Portal (Nina Decker) (2 page)

Nothing could prepare me for what I saw on the gurney.

A grinning, disheveled man sat rocking back and forth on the bed.  That wasn’t the disturbing part.  I’d seen whacked out people every day.  It was what was poking out of the man that had me gaping like a fish out of water.

Kevin had the man’s shirt collar pulled down.  “He’s got a damn plant growing out of his neck.”

And that was exactly what it looked like.  A rich green leafy vine coiled out of his top thoracic vertebrae and dangled down his back.  There were several unfurled leaves on it.  It reminded me of the spider plants that grew in my garden.

“Did you call the doctor?” I asked.

He nodded.  “I called in everyone I could think of, even a dermatologist.”

The other nurse in the room, Heather, looked at me all wide-eyed and freaked out.  “Are they going to quarantine us?”

“Maybe,” I said as I got closer to the patient.  “Do we have a name?”

Heather picked up the man’s wallet and showed it to me.  “Ralph Donnelly.  Age forty five.  He was unresponsive when he came in and he’s still that way.  Hasn’t said anything to anyone.”

“He’s a walk in?”

Kevin nodded.

I leaned in and really looked at the man’s neck.  I could plainly see that the vine had split through his skin.  There was a little dried blood on the collar of his shirt.

“That must’ve hurt like a son-of-a-bitch,” Kevin said.

I nodded; yes it must have indeed hurt.  I flinched and my hand instinctively moved up to touch the tip of one wing.  Digging deep in my psyche, I could still feel the pain.  I winced as if still feeling it. Kevin and Heather both looked at me and I quickly dropped my hand to my side again.

A rush of dread rolled over me.  The plant reminded me of something. Something I didn’t want to face.  I knew of only one species that had a true affinity to nature.  And it wasn’t humans or werewolves.

As he rocked, Ralph started to mumble under his breath.  Leaning closer, I could barely make out any coherent words.

“What’s he saying?”  Heather asked.

Kevin answered, “Sounds like gibberish.  All I can make out is moonlight, and the fall of night or something along those lines.”

My heart nearly gave out right there and then.

As his head twitched suddenly, the vine unwound another inch down his back.  I had to swallow down the bile rising in my throat.  It was grotesque to watch.  But I felt like I had to as a testament to what the poor man was going through.

I moved over a little to stand in the man’s line sight.  “Ralph, my name is Nina Decker and I’m a nurse here at St. Paul’s.  I wanted to ask you some questions, if that’s okay?”

He didn’t respond, just kept rocking and mumbling.

I leaned forward and tapped him on the knee.  “Can you hear me, Ralph?”

Slowly his head turned and he looked at me.  “I see you.”

“That’s good Ralph.  That’s good.”

“I am the vulture upon the rocks,” he then mumbled.

“Do you know why,” I pointed to his back where the plant continued to coil out of his neck.  “This is happening to you?  Did you touch something strange, like a fungus or mold?”

“I am the beam of the sun.”

There was something familiar about the words he was saying.  I’d heard them before somewhere.  From my past.

“I am the fairest of plants.”

“What’s he talking about?”  Kevin asked.

I shook my head.  “I’m not sure.”  But deep down, I knew.  I recognized the verse.  “Where are the doctors?  How long ago did you call?”

Heather answered, “About ten minutes ago.”

“Page them again, with a code red.”

“But this guy’s not dying,” Kevin said.

“We don’t know that,” I said.

That got Heather in gear and she made the calls.

“What should we do?” Kevin asked.

“Just try and keep him calm.”

Kevin moved his hand and it looked like he was going to touch the vine.

“Don’t.  Don’t touch it.  You don’t know if it’s contagious.”

He visibly paled, and let the man’s shirt go taking a step or two back.

I watched Ralph continue to rock back and forth on the table, still spewing random lines of verse.  It was a poem actually, and I knew it well.

“I am the point of the lance of battle.”

“I am the God who created in the head the fire.” I mumbled to myself.

“What?” Kevin asked.
             

“Nothing.”

The curtain fluttered and Dr. Jenson marched in, his hair in disarray. It looked like he’d just been woken up.  Maybe he had been.

“What do we have?”

“Contaminant of some kind.  Vegetative.”

Ralph turned and looked at me then.  He smiled and pointed his finger at me.  “Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain?  Who announces the ages of the moon?  Who teaches the place where couches the sun?  If not I?”

I wrapped my arms around my body trying to stem the shivers that had erupted over it.  Good question Ralph.  And I knew the answer.  The fae.  The fae were orchestrating it all.

Chapter 2

Five minutes later, everyone showed up in the room.  Three different doctors, including Dr. Jensen, from different departments crowded around poor Ralph Donnelly on the gurney as he continued to rock back and forth and babble nonsense. Once they all examined the patient, gloves and masks in place, and conferred, someone called in Dr. Skulsky, the pathologist.  He was the doctor’s doctor. The main man.  He was also an expert in microbiology.

Ten minutes later, while three doctors and three nurses, me included, filled the room, talking amongst ourselves, as none of us now were allowed to interact with other patients until it was determined that Ralph’s condition was not contagious, Dr. Skulsky, in mask, cap and gown, bounced into the room a look of pure unadulterated joy in his usually serious eyes.

I’d never seen the man look so happy.  He was positively elated to have something strange and bizarre to check out.  He rubbed his hands together in glee. As he approached Ralph, I could tell he was smiling underneath his mask.  I wondered if he’d have the same look of glee on his face if he could see the wings fluttering behind my back.

Kevin handed him the patient’s chart with all the pertinent information on it and everything that had happened in the past hour since he’d been in the room.  After a quick perusal he handed the chart back to Kevin and sidled up to the patient.

