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’slaughter; 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.
