Relentless (1st 3 Chapters)

Prologue



         When I opened my eyes, I knew something was out of place. I was in a strange room, a hospital room, where the only light came from the glow of the moon shining through the blinds. “What am I doing in a hospital bed?” I wondered. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a monitor near the hospital bed, only to my surprise the screen was complete static. Perhaps one of the hospital workers could explain to me what I was doing here. Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I stood on the cold marble floor. It was icy to the touch and…wet? Peering down at the floor, I noticed a stream of water protruding from the bed and continuing underneath the door. I staggered over to the door to find that it was slightly cracked. I pushed the door open and peered down the hallway, which was dimly lit, and noticed that there was no one in sight. From where I stood, I could slightly make out the reception desk at the end of the hallway. As I passed by more hospital rooms as I neared the desk, I noticed that they too had static monitors. Surely this must be a dream, I thought. As I neared the intersection where the reception desk was located, the phone on the countertop began to ring. I waited to see if anyone approached for a few minutes. Still silence, except for the ringing of the phone. I walked over and answered the phone.

         “Hello?”

         Instead of an answer, though, I heard voices whispering. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying but, from the tone of the voice speaking, I could tell the speaker was afraid. “We have to….could find us….Daryl look out!” I heard a scream and then the phone went dead, but that wasn’t what terrified me. I knew the voice, too well, because it was my own voice I had just heard. I dropped the receiver and stood there for a moment bewildered, until I heard something behind me. I turned to face the conjoining hallway, and saw a woman moving down the hallway away from me. She had long dark hair and a long black dress on, which contrasted her ghost white skin. As she moved, she left a trail of water behind her. I watched her walk a little further down the hall and then turn in to another room. Hesitating for a moment, I decided to follow her and see where she was going. Slowly, I ambled over to the open room where the trail of water ended. The woman had her back to me and was standing over a person in a hospital bed. At first I thought she was crying, so I walked in to touch her shoulder. When she turned around, however, I realized she was laughing. My eyes flickered to the woman on the bed, and after a moment I realized I was staring at myself. My gaze returned back to the woman. As she lifted her eyes to me, I saw that they were glowing white, and eventually her white eyes were all I could see and everything around me disappeared.























Chapter 1

         It took me a few moments to realize that the white I was surrounded by was light coming from the room. I was back in my hospital bed again, only this time the sun was shining through the blinds on the window. I gazed around the room and noticed that there were several balloons, flowers, and cards lining the walls. I remembered the monitor and glanced over, but to my relief it showed various data. I followed the wires protruding from the screens and after a moment I realized that the other end was attached to various parts of my arms and hands. I also felt something covering my face, so I reached up to pull it down and peered at it. It was a mask with a tube emerging from it. “If I wasn’t dreaming before, I am definitely dreaming now”, I thought. I sat there in the bed for another minute, then turned to face the door and noticed I was not alone. Lying in the chair was a guy, his long muscular arm and dark brown hair covered his face as he slept. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see his face, I recognized him immediately.

         “Josh? Josh, wake up!”

         After a few moments, my older brother stirred and sleepily looked up at me. When he realized that I was awake, however, his eyes grew wide and he ran over to wrap his arms around me.

         “Tess! Thank God you’re awake! We were all so worried about you. Oh, I have to go call mom and tell her the great news and get the doctor!” He babbled a bit more and was talking so hurriedly, I couldn’t understand anything he was saying. He managed to say something about being back in a second, and then bolted out the door. I sat there in silence for another quick moment, wondering what all the excitement was about and more importantly what I was doing in a hospital. Then several of the hospital staff piled in to the room, similar looks of awe and astonishment on their faces. In the center of the room was an older man with a white lab coat on and a tie that had snowmen on it. He had light white hair, glasses, and slight wrinkles above his eyebrows. I could barely make out his nametag, but when I squinted I saw that it part of it read “Merlich”.

         “Good morning Tess, how are you feeling?”

         “I’m a little confused and dizzy, but other than that fine. Can you tell me what I’m doing here?”

