Dead but Not Gone

[RealisticFantasy]

She was all high heels, red lips, blue eyes, and swinging hips. No one would question her romantic life if they thought she was pining after every man that would give her a second look. Despite her appearance and flirtatious mannerisms, somebody had already captured her heart. Therein, the problem lied.


Nurse Downing, Lillian Downing. She was timid and kind, so damn naturally beautiful that she didn’t need a lick of makeup. Lucy could’ve sworn she was a goddamn angel that had fallen from the sky, wandered into the hospital, and just felt so bad for the patients that she couldn’t bring herself to leave. There had been more than one occasion where they worked the graveyard shift together and Lucy couldn’t help herself from dropping a couple of hints.


It wasn’t long before the two were sharing knowing glances and whispered exchanges in the moonlit hospital ward. Sometimes, in the earliest hours of the morning when the patients were still dead asleep and the other nurses had yet to arrive, Lucy and Lillian would just sit and talk and hold hands. The moonlight had a funny habit of lighting up Lillian’s face in just the right way. A goddamn angel.


Therein, the problem lied. One night, they got a little over eager and Lill was all too quick to put the blame on Lucy. In retrospect, she didn’t blame Lillian, though. It was a scary time to be a woman in love with another woman. At the time, boy, was she fuming. And that didn’t exactly help her case. Needless to say, she didn’t see Lillian again until Lillian couldn’t see her anymore.


64 years later and Lucy was still in the same damn hospital. She could’ve moved on to bigger and better things. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. She couldn’t bring herself to “move on” to whatever the hell it was to move on to. She justified it to herself by claiming that there were people that needed her help, dead and alive. And, while she wasn’t wrong, it wasn’t the reason she didn’t – couldn’t – move on.


So here she was. In the year 2016 and, while a whole helluva lot had changed, a lot had stayed the same. She was still the most capable nurse on the ward, even if all the others didn’t think so. She didn’t blame ‘em. She was dead, after all.

 

[Compunction]

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[RealisticFantasy]

A new arrival. Lucy had a fondness for them. They were typically wide-eyed and fearful of the world around them. Lucy had a certain expertise in calming a new arrival after decades of having done so. That, of course, quickly dissipated when they mentioned Nurse Blakely to any of the hospital staff. Despite her kind demeanor and tendency to keep things running smoothly (hell, she did inventory most nights), she was one of two things to the 'official' hospital staff: a horror story or a joke.


She wasn't the only unofficial staff member for White Hill. There was a complete range of staff members from interns to doctors and, despite her being only a nurse, they all deferred to her. It was simpler for those that decided to hang around to just go about the day doing whatever they did when they were alive. Plus, it made the transition from denial to acceptance just the tiniest bit easier, both for those that experienced it and those that witnessed it.


Typically, however, the living that found their way onto the ward wouldn't at first fully see all that the ward had to offer. The existence of ghosts was generally dismissed, but really it was all science. But, the living human mind wasn't met to comprehend it. (This became a lot clearer postmortem) As such, there were precautionary measures in the biology of the human mind to prevent such inter-planar interaction. Sometimes, however, things didn't go to plan and the damage done to the living mind was often irreversible. So, the recovery program from the living was to integrate them into inter-planar relations - a rather tricky subject when few believe you to be little more than a hallucination.


Needless to say, a new arrival that completely acknowledged her existence? Well, she was far too quick to assume D.O.A. But, there was that saying about assuming things.


"Ms..." Lucy's voice trails off as she bends down to examine the clipboard of medical notes hanging at the foot of the patient. Picking things up and opening doors was just so strenuous sometimes. "Riggs? Sorry to startle you. I'm Nurse Blakely and I'll like be your primary caregiver. I would like to conduct a short questionnaire about your first day on the ward to gauge how well you're adjusting to your new environment. Would you mind that?"


Lucy flashes her best smile as she adjusts her nurse's cap. Her uniform was starched and stiff - as it should be - and varied greatly from the scrubs of the other nurses. Whereas their uniforms were typically a pale green or purple, hers was a pristine white. Always starched, always stiff, always straight, always perfect. Even when something would spill on her uniform (the word spill is used lightly here), she would only disappear for a brief moment before returning in pristine condition. Her uniform was her pride and no one toyed with that.

 

[Compunction]

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[RealisticFantasy]

"You always have a choice. It's preferred that you cooperate but you always have a choice to fail to do so. It's my job to make your stay here as enjoyable as possible while you learn to cope with whatever it is that ails you," Her words were carefully chosen, polished and perfected only many years of repetition as with many things she did. Lucy approaches the bed in confident strides, hands resting on the metallic bed frame at the foot of the bed. Her heels click nosily with each step, the bright red suede of the show seeming to shine by comparison to the drab shades of the ward. Her shoes were the exact shade of both her nails and her lips, all flawless - no stains, no fading. 


