The Last Hour (Thompson Sisters), Sheehan-Miles, Charles [reading an ebook .txt] 📗

her in. Doctor Peterson turned away, and I followed the man in, my eyes narrowing.

“Doctor Thompson-Sherman?” the man said, and I felt a sudden flash of unchecked rage. Carrie felt it too: I could see it, her shoulders suddenly turning stiff, feet coming to a stop. She spun around, disbelief on her face.

Behind her, Dylan and Alex were sitting against one wall, next to Jessica. My parents had moved marginally closer to them, no longer all the way across the room but not next to them either. Sarah was across the room from the rest of them, loitering near the nurses’ station. Nobody noticed her there.

The man I knew. He was Ronald Lafferty. A reporter from the New York Daily News.

The first time I met Lafferty was a few days after the Army decided they were going to charge me after all. I’d taken the metro from Walter Reed to Bethesda and walked the two blocks back to the condo. He was standing at the door, and as I reached to open it, he’d aggressively approached me, calling out questions. I’d answered, repeatedly, “No comment,” and the next day my picture was spread, tabloid style, across the Daily News. The headline read “War Criminal Living in Lap of Luxury?”

That was only the first of many articles smearing both Carrie and me. Lafferty had made a career of trying to destroy our lives.

“Leave me the hell alone,” Carrie said, her face showing rage. Dylan stood up, concern on his face.

“Carrie,” Lafferty said, “Can you comment on the accident? Did you know the other driver?”

“I’m not commenting on anything. Get out of here now.”

Lafferty wasn’t intimidated. “Come on, Carrie. We’re going to run the story anyway. Tell us your side. Were you surprised to find out the other driver was also in the Army?”

“What?” Carrie said, her face betraying shock. “Leave me alone! You have no right to be in here!”

Dylan’s face was red, and he approached the reporter rapidly. From the other side, Sarah was approaching, anger on her face.

Dylan said, “You heard the lady. Get out of here now.”

A nurse saw the commotion and a look of concern crossed her face. She said, “Excuse me, sir, are you immediate family of someone here?”

“Carrie, an Army source is saying the other driver is connected to the investigation somehow. Tell me what you know, and you can finally get your side of the story out.”

Horror mixed with shock flashed across her face. She covered her ears and yelled, “Get out!”

At Carrie’s shout, Dylan exploded into violence, running forward and grabbing Lafferty by the collar. He slammed him into the wall with a loud thud, and said, “Get the hell out of here, now!”

But then it happened. Sarah screamed, a blood-curdling scream, “Leave my sister alone!” and ran forward, right through Dylan. She put her hands on either side of Lafferty’s head, inside of his head, and let loose a scream bearing all of the pent-up rage and anger and confusion of a teenage girl facing horror and death. Everybody in the room suddenly winced, and I had to cover my ears.

Dylan backed off the reporter and muttered, his voice rough, “Get out of here.”

But Sarah wasn’t done. Not even close. Her whole form shivered, flickered even, and for just a second I could see Lafferty right through her. But I could see the rage in her form, almost like black tendrils of mist were flowing from her hands right into him, and then the lights actually dimmed a little as she poured her anger right into the reporter.

I don’t know what she was doing. But I knew I felt a black sense of terror, pain in my temple, and suddenly I wanted to vomit. I covered my ears to block out the screaming, but it was inside my head as I bent over slightly, pain washing down my entire body.

Whatever she was doing was affecting everyone. Rafferty had turned white, and Dylan was backing away, eyes darting everywhere as if he were back on the battlefield. Daniel had curled up into a ball in his seat, covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut in terror. And Jessica began to hyperventilate, shaking in her seat, and her eyes rolled up in her head as she muttered, “Stop, leave her alone….”

Lafferty gasped, his eyes wide, and stumbled away, from Dylan, from Sarah. He didn’t see her. He didn’t know what was happening. He couldn’t have known what was happening. He pointed at Dylan and said, “You’ll go down for this, you fuck,” and ran for the door. That’s when I realized his pants were strained wet with urine and fear.

The door slid open, and Lafferty ran out of the room.

Everything was silent for just a moment, but then several alarms went off at the nurses’ station. One of the nurses quickly silenced the alarm ... and then ran for Sarah’s room. A second later, she called out, “Get Doctor Wilson! And a crash cart! She’s coding!”

Not over yet (Carrie)

I gasped for air as that bastard Lafferty ran out the door. Dylan looked confused, anger written across his face, and Alexandra stared at Dylan as if she didn’t know who he was. The sudden burst of violence had shocked everyone, most of all Dylan himself. He was pale, a look of shock on his face, as he stared after the man who had been so scared he’d soiled himself.

There was a bare moment of silence, and then I heard beeping, loud, from the nurses’ station.

Seconds later one of the nurses called out from Sarah’s room, “Get Doctor Wilson! And a crash cart! She’s coding!”

Numb terror flooded through me. Had I somehow resigned myself to the idea I might lose Ray? I don’t think so, but all the same, this plunged me into a new well of fear. My heart thumped in my chest as I watched another nurse, and then a doctor, run into Sarah’s room. The alarms from the monitors