         He turned to face the other staff members and, as if sensing he needed some privacy, they all turned and exited the room. He came over and sat at the foot of my bed and held his glasses in his hands, as if searching for what to say.

         “Tess, do you remember anything about your accident?”

         “What accident?” I asked. I had no idea what he was talking about. Surely he had me confused with someone else. I could feel my heart starting to race.

         He paused and looked down for a moment, thinking about his next sentence. “Tess, can I ask you what grade you are in?”

         That was an easy question, almost laughable. “Almost done with freshman year, why?”

         His brow furrowed slightly. “Tess, this is going to be hard to absorb at first, but you were in a coma for about a year and a half. The accident occurred toward the end of your sophomore year, and to be honest it’s a miracle you even survived.”

         I sat there for a moment stunned. “For a- a- a year? That’s impossible though…”

         “Sadly Tess it isn’t, and what’s worse is that you seem to be experiencing some short term memory loss. I’ll have to do some tests later to determine the extent of it, but I have reason to believe that your long term memory is still intact.”

         Before I could ask any more questions, my brother returned to the room; behind him were my mother and little sister. Upon seeing me awake, my mother ran over to the bed with tears in her eyes and hugged me. Dr. Merlich stood up from my bed. “Glad to see that your daughter is finally awake Mrs. Trannen. I’ll leave you all to have some time to catch up, but if I could have a quick word with you outside.” My mother looked at me again briefly, then back at the doctor and nodded. They stepped just outside the door, but spoke low enough that I was unable to hear what was being said. Instead, I felt the bed shake as my sister Nina jumped on it and threw her arms around me.

         “Tessy, I missed you so much!”

         I looked down at my sister’s fair face. She definitely reminded me of a much younger version of my mother, with her dark brown curly hair and blue eyes. I laughed for a moment, thinking about how I used to believe I was adopted, because both of my siblings had the same curly brown hair and blue eyes, while I had straight long red hair and green eyes. That memory seemed like so long ago now. “I missed you too Nina.”

         “When are you coming home, Tessy?”

         “Hopefully she’ll be able to come home tomorrow afternoon at the latest”, my mother said as she walked back into the room. “I just spoke to the doctor, he wants to run a few tests to make sure everything is alright, and if all is well you can go home tomorrow.” She came over and sat on the bed and smiled at me, but I could see pity in her eyes. The doctor must have told her about my memory lapse.

         It seemed like hours my family sat in the hospital room with me talking and bringing me up to date with what was new. My brother was home from his first year of college having for a few more weeks. He had made the dean’s list and was majoring in engineering. My sister would be starting fourth grade in a few weeks. I would be in my senior year, but since I missed so much, I would actually be home schooled and could have the ability to catch up in time for graduation next year. My brother had met his first serious girlfriend at the beginning of his freshman year and they were “madly in love”. At some points when they were talking, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of anger. Not at my family, but at life for taking a year of my life away while everyone else’s continued around me.

         Eventually, it was late and visiting hours were over. The doctor had returned with good news. He told me that my memory appeared to only have had issues with the year prior to my accident; however he was confident that, in time, those memories would return to me as well. After hugging my family goodbye and telling them how excited I was to return home, it was not long until I was alone once again. I turned to my side to sleep for once last night in the hospital bed and felt myself drift off.

         It was not long before I awoke once again to the buzz of the monitor next to me again, just as it was in the dream the previous night. “It’s just a dream, Tess. It’s not real”, I caught myself saying out loud. I turned to the other side just in time to see an arm turn the corner out of my room. Quietly, I swung my legs over my bedside and stepped onto the ice cold floor. This time I was not surprised to see a trail of water leading from my bed, for I knew who had just left my room. Instead, what I felt was curiosity and confusion. Who was this woman? Why had she been in my room? Where was she going?

