The Sight
By
Nick B

 © Nick B 2008
Excellently proofed by Gabi

Meanwhile . . .

Chapter 4

Annabel worked at the local hospital as an intern, but had problems with her feelings.

As far as her family knew, she was a completely normal young woman–one they were extremely proud of–as she was now working as an intern at the county hospital, having finished her medical training. They didn’t know however that their daughter’s feelings ran to loving another woman; her friend and flat-mate, Jennifer–something they would never understand, much less condone.

It wasn’t a precipitous situation though–yet, as she hadn’t told Jennifer about her feelings; about the fact that she was in love with her.

Provided she kept quiet about it, maybe it would all go away.

That was doubtful.

Every time she saw Jennifer, her heart melted. She just wanted to run to her and hug her–feel her close. Forget about intimacy, she just wanted to tell her that she loved her; that she would do anything for her but that as far as Annabel could see, it would lose her the friendship of the only person in this God-forsaken town that actually meant anything to her.

It was a no-win situation. If she came clean with Jennifer, then she would doubtless have to come clean with her family as well–eventually–and that would really set the cat amongst the pigeons. They would tell her she was wrong, that it was wrong; filthy, disgusting, immoral or something like that, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t like that at all.

She knew her parents and they didn’t like anything that went against the grain. Gays and lesbians went against the grain in their eyes.

“Sexual deviants,” they said. “Doing it only to shock with an inherent unwillingness to be “cured” of their aberration.” To them, it wasn’t natural, which for years, frightened Annabel as she knew from quite an early age that boys did nothing for her.

“God made men and women and that’s the way it should be–a man and a woman. Not two men or two women,” they had said and it left no room for doubt in Annabel’s mind as to where they stood.
Annabel couldn’t help the way she felt though.

But what if Jennifer didn’t like the idea?

Would she lose Jennifer’s friendship?

Would Jennifer reciprocate or would it just be shrugged off–something Jennifer would laugh about with her friends?

“Ha, ha! Did you hear what Annabel told me? Eeeyewww, gross!” God, she hoped not.

What if she did try and forget about it, what then?

Would it finish with her being all screwed up–unable to move forward with her life, unable to relax and be ‘normal’–however normality was perceived in this day and age?

Any way that she looked at it, she felt that everything would come crashing down upon her like some great tidal-wave of despair sooner or later.

Then something amazing happened: while being taken on a tour round some of the wards with a doctor, one of the patients actually knew that she had all this on her mind.

Never mind how he knew. He didn’t know himself, but he got it right, hitting the nail fairly and squarely on the head and for some reason, coming from him, it didn’t sound dirty, immoral or illegal, saying it without any judgement or even condescension and for the first time since she admitted to herself that she may be that way inclined; she felt she could actually tell Jennifer what or how she felt.

It seemed like an eternity between hearing what she knew to be the truth uttered from that young man’s lips, until she could actually go home, but she counted the minutes and in between the ‘revelation’ and the end of her shift, she talked herself in and out of being honest with Jennifer countless times.
She’ll hate me… she thought and then his words would come back into her mind. “I would tell her…” and “I don’t think she’ll disown you…”

By the time her shift had ended, she was all of a dither. Checking her pockets several times, forgetting her brolly, finding her brolly and then checking her pockets and handbag another couple of times, before finally leaving the hospital and making her way back towards home–the place she shared with Jennifer.
The closer she got the more her heart raced; more excited and filled with trepidation she became, but as the rain started to fall, her need to get out of the wet overcame her fear and she walked up the steps to slide her key into the lock.

She shook her umbrella, closed the front door and looked at the staircase before her. Just two more flights of stairs stood between her, her love and discovering whether Jennifer was for or against.
She knew now that the truth would set her free; that once she had admitted to herself and to Jennifer that she felt that way and had done for some time, her demons–well some of them at least, would be vanquished.
Slipping the key into the door to the flat and turning the key, she shrugged off that feeling of impending doom, took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Jenny?”

There was no reply.

“Anyone home?”

Again, silence.

There was a light on, but it was only the light that they left on to make it look like they were home and after Annabel had checked all the rooms–though there were only five: Kitchen, Lounge, bathroom/toilet, her bedroom and finally, Jenny’s, she knew that Jenny wasn’t there.

“Where is she?” she said aloud.

All that planning, all that soul-searching would it ever come to anything?

She cringed at the thought that now at home and in that environment they both shared, the dry runs in her head she went through seemed somehow stale, bereft of any real feeling.

“Hi, Jenny. I love you.” Nah!

“Hello, Jennifer. I need to tell you something. I think I’m in love with you.” She didn’t like that one either.

“I just called to say, I love you?” Hadn’t that one been used before?

“Oh, blast!” she cried and sat down heavily on the sofa.

