"Hello," says Amanda smiling pleasantly. "We'd like to visit a patient."
"Alright," says the receptionist, looking down at her computer and typing something. "Who?"
"Chloe Nyles," she replies. "We're close family friends. We've just heard what happened to her and had to come visit."
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" the receptionist replies looking up from her computer and narrowing her eyes at us. "I don't believe I've ever heard of you before."
"I'm Peyton Agee," Carmi lies smoothly. "Isabelle Agee's sister. Isabelle was in here from the same accident as Chloe a couple weeks ago before she went home."
The receptionist looks down at her computer, before looking back up. "I'm sorry, but right now the only people who are permitted to visit Chloe Nyles are family and those who are expressly given permission from family, which you have not. Did you tell the family that you were coming?" Her tone is accusatory.
"Are you sure?" asks Carmela, cocking her head innocently. "As a matter of fact, we were just talking to Mrs. Nyles not too long ago. She told us that we could come visit poor Chloe, that Chloe's moral would really improve if she saw some familiar, friendly faces."
"I don't think so. And if you are Peyton Agee, who are the rest of you?" Her eyes narrow further, and she looks directly at Amanda, the "grown up" in our group, which I suppose is important to hospital people.
"Close friends of Peyton," I say. "We've all been over to visit Peyton several times while Chloe was in the house playing with Isabelle. We come from a small town, where all the families are friends with one another, and know each other. Chloe knows us all, and she will be really quite glad to see us, I promise."
The receptionist shakes her head repeatedly, looking like she's not even listening anymore, which I suppose she isn't. "Look, I'm sorry, but unless you get Ms. Nyles herself to come here and let you in, I can't let you in. Now I'm going to have to ask you to leave or I'll have to call security."
How dare she treat us so rudely! Threatening to call security on us, whatever security is. I open my mouth indignantly but Mike cuts me off before I can shoot a retort. "It's alright, ma'am," he says. "We're leaving now. Sorry to bother you." Carmela and Amanda turn around and start walking out, looking disappointed, but Mike practically has to drag me from the room and out of the hospital. I shoot a dirty look at the receptionist as we leave, a look that she gladly returns, which only causes me to get even more frustrated and angry. We're close, so close, and I will not let someone like her stop us!
"What do we do now?" I demand as soon as we've exited the building, rolling my eyes angrily and plopping down on the curb. "We ought to go back inside right now and break down the door, and get to the Sleeping Girl! I refuse to come this far and battle vampires, and sprites, and such, only to be thwarted by a foolish human! It's ridiculous! Preposterous!"
"Calm down tiger," says Mike. "We're not giving up."
"We're not? Oh really? Then why are we out here and not in there? I must see the Girl! I refuse to let that silly stuck up woman stop us this close!"
"Keela, that nurse threatened to call security," interjects Carmi. "We need to try to keep it low key. I agree- of course we have to get to Chloe, but clearly we can't go in that way."
"What is security, anyways?" I ask, momentarily stopping my raging because I am actually curious.
"People that would remove us by force and cause a scene that you really don't wanna cause," says Carmela. "Trust me on that one."
"Who is this Mrs. Nyles, anyways?" asks Mike. "Has anyone actually seen her, Carmi? Could we ask her for help to get in? I mean, she knows that you know Chloe, right?"
"Not really," says Carmela. "I mean, I actually doubt that she's legit Chloe's mom. I think she's dark."
"I think so too," I interject, remembering the strange vision I had earlier in the day. "I am nearly certain that whoever is masquerading as Chloe Nyles's mother is not so. And I'd rather not come face to face with some dark magical creature right now, although I suspect that it will become inevitable."
"We have to sneak in."
The statement comes from Carmela. She's staring back at the building with a determined expression on her face. "It's the only way. The dark aren't playing fair, and we aren't going to either. And like Keela said, we've got to get to Chloe."
"Sneak in?" asks Mike. He gives a little chuckle, grinning up at the sky. "I never thought that I would ever do something like that in my life. Always a good guy, right? But you're right. We have to do that. For the good of society. For the good of the world."
"Oh, get over yourself," says Carmela, playfully smacking her brother on the back of his head. "You're not some freaking saintly boy, you're a member of a society that murders, like, vampires in our free time. Don't tell me that you've never thought of what it would be like to break in somewhere."
He gives her a funny look. "Of course I haven't! Why, have you? Never mind, that was a stupid question. Of course you have. My little sister the felon."
