The Shadow Sisters

[E2] Chapter 4 - Elizabeth Cole

Elizabeth's triage was incredibly awkward, mostly because she could not be truthful with the questioning nurse.

The nurse asked her to describe what had happened back at The Lost Treasure and instead of telling her that she might have travelled back in time, into some alternate dimension, or something else that might get her put in a soft padded room, Elizabeth simply informed her that she was in the bar when she blacked out.

"And when you came to?"

"I found myself outside, by the road."

"Goodness. That's scary. Thank God your friend was there to help you."

"Yes," Elizabeth said. "I'm very lucky."

"Well, that's all grand." The nurse assessed the information on her desktop monitor. "If you'd like to return to the waiting room, we'll get this sent on. After that, one of our doctors will call you through."

As Elizabeth sat next to Robert in the waiting room of The Holy Cross, they became absorbed by the bad Spanish soap opera playing on TV. The most frustrating thing about it was that the subtitles were much too tiny to read from this distance, so she had to make up her own plot in her head.

Robert, however, was able to hum along to the theme song which played at each ad break, as if he knew it.

This man would never fail to surprise her.

At the end of the episode, Elizabeth had finally mustered up the courage to say, "Listen, Robert, I'm so sorry that I ruined your set."

Robert favoured her with a pearly white smile. "Would you stop saying that? We literally only had a few songs left to play and they were the filler ones. Besides, Chris, our backing vocalist, is better than I am for certain songs, especially ones that require that killer falsetto."

"I don't believe you."

"No, I'm telling you, the man can really hit a high-"

"I meant that I don't believe you only had your filler songs left. Seemed to me like you were all building up to a grand finale. But you're very sweet to lie."

Robert shrugged. "Believe what you will."

While they waited for the next episode of the soap, Elizabeth analysed the folk within the Accident and Emergency waiting room. There were people with all manner of ailments, which included split heads, broken bones, and things that were a deal less visible.

On one side sat a man with dry blood caked to the left half of his face and bruised knuckles on the hand belonging to the same side. To the other side sat a woman who had her mouth and nose buried into a scarf, but whether she was protecting herself from others or others from herself would remain a mystery.

Directly across from them sat a teenager, with her hair dyed as black as night. She had piercings on her ears, lips, and eyebrows, and those were just the visible ones. She had a tattoo of a snake, coiling about her neck and a sleeve with a large, slanted cross on her left forearm.

She seemed terribly young for all of that, but she did sport the punk rocker aesthetic rather well. It was the sort of rebellious look that someone like Marie might admire.

Marie.

Hannah.

"Oh no," Elizabeth said, slapping her forehead.

"What is it?" Robert asked, jolting up as if he had been so immersed in the soap opera that he had forgotten where they were.

"I just remembered that I was supposed to collect Hannah and Marie from the concert around this time. I thought I would've been able to order a taxi and been able to get them picked up, but..."