Dearest Penguin People,
Here is the latest chapter of Max and Sebastian. In the last episode, Max’s new friend Larry, a homeless germaphobe, reluctantly agreed to help her escape from the emergency room after being threatened by a sociopathic Shih Tzu named Buttercup.
If you are new to Max and Sebastian, please start here…
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17
As always, a special thank you to P.Q. Rubin for the wobbly penguin up top…
from the previous chapter…
“What’s wrong?” Max asked.
“Look.”
Max turned her head and saw Buttercup floating in the center of the emergency room above the unsuspecting ER staff and patients.
The snakes around Buttercup’s face shimmered and grew. They slithered down the walls, snapping up spiders as they went, leaving a deathly pall on everything they touched. Oblivious ER staff continued to do their jobs, seeing only what they wanted to see.
A chill fell on the room. Sweaters, lab coats and sheets were collectively pulled closer with little thought as to why.
Buttercup looked down upon them from her ghostly perch and uttered one succinct “Woof.”
Part II - Chapter 18
The tiny bark echoed throughout the ER and into the hallways beyond. Ghosts and other nebulous creatures, invisible to all except the random Alzheimer’s patient and overdose victim crept out from the dark corners looking for trouble.
Uncapped syringes sliced the air, chasing panicked paramedics and nurses out of the Trauma Room. Linen hampers erupted, tossing dirty sheets onto the unwitting passerby. One unimaginative ghost picked up a sheet and paraded down the hallways, wailing, “Oooooohhh.”
The charge nurse watched in dismay as a row of empty wheelchairs rose up into the air and then crashed back down.
Dr. Easton ran past her, pursued by a pair of sparking defibrillator paddles.
“What’s going on?” she called after him.
He fled into a restroom, locking the door behind him. “How the Hell should I know?” he screamed from the other side.
A dementia patient by the name of Ralph Clemons observed the growing turmoil with great interest. He sat up when a ghost entered his room. It was a particularly impressive spirit, a destitute man, his lower half ripped away, veins and arteries dangling from his mangled torso like squid entrails.
Ralph flicked a pudding cup through the ghost’s chest, splattering a young intern’s white lab coat as she read his chart.
“Ugh.” She wiped the chocolate from her sleeve making the smear worse. “Aw, Mr. Clemons, why?”
He answered with a loud, bleating screech. The ghost was licking the intern’s neck. Despite his addled brain, Ralph knew this crossed a line. He looked for something else to throw. Fortune was on his side.
The color drained from the intern’s face as she watched him reach for a loaded bedpan. She screamed as the gurney bounced, then plowed into her, pinning her to the wall.
Job done, the ghost thumbed his nose at Ralph and drifted away.
He passed Larry in the hall giving him the smallest of nods.
“Larry.”
“Oh, hey, Carl.” Larry’s gaze drifted to the ghost’s midsection, or lack of. “You fell asleep on the train tracks again, I see.”
“Yep.” Carl floated down the hall, not looking back.
Meanwhile a group of nurses were leading the distraught intern away, promising her a new lab coat.
Larry’s nose wrinkled. Something was burning.
At first it was just a little smoke.
Computer screens flickered and sparked. The smell of burnt wires and rotting flesh rose from the keyboards only to reboot in endless games of Pong. Then a stack of patient charts went up in flames. A nurse smothered the small fire with a wet towel only to have the wastebasket at her feet catch on fire. Soon, all the trash bins were smoking and casting off embers.
Sebastian’s eyes flashed. He growled in Max’s ear and the fires went out.
“What was that about?” Larry asked.
“Nothing. Why are you still standing there? Get her out of here.”
Larry bit his tongue and took Max by the hand. It would keep for later. Unhindered by distracted hospital staff, they kept to the wall and headed for the exit.
A creature of mist and scales loped past them. It paused, sniffing the air with a pointed snout. It swiveled, growling softly as its gaze fixed on Max. Leathery wings unfurled.
Sebastian caught the beast mid-air and inhaled it like a vacuum cleaner devouring a dust bunny.
Larry gulped.
“Do it again, do it again,” Max said, clapping her hands.
“Let’s not.” Larry pulled her into a nurse’s station.
