Part 13: It started with a sip

Getting to the hospital had been the easy part. It was everything inside that worried Molly most. That’s where all the unknowns lay. As she sat in her parked car staring at the hospital in the distance, she ran through her plan once more, including all her workarounds. Her stomach twisted into knots.

For an extra boost of courage, she took a sip from her thermos and choked. The drink had separated on the way over and all the vodka had come to the top. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, but she took a deep breath. A little extra vodka just meant a little extra courage.

She set off with her badge in hand. Her path to the hospital was empty which gave her a slight boost of confidence. It was exactly what she could have hoped for. The longer she didn’t have to explain to coworkers why she’d come in on her day off, the more likely it would stay that way.

“Running behind tonight, aren’t you?”

She jumped. The night guard at the hospital entrance watched her curiously, smiling. She’d been so caught up in her plan, she’d forgotten all about him.

Forcing a laugh, she said the first thing that came to mind. “Actually, I’m just here for a meeting.”

“A meeting? Isn’t it a little late?”

The knots in Molly’s stomach tightened. It was twenty to eight. Why would there be a meeting this late at night? But the guard continued to grin at her. With a sign of relief, she realized it was shop talk. Nothing more.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Apparently it’s urgent.”

Keep it together, she told herself as she swiped her badge to get inside the emergency department. You’re not doing anything wrong. That didn’t stop her from walking faster than usual to the bathroom closest to Irene’s office, or from clutching the thermos close to her side.

Once the bathroom door was locked, she leaned against the wall and drank. The first swig burned again, reminding her she needed to shake the thermos, and in her haste to get it mixed a few drops leaked down her hands onto the floor. But her drink went down smoothly after that. So much so that she took a few extra swallows even after her grip on the thermos relaxed and a warmth spread across her chest. Only a little more than she’d intended, though. Not enough to do any harm.

Irene’s office was just a few doors down. She peered out the bathroom door. No one seemed to be in sight so she took her chance. She raced down the hall and slipped inside the open room. Safely inside, she closed the door behind her with a sigh.

Her sudden entry probably would have startled Irene if the woman had been in there. But the room was empty. Fortunately, Molly had brought her thermos. A little more to drink didn’t sound so bad at the moment. She took a gulp and looked around the room.

Nothing sat on top of her desk except a phone and the usual writing utensils. Molly’d hoped there might be a calendar she’d forgotten about so she could try to spot it during the vision, but Irene didn’t have anything in the room to indicate the date. It wasn’t even on her computer’s screensaver. Molly pressed the thermos to her lips and took a swig. The clock on the wall read eight-twelve.

Behind her the door creaked open and Molly nearly dropped the thermos on the floor.

“Molly?” Irene asked, staying in the doorway. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be home.”

Show time. Molly swallowed to force her pounding heart out of her throat and back into her chest. “I need to talk with you.”

“All right.” Irene came in and closed the door. “What can I do for you?”

Molly froze. The conversation she was supposed to start sat fuzzy on the edge of her mind. Something about being unhappy. How had she planned to transition into that again?

“My sister said something to me,” she started. “Something about heading toward the edge of a cliff.”

Irene’s eyes widened.

“Nothing like that. Sorry, I started in the wrong place.” Her balled fist pressed to her forehead as she tried to think of what she was actually supposed to say.

“Molly,” Irene interrupted. “Why do you smell like alcohol?”

Her heart beat even faster. Neither her dad nor Mr. Angenent had mentioned that. She hadn’t planned for this hiccup.

“There’s a tally,” Molly said, ignoring Irene’s question. “That’s what my sister was saying.”

“Molly, why have you been drinking?”

“It’s not… I mean…” She took another swig from her thermos to buy herself time. Unfortunately, Irene’s eyes followed her movement.

“Okay,” Irene said, heading toward her desk. “I’m going to call you a cab. We can talk—”

“No!”

Molly sprang forward and grabbed Irene’s arm as she reached for the phone.

Before she could explain herself, a sharp pain gripped her chest and ran down her arm. She found herself on the floor facing the other direction, Irene no longer in front of her. Instead, she saw a manilla folder on the ground with loose papers scattered around it.

The vision! Molly scanned the papers in front of her, but the pain was so bad that she couldn’t focus long enough to make out any of the individual words. As Irene’s hands grasped for the desk, the clock came into view. She confirmed that the clock read about eight-twenty. But that didn’t help her much either.

She didn’t know how much time she had, and she searched desperately for another clue as her eyelids grew heavier. And then she heard the shouting.

“Stop! I need to go back there! Please!” she heard her own voice scream.

“Molly!” A hand snapping in front of her face made her fall back against the wall.

Her brain froze as it tried to process what she’d just seen and heard. All the air seemed to have been sucked from her lungs. And an ice block burned in her chest.

Irene crossed in front of her and opened the door. “Security?” She waved someone over. “She’s drunk. Could you take her out of her?”

“Should I call the police?” the security guard asked as he grabbed Molly and started pulling her toward the door. Her shoes screeched against the tile as they dragged.

“No,” Irene said. She went to a filing cabinet and pulled out a file. After leafing through it, she copied something and gave a second guard the information. “Here’s her emergency contact info. Can you just put her somewhere where she won’t disrupt anything until someone can come and pick her up? If you can’t get hold of anyone, call a cab.”

“Will do.”

As the guards took Molly further into the hall, she watched Irene shake her head and close her door. The lock clicked and Molly snapped back to her senses.

She lunged forward suddenly enough to escape the guard’s grasp. Falling to the ground, she scrambled to get up and managed to take a running leap before the guard grabbed her around the waist.

Patients and their families stared at the struggle. So did other nurses. The guard pulled her back a few more feet and she said, “Stop. Stop!”

But he didn’t listen. In fact, another guard came to help restrain her so her loose arms didn’t smack the first one in the face. She dropped herself to the ground as best she could and tried to pull herself out of their grip with her legs. Without anything for her shoes to grip, the guards quickly overpowered her and she lost another few feet.

“Stop!” she tried once more. “I need to go back there! Please!”

The patients closest to her were jumping out of bed to get away from the chaos.

And then she felt a pinch in her arm and a fog settle in her head. Her limbs grew heavy and she struggled to keep her eyelids open.

“I need—” she started, but the medication drove her into blackness before she could say anything else.

_____________

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