Free Stalking Shadows (Scary Mary) by S.A. Hunter Page B

florescent lights flickered and dimmed. The hallway was empty. No hospital staff was in sight. Rachel stepped closer to her. “Is it me, or has it gotten really creepy?”
    Rachel was right. Something was wrong. They came to the room. The door was closed. She grabbed the door knob and turned. The door wasn’t locked. It swung open to reveal a pitch-black room.
    “This isn’t right,” Rachel said.
    Mary flipped the light switch, and the room lit up. For a second, a dark shadow was draped over the unconscious patient. The shadow was humanoid like a person’s shadow, except for two red eyes peering out from the head. When the lights came on, it slithered off the patient and under the bed. As if the light switch had also turned back on the medical equipment, alarms started going off. Remembering her training from only a few hours before, Rachel rushed to the bed and hit the “code blue” button.
    Steeling herself, Mary dropped to her knees and looked underneath the bed, but the Shadowman was gone. She saw a ventilation grill on the bottom of the wall. It must have gone through that to escape.
    Nurses and doctors rushed into the room and began helping the patient. Rachel’s mother was one of them. “Girls, get back! What are you two doing in here?”
    “We heard something and looked in. I hit the button because he wasn’t breathing right,” Rachel said.
    “You did the right thing, but you two should go home now.”
    “Yes, Mrs. Pillar,” Mary said.
    As they walked back to the elevator, Rachel whispered, “Did we really see that thing?”
    She could only nod. She had no idea what that thing had been. Except for clairvoyants, people never saw ghosts. Ghosts couldn't make themselves visible, even if they were strong enough to move stuff. She'd never seen a ghost, though of course she'd heard plenty. But that thing hadn't been a ghost. The feeling she'd gotten from it was so strange. When it had looked at her, she knew that it had never been human. “We need to talk to Gran.”
    “About time,” Rachel said.
     
    *    *    *
     
    Gran was watching TV with Chowder’s body tucked beside her on the sofa when the girls arrived. She quickly shut off the TV when she saw their faces and gestured for them to take seats. “What happened?”
    Mary sat down beside Gran, while Rachel sat on her other side. She took a deep breath to steel her nerves. She knew she should’ve told Gran about Vicky the moment she’d known that her dreams were more than dreams, but she hadn’t wanted to burden her with it. But now, she didn’t know what to do and needed help. Assuming she could do this on her own had been wishful thinking. She still didn’t know much about the supernatural, and the only person she knew who did was Gran.
    “Remember I told you about that girl from school who’s in a coma?”
    “Yes. Vicky, right? A friend of Cyrus’s?”
    Her mouth twisted as she kept herself from correcting Gran’s misconception of the relationship. “Yeah, she’s somehow communicating with me through dreams. She says she’s in trouble and needs my help.”
    “How is she in trouble?”
    “She thinks something supernatural is attacking her. That’s why I signed up to volunteer at the hospital. I wanted to see if I could find out what could be hurting her. And I did find something out. I met a patient who seemed to know stuff. He said he’d tell me about what’s doing this, but he wanted Rach and me to get him things that we can’t get, like cigars, alcohol, and porno mags.”
    “Good Lord, who in blazes would ask that of teenage girls?”
    “His name’s Mr. White. I don’t--”
    “Ezekiel White?”
    “I don’t know his first name. He’s an old man with white hair. He has the gift. He knew straight away about me.”
    Gran nodded her head. “Ezekiel White.”
    “You know him, Mrs. Dubont?”
    A faraway look came into Gran's eyes. “Yes, at least I did a long time ago. He was a rare book dealer and occultist. His