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Regina Glei's fiction

That One Minute

"That One Minute" excerpt.

Jill had finally got rid of her florist apron and huddled
into a chair at the foot of Chris’s bed. Leftovers of a meal
stood next to her on a hospital table. It was impossible that
Chris had attempted suicide, utterly impossible, but there
he lay. In shock, she had even managed to eat. Her body
functioned like a machine, ignoring her emotions.
She jumped terribly when her cell-phone rang and fumbled
it out of the pocket of her apron that lay next to her.
Guiltily, she flipped it open. Surely cell-phones were forbidden
in the hospital.
“Yes?”
“Hi, honey, where are you?”
Her hands turned to ice and fear shot through her heart
like a bullet. Chris’s voice? But... how? He was lying in bed
right in front of her. She could see him, touch him... a terrible
thought dawned on her.
She got up and retreated to the wall behind her. Her entire
body was turning cold.
“Jill? Are you there?”
“Chris?”
She could hardly hear her own voice.
“Yeah, sure. What’s wrong? Where are you?”
Jill reached the wall and leaned to it. Her mind was racing
and her eyes were not leaving Chris on the bed. That
terrible thought tried to pin her down. No, no, she had
never been involved in such monstrous things. She knew
nothing of this—she didn’t want to have anything to do with
stuff like that.
“Something terrible is going on... it must be demonic...”
Her voice almost left her at the word “demonic”. It wasn’t
a demon, demons deformed people. The man in the bed
looked perfectly normal, which could only mean one thing,
it was worse than a demon. This was a demonic, and he’d
kill her as soon as he’d wake up.
“Jill, what the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m at Saint Mary Hospital, in room three-o-one intensive
care and the patient is you. You attempted suicide. You
cut your wrists!”

Chris took the phone away from his ear and stared at it
for a moment. His wife was going crazy. Too bad, so far she
had been so nice and handy.
“Come here, immediately,” she demanded.
On the other hand, this might turn out to be interesting.
Maybe he could leave her right there in the hands of wonderful
psychiatric care and be rid of her.
“On my way,” he said and hung up.

Jill tucked the phone into her pants’ pocket and
squeezed herself with the wall in her back towards the door
to the corridor without letting her eyes off of Chris in the
bed. She left room 301 and sprinted down the corridor.
“Doctor Mendez! Doctor Mendez!”
Mendez and a nurse, her nametag read Copeland, elderly,
stern, caring, the perfect nurse, next to the perfect
doctor, appeared from the ready room.
“What’s wrong?” Mendez asked.
“I knew something wasn’t right! My husband just called
me on the phone, well and far from suicide. I don’t know
what’s lying in that bed over there, but it’s not my husband!”
The nurse made the sign of the cross over her chest.
Mendez touched Jill’s arm to soothe her.
“Please, Mrs. Burns... if you are indicating anything demonic,
don’t worry, the person in room three-o-one is
human. Very human.”
“But he’s not my husband! My real husband is coming
here right now!”
“Okay... then let’s wait for his arrival and let me check
on the patient in room three-o-one again.”
Jill nodded vehemently, trying to master her hysteria.
Demonic stuff, happening to her? Oh holy mother of God,
no, no, not to her...
Mendez, Jill and Nurse Copeland entered Chris’s sick
room. Jill was trembling. Mendez looked critically at Chris
and checked the instruments next to his bed.
“He looks like your husband, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, exactly like my husband.”
“Well, he’s human. Maybe the person who called was
someone else?”
“No, it was Chris... I’m sure.”
“They have many ways to disguise themselves, Mrs.
Burns. Voices are easily imitated,” the nurse said.
Jill swallowed hard, the voice that of a demon or even a
demonic and the thing in that bed her real husband? Then
the voice must have sliced Chris’s wrists!
“Let’s wait to see when the mysterious caller comes
here,” Mendez said.
Nurse Copeland looked fearfully at Mendez.
“Shouldn’t we call the Ministry?” she asked.
Jill yelped. No! She didn’t want to have anything to do
with the Ministry. Breathlessly, she stared at Mendez and
was very relieved to see him frowning at the nurse’s zeal.
“Let’s wait for this caller, before we do a thing like that.”
Jill nodded her approval. To have anything to do with
the Ministry... unthinkable.
Shit, she had to calm down. She had to keep a cool head
now—a good girl with a cool head.

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