The Book: Chapter 11.

She fumbled with her bag, stuffing in a notebook, her keys, and her phone. She hadn’t slept much again. Mick was still in hospital after an operation to repair his leg, and everything felt too much.

Her thoughts kept going back to the accident, Mick’s injury, and the idea that the book played a role. She scared herself for thinking it, but the coincidence was too much to brush away. The book’s power was undeniable, but she was the only one who could see it. She had to know more.

When she got to work, her heart was pounding. The hum of the unit’s library felt distant and muffled, as though the world wanted to convince her everything was fine while her pulse screamed the opposite. Repulsed, she slipped the book onto the shelf where it belonged, wedging it between two dusty jackets like a suspect in a lineup. The part-time librarian was in today and wheeled his cart along the aisles. The soft rustle of books being reshelved and the muffled conversations of staff catching up on the weekend made it all very normal. Patients came and went, but Alice noticed there were fewer than normal.

She was on her way out when it called her back. She couldn’t leave it there. It belonged to her as much as a bad haircut she’d once paid too much for and had to live with.

She took it to her office and put it on her desk—where it was meant to be. It knew she was there. When she returned after leaving it, it expected her.

She resisted its lure until lunchtime, but couldn’t work any longer. She’d almost finished it but had to read more. She worried what it’d be like when she got to the end—like a death in the family. She opened it. The pages were warm under her fingers. It had the scent of old paper and too many hands. She flipped through, the first couple of pages, confused. This book was completely different again. Had somebody swapped it for an identical one during the few minutes it was back on the shelf? There was no mention of the hospital. It was a story about a family living the dream, a mother, another mother, two kids and a labradoodle—no moulting—the book explained. She scanned the cramped spidery serif font until her eyes landed on the next page and her heart skipped a beat as she read. Skipped a beat? She laughed out loud and felt it had bypassed an entire orchestral manoeuvre in three parts, with a half-hour interval.

It was all there. The couple. The hike. The accident. The uncanny details mirrored what had happened to Mick, though with some differences. In the book, it wasn’t a man and a woman, but a female couple with kids and a dog. The setting was altered, They were on a cliff above a rocky coastline instead of a forest, and the injury was described in horrifying detail: the snap of bone, the scream echoing over the ocean. Alice’s stomach churned and she had to run to the bathroom to void her meagre breakfast.

She returned to her office, slammed the book shut, and pressed her hands against it to smother its words. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to scream in horror for the world to hear, or cry quietly alone. The book knew what had happened to Mick. Had it caused the fall, or recounted it after the fact? Her head swam and she didn’t know. The thought coiled around her brain, tightening like a noose.

‘Alice?’

She jumped, spinning around to see Mara standing in the doorway.

‘Are you okay? You’ve been pretty stressed today,’ Mara asked.

‘I’m fine. Just tired. We’re all feeling it.’

Mara frowned but didn’t press it. A psych referral’s coming in. ETA five minutes.’

‘Thanks. I’ll be right down,’ she said, turning back to the book.

Alice forgot about the new patient coming in as soon as Mara left her office. Dr Calvert had to come and find her. The senior physician was furious that somebody had been left unattended. ‘Is everything okay, Alice? It’s not like you to be forgetful?’ Alice noticed that she avoided the word negligent.

‘There’s been a misunderstanding, Dr Calvert,’ Alice said when Mara was called. ‘Mara—Nurse Argan, never spoke to me about this patient. It’s the first I’ve heard of it,’ Alice said. She hadn’t intended to lie, but the words were out before she could prevent them. She risked a look at Mara who had her mouth open in disbelief.

‘You did, Dr Grant. You know you did.’ 

They argued, and as it was her word against the nurse’s, it had to be made official. They’d both be called in for taped interviews and were lucky not to be suspended on the spot.  Alice was skating on thin ice and knew it. If she’d admitted it was her mistake she’d have been told off by the nursing administrator, and nothing would have come of it. She’d never lied like this in her life, but something stopped her from backing down.

