“May I present my knight, Sir Stephen.”
Murphy opened his mouth to say something but chose to play along with Mia. He took a knee.
The crazy king, Mia suspected was the maniacal last doctor of the place, said, “You may rise, Sir Stephen.”
“I’m Mia, and I’m looking for lost members of my court. Another knight, a boy, and my lady in waiting.”
The king lifted an eyebrow. “I may have seen them. What are you doing here?”
“We’ve been looking for my consort. A tall fellow, brown hair, and brown eyes.”
One of the insane soldiers whispered something in the king’s ear. He nodded in understanding. “I think I can help you out. Your court are my prisoners, but your consort is a prisoner of his own making. He has barricaded himself in a cell.
“Can we sit and discuss the release of my court?” Mia asked sweetly.
“Who’s to say you’re not my prisoner right now?”
“I do,” Murphy said, raising his axe.
The king looked down at them with his dead eyes. “There are more of us than you.”
“But I have reapers at my beck and call,” Mia bluffed. “They are anxious to locate spirits who interfere with the living. Have you ever battled a reaper before?”
The king looked blank.
“No? Well, they are these giant black hands. They scoop you up and crush you into the Dark World,” Mia said as she demonstrated with her own hands. “There, you will walk forever in the darkness without a companion.”
The crazy king could see the truth in her words. He didn’t like the idea of being alone for an eternity.
Mia continued, “But why is that necessary when you have this nice setup here?” she asked. “Let my court go. Let me retrieve my consort, and we’ll leave and never come back.”
“Very well, I’ll take you to your court, but I must warn you that I will put up with no interference from you and yours regarding my kingdom.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” Mia said.
“Come,” the king said. “Afterwards, we could speak of my theory about pain?”
“I imagine you have extensive knowledge of the subject,” Mia said.
They followed the king into the lower halls. They moved into the darkness. Mia could see the monarch because he continuously drew power from his subjects as he passed them. She glanced back and saw the drained ghosts gray out and float away in the spectral breeze that moved throughout the building. She worried about Murphy. Could this parasite pull her friend and protector’s energy away? Was there any way to stop it?
The king and his small contingent of insane soldiers stopped at an old pair of swinging doors where a solid piece of wood had been slipped through the handles of the twin doors. The chicken-wire glass windows were too dirty to see inside.
“Your court is inside. I will leave you to become reacquainted,” he said and motioned for the bar to be removed.
“May I find you in your throne room?” Mia asked.
The ghost shifted, slightly confused.
“Your office?” she asked quickly, realizing that the insanity that had the doctor seeing the hospital as his kingdom wasn’t a consistent delusion.
“Yes, little girl, I would appreciate the visit. I’ll clear my calendar.”
Mia picked up the piece of wood and carried it inside what turned out to be an old recreational room for the less dangerous patients.
“Mike? Glenda? Cid?” she called into what appeared to be an empty room.
“Mia?” Cid asked, running out from his hiding space. He stopped when he spotted the condition of her clothes. “What happened? Where is Ted?”
Mia’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Cid, he’s gone.”
Cid pulled his glasses off and looked at the floor.
“He died a hero,” Murphy said. “He saved us.”
Mia took the boy’s hands in hers and squeezed them. “We will have him back once we find Burt,” she promised, not fully believing at this point it was possible. “Have you seen any trace of him?”
“They were waiting for us. We didn’t get any further than the front hall. Glenda managed to get a few shots off before we were surrounded.”
“Where are the Duprees? I was told they were in here,” Mia said.
Murphy did a quick circle and shook his head.
“Last I saw, they were being marched in the opposite direction. They didn’t think I was much of a threat, so I was tossed in here,” Cid said. “I was working on cutting through the chicken wire of the windows over there to get out,” he said, leading them over to the outside wall.
Mia looked out the windows and down at the drop that awaited Cid if he were successful. “I don’t understand, isn’t this the ground level?”
“This building is cut into the side of the hill. There are several floors under this one,” Cid said pointing. “You can just see the other wing if you squish your face up here.”
Mia did so and noticed that most of the windows were either barred or bricked up. There was one that looked odd, but she couldn’t quite make out why from her perspective. “Well, let’s get out of here and find the others.”
“We stick together,” Murphy insisted.
“Yes,” she agreed. “I have a feeling about that window over there,” Mia said. “The one with the plastic bag over it. Murph, go out and see if you can get in.”
Murph took off. He came back immediately. “Can’t.”
“Why? Are there iron bars?” she asked.
“No, salt.”
“That’s where Burt is!” Mia said excited. “The head ghost said that he was barricaded in his cell.”
Mia dropped her pack and outfitted Cid with a few surprises if the ghosts outside turned on them. “Ted certainly put together a lot of clever deterrents,” Mia approved. “Come on, guys, it’s time to press restart!”
Chapter Nineteen
Mia and
