* * *
Later that day, standing in the elevator of the Sacred Rivers hospital bearing a bouquet of flowers, Alex stretched her arms and neck in the small empty space, scarcely able to spread them apart as far as they could go. Once she reached the second floor, she was met with a lanky old woman with grey hair and a hospital gown. She was plugged to an IV stand with wheels. A tube connected to her arm fed liquid medicine into her bloodstream.
When the elevator doors opened, the old woman moved over to her side, allowing Alex free passage to the second floor from the elevator before making her own departure. Before either of them had the chance to anticipate it, an irate nurse appeared from the hall and called out, “She’s here!”
This set the woman in motion. She wobbled her feet towards the elevator. Once she made it in, she pushed one of the buttons on the side. Right as the doors started to close, the nurse rushed towards her with everything she had. Knowing full well that the nurse wouldn’t make it in time to stop her, the old woman waved at the nurse with a flash of her opened tongue before disappearing behind the metal doors.
The nurse, whose face had turned plump red with temper, turned to Alex.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” she barked furiously, her breath causing the front of Alex’s hair to pull back.
Alex kept still, unsure of how to respond. She briefly considered defending herself from the angry nurse’s bray of words. But before she could even speak, the nurse grunted loudly and dashed for the stairs.
Alex continued onwards onto Aunt Melanie’s hospital room. For some indiscernible reason, she passed by waves of rushing nurses that were all either going in or out of the hallway in a frantic panic.
They must really want that old woman, Alex thought to herself.
Alex dunked her head to the flower bouquet in her hands. The scent of lilies and roses made the hospital smell more like nature and less like rubbing alcohol. Alex dipped her nose once again and consumed a second whiff of its freshness while still hoping that she wouldn’t vacuum away all the smell before she got to Aunt Melanie’s room. She wondered secretly if that was even possible.
The amount of passing nurses on her way to Aunt Melanie’s room increased exponentially the closer she went. One of them even had blood spattered on her freshly pressed uniform. The sight peaked her curiosity, reminded her of the short-lived joy she felt as a killer of human beings. When she saw a doctor with shiny grey hair and a pair of glasses fixated on her nose running alongside one of the nurses with extreme urgency, Alex felt her curiosity shift to eagerness. She turned a corner, to the last hall that led to Aunt Melanie’s room. What she found immediately turned her eagerness into shock.
Nurses and doctors huddled around Aunt Melanie. Aunt Melanie’s eyes were wide open, and she was staring straight at the open doorway, at Alex. Perfectly still and fixated, like a portrait painting gleaming back at her niece no matter which direction she moved. And as such, Aunt Melanie was neither aware nor alive.
“Wha-?”
Aunt Melanie’s throat leaked blood down her neckline to the hospital gown she wore. Upon closer observation, a precise cut had been left on her larynx. A thin line of dark red on her pastry white skin.
“What happened?” Alex asked.
A doctor in the room took note of her presence, and instead of giving the girl an answer, she ordered one of the many nurses standing beside to “Get that kid out of here.”
Alex’s bouquet of flowers dropped to her feet as a nurse threw her out the room and rudely slammed the door on her face.
“What happened?!” Alex shouted, but was ignored.
Alex’s fist pounded on the door several times only to be completely disregarded. She stopped trying. For whatever reason, no one seemed determined to give her any answers whatsoever. Eventually she realized that if she yelled any louder, the only thing she would get in return was a broken voice.
Aunt Melanie was gone. Alex knew it the moment she saw her lifeless expression. Knew it before the doctor came out, her tongue fumbling over how best to tell her.