Page 67 of Ward D
What ifhe’sthe one who made Cameron disappear?
“Maybe you should be careful around Will,” I say. “People who hear voices… You can’t trust people like that.”
“You should know, shouldn’t you?”
Jade is staring at me, that same sneer still on her lips. She’s never going to listen to anything I have to say. She wouldn’t listen when we were sixteen, and she won’t now. Jade never wanted to be helped. She never believed she had a problem, and that’s why she never wanted to get better.
“I think Will might be extremely dangerous,” I say. “I think we all might be in danger tonight. But if you don’t want to listen, that’s up to you.”
For a split second, Jade’s composure slips. “You… you really think he could be dangerous?”
“I really do.”
She looks like she’s thinking about it. “I don’t believe that.”
“Just be careful around him, Jade,” I say. “Okay?”
Her eyes drop. “You should go, Amy.”
Even though I’m worried about Jade, I do what she asks of me. After all, I’m not going to convince her right now. Eventually, she might realize I’m right.
I only hope she realizes it in time to save her life.
44
Hours Until Morning: 3
“Do you think Mary is all right?” I ask Ramona.
She is back to her magazine at the nurses’ station, flipping through the pages. There’s a full-page photograph of a very handsome twenty-something man on the page she’s looking at, and it’s a tribute to how much time I’ve spent studying in the last two years that I have absolutely no idea who this famous heartthrob is.
“She’s asleep,” Ramona says. “Leave her be. You want her to get all ramped up again?”
I hover over her. “Yes, but if we gave her a bunch of Ativan, shouldn’t we be checking on her?”
Ativan is a sedative. I remember from pharmacology class that it can cause respiratory depression—meaning it can cause a person to stop breathing—especially in the elderly. It wason the flash card. For all we know, Mary has stopped breathing in there.
“She’s fine.” Ramona gives me a sharp look. “Dr. Beck’s instructions were to leave her alone. You don’t want her getting agitated again and then we have to give her more Ativan, right?”
No, I don’t want that. But I could still check on her and make sure she’s breathing. I don’t even have to wake her up. I could just go in there, make sure her chest is moving up and down, then leave.
But Ramona is looking at me like she doesn’t want me to do that.
“Okay,” I finally say. “I guess I’ll try to get back to sleep then.”
“You do that.”
I make it about halfway back to the staff lounge when I realize I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t check on Mary. I really like Mary, and I want her to live till the morning. So I’m going to check on her, whether Ramona wants me to or not.
I can’t let Ramona know about it though. I’m already in enough trouble with her and Dr. Beck. I’m about one infraction away from a phone call to the dean. So I’ve got to be sneaky about this.
I continue on the circle around the unit, making sure to take a path that will not circle past the nurses’ station. I keep walking until I reach room 912. Mary’s room.
I’ll just go in there for one second and make sure she’s breathing. Then I can leave.
I try to be as quiet as possible as I push down on the handle that controls the door. The door cracks open, and it’s completely dark inside. As quietly as I can, I slip into the room.
Mary is wrapped up in the covers of her bed. But there are a lot of covers, and it’s hard to see if she’s breathing or not. I creep across the room and over to the bed. I lean over, to look down at Mary and…
