She raised her hand to Nell’s expected retort. “Yes, I know you just said she had no family. But I can’t allow you to stay.”
She indicated a row of chairs in the hallway. “You can wait for the doctor here. I’m sure you’ll be able to be a lot of help to him.” She gave Nell a kindly smile and walked back to her station.
Nell sat in the hallway, impatiently watching the bustle of a normal day shift in ER. She held Jane’s purse and coat, and wondered again what had come over her friend.
A young doctor approached the room, accompanied by a man in somewhat rumpled business attire. She stood and watched them hopefully.
“Nell? Are you Nell Symons?” The doctor held out his hand, and Nell took it, nodding and smiling in relief. “Yes, I am.”
“I am Dr. Eduards. I understand you were with Ms…”
“ ‘Miss’,” Nell interrupted. “She’d have a bird if you referred to her as ‘Ms.’ ‘Not a proper title for a lady’, is what she’d say.” Nell blinked back the hot tears that threatened to burst through and melt her carefully-built façade of calm.
Dr. Eduards put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Ms. Symons. We’ll do everything we can to help her.”
Nell nodded, a bit shakily. “Thank you,” she whispered hoarsely.
The other man cleared his throat. “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to ask some questions.” He flipped a badge. “Detective Gunnerson, ma’am. I need to hear from you what happened this afternoon.” He gestured to the chairs Nell had just vacated. “Mind if we sit?”
Nell looked to the doctor, who said, “I’ll go have a look, and be right out.” He nodded to her and to the detective, and walked away.
The detective pulled out a notepad, and Nell related all that had happened. He nodded and wrote it all down, clarifying some points and asking questions until he was satisfied. Then he stood up and said, “That’s all for now, Ms. Symons. Thank you for your cooperation.” He held out a business card. “In case you come up with anything else…”
With a nod, he strode toward the exit, leaving Nell to her own thoughts.
Her mind turned towards what Jane had told her about finding the spectacles in her purse. It was so strange that the antique store in question had somehow disappeared. Perhaps Jane had been mistaken, and had come by it on another street. Nell had to know.
She pulled out her mini-computer and used the hospital’s free wi-fi to do a little research while she waited. What she learned was both fascinating and horrifying.
She was so engrossed in the article she was reading that she jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. The doctor had come out, a perplexed look on his face.
“Ms. Symons, there is something…odd…going on with your friend.”
“Oh?” Well, wasn’t that an understatement.
“Yes, I…don’t know what to make of this.” He scratched his head and looked up and down the hall. Then he said in a low voice, “Is there some reason Miss Killibreu would have glued her glasses onto her face?”
Nell reared back, astonished. “Why, she did no such thing! What are you talking about?”
Dr. Eduards put his hands up. “Shhh. We want to keep this between just the two of us. I don’t want someone to put your friend in the looney bin if I can at all help it.”
He went back into the room, motioning for Nell to follow him.
“Take a look for yourself,” he said aloud. He put a finger between the earpiece and Jane’s face and pulled, but the glasses wouldn’t budge.
“Oh, my,” Nell breathed. “It’s almost as if…”
“…her skin is growing around them,” the doctor finished.
“But how…?”
“I don’t know. But we need to get those off of her somehow.”
He pulled Nell to the other side of the room, and went back to whispering. “You’re sure she has no family?”
“Positive. Just six or seven cats.”
Eduards glanced over at his patient and sighed. “We’re going to have to wake her up and get her to sign a release form.” He squeezed Nell’s arm. “You stay here and I’ll be right back.”
Nell watched as he strode into the corridor and whispered urgently to a passing nurse. She glanced quickly into the room, nodded, and hurried off.
Nell was staring out the window when the doctor returned. The nurse had already been in to administer the meds into Jane’s IV.
“Has she shown any signs of waking up?” he asked Nell, as he pulled some papers out of a folder he was carrying.
Nell shook her head silently, and returned to Jane’s side.
Jane shifted a little and murmured something. A moment later, her eyes fluttered open.
“Where…where am I?” she mumbled.
“In the hospital, dear.” Nell patted Jane’s hand. “You had a bit of a turn this afternoon.” Nell didn’t consider it so much a lie as a huge understatement.
Jane nodded sleepily. “I remember someone with…with an axe.”
The heart rate monitor charged, as Jane grabbed Nell’s arm and sat bolt upright, her eyes wild. “Did they get him? Is he in jail? Oh, that poor woman!”
“Yes, yes, Jane dear, all is well. Just relax.” Nell helped Jane to lie back down, and pulled her covers up.
