Heartbreak Hotel

T W E L V E

THE RACE BACK to Ophelia’s room was one full of anxiety: Jude didn’t know why he felt so dreadful. Nerves were bundled and tangled in his stomach as his feet pounded against the floor, Xenia following suit behind him. There was this feeling of desperation, like something bad was happening: he could feel it in the air that was whipping by his face. Sneakers slapping against the linoleum, he threw open the door to the staircase and ran down.

He nearly tripped a bit but he managed to catch himself. Jude even skipped a few stairs, at least three steps at a time he was running down the two floors until finally, the door to the south part of the fourth floor. He could hear Xenia’s footsteps not far behind him but he couldn’t wait, there was something seriously wrong, he just didn’t know what it was. His gut was telling him Ophelia was in trouble.

When he finally arrived at her door, it was locked. It hadn’t been when he left. Her door didn’t automatically close on it’s own: it was the one “retro” thing that the hotel decided to keep, doors with key locks. He placed his clammy hand on the handle and shook it hard, an odd sense of déja vû hitting him hard. Jude rested his head against the wood surface and used his other hand to knock hard.

Just as he knocked, Xenia caught up, looking at him with confusion and as she was about to open her mouth, he held his finger up to his lips, silently shushing her for a moment. Carefully, he pressed his ear to the door, listening for anything.

At first, it was silent, until he picked up two voices. One, he identified as Ophelia. He could barely hear her, but it was enough for him to catch the fear in her tone. The second voice, most likely the cause of her fear, was male. He sounded intimidating and stoney and his vocabulary was too… formal for him to be a patient. He couldn’t hear what they were saying-- they were too muffled.

He leaned back and raised his fist again, knocking heavily on the door once more. Blood rushing, he awaited for God knows what, until finally, it was yanked open. He was almost eye to eye with a broad, caucasian man who was dressed in all white, just like Xenia, a sign that he, too, was a patron. Black beady eyes bore into his soul and the man’s expression was grim as his thin lips opened for him to say “excuse me.”

Jude didn’t have the opportunity to move before the large man shoved past him, continuing down the hallway as if nothing had happened. Jude blinked once, and then twice before snapping back to reality. He brushed off the uneasiness the stranger gave him before cautiously calling out “Ophelia?”

No answer.

Jude waved Xenia over to follow him on his way into Ophelia’s room. The door clicked shut as Xenia closed it behind them, “Ophelia?” Jude said again upon spotting her on the bed in the same position as last he’d seen her. He eyes were still dazed, but this time, her body seemed more stiff as if she were frozen in distress.

No answer.

“What happened?” Xenia asked him calmly, but she felt anxious too.

Jude looked at her, “I came knocking on her door and at first she didn’t say anything, then she said she’d let me in and to just vie her a second. I heard shuffling and then her scream. I asked her if she was okay and she said she was fine, when I heard her scream again I came in. She was laying on the ground with blood on the side of her face as well as some in her hair. When I tried to pick her up she screamed again and told me that her shoulders, neck and head.”

Xenia nodded, moving forward until she was stood by Ophelia’s bed. “Ophelia, dear, is it alright if I do a check up?”

Ophelia bit the inside of her cheek, “alright.”

Xenia placed her nurse’s kit carefully down on the bed. This wasn’t like a first aid kit, it had more advanced medical instruments inside. “I’m going to press down on certain places on your neck and shoulders. Jude is going to turn you on your stomach because I’m assuming you can’t sit up straight without being in too much pain. Is that okay?”

“Okay,” Ophelia agreed.

Xenia sent a look to Jude, urging him to do what she’d just said.

He shifted on his two feet, walking towards the bed, his hands shaking by his sides. He leaned down unsurely and placed one hand under her lower back and one on her hip. Slowly, he turned her bottom portion of her body onto her side. Visibly, she didn’t seem to be in too much pain. But here came the tricky part: turning her head, face, neck and back.

“Ophelia,” his voice was unsteady and thick, “can you turn your head to the left so I can do the rest?”

She tugged her lip between her teeth and managed to barely nod. Slowly, Ophelia turned her head to the side, breathing hard when an ache shot up her spine and made her head throb. She winced and shut her eyes, holding in a yelp before she forced herself to turn her head the rest of the way. She let out a grunt of pain, but managed to finally turn her head to the left.

Carefully, Jude placed his hands around her upper back, not near her neck and turned the rest of her body flat against the mattress, this time with not as much struggle, successfully turning her onto her front so that her stomach was against the bed. Xenia thanked him and leaned forward, frowning at her sweater. “Would you mind if I lifted this up?” Xenia asked, knowing it would only get in the way of her conducting a proper checkup.

“Go for it,” Ophelia muttered.

Jude turned in the opposite direction, obviously not wanting the situation to turn awkward.

Ophelia chuckled even though she couldn’t see him. She knew that he turned away. “Prude,” she joked despite her gloomy mood.

Jude felt crimson rush to his cheeks. He didn’t think it was prudish to respect someone’s boundaries, right? Surely she was joking. Bashful and slightly embarrassed, he scratched his nose and then shoved his hands in his pockets, fiddling with some loose change he had inside.

“Okay,” Xenia stated after lifting her sweater all the way up to her shoulders. “I’m going to press down on certain parts of your spine and shoulders.” Ophelia mumbled a word of acknowledgement. Xenia lightly placed a finger down on one of Ophelia’s shoulder blades, causing her to wince. “Tell me when it starts getting more painful.” Xenia told her.

She carried on pressing on scattered parts of Ophelia’s shoulders, and the more she got closer to the upper neck and spine, the more pain Ophelia felt. She then slowly moved up to the neck where it dissipated into her full head of hair. Xenia nodded, reaching for her nurse’s case, about to pull something out when Jude asked “What is it? What happened?”

“She has cervical spine contusion. It’s basically bruising to your spine and in severe cases, can kill you. She’s lucky it wasn’t severe or it could’ve meant paralysis or death. This is only a minor case, but it still causes immense pain to move. Spinal contusion is caused by a heavy blow to the neck or spine which means someone did this to her.”

“No,” Ophelia protested, “I just fell. That’s all.” She winced at another headrush.

“That’s not true, my dear.” Xenia looked at her worriedly, “And a mild concussion. Both can be healed after a few days of ice packs, relaxation and painkillers.” Xenia pulled out a small vial of a clear, white liquid along with a small needle. “A shot of saprorotene and you should be sleeping and the pain should be temporarily numbed. Are you good with needles?”

“Yes,” Ophelia confirmed.

Xenia prepped the needle and then her arm by rubbing it with a cotton pad doused in rubbing alcohol. She carefully pressed, looking for a vein. Upon finding one, she held the needle to the skin and slowly inserted the needle, watching it slide under her skin. Xenia slowly pressed the back of the needle to make the make the medicine make its way into her bloodstream.

“We’re going to need to turn her over again so I can take care of her head injury and cheek. This time she shouldn’t be feeling any pain, saprorotene instantly numbs pain nerves.”

Jude nodded and they started the process all over again. He turned her onto her back one more, and let Xenia do the rest. She cleaned her cheek and the part of her cheek, luckily neither needed stitches, just some clean up, ointment and for her face, a bandaid.

“You’re going to need a shower later and a change of clothes, but you should sleep first.” Xenia told her, grabbing a random pillow to prop it up under her legs. “Don’t move this, it’s neutralizing the position of your spine. Get some rest,” Xenia told her, before leaning over to Jude and muttering “find out who did this to her.”