"Shut up! I'm only younger by eight minutes, you little-"
"Carmela! Mike!" reprimands Amanda. "We don't have time for your childish bickering. But yes, we do have to sneak in, Carmela."
"Whatever Mikey boy," says Carmi, rolling her eyes. Then her face turns serious. "So, does anyone have any idea how? Because I actually have no idea. I've already done my part, coming up with the idea in the first place, in my defense. And I'm supposed to be the brawns of the operation, Mike is the brains."
"Disguises?" I offer, remembering vaguely a time when I was a little girl that Ailie were playing dress up in one of the tents. I was just a little girl, two or three at the time. I barely have any memories of that time, but I remember this experience because of the severe reprimanding we got from it. That tent wasn't for playing, Mother said. It was for disguises, for missions, and I would know when I was a big girl.
I guess I'm a big girl now.
"That would help," says Amanda. "Dressing up as a nurse, I suppose. Or a janitor, or an orderly, or something, whatever we can find... Although I'm not sure where we would get those clothes from. So I guess that rules that one out."
"We need to provide a distraction," says Mike. "Do something that would get everyone out, or looking away, so that we can sneak in. We don't all need to be there. Someone can provide the distraction, and if we can just get Keela in, the rest of us can try to follow behind her."
"What?" I ask. "No, I'm not going up alone! You guys are coming with me. I do not know what to do once I reach her. I refuse!"
"You're the Sleeping Girl," says Mike. "Or the old one, anyways. And she's the new one. You have to get to her, you're the most important. The most powerful. You've said so yourself for these past few days. That you can be independent." His mouth twitches in a smirk, and I mentally curse myself for being so impudent for these past few days. If I've learned anything so far since waking up, I suppose it's that I need others help, that I really can't do everything.
I glare at him. "Well, I guess I've changed then. I can't save her alone. I need somebody else to help me get in there. What if some dark creature jumps out at me? Remember when Amanda so harshly forced me to always have somebody else with me?"
His expression softens. "I know," he says. "We're all in this together."
"And just to be clear," says Amanda. "That rule still applies. Mike does have a good idea, but you're not going in alone Keela. You're too precious to society, to Chloe, to us. One or two of us can provide the distraction and someone will go in with you."
"Okay," I say, feeling much relieved."But that still brings us back to the original question: what is the distraction?"
"If we can find the fire alarm we can pull that," says Carmela. "I mean, does everyone evacuate in a fire in a hospital? I would think that they wouldn't just chill in there while the building burns down. I remember one time in middle school the cooking class burned pancakes and the fire alarm went off, and then we all had to evacuate, and it totally took up like a bunch of math class, which was great!"
"I remember that!" cries Mike. "Yes. My friend was in that elective, cooking. But anyways, Amanda what do you think?"
She shakes her head. "Hospitals are designed to be fire safe, everyone won't evacuate like they would do in a school from the mere setting off of the fire alarm."
"But if we had an actual fire..." I muse.
"If we had an actual fire I would that that that would distract some people," says Mike. "Too bad Ember isn't here."
"Yeah," says Amanda. "None if us is a fire fey, but I do have some power..."
***
Mike clicks on his phone screen, looking at the time. "Almost time," he says, and I'm grateful that I'll soon be out of this stuffy closet. I am way too close for comfort to Mike, Carmela, and some mops, buckets, and other janitorial stuff.
"I'd say we are T-minus five, four, three, two, and..."
Right on cue to Mike's counts, a sharp, ear piercingly shrill sound fills the air, making me clutch my ears with pain, accidentally elbowing Carmela in the process. Although I'd been warned beforehand, I hadn't expected something of quite this magnitude and loudness. And shrill. I'm almost surprised that there isn't any glass breaking.
Seconds later, the smell of smoke wafts towards me. True to her word I suppose, Amanda has conjured up a flame that will provide us with the distraction necessary to get through. Though it's nothing to the magnitude that Ember can bring, it's enough. And if I know Amanda, she will make sure that it spreads.
"Go!" hisses Mike, pushing a momentarily stunned me out of the janitors closet into the hallway. I blink in the unexpected brightness, giving Carmela the time to push past me and sprint down the hall. Her bare feet make a slapping sound as she nears the bend at the end of the hallway. After a second, I regain myself and follow her, and can feel Mike close behind me.