This time, there was no need to push the door open since it was already wide open. I peered out the hall and saw the woman in the black dress walking down the dim hallway towards the reception desk. As she walked by, the lights in the hall flickered, adding to the eerie scene. She finally reached the reception desk and, just as she was about to turn to the hallway to her left, swung her head around to face me. Swiftly, I ducked just in time behind the wall in my room and, when I had the courage to look again, she had already turned back to face the left hallway and disappeared. I decided that she either hadn’t seen me or for some reason pretended not to. Silently, I proceeded down the hall towards the desk. I didn’t look in any of the rooms this time, I knew the monitors displayed static, and I was almost expecting the phone to ring. It did, only this time I decided not to pick it up; I didn’t want to hear the horrific sounds again. Instead, I rounded the corner and followed the trail of water to the same room as last time and stood just outside the room enough that I could see the woman standing over the person in the hospital bed. This time, I noticed it definitely wasn’t me in the bed; the person had strong, athletic arms and was definitely a boy, though I could not see the face. Then the woman bent over the bed and whispered.

“You cannot escape me, I am always around. I will find you and take what is mine at any cost. I killed your friends and I will kill you too once I have what I want. You all think you’re so wise, but don’t ever be foolish enough to think you’re safe from me.”

When I heard her last sentence, it sounded almost like she wasn’t only talking to the boy, but to me as well. Suddenly, the phone on the desk rang again and the woman whipped her head around. I took off swiftly down the hallway, but not before I heard her speak again, and her words shocked me to the core. “All in good time, my dear Tess.”













Chapter 2

         I awoke again from my dream to the morning sun shining through my windows. “If it was a dream, why did everything in it look and feel so real”, I thought. One thing was for certain: I needed to know who or what was in that room the dream ended at. Why was the woman always going to that room? Who was she? What did she want? My head began to swarm with all of these questions and I felt dizzy. After a moment, I stood up and walked to the door.

         I peered out around the corner.

         The wing was lit and I could hear voices, but I did not see any of the hospital staff except for the woman at the reception desk on the phone. What if there was no room where I wanted to go, only a closet or wall? What if I got to the room and no one was in there? I had to take my chances; my curiosity was far too great. Casually, I walked down the hallway, still unnoticed. As I neared the receptionist, I noticed that she had her back turned and was laughing on the phone; definitely not a work-related call she was on. I quickly turned the corner to the left and looked down the hallway. There was a room where I had seen one in my dream and the door was ajar. I stopped for a moment, swallowed hard, and headed down the hallway. Finally I reached the room.

         I put my hand on the door.

         “Can I help you, miss?” a voice behind me said.

         My stomach jumped to my throat; I had just been caught. Think quick Tess. “I, uh, was just going back to my room. I thought I saw my mother walk by and I followed her down the hall to find out it was someone else.”

         “That isn’t your room miss”, said the woman, raising an eyebrow.

         “Oh, it isn’t?” I said, feigning surprise. “This hospital is so big, I must have gotten lost.” I figured I might as well go for it now, so I asked what I wanted to really know. “Well if this isn’t my room, whose is it?”

         Instead of giving me a name, the nurse looked at me for a moment, then realization hit her. “Wait a minute you’re the Trannen girl, aren’t you?”

         “Yes I am, why?’

         “I know where you room is. They were looking for you over at the C wing. You’re going home today. Here, I’ll take you back to meet up with your family and we’ll get you all set.” She turned and started walking back down the hallway I had come up. I followed her and rounded the corner to see my mother, Josh, and Nina waiting for me.

