Supernatural Boarding School #3 - A Brush of Death ✅

Chapter 13 - Dylan

Dylan's point of view

It was a good thing that Jack Hollow was only a short car ride away from Ellen's small apartment in Warrensburg. Kansas City was a hell of a lot closer than his previous address in Tallahassee. Well, address might not be the best word, since it hadn't exactly been a house. Or any kind of home, for that matter. It had been a cell in a secret supernatural prison. Ellen had arranged for him to get transferred to a closer facility so that Demona could get to know her father. Ironic, in a sad way, that she was in a prison of her own right now, the prison of her own mind and body, unable to enjoy the presence of both parents. Something she'd craved all her life.

A craving I understood quite well. I wasn't sure if I should be glad that my mother was dead instead of crazy and imprisoned the way Jack Hollow was. It seemed like there wasn't a right answer to that horrible dilemma.

I was more than a little relieved when Ellen finally pulled up in front of a large brick building that looked like it hadn't been lived in for a long time. In fact, it looked like the kind of place only drug dealers and thrill-seeking teens might frequent.

"Wheatley-Provident Hospital," Ellen told me, staring at it. She made no move to get out yet, so I stayed in my seat as well.

Taking in the haunted-looking building, I couldn't help but remember the history lessons back in my mundane school, the one I had attended before going to boarding school. The hospital had been the first one that had been built for and by the black community of Kansas City.

"Okay," Ellen said quietly. "Let's go." Still, she removed motionless, staring into thin air.

She had been quiet ever since we'd discovered that her husband – ex-husband? I wasn't sure what he was to her right now – had done something to both Eros and her daughter. Something that might turn out to be her salvation, get her out of her coma, but it seemed just as likely that whatever he'd done to them had only contributed to their doom.

I had stayed with Ellen the night before, since we couldn't exactly bang on the facility's doors in the middle of the night. It hadn't been awkward – I found things were hardly ever awkward around her. She had a way of making me feel at home. Still, it hadn't been a fun sleepover either. She had bitten her nails to the quick and plucked at a pillow until she'd managed to actually tears it apart, white tuffs of filling poking through the holes she'd created. Her entire body was filled with a nervous energy that made me remember Demona at her worst. Ellen's expression mirrored the one Demona used to get whenever Eros was in trouble. Even if Demona had her father's hair and eyes, she was very much her mother's daughter. I wondered if either of them realized how very much alike they truly were.

"Are you ready to go in?" I asked, unsure how much more waiting around I could take. I might not be as anxious as Ellen was, but this was no easy feat for me either. And where Ellen seemed to freeze at the sight of Jack's prison, I felt my blood boiling in my veins, urging me on to leap into action.

"Yes," she decided, her voice stronger now. "Yes."

This time, she opened the door and stepped out onto the wild grass of the unkept garden surrounding the building. No other cars were parked in the area and it made me wonder how many prisoners were inside. Surely not many, since the building itself was rather small. Not the vast white structure I saw in my mind's eye whenever I thought of what a hospital should look like. Instead, the place was made of dark bricks and looked more like this prison it was now than the hospital it had once been.

The sliding doors letting us into a small hallway were made of frosted glass that didn't allow anyone to look inside. Once we were inside, they slid close behind us, trapping us in a room that seemed to be made of nothing but bricks. When I turned around to see if the doors would open again, I realized they looked like brick walls now. Surely it was some kind of spell.