He pulled down the patient’s collar of his shirt and peered down at the vine.  He was about to reach out and touch it when it moved.

Everyone jumped back in surprise as the vine unraveled from the man’s neck.  It was growing again.  It slithered like a green venomous snake down Ralph’s back, some of the leaves still curled up into themselves.  All the time Ralph just rocked back and forth, starting off into space seemingly completely unaware that he was growing leafy green tendrils.  If he was in pain, he didn’t show it.

“What’s his temperature?” Dr. Skulsky asked.

“Last time I checked,” Kevin answered, holding Ralph’s chart, “It was one hundred and two.”

“Take it again.”

Kevin picked up the electronic thermometer and placed it in the patient’s ear.  A minute later it beeped.  He looked at the gauge, his brow furrowed.  “One hundred and five.”

The pathologist nodded as if he totally understood why.  “We need to move him to an isolated room.”  He glanced around at everyone.  “And you all need to be isolated as well.  Until I can determine if there are spores.”

There was a collective groan.  I shook my head.  The last thing I needed was to be crammed in a room full of people with metal pipes buried in the walls for another twelve hours without a chance to take a break and go outside to get some air.  I was bound to get sick.  On top of that, if I didn’t take my glamor potion my wings would be visible soon.

“Is there any way that doesn’t have to happen?” I asked.

Dr. Skulsky pinned me with his intense eyes.  “Oh, it’s happening Ms. Decker.  I can’t let you out of here without knowing that this man’s condition isn’t contagious.  You could endanger all the staff and patients of this hospital.  We want to avoid full scale quarantine.”

Heather groaned. “So, we all have to chill in some room to see if we start sprouting plant life?”

“Exactly,” Dr. Skulsky said, then clapped his hands together.  “All right let’s get this show moving. I’ve got a lot of tests to conduct.”

An hour later, the six of us, me, Kevin, Heather, Dr. Jensen, Dr. Testa, and Dr. Chang, had been sequestered in two rooms, nurses in one, and doctors in the other, elitist I know, and were told we had to stay for at least ten hours.  They’d provided us cots to sleep on, table and chairs, a deck of cards, and a TV.  Hospital staff would bring us food periodically.  Thankfully, they allowed us to keep our cellphones.

We were only two hours in, and I was already going mad.  I’d paced the room for the first hour until Kevin told me to stop it because it was making him paranoid and nervous.  Then I resigned to playing some cards with Kevin and Heather, but that didn’t last long as I wasn’t much of a poker player.  So now I was lying on my side on my cot staring up at the wall counting the cracks and trying not to think about Ralph Donnelly and the plant growing out of him.

But of course that was next to impossible.

The fae were behind it, I was certain. But for what purpose?  Was it an attack on Mr. Donnelly?  Had he offended the fae in some way and this was his punishment?  Donnelly was an Irish name and the Irish came from the Celts, and the Celtic people were steeped in fae mythology so that significance wasn’t lost on me.

The fact that he walked into my hospital wasn’t lost on me either.  I was never one for coincidences.  I was all about fate and meaning.  And this event had significant meaning; I just couldn’t figure it out.  I needed to talk to Ralph again.  Alone.  Maybe he could tell me what I wanted to know.  Because I did sense that he saw me, really saw me. And knew what I was.  Maybe he was a messenger.  Sent to tell me something.  Deep down inside, I truly feared his message.

Speaking of messages, Severin had finally answered my frantic texts.  I glanced down at the screen and read his response.

Sorry.  Caught in meeting.  Are you OK?

Am stuck here maybe for 12 hrs.  Am worried don’t have my glamor
.

Don’t worry I’ll get it to you
.

I snorted, and typed. 
How?

I have my ways.  I have connections at the hospital.

I shook my head.  Somehow that didn’t surprise me.  Maybe I could use those connections to my advantage. 
Can you get me info about a patient and where they moved him?

Probably.  What’s the name?

Ralph Donnelly.  He’s the reason we’re in quarantine.

I’ll see what I can do.

Thanks.

Miss you.
<3

I laughed.  It was weird having a werewolf lover texting hearts to me.  
See you soon
.

“Nina.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Kevin.  He was gesturing to the table, and the crib board on top of it.

“Do you want in on a game?”

I shook my head.  “I’m good.  I think I’m going to try and get some sleep.”  I pointed to the light switch. There were two, one for each half of the room.  “Could you hit that for me?”

Kevin reached over and flicked the switch and I was plunged into semi-darkness on the other side of the room.  I rolled over onto my side and shut my eyes.  I wasn’t sure I could sleep, but I needed it.  And it wasn’t like I had anything else to do but sit and stew over the day’s bizarre events or play
Wurdle
on my iPhone.  So I took in a deep breath and tried to relax my mind hoping sleep would take me.

It did.  And surprisingly I didn’t dream.

An hour later I woke to the smell of hospital food.  The porter had come with our suppers.  I wasn’t hungry, but I definitely perked up when I saw a pill bottle on my tray with my name on it.  Looked like Severin made good on his promise.  Obviously, he had the connections he boasted about.

And none too soon, because the itch between my shoulder blades was almost unbearable.  The glamor would be gone soon and my wings would be visible for the entire world to see.  Before anyone could ask, I opened the bottle, shook the pill out and popped it into my mouth.  I took a hearty drink from the provided bottle of water and swallowed the glamour.  Thankfully I’d been proactive and fashioned the elixir into pills.  Just for an occasion like this.

I picked at my food, unable to stomach anything, then retreated to my cot.  My gut was roiling, and I didn’t think it was because of the lack of food.  It was the iron surrounding me.  Even small amounts were enough to bother me, especially after long periods of time.  Any longer in this room and I was going to either go postal or get sick.  Or both.