         “Runaway’s back”, laughed Josh and walked towards me. He held me out a duffel bag. “Even though your hospital getup is, uh, stylish sis, I figured you’d want some normal clothes to change into.” I made a sour face at him, then smiled and punched him in the arm like I always did when he had a smart remark. To my surprise, he flinched a bit when my fist hit his arm. “Wow, what were you doing in that coma? Working out and lifting weights?” Before I could answer him he laughed and said he was just joking and that I should hurry up and go get changed, but I could tell by the look in his eyes my strength had thrown him off. Shrugging, I walked over to the bathroom to change. I unzipped the duffel bag and smiled; they had packed my favorite jeans and white lace tank top, along with my green sweater. I slid off the hospital gown and slid on my jeans, which surprisingly still fit like a glove. I bent down to grab the camisole out of the back, and when I stood back up I caught sight of something on my shoulder in the mirror. I turned me back to the mirror and noticed a small scar. When I touched it though, the tiny red scratch grew until it went halfway down my shoulder and left side of my back, changing from red into a glowing violet and transforming into strange swirls and symbols. I looked at my reflection and noticed that there was a similar violet color swirling around the pupils of my eyes. I withdrew my hand from my shoulder to cover my face and, after blinking a few times, my eyes were the same brilliant green they had always been. Turning to look at my shoulder, I noticed only the tiny red scar; it was as if I had imagined the entire thing. I touched the spot once again, and again the violet swirls returned to coat my shoulder and my irises. Once again when I removed my hand from the scar, the color faded and returned to the small red scratch. Hurriedly, I pulled the camisole over my head and threw on the green sweater, even though I was burning up, and turned to exit the bathroom. Just as I walked past the last stall, a hand reached out and grabbed me. I looked in horror at the old woman whose face I could not quite see.

         “You are not safe Tess, you will never be safe as long as she is around; she will find you”, the woman said in an eerie and terrifying voice. I tried to pull away from her and screamed. My mother and two nurses ran into the bathroom and yanked my arm out of the woman’s grip.  “It’s alright, Elsa. We’re going to take you back to your room”, said one of the nurses as she escorted the woman out of the bathroom. Before leaving, the woman turned around one last time and gave me a look that sent shivers down my spine. Her face was a ghastly pale, with long gray hair covering most of her face. She was blind in her left eye. After she had finally exited the room with the nurse, the second nurse turned to my mother and I.

         “I’m really sorry about that. I’m not sure how she even got down here. She’s three floors up from here in a heavily guarded area.”

         “Well clearly it wasn’t that heavily guarded”, my mother snapped, but then she looked back at me and put her arms around me. “Are you okay honey?”

         “Yeah mom, I’m fine”, I said, even though I knew it was a lie. I suspected she noticed as well but, if she did, she didn’t push the matter. “Let’s go home sweetie. I know Bo is dying to see you”. I nodded and we headed out of the bathroom and returned to where my brother and sister stood. My brother made another smart remark, but all I could think about was the woman’s words replaying over and over in my head.

         You’re not safe. You will never be safe as long as she is around. She will find you.

         She will find you.

         She will find me.

         At the reception desk, we made a left toward the exit and down the all too familiar hallway. This would be my chance; I had to know who was behind that door. When we neared the door, I noticed that it was still cracked. Quickly, I pretended to trip over my shoelace and fell into the door, swinging into the room. What? I was shocked to find that there was no one in the room. My mother noticed the surprise on my face. “What’s wrong honey?”

         “Nothing, I just thought that the nurse that was with me earlier said there was someone in here.”

         A nurse that had been standing nearby must have overheard us. “Oh, you must be talking about the patient that was in here yesterday. I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but there were some complications last night and he was moved up to critical care this morning.”

         Last night? I remembered my dream last night with the woman sitting in the room with the boy. It couldn’t have been a dream, it must have been real. Elsa’s voice echoed in my head once again. You will never be safe as long as she’s around. “Oh my, is he alright?”

         “He’s in stable condition. Look, I really shouldn’t be telling you any of this. I’m sorry I have to go take care of another patient. She set down a patient folder on the bench next to the water fountain she was standing next to. Her eyes met mine briefly, and I understood what she was doing. I smiled at her and said, “I understand. Thank you for your time.” She nodded, and then headed into the next room down the hall. As we were almost to the exit, I turned to my family.

         “I have to get a drink of water really quickly, my throat is really dry.”

         My mother nodded and I turned down the hall, careful not to break out into a run. I only had a short window to find out what I wanted to know. Leaning down over the stream of water, I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the folder. There was a post-it note that read “relocated to 126-E”, but that wasn’t all I saw. Right at the top right corner was the patient name.

         “Jenson, Daryl L.”