The ghost of a young girl, four or five years at most, was ripping electrical cords from a desktop. Larry knew right away this was no ordinary ghost. Tiny sparks buzzed around her head as greasy black ectoplasm dripped from her pigtails. She was humming and chewing on a spider, its hairy legs flailing between her gray lips. When she saw Max she spat the legs out. “Ooohh. Nithe daawlly.”
“Nuh, uh.” Larry quickly backed out of the nurse’s station. “Not a dolly,” he said.
The ghost followed, bouncing as she sang. “Looky, looky. Tender, tathty daawlly.” She crept closer, nostrils flared. Then her eyes narrowed. “Maybe not tho young, not tho tender. No worrieth, I haff teeth.”
Max answered, her voice a whisper that only Larry could hear. “So, do I.”
The ceiling lights exploded. Glass showered on their heads in a sparkling mist.
Sebastian cursed and darted between them, grabbing the ghost by the pigtails.
“Traitor,” it hissed.
His eyes became hollow pits, glimmer dancing in their dark wells. He hurled the ghost into the computer screen, trapping it inside. Max pounded the enter key and sent it howling through the wires.
Abruptly, the ER lights died and there was a brief moment of silence. Then the hum and whoosh of backup generators shook the air. Dim lights flicked on, creating more shadows than they got rid off. In the far corner of the emergency room, people started to scream. Exasperated nursing staff ran to see what was happening.
Larry had had enough. He hugged Max to his chest and made the last sprint toward the emergency room exit. Almost there.
But the doors were gone, hidden behind gleaming, slithering layers of what Larry could only imagine as radioactive mucus.
Larry wobbled in front of them, watching as they slurped and squelched across the glass like overgrown slugs.
“What is that?” Max asked.
“Germs,” Larry whispered.
“What?”
“Ghost germs. They live. They die. They come back to haunt me just like everything else.” Larry’s mind spun. He pointed at a particularly bubbly strand with puce splotches in the center. “I think that one got me Christmas of ’09.”
“Oh for God’s sake, stop being such a baby.” Sebastian dove into the spectral bacteria, scattering the slime into a spray of screaming globules across the wall.
That was all Larry needed. He ran through the sliding glass doors into the sanctuary of the parking lot.
“Don’t stop,” Sebastian told him, “and don’t look back.”
Larry took a deep breath and willed himself to walk as if he had every right to take a small child out of the hospital. A light rain cleansed his skin.
Eve’s ambulance was still there, engine humming.
Larry opened the back. “Hop in, Short Stuff,” he said.
“Why this one?”Sebastian asked, looking at the scratched paint and dented fender. “The others are nicer.”
“I only borrow from friends.”
Sebastian didn’t know how to answer that.
Larry helped Max inside. “Buckle up.”
Familiar with the insides of an ambulance, Max jumped into the paramedic’s jump seat and fumbled with the seat belt. She snuck a sideways look at Sebastian. He seemed less ragged now, even had a little more shine after scarfing down that nasty creature. Her lips parted to show the tiny white nibs of her teeth, but Sebastian didn’t notice. He was too busy giving Larry stink eye.
Not that Larry cared. He slammed the door shut. He couldn’t believe they had pulled this off.
Something sharp jabbed him between the shoulder blades. He froze. What nefarious spirit was tormenting him now? He turned around.
An elderly woman, 70ish, with a gaze so severe it destroyed his will to ever speak again, stood by his elbow, one bony finger raised. Her gray hair, pulled into a tortured bun seemed impervious to the rain. She wore a faded black dress appropriate for a second cousin’s funeral and clutched a large purse in front of her like a shield, or quite possibly, held at the ready to whack him one. She scowled, as if her scrutiny of him had come up lacking.
Larry squinted at her in the rain. “Is there something I can do for you?”
She looked him up and down, her lips forming a harsh line of disapproval. “That remains to be seen. My name is Autumn Teaberry, and you are?” She extended a pale, thin hand.
Larry hid his hands behind his back.
Autumn grabbed Larry by the ear, pulling him close. “Manners,” she said, “are everything.”
As a side note…none of this was written with AI and I kindly ask that no one use it for training purposes. Thank you :)
Manners are everything...❤
Larry & his ghost germs 💀