Several nurses ran to the doorway, but Dr. Eduards shooed them away with an “I’ve got this, thanks.”
Wary and worried, the crew went back to their duties.
He turned to Jane. “Ms…er, Miss Killibreu, I’m Dr. Eduards. I’ll be taking good care of you.”
Jane nodded, staring at the man blearily.
“We’ve discovered a problem with your glasses.” He approached closer while Jane felt at her face.
“My glasses? What’s wrong with them?”
As the doctor and Nell both leaned over her to have another look, they had to stifle gasps of disbelief.
Jane’s skin had grown completely over the earpieces!
“What? What’s wrong?” Jane couldn’t help but see their expressions, and now fought rising panic. She pulled at the glasses, and cried out when they didn’t come off.
“What’s happened?” Hysteria threatened to take her over for the third time that day.
“We won’t know until we can get the glasses off,” Dr. Eduards explained. “But we need to have you sign a release form.”
“Of course! The sooner the better.” Jane tentatively explored the strange growth along her face.
The doctor pulled the bed’s table up and handed her the paperwork. Jane quickly scrawled across the document and handed it back.
“Thank you, Miss Killibreu. That’s all we…”
The doctor’s voice stopped, his eyes registering complete bewilderment as he scanned the signature.
“What?” Jane tried to take the paper back, but the doctor held it out of her reach.
“What’s the problem, Doctor?” Nell asked, peering at the paper also. Her eyes popped wide in surprise, and she turned her gaze to Jane.
“Please inform me as to what the problem is.” Jane folded her arms, impatient with this delay.
“Jane, darling, you…you signed someone else’s name,” Nell said softly. Chills ran down her spine as she recognized the name Jane had signed:
MARY KENNEDY
The name of the woman, Nell had discovered, who had been bludgeoned to death in a local antique store so many years ago.
“Jane, you wrote ‘Mary Kennedy’…”
“Oh, please don’t be absurd, Nell. Why would I write that? I don’t even know a Mary Kennedy.”
“Take a look for yourself.” Nell pulled the paper from the doctor’s hand and showed it to her.
Jane examined her own writing, and pursed her lips. “Now, why would I do that? It must be this hospital air.” She sighed and held out her hand. “Get me another form, if you please.”
This time, she wrote it correctly.
The doctor examined it, and sighed in relief. “Thank you. Now, let’s get you prepped.” He put the paper back into the folder and started out the door.
“One moment, please,” Jane said imperiously.
“Yes?” He turned to face her.
“What happened to the young woman who shared my ambulance ride? She didn’t look at all well.”
Dr. Eduard frowned as he thought. Then he shook his head. “There was no one with you, Miss Killibreu.”
“But I saw her. Poor thing’s head was bashed in. She wanted me to help her…said something about a butler…”
Nell fell into a chair, hard. She was having trouble getting her breath.
Dr. Eduards rushed over to her. “Are you alright, Ms. Symons?”
‘Goodness, dear, whatever has you upset?” Jane asked in alarm.
“N…nothing. It’s just been a very stressful day.” How could she tell them about what she’d found out on the internet this afternoon? About Mary Kennedy, and the love of her life.
One Clint Butler.
Who drove a purple Model T…
Hours later, Jane woke up. The surgery had been a success, as witnessed by the fact that those wicked spectacles were off her face. She felt the bandages over the incisions, and smiled to herself.
“Oh, you’re awake.”
Dr. Eduards was standing at the foot of her bed. “How do you feel?”
She rubbed her eyes groggily. “I think I could do with more sleep, but other than that, I feel fine.” She gave him a drowsy smile.
“Very good.” He patted the blanket over her feet. “Just ring if you need anything.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, and Dr. Eduards left the room, closing the door behind him.
A moment later, a dark shadow detached itself from a corner of the room and slipped silently under the door.
x x x
Tabby Reilly was getting ready to go on shift. It had been a late night, and she felt certain that she’d be spending a lot of this day in the employee restroom.
She came out of the stall and went to the sink to wash her hands.
And stopped mid-stride, startled at what she saw.
There on the shelf above the sink was a pair of the most beautiful eyeglasses she’d ever seen. Ruby-red and sparkly—perfect for her next party.
But no, they must belong to someone. Better take them to lost and found, she reasoned.
She washed her hands, then picked up the glasses to take with her.
And hesitated.
What the hell, let’s just see what they look like.
She put them on, and they fit perfectly.
Jane turned in her sleep, only vaguely aware of a distant scream, and the mad rush of feet outside her door.