Death's Captive: Will she escape eternal confinement?

CHAPTER 18

I've been sitting here for hours watching Jason sleep. I can hear the clock ticking above the muffled sound of nurses doing their nightly rounds. I've stayed at my post in this small private room since Matthews left, apart from leaving briefly to collect a spirit from geriatrics. I've been kidding myself that I'm here to oversee his wellbeing, but my mind keeps flashing back to that kiss we shared when he was briefly in my realm. There was something exciting and new, yet familiar about the exchange, something that keeps pulling me back to him. A movement at the door shakes me out of my daydream as Margie comes in to the room. I'm surprised she's here this early because it's barely twilight and the other patients haven't been woken up yet.

She gently nudges him awake, removes the cannula and helps him sit upright.

"I've put a fresh pair of scrubs and a towel at the end of your bed. As soon as you feel able, hop into the shower and get dressed then we'll get you discharged before the morning shift clocks on."

As Margie turns to leave he calls out her name. Margie looks at him and waits.

"Thank you for not giving up on me. Matthews told me."

Margie smiles and comes over to the bed, she brushes his hair away from his face and pecks him on the forehead.

"I'm just glad you're ok. Don't linger – I'll call a cab for you in twenty minutes." Jason nods and she leaves.

Jason hauls himself from the bed and takes a few tentative steps to the bathroom. He pulls the cords on his hospital issued gown and allows the material to fall to the ground. He flicks the shower taps on then turns to gaze at the mirror. He twists the left side of his body to reveal a large bruise on his shoulder and hip, and winces at the evidence of his fall. He groans slightly as he runs his hand over the darkened area.

I move in close to Jason Reeves and look at his reflection, but I'm not interested in the damage his body has sustained. Instead I'm immersed in his face and build - the green of his eyes offsetting his auburn hair and the smooth cream of his skin taut over lean muscles – and I'm reminded of his father. His eyes, nose and jaw line are all Elwood's, but the smattering of freckles on his shoulders and the ginger stubble around his cheeks are all his, and are a little endearing. When I look at Jason, lustful feelings echo through time and capture fragments of distant memories. I place my hand on Jason's back and rest my cheek on his shoulder and breathe deeply the faint masculine scent of old cologne, perspiration and cigarettes through the veil. Jason turns his head to look in my direction, as if he can sense someone near; but he will neither see me, nor feel anything.

"Be glad you're alive Jason. You'll never know how close you came, nor how close you are right now, to Death."

He steps through me and into the steaming shower. I watch the water cascade over his body and the image evokes another memory. I turn from him, push my way through the bathroom door then slump down on the floor outside with my head in my hands as my chest heaves with sobs. I can see Elwood, his eyes filled with sadness. He holds me close, my face is in his hands as he kisses my forehead and whispers words I don't want to hear.

"I'm sorry, I can't keep doing this. I'm being torn into two. I adore you, I can't stop thinking of you, I can't concentrate I'm so consumed with desire for you. But my wife..." Elwood trails off "...I made a commitment to her..."

Elwood begins to let go of me but, like a petulant child, I cling to his waist and plead with him.

"She doesn't give you what you want, she doesn't make you hot the way I do, and..." I lean up and kiss him passionately as I press my pelvis against his, "...she doesn't make you feel like a man the way I do."

He pushes me back gently. "I'm sorry Ava..."

I hear the shower in the next room shut off and am brought back to the present. I need to pull myself together and follow him to find out whether Jason gets safely out of the hospital without arousing suspicion. I'm not sure why I care so much about his life. Maybe, like the nurses I see getting absorbed in daytime soap operas, watching the daily machinations of the staff in this hospital takes me away from my own mundane existence. I need to know that one night of reckless high jinks won't become the scandal that jeopardises a young man's medical career. I take a few deep breaths to settle my chest from heaving with sobs. I feel like my heart has been ripped out – ironic since I hardly remember Elwood; I have so few memories to look back on to remind me that he once loved me.