Taken Read Online Free PDF Page B

be best if you could familiarize yourself with the patients as quickly as possible so we can all tend to what is needed .”
    Oh, thank goodness.
    “Will do,” Arie replied.
    Bethany walked back toward the nurse’s station and I followed quickly behind. She grabbed a pen and handed it to me before we took off down the hallway.
    “This is where we let the patients who are well enough congregate during the day.”
    I looked around the bare room and wasn’t sure why anyone would want be in this room. The cream walls were dingy. The couches were stai ned. I really wanted to move on, but it didn’t seem like Bethany had any intention of that .
    “Over there is the rehabilitation room, but we rarely use it.   And so metimes over there is where the nurses will go for a break in the evening.” She pointed over to a door that was closed , but light was visible in the cracks. “You’ll see why in a moment.”
    I followed her over to the room and was stunned at the difference between this room and the one for the patients. I t was like it wasn’t even in the same building. Nice looking furniture filled the space a nd a television was tucked in the corner.
    “Our secret break room.” She laughed , closing the door.
    “ Onto the patients?” I asked, hoping to get on with the evening.
    “You’re one of those, huh. Self righteous and all that.” She shook her head. “All right. Follow me.”
    Maybe this nurse wasn’t quite what I thought after all. It was so hard to judge things in my current condition. She flipped off the lights to the large room and I felt very empty, very lonely in this nurse’s presence.
    “No. Not all. Just anxious. I didn’t mean to give you that impression.” I couldn’t believe I was apologizing for caring about the patients. I wonder if Arie was having the same luck with Dorothy.
    She stopped walking and turned around to face me.
    “You have to understand something about working here. It’s not like other hospitals.” Her cool , blue eyes scanned me for a reaction. I gave none. “We’ve got to make the best of things — especially given the situation.”
    “How so? What situation?”
    “Things aren’t right here. If a building could be possessed, I’d say this one wa s.” Her mouth formed a skinny line , and she folded her arms across her chest.
    “Then what makes you stay?”
    She shook her head and looked around the hall we were now standing in.
    “I honestly don’t know,” she replied. “There’s something that pulls me in here and doesn’t ever let go .”
    A shiver ran through me as I wondered about what her words meant. Could a building be possessed? No. That’s ridiculous.
    “How many years have you worked here?” I asked. She began walking down the hall again.
    “Two years this Christmas. I didn’t think I’d last a week and here I am.” She laughed quietly.
    We stopped in front of a patien t’s open door, and I looked over at Bethany. There was something she wasn’t telling me.
    “After you.” She tumbled o ut her hand, pointing at the chart.
    I picked it up and peeked my head around the corner. There was only one bed in this room. The male patient was sleeping soundly. He looked to be in his twenties.
    “The chart says he’s here for amnesia?” I queried .
    “He was hit by a car a week ago. Had no identification on him. He’s starting to come around.”
    “Wow. That’s bleak. ” I placed the chart back on the wall peg, and we went down the hallway together checking on each patient . Everything seemed very typical, but I knew there was more to it. There had to be.
    “What makes you think there’s something wrong with this place,” I paused. “ I don’t doubt you, but it just seems pretty ordinary to me so far.”
    “Doesn’t it thoug h?” She narrowed her eyes at me and placed her hand on the railing that was along the entire stretch of hallway. “That’s how it gets you. The occurrences start out subtle. Make you doubt yourself at