Arms pumping at my sides, bare feet slapping the cold tile floor, I race down the hall, and the next one, and the next. Step step step, all I know is each step in succession to the next as I travel down the hallway. The halls have soon filled with people of all sorts, both patients and nurses I suppose, trying to evacuate the "burning" building. Just as we had hoped, everyone is too preoccupied with themselves and possibly their patients to pay any heed to Mike, Carmela, and myself.
After what feels like no time at all, this frantic chase begins to feel natural. I can feel myself getting drawn and I quickly power past Carmela, leaving the twins in my dust. I'm filled with need to reach the Girl, the Girl who has quickly become everything. Right, left, left, up, my sense of directions has never been better as I race through the building. We studied a map that Amanda found online prior to this, but I find myself not even needing it in the slightest, just following my instinct and knowing that I'm right, that we're getting close, that we are going to find her.
I've never gone this fast before in my life, and I'm certain that I'm going at an inhuman speed, but I neither worry nor care. I've never been this determined to reach my destination before, not even with the werewolf in the woods, or whilst fleeing the sprites, not even as a little girl when I was running away from my sister who was meeting her demise.
And then before I know it, I'm here, in front of this very door. Chloe is here, I know it, and I know it, and I just know it. I've never been more sure of anything. All my life, all my all, everything comes down to this. This moment changes everything. I reach out my hand for the door knob-
"Just what do you think you're doing, young lady," snaps an uptight, prissy voice. Letting my focus relax from the one thing I was so intent on, I see a middle aged, pale, bony nurse with a very agitated expression on her pinched sallow face leaning against the door which I was about to open with her arms crossed in front of her chest.
"Um... Hi?" Carmela has caught up to me, and is standing at my side, with Mike next to her. They're both panting, and for once, Carmela seems at a loss for words, which I should know is never a good sign. She shifts her weight uneasily from one foot to the next.
"I don't know why you are running through the the halls unrestricted, but this is a medical clinic, not a jungle gym! Take your dalliances elsewhere before I'm forced to call security!"
I hear Carmela give a snort next to me although I'm puzzled as always as to what her words mean. Well, except for what she said about security, which this time, I take isn't a good sign.
"Furthermore," the uptight nurse continues, "this area is strictly off limits unless especially accompanied by family, which clearly, you three are not. Our patients here are in very severe condition and we don't need wild children like yourself making their conditions worse. Have any of you ever, for even one moment in your lives, thought about anyone other than yourselves? I doubt it. I know your type. This is why I don't have children. You have been very disruptive and-"
"Oh shut up," interrupts Mike, rolling his eyes. "Listen lady, why didn't you evacuate when the fire alarm sounded? You know there's an actual fire?" He motions around with his arms vaguely, as if to show the hot, smoky air.
I certainly hope that Amanda can keep the fire under control and doesn't actually burn the building down. She said that she would just start it, not by herself, but with the help of other flammable objects, and then use her power to try to get it to spread. She's not like Ember, though; she can't just make or extinguish a massive fire from nothing.
"Don't you 'lady' me, young man," the nurse snaps, glaring up at us. I suppose that she's trying to be intimidating, but 'tis a rather hard task when she is nearly a full head shorter than any of us.. "Of course I'm not going to leave my patient here all alone! Why, I won't leave this building until it no longer exists! Why, I didn't even mean to leave her alone in the room, but merely stepped out to see how the other patients are faring when I came across you children. I cannot even believe that anyone could think so lowly of me, as to leave the poor dear by herself, fire or no fire. Her health is too fragile! What kind of person do-"
My fist makes contact with her bony face before I can even realize that I'm doing, knocking her nose to the side which makes a startling, crunching sound. With all the extra power and anger- magic- that I fueled into my fist, she leans against the wall, slumping against the door, then sliding down to where she lies in a heap on the ground. I poke her with my foot and she moves limply in response. She's passed out, that is for certain. She's no match for a girl as strong as me.
I notice that both Mike and Carmela are looking at me. Mike's expression is of vague amusement and astonishment, whilst Carmela's face has light up and she's beaming at me.
Well, one of us had to deal with that nurse, one way or another.
I shrug nonchalantly. "She was irritating me," I state, causing them both to start laughing. And then we're all laughing, standing outside the hospital door that has the potential to change everything, just laughing. At the absurdity of the situation perhaps, or just the sheer nerves of all it's taken to get this far coming out.
After a moment, I regain my seriousness, and reach down to push the nurse out of the way. Then, taking a deep breath, I grasp the doorknob in front of me and push the door open.