“Hi, Jen. Um, I don’t know how to say this, but over the months that we have shared this flat, not only have I found a real friend in you, but I think for me, it’s gone further than that. Please don’t be angry with me, but I think I’m falling for you. God knows I have tried to get that out of my mind and anything like that happening between us, but I can’t…”

That sounded pretty good. Perhaps it would work too.

Now if Jennifer would just hurry up and come home… she thought.

At least two hours passed while Annabel sat, wondering where on earth Jennifer had gone. She had never in all the time they had been sharing this flat, gone out and not told Annabel where. Even if it only amounted to shopping, there had always been a note, a phone call or she had been told to her face.
Never this.

She had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she shrugged that off as she did have a habit of fearing the worst and in all probability this was just something that happened on the spur of the moment; something that just happened and happened quickly too, stopping her from leaving that all important note.

She made something to eat, though she merely picked at it and the majority went into the bin. She turned on the television and tried watching something to take her mind off of the fact that Jennifer had not returned, but couldn’t concentrate. Finally, she went and ran a bath, but even then, she left the bathroom door open in case the phone rang and she missed hearing it with the door closed.

It did not relax her and the phone did not ring.

By one the following morning, tired and worried, she went to bed.

---

The next morning, there was still no sign of Jennifer and though she nearly made herself late for the morning shift waiting just in case, there was no phone call either.

The day at work proved arduous. At the first possible opportunity, she phoned Jennifer’s work.

“Is Jennifer there, please?” she asked.

“Haven’t seen her for the last couple of days,” said a nice sounding man on the other end of the line. “I’ll just check.”

He wasn’t gone for more than a moment, before returning to the phone and telling Annabel that she hadn’t been seen and more to the point, hadn’t phoned in either.

“This is most unusual,” said the man.

“I know. She wasn’t home last night either. I have to say, I’m worried.”

“Well, we’ll mark her down as sick for yesterday and today, but if you manage to contact her, would you ask her to ring?”

“Yes, of course.”

She put the phone down slowly, the blood draining from her face.

This was the first time since she had even known Jennifer that anything like this had happened and it had been over twenty-four hours since anyone had seen her, she wondered whether or not she should call the police. She didn’t know though, whether she was actually missing after all.

Moving down the corridors between wards, Annabel was in something of a trance, floating along the polished tiles, past offices, wards, stairways and–

Oh my goodness.

Sitting at the end of the ward was the chap who had had told her what to do just yesterday.
She walked slowly towards his bed, wondering whether or not she should even be there. Did this constitute getting too close to the patients? She didn’t think so, but the fact that she found herself there at all…
He appeared to be sleeping and was wearing a sweat-shirt although due to the bandaging and cast, was not wearing anything below. Was he getting ready to go home?

She found the ward sister.

“Would it be possible to have a quick word?”

“I don’t see why not. I should warn you though, he’s not in a good mood.”

“Why?”

“I had to remove his catheter earlier and I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me for that one. I did warn him.” The two of them laughed and Annabel made her way back across the floor to Darryl’s bed.

“Darryl?” she said softly. She looked at him and the slight fluttering of his closed eyes, told him that it was likely he was in REM state.

“Darryl?” she said again. There was no answer and she turned to leave.

“Dark; so dark and cold…”

“What?” she asked turning round quickly.

“Five of us…” he said.

“Five of who?”

“Cold… Dark… Can’t get out.”

“Darryl? Are you alright?”

“What?” asked Darryl, blinking away the light.

“You said there were five. Five what, or who?”

“Oh. I said that out loud did I?”

“You did. Are you alright?”

“I am, but I’m not sure about Jennifer, Suzie, Amanda, Natalie or Liz.”

“Jennifer? What’s wrong with Jennifer and who are those others?”

The ward sister wasn’t pleased with the sudden rise in the young intern’s voice and went over to see what was happening.

“Doctor, I appreciate you visiting the patient, but would you please keep your voice down, you’re disturbing the other patients.”

“Sorry, sister,” said Annabel, her face wet with tears.

“What’s going on here?”

---

The cat was out of the bag it seemed.

Annabel did her best to explain and whilst it would have seemed that Darryl was out of his tiny, the sister was able to put two and two together thanks to the front page of one of the tabloids, which read “Four girls missing. Police to issue a statement.”

Jennifer made five.

“You have to tell the police what you know,” said Annabel, whose sentiments it seemed, were echoed by the ward sister.

“I don’t know how you know, but you really should pass this on to the police.”

Darryl was not happy about the prospect. For a start, he wanted to keep this ability quiet–though having given that doctor a subtle piece of his mind the day before, could hardly constitute keeping quiet and he didn’t think the police would believe him anyway.

On top of that of course, all he knew was that there were five girls, some of whom were in great distress, though why, he didn’t know. He also had no idea where they were or who it was that had held them captive.

What help could he possibly be?

---

To be continued…