Superheroine - Chapter 14
The shimmering costume stared up at Beth from its place on the bed. Instead of serving as a reminder of the great powers she now possessed, it only reminded her of what had happened the first time she had worn it. With a growl, she grabbed the blue and white outfit and stuffed it into one of the hotel dresser drawers. She covered the costume with some of her other clothes, slammed the drawer shut, and rushed from the hotel room.
Ten minutes later she was taking tentative steps into Johns’ hospital room. Tears welled up as she looked at him. She hardly recognized him. Bandages and a respirator mask covered his face, and the bedsheets hid his body, except for where tubes disappeared into his arms.
Beth composed herself before moving forward. He might be unconscious, but she still had to be strong near him. She stepped forward and reached out her hand, touching his arm through the sheets.
“John, sweetie, it’s me,” she said. She kept her voice even despite the tears flowing down her face.
She stared at him, as if expecting him to open his eyes, smile, and speak to her. He lay motionless. After a few moments, she spoke again.
“I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I should have listened to you. I just thought…we could help. Stupid.”
Beth looked down at him, hoping for some sign he heard her. But he lay unmoving. If not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, she would have thought him dead.
She didn’t know what else to say, so she sang to him softly. For 30 minutes she sang, from hopeful church songs, to some of John’s favorite pop and rock tunes. Her voice was gentle and melodic, filling the room despite its low volume.
When she finished, she eyed the chair in the corner. She could pull it to his bedside and maintain a vigil over him. But her assurances to Stanley sounded in her head. She had promised to be brief.
She gave John’s hand a soft squeeze, wiped away a tear, and headed out the door. Her surroundings were a blur as she walked down the hall toward the elevator. Faces passed her by, but they meant nothing. She got to the elevator, pressed a button, and took one step in. That’s when she remembered.
A face she had passed in the hall. It was familiar. From where? A sinking feeling hit her as it came to her. It was one of the men from the Fizzure building. He wore a baseball cap now, but he had worn a black skullcap during their earlier encounters. She had tossed him around in the Fizzure building when he had been trying to kill her and John. She had been in costume then, which meant he wouldn’t have recognized her. He could only be here for one reason.
Beth stuck out a hand to stop the elevator door from closing. It started to open again, and she squeezed through and broke into a sprint. Doctors, nurses, and visitors looked at her with shock and raised eyebrows as she ran down the hall. She contemplated stopping as she ran by the nurses desk, to tell them to get someone to John’s room. But she could get there faster.
She saw the door to John’s room ahead. It was closed. She had left it open. Without a thought for her own safety, she threw the door open and burst into the room.
The man, stocky and of medium height, looked up in shock. He leaned over John, holding a syringe to a tube going into John’s body.
“Stop!” she yelled. He lurched from the bed, darting for the door. She stepped in front of him and assumed a defensive posture, but he swatted her aside with a beefy forearm. Her petite body sailed through the air and she crashed into the wall. He disappeared out the door.
Beth groaned and jumped to her feet.
“Help! Help!” she screamed as she ran to John’s side. His body started to convulse. Nobody came. She slammed the nurse call button with her palm.
“John! John!” she yelled. A feeling of helplessness descended on her. She didn’t know what to do. His body thrashed about on the bed, and some tubes pulled free.
“I need a doctor!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Finally help arrived. A doctor hurried in, with two nurses behind her.
The middle-aged woman took one look at John and ran to his side. She barked commands to the nurses. Beth was in such a daze she didn’t hear them. She felt a nurse, a slender man with dark hair, guiding her to the door. At the door, she realized he was holding her by the shoulders, talking to her. She looked into his eyes and focused.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Someone who wants to hurt him snuck in and injected something into one of his tubes. He just ran away.”
After she spoke, the nurse turned, entered the room, and closed the door. Beth stood in the hall, frozen, staring off into nothing.