I stopped by the police station to pick
up my car and then to the hospital after leaving the café. I entered the intensive care expecting to see
Nick and Carmina…
…instead, there was
a nurse changing the sheets of the bed that Carmina was in just a few hours
ago.
I knew that Carmina couldn’t have
died…they had told us that she would be okay.
Maybe they moved her to another room,
I rationalized to myself as the only possibility.
I walked over to the nurse.
“Excuse me…I’m the mother of the little
girl that was here a few hours ago…”
“Yes,
Carmina Thompson,” The nurse answered.
“…is everything okay? Where is she?”
“Oh, she was released about an hour ago,”
the nurse answered as if that wasn’t unusual.
“What?”
I asked unable to believe it.
“And you don’t find that strange?” I asked.
“Find
what strange?”
“My daughter was laying there…practically
near death a few hours ago…and now she’s been released?”
“There was no reason to keep her. There was nothing wrong with her.”
“But…I saw her. I was there when she was hit by the car…all
the blood…there’s no way she wasn’t badly injured,” I said attempting to
convince myself more than the nurse.
“I
don’t know what to tell you. Her doctor
thoroughly checked her…you should be glad.
It’s a miracle.”
Or the work of the devil,
I said to myself as the nurse walked away.
I suddenly felt that I was in some sort
of alternate universe…a universe where babies could be taken from hospitals or
abandoned and no one would notice…where a little girl could be hit by a car and
walk away an hour later. A universe
where I was the only one who found it all abnormal.
That’s just it,
I thought to myself… there was definitely something supernatural going on here
and it started at this hospital. This
hospital that held so many memories for me.
An evil hospital…
…or maybe I was the one who was evil.
I left the hospital and headed home……pretty
sure of what to expect when I arrived.
I slowly approached the house; noticing a
large stack of suitcases near the door.
Was Nick finally leaving me?
The house was fairly quiet when I walked
in. I would have given anything to be to
able to just sneak in and crawl into bed.
Nick quickly put that hope to rest, “Where have you been?” He roared as he walked
into the hallway from the living room.
He must have been in there waiting for me to come home.
“I…I was at the hospital-” I began before
Nick interrupted...
That set him off… “No you weren’t! We’ve been home for over an hour; expecting
you to be here waiting on us.”
“I stopped to grab a bite to eat, then I
went straight to the hospital…that’s where I just came from.”
“How could you be so uncaring? Our daughter could have died!”
Right on cue, Carmina walked down the
stairs to witness our disagreement.
“Nick, I don’t know what to tell you…I
returned to the hospital. I never
expected her to be released so soon.”
“You say that as if you wish it wasn’t
true!”
“I
say that because it’s impossible!” I
snapped back.
“Impossible? You should be grateful, you
uncaring witch!”
Nick’s
words gave Carmina great joy. I could
tell it was just the outcome that she was looking for.
“Nick!
I won’t stand here and be abused.
But…I beg you not to leave.”
“Leave? What makes you think I’m leaving?” He asked as if what I said didn’t make sense.
Carmina grinned at me with an evil look
in her eyes as she waited for me to respond.
“I
saw…you’ve pack the suitcases. I thought
you were leaving us…” I responded quietly; slowly realizing that I was wrong.
“No…those aren’t my bags. I’m not leaving…you are,” Nick said, his voice calm…but cruel.
I was totally crushed. “But…Nick?”
“I have no place to go…” I continued,
devastated by the fact that my marriage was officially over.
“Not my problem. You should have thought about that before you
caused all of this.”
Nick didn’t realize how right he was…I had definitely caused all of this…to an
extent that he’d never know.
Now Carmina was laughing; an evil jarring
sound that threatened to haunt me for the rest of my life.
“Please go Diane. You are dead to me,” Nick said putting the
final nail in my emotional coffin.
I knew there was nothing else to say to
Nick. I stared at Carmina long and
hard…she had won. She’d officially taken
away everything that I had and she was very satisfied.
Nick turned and walked up the stairs
without even a goodbye; as if he had no memory of the love that we once shared…
…before I brought evil into our life.
The door closed behind me, but I could
still hear Carmina’s
laughter; each brutal giggle rattling my heart like an earthquake…tearing it
further apart as I was forced to walk away from the love of my life.
Labels: I Stole Evil