"I'm going to go ahead with the questionnaire, Ms. Riggs. I'd like your most honest answers even if you believe they're not what I want to hear. If I ask a question that you would like to abstain from answering, tell me so and I will move on. Simple enough, isn't it? Ms. Riggs, please tell me your cause..." Of death? For admission? It was a careful distinction to make early on. Lucy's eyes sweep over the woman in question, her polite smile unwavering. Her assumption was that Ms. Riggs was D.O.A. and, while that assumption had yet to be proven wrong, Ms. Riggs didn't appear to believe herself to be so. It was better for the patient to ease into the realization instead of sending them into a panic.


"...for admission? It's on your chart. But, that's a medical perspective. I'd like to hear your perspective."

 

[Compunction]

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[RealisticFantasy]

"Ms. Riggs, nobody looks crazy. Insanity lies solely in the mind and the mind is an inobservable thing. The only 'crazy' I can see is your response  to outside stimuli which will give me a rough estimate of whether or not your mind is functioning properly. The only thing I know for certain is whether or not your behavior is abnormal which does not necessitate a conclusion of insanity," Lucy knew that wasn't what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear reassurance, an emotional insistence that no, she isn't insane. While Lucy fully failed to question the stability of Ms. Riggs's mind, she was determined to remain as impartial as possible and not sway Ms. Riggs in either direction of the emotional spectrum. Not until she had come to a conclusion, at least.


"I'd like some clarification on your previous statement, Ms. Riggs. There is a difference between seeing things which do not exist and seeing things that others cannot. Which do you believe is true for your situation?" The question meant something else entirely to Lucy than it did to Ms. Riggs. For Ms. Riggs, it was surely an evaluation of just how crazy she was. For Lucy, it was binary: Insane or gifted? The response mattered greatly, though Ms. Riggs wasn't aware of that. 


Lucy was becoming increasingly aware of how very not dead Ms. Riggs was. She was practically radiating body heat and her heartbeat was pounding steadily along. This didn't sway Lucy any particular way. Just because Ms. Riggs saw her didn't mean she saw everything. There were occasions where a few slipped through the cracks, catching glimpses of the world that existed beyond their own. She desperately hoped this was the case for Ms. Riggs. She had such potential. 

 

[Compunction]

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[RealisticFantasy]

Lucy's own hand caught that of Ms. Riggs. The physicality of it must have sent her through a loop. Cold. That was the first adjective that crossed anyone's mind when they came into contact with someone that existed mainly in the ethereal realm, plane, sphere, whatever you cared to call it. Very, very cold. But still very, very physical and very, very real. Lucy typically refrained from contact with the physical world. It was fairly strenuous, even for someone such as herself who had a fair amount of practice with the efficient use of energy. That was all it was - an illusion, an application of energy to create a force that replicated physical contact.


"Ms. Riggs. You ought to keep your hands to yourself," Lucy's voice was dancing through the air with the same airy, pleasant tone and the same taut polite smile graced her face. Still, there was the hint of mild irritation as she curls her painted fingers tighter around Ms. Riggs's hand just half an inch from coming into contact with her pristine uniform before releasing it. Lucy's own handdrops back to the bed frame, red nails drumming a mindless pattern as her expression shifts to one of careful consideration.


"I believe we've discussed all that we need to, Ms. Riggs. I suggest you work on developing a method that assists you in discerning reality from illusion. If you're unable to tell the difference, you are going to have a very difficult time here," Lucy turns on her heels, striding to the door. She throws it open and it swings wildly on its hinge with a loud groan, stopping with just the smallest distance between it and the wall. Lucy hesitates in the doorway a moment, looking over her shoulder at the stunned woman, "Oh, and, Ms. Riggs, that is something medication cannot fix."


Then, she was gone.

 

[Compunction]

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[RealisticFantasy]

The rest of the night was uneventful. Lucy spent the majority of the night, wandering in quiet contemplation. Every once someone would stop her to ask her something or she would find a patient wandering the halls and politely redirecting them back to the room. Everything else, however, went pleasantly smooth ass it usually did. The presence of Ms. Riggs had yet to upset her delicate system but she was rather certain it would happen soon enough.


Lucy sat in the nurse's station, feet propped up as she idly flipped through a newspaper. The nurses that typically observed from behind the glass-lined walls were making their rounds for the morning, ensuring medications were properly rationed to be distributed in the coming hours. As soon as the first rays of sunshine begin to lighten the dark ward, Lucy folds the newspaper neatly and sets it down. Rolling her chair over to the loudspeaker system, she flips switches and presses buttons and soon music is rolling from the speakers.


"Wake up, Little Susie. Wake up..."


Lucy strides down the hall, hips swinging as patients rouse themselves from sleep and hover in their doorways with tired eyes. She offers a polite 'Good morning' to anyone who acknowledges her presence. Normally she would stop and chat, but she had a mission this morning. If Ms. Riggs believed their interactions to be a one-and-done experience, she was in for a rude awakening when she finally got into the swing of things.