Carlita drew her hands down her shins as she strained forward on her wheelchair to listen through the door. Hector’s voice she knew but—a flash of panic. Two young female voices she didn’t recognize were with him. Her eyes darted to the floor. Relief. The towels were still blocking the slit. Yet, even six feet away, their Green Acres Living logos itched her with foreboding.
Momentarily calmed, Carlita sneered. Only Hector’d be gallivanting in the middle of a pandemic!
Their voices grew louder and anxiety rose in Carlita’s throat as they arrived in front of her door. She wheeled back.
“I’ve had a bit of a cough recently.” Hector.
“That’s a possible symptom. What about fever?” Woman one.
“Let me check you.” Woman two.
Horrified, Carlita reassessed the towels’ positioning and her mouth dropped. A few centimeters at the edge peaked through. ‘Oh my Lord,’ she thought, grabbing her rosaries from the armrest.
“The machine’s showing you’re a little high.”
Carlita’s eyes bulged. It was here. Death. A diseased whisper that seeped through the crack and now slithered slowly towards her.
The air around her head darkened.
“Where are you?” she called out. “I’m not goin’!”
A strange wind fluttered her gown. Clutching the armrests, she sought courage in the aged photos of her husband and their daughter. She reached for them.
“I’m not ready!”
The gravelled whisper grew to a howl and she could feel a scraggly finger running up her leg to her chest. Her face contorted with her wails against it, the sharp nibs passing her shoulder and digging their way up her cheek.
“Carlita! Carlita!” Hector yelled, banging on the door.
Her face froze as the finger arrived at her forehead. She stared at it, mouth agape, horrified but enraptured.
It drew back and held. A lifetime passed. One stabbing jab between the eyes….its job was done.
Kaboom!
Hector, in full PPE, smashed through the door. The two women, city nurses, beside him. They gasped at Carlita’s lifeless, terror-stricken face. A grotesque bulging vein ran from her bloodshot right eye to the temple, while a string of spittle drained from her mouth.