All In My Head

Chapter five: Play Again

It's been almost a week since we played with the ouija board. Five days, to be exact. Blair will be discharged from the hospital in a few more days, Jasmine being another week, while Christine is in a coma...

Kylie and I decided to visit them and see how they were holding up. We haven't heard a word from them since that the day of their accident and we began to grow worried. I can't even begin to imagine what they're going through right now...

The two of us walked over to the receptionist's desk, a bouquet flowers in Kylie's hand and a large bag of potato chips in mine. The woman at the desk looked up at us with a blank expression. "We're here to see Blair Wilson and Jasmine Davis."

"Your names?" She asked in a monotone voice. "I'll need to see if you're on the visitation list."

"I'm Kylie Evans and this is Vanessa Olsen." The woman at the desk pursed her lips at us before smacking a few keys down as loudly as possible on the computer. She dragged the mouse over the pad a couple times before clicking on our names. We could see our names largely on the screen through the reflection of her dull, deep-brown eyes.

"You're on the visitation list. They're sharing room two-thirty-seven."

I thanked her, but she remained her dull expression. As I walked down the hallway, I tried my best to avert my eyes at any rooms with opened doors. No matter how much hospitals gave me the heebie-jeebies, I couldn't help but stare at the sick patients.

I locked eyes with an old man in a hospital gown, the stare he had on me set an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. My worries vanished when Kylie pulled me out of my trance. "Two-thirty-seven, we're here."

Even though I had looked away from him, I could still feel his stare lingering on me. It didn't help that his door was straight across from Blair and Jasmine's room. Kylie gave a courtesy knock on the door. "It's open!"

Relief washed over me as I heard the sound of Blair's bubbly voice. I opened the door and approached Blair and Jasmine with matching smiles. I snickered at their hospital gowns.

"You two look hot."

Straightening her gown, Blair responded sarcastically, "It's all the rage right now."

I didn't hesitate to open the bag of chips. I grabbed a handful before passing the bag to the next person, who was Kylie, who then passed it to Blair.

"I can't eat that," Blair refused. "The doctor says he doesn't want me eating any-"

"Where's your doctor now?" I joked, grinning from ear to ear.

Kylie chimed in, taunting her by waving the bag of chips in her face, "Come on, Blair. One little chip wouldn't kill you."

"I would give anything to eat something other than hospital food right now..." Jasmine gazed at the bag of chips as if it was the only food she's seen.

"It's only been four days-"

"The worst four days of my life!" Jasmine stole the bag from Kylie's grasp and rambled on. "I can't eat what I want, and you wanna know the worst part? They're talking about amputating my foot!"

She winced as she slid her leg out of the covers to reveal her badly bruised foot from the ankle down. I almost threw up right then and there. Out of all the gruesome things I've seen in my life, that has to be the top three. "They said if the antibiotics didn't work, they would need to cut it off. Best case scenario, a few toenails..."

Kylie's lip quivered. "What even happened to you guys? You haven't really said..."

"When we drove away, we immediately got on the highway. All of a sudden, the car started to malfunction, you know? It started to just have a mind of its own!" Blair shuttered while telling the story.

Seeing how distressed Blair was, Jasmine continued with the other half of the story, "It was like something was controlling the car! Christine tried the emergency breaks, she took the key out and everything, but it was still moving. She swerved, hit another car and the next thing I know, we're upside down! All I can remember is glass being everywhere, people yelling and crying and that's when I blacked out."

"The doctors are calling it a miracle that we survived but, we're just lucky to be alive really," Blair sighed and took a chip from the bag. "Have you guys heard anything about Christine? Nobody will tell us."

"Last I heard, she was in a coma. I'll try ask around and try to find out more about it. You know we've been trying to contact you guys?"

Blair picked up a plastic sandwich bag with her phone- well, what's left of her phone inside. "Haven't gotten anything."

"That was my second one this year, and it's not even February yet..." While Kylie caught up with our two friends, I stepped out of the room to find the doctor.

"Excuse me," I tapped on the shoulder of the nearest doctor I could find. He was a younger gentleman wearing the doctors uniform. He turned around and I stole a look at his name tag. "You're doctor Nelson..."

"Yes. Who's asking?"

"I'm friends with Christine Sanders. Can you please tell me how she's doing?"

"Given her situation, it's a miracle she's in stable condition. We predict that miss Sanders will wake up within a few months."

I pleaded, "Could I see her? It wouldn't be for more than a minute."

"Only family members are allowed to. I'm sorry." He gave me an apologetic shrug before turning into the room where all of my friends were.

I was about to go in with them until an arm grabbed me and pinned me up against the wall in the middle hallway. A fear of panic settled in me as I realized who it was; the creepy old man from across the hall. "You have to play again... You understand me!? You have to play again!"

"Get off of me!" Hearing my screams of protest, a swarm of doctors came running down to see the commotion.

"You have to play again!" He wailed hysterically. It took about two doctors to pry him off, four to keep him away from me. He continued to thrash and scream even when being pulled into his room.

"He's not calming down, he'll need sedation!"

Kylie came to my side, soothingly rubbing a hand on my arm up and down but the two of us exchanged looks of worry. "You must play again! You have to!"

"He's going into cardiac arrest..."

The man still continued to scream and repeat the words 'play again' until eventually, it stopped. His legs and arms stopped thrashing around, he was completely still like the doctors in the room. The only thing I could hear was the sound of a flatline. "Time of death, eleven-thirty-seven in the morning..."