Restless

Brookhaven Hospital: And You Thought House Was A Jerk

They can’t just walk straight there. Everywhere they go there’s another wall, or the sidewalk and street are too broken to let them continue. Jenny opens her mouth several times to ask Mike who he is, why he’s here, but she’s not sure she wants to hear the answer. She just watches him as he moves, walking a little faster than Mitchell would, but still so much like him that it hurts her.

They end up on Carroll Street, near a hospital. Jenny never wants to go into another hospital again, especially in this place, but then she sees a baseball cap. It’s Ian, at one of the windows, looking down at them.

“That kid is up there,” she says.

“What kid? What would a kid be doing here?” Mike asks her in her husband’s voice.

“Don’t fucking ask me. But he’s here. And I think he knows where Mitchell is.”

“You really think your dead husband is here in this town somewhere?” Mike asks her with raised eyebrows.

“Is that any weirder than everything else going on here?” she yells.

He holds up his hands. “OK, OK. We’ll go look for the kid.”

“There’s no ‘we’ in this, Mike.” But she lets him follow her through the doors.

“If there’s a child here,” Mike is saying, “the maybe he needs help.”

“There’s something wrong with him, if you ask me, but I don’t think he needs any help.”

“Not a motherly type, are you?” Mike says.

“Fuck you.”

Mike just laughs, doesn’t pick on her for swearing the way Mitchell used to. Jenny opens a hallway door, and to her amazement someone in a white coat is there, heading away from her.

“Hey… hey, is this place still open?”

The person turns, and it’s a nurse… but not really. Not in the sense of having a face, or a body that looks particularly human. Jenny loads the gun, but the thing is running at them already, and it jumps on Mike and knocks him over. It’s got a scalpel in one hand, and it’s trying to stab Mike with it, aiming for the crotch. He grabs its wrist but he looks damned terrified and Jenny’s ready to scream herself. All she can think is that this nurse will mutilate Mike, kill him, and then come after her. But if she shoots it she’ll get Mike too.

Finally she gathers her nerve and jumps on the nurse herself, grabbing its neck. It doesn’t even seem bothered at first, probably doesn’t need to breathe, but Jenny’s strong enough to pull it off Mike, and even manages to throw it against the wall. It hits the wall hard and slides down leaving a smear of blood. Jenny is all over it then, stomping the wrist with the scalpel, kicking its non-existent face, listening to ribs crack. Finally Mike grabs her.

“Look, it’s dead, OK? It’s dead. Calm down.”

Jenny backs off. “Yeah. Let’s head for the third floor. I think I saw Ian up there.”

But halfway down the hallway, Mike doubles over and coughs.

“Did that nurse hurt you?” Jenny asks urgently.

“No, I’m fine.” He takes a pill bottle out of his pocket, puts one in his mouth and swallows it dry. “Too much tequila last night, that’s all.”

Jenny stares at his hand. “Tequila shouldn’t make you cough up blood.”

“I must have got the worm,” he mutters.

She puts a hand on his back. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Jenny doesn’t believe him, but she doesn’t have time to worry about it right now. They head for the elevator and Jenny is surprised when the doors open.

“Shouldn’t there have to be electricity for this thing to run?”

Mike shrugs. “Maybe there is electricity. The power plant probably isn’t here in the town anyway.”

“What exactly do you know about this place?” Jenny finally asks him as the doors close.

“I know fuck-all about this place. I’m just … here.”

“What do you mean you’re ‘just here’” Jenny asks in an irritated tone. “You must have come here for some reason?”

He just puts a hand on her face. “Don’t worry about where I come from, lovely Jenny.”

Mike’s going to kiss her; she can tell, and as much as she wants him to she still smacks his hand away. That’s when the elevator stops and goes dark.

“Oh shit,” says Jenny. And then there’s a booming voice.

“Jenny and Mitchell Sunderland, this is your song!”

“What the hell?” she yells.

A few strains of music begin to play and she claps her hands over her ears. “Stop it!” She feels Mike’s arms around her, and he’s trying to say something into her ear.

“Stop it!” she screams, at the elevator, at Mike, at everything.

Suddenly the elevator starts again and reaches the third floor. The doors open and Jenny stumbles out with Mike still trying to hold onto her.

“Calm down, Jenny. It’s just a song. Did they play that at your wedding or something?”

“We got married at the courthouse. Mitchell didn’t even like music. And you can get your fucking hands off me now.” She stomps down the hall.

He’s still following her though. “What kind of guy doesn’t like music?”

“A practical kind of guy. Mitchell was a good person.”

“You could have afforded a better wedding with all your money…” said Mike.

“Who told you I had any money?” she snaps.

He shrugged. “Maybe nobody.”

“I hate hospitals,” she says, trying to change the subject.

“Doesn’t everybody?”

“The last time I was in one, I was visiting Mitchell,” she says.

“What did he die of, anyway?” asks Mike with a little sympathy in his voice.

“Lung cancer,” sighs Jenny. “And he didn’t even smoke.”

She walks down the hallway with Mike following her, starts opening random doors, but the locks are mostly broken. Finally one swings open. It’s just a little room big enough for one patient, with sheets on the messy bed. Mike walks in and sits down on the edge, beginning to cough again.

“I think I’d better stay here for a while,” he says.

“You know this place?”

“Maybe…” he says.

Jenny’s getting tired of hearing that word from him. But he looks pale, and there’s a line of prescription bottles on the bedside table.

“I don’t feel right just leaving you here,” she says.

He grabs her hand, presses it to his face. “I’ll be all right.”

“Your skin is so cold. You really must be sick.”

“I’m fine. Anyway, what can we do? Call an ambulance? Or maybe a nurse?” He laughs until he coughs again.

“Well, I’ll lock the door on my way out,” she says.

As she’s leaving, he calls after her.

“Say, Jenny… what are you going to do if you don’t find Mitchell?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know what I’m going to do if I do find him.”

“Well, you’re going to be happy then,” Mike murmurs sleepily.

“Yeah, right.”

She still hasn’t found Ian and decides to try the roof, careful to take the stairs this time. But there’s nothing there, it’s just dirt and air and blackness under her feet. But just before she goes back down she hears thumping sounds and the scrape of metal. There’s nowhere to run, Jenny is right by the edge of the roof. It… she… is there behind her, with fresh blood on the apron. Jenny starts to load the gun but it’s too late; the thing picks her up like she’s a doll and she’s over the edge.

On the way down she figures this is probably one of the more pleasant ways to die in this town.

But later she wakes up on the ground by the hospital, feeling a little bruised but able to move all her limbs. That makes no sense, she should be dead or paralyzed, but she isn’t. In a few minutes she’s even able to sit up, though with a pain in her head like the world’s worst hangover.

That’s when she sees Ian.

“I was looking for you!” she tells him angrily.

“I was right here,” he says. “Look, I have something for you. It’s from Mitchell.” He’s holding a videotape. Jenny stares at it.

“What’s this?”

“What’s it look like, stupid?” Ian asks.

“Why would Mitchell give you a videotape?”

“Maybe you should watch it.”

“Yeah, like I’m going to find a working VCR in this town?” she asks sarcastically.

“There’s one at the Lakeview.” Then the kid runs off, before she can even pick herself up off the ground to follow him.

Jenny goes back into the hospital to try to find Mike but the room he was in is empty now. Without him, she isn’t certain she can find the Lakeview Hotel at all, but the lake seems to be on the map so she just heads in that direction. It makes as much sense as anything else.