Chapter 26
“Get up.”
A brash, robust voice came to Willow. It was so loud it pulled her from her medicated sleep. Willow bolted up in her bed, the fogginess of the sleeping tablets dissolving with a burn in her veins.
She saw the bathroom light was on and the door slightly ajar. The drip, drip, drip of the tap grating right into her bones. Willow flew from the bed, her naked feet padding heavily across the cool floor. With each step, she felt a wet sticky substance glue her to the tiles. Looking down, she saw blood; dark red and glossy as the light of the bathroom shimmered on its gruesome surface. Willow sucked in a breath, convincing herself it was another hallucination. She continued on her mission, feeling compelled to get rid of the dripping sound.
The door creaked as she pushed the bathroom door open, then gasped at the sight of the face in the mirror—he was here! She spun, ready to defend herself, her arms flying out preparing herself for the blow that never came. She looked at her bed and traced the bloodied footsteps, shaking her head.
“Get a grip, Viviers,” she told herself, pinching her eyes shut.
With eyes closed, she shook away the haunting images. Her mind had tricked her before. She slowly opened her eyes one more time. The face was gone. Her hand went out to the tap but stopped when she realized it wasn’t to blame for the maddening sound. She turned to the shower and reached for the door. She could smell it so strong and vibrant that her mouth watered with lust. But the craving for blood vanished as she opened the shower door.
The sight of Bertha, mutilated and dead, held up by the shower head hit her like a hammer to the chest, knocking the wind out of her and leaving her painfully gasping for air. She stood in disbelief, her head shaking, refusing to believe what she was seeing. It was a hallucination; she was sure of it. She pinched her eyes shut, rubbed them, but on smelling the blood on her hands, opened them again.
Her hands bloodied before her, she whispered, “Please, God no!” A scream came from somewhere deep inside, slamming against the inside of her skull. The screeching didn’t stop, the sight would not disappear. The sound of her own voice ripped through her until all breath had left her, replaced by footsteps hurrying towards her, slapping down on the hard floors.
“Holy shit!” a voice came, followed by more screaming, but not hers this time.
More footsteps, each footfall like an earthquake, inside Willow’s head.
“What the hell!” someone else said from the bathroom door.
A nurse yelled behind her, “Get someone in here. Now!”
A strange feeling like barbed wings came over Willow, stifling and inducing pain all at the same time, smothering her from the inside out.
“No, no, no, no, no, no….!” Willow cried.
“Bertha!” She leapt forward without effect as hands clamped around Willow’s tiny waist and jerked her away.
“Stop it!” she shouted, slamming her elbow back into her captor’s chest. She screamed and kicked as strong arms lifted her off the ground and carried her away. She took one last look at Bertha, held up by the showerhead, looking like a ragdoll: glossy, pale and empty chested, awaiting a heart.
“Find her heart!” Willow screamed. “Find her heart!”
“Get her out of here, now!” the nurse said to the guard who had finally arrived.
“We have to save her! Get her heart!” Willow enforced. “She’s going to die. Doctor Vermaak can fix her,” she urged as the guard ripped her away from the grim scene.
“She’s already dead!” the guard said as Willow continued to struggle against him.
A police officer slipped through the door, staring in disbelief. “Get everyone out.” His dark brown eyes sharp on Willow’s.
Willow turned away from his judging eyes and caught sight of a dark red mass of flesh under her bed, but no one was really listening to her. “Under the bed!” she screamed, pointing. “Look! Under the bed.”
The police officer looked from Willow to the place she was pointing and shouted, “No one move!” as he bent down to inspect it.
“Please,” Willow cried. “You need to put it back in Bertha!”
“Get a cooler,” the nurse in charge commanded. “We might be able to save it.”
As the junior nurse began to hurry out, she stopped, plucking a piece of paper that had been pinned to the back of the door and which now fluttered with the commotion. Her eyes grew wide with horror as the blood red words dripped over the white page….
A HEART FOR A HEART
Two doctors arrived, running down the passage through a tide of people who had begun to gather around. Willow was placed onto a gurney, restrained with soft leather straps and whisked down the corridor as the spectators recoiled at the sight of her covered in blood, and screaming.