‘I’m not lying. I swear I’m not,’ Mara said. She was close to tears.

‘And I swear that you never told me.’ Unlike the nurse, Alice was calm, even-toned and as steady as a rock.

When she was dismissed, Mara turned to go back to work. She glared at Alice with loathing.  

Later, an argument broke out on the ward. Two of the junior nurses shouted at each other. Their voices rose, drawing the attention of several patients. The fallout was varied; anxiety, upset, rage—and that was just the patients.

‘I told you to keep insulin in the locked fridge,’ one of them snapped.

‘You did not.’ The nurse crossed her arms, bracing for a showdown worthy of a daytime talk show.

‘Why are you lying? This entire batch is ruined because you never listen.’

‘I never heard you.’

Alice’s pulse quickened. It was a different set of circumstances, but the words were similar to the argument she’d had with Mara. It felt off; as if it had been orchestrated. She went over and spoke to the staff in a hushed tone.  ‘That’s enough. what’s going on?’

‘Ask her. She’s the one messing up.’

‘Why are you blaming me? You’re the one who never told me.’

Their voices cut through the ward like blades intended to wound. But the air pulsed with something that wasn’t organic.

‘Stop.’ Alice’s voice cut through the bickering, louder than intended. They froze. Medication was one thing they had to get right. ‘This isn’t like you two. You’ve had diabetic training, you both know that insulin is refrigerated?’

They didn’t answer. Alice’s mind whirred. She couldn’t prove it, but she knew the book had caused this. It could pull strings behind people’s backs.

She smoothed the waters between the young nurses and sent them back to work.

Alice gathered the senior team members and called an impromptu meeting in her office. 

‘I need to show you something,’ she said when they were all assembled. Mara was still fuming and could barely look at her.

Alice’s heart pounded as she opened the book, flipping to the story about the accident. She thrust it at them and everybody noticed that her hands were shaking.

‘Read this and tell me it doesn’t remind you of what happened to Mick yesterday.’

Debbie took the book, flipping through the pages quickly before settling on one. She skimmed the next few. Her expression shifted from confusion to scepticism. ‘I don’t get it,’ she said.

‘What?’ Alice’s stomach dropped. She turned to Mara who’d taken the book next and was reading it with a furrowed brow. Felix leaned over her shoulder.

‘What’s supposed to be the same?’ Felix said after reading. ‘This doesn’t match what happened to Mick. A woman banged her wrist and they laughed about it. They ate in a restaurant at lunchtime. And they had their family with them. It’s nothing like what happened to Mick. I don’t see anything creepy about it.’

‘She broke her leg, so did Mick.’

‘Have you got the right book? According to this, she knocked her wrist. it’s hardly the immaculate conception, is it?’ Felix said. He rubbed Alice’s arm to take the sting out of his words as he handed it back.’

‘No,’ Alice whispered, snatching the book. Her eyes scanned the page. The story had changed. All the graphic details were gone. What she’d read earlier had morphed into something harmless, mocking her for thinking it had teeth. Alice felt the bite—deep and scarring, even if nobody else could see the wound. In this version, one of the women hurt her wrist in the playpark on the way home—and it was nothing. The eerie parallels to Mick’s accident had been erased as if they’d never existed.

Her mouth went dry. ‘It was different earlier,’ she said. ‘I swear, it was the same. It’s changed itself.’ Alice swayed and thought she might faint, and Debbie put her arm around her and guided her into the chair. Felix passed her coffee that had sat on the desk for two hours and Alice gulped it down, pulling a face.

‘Don’t tell Calvert,’ she whispered.

‘Alice,’ Mara said. Her earlier rage had gone and she looked concerned. ‘I think you’re reading too much into this.’

Alice’s voice rose until she was shouting. ‘You have to believe me. The book isn’t normal. It’s doing things.’

‘I think we need to get Dr Calvert to come and have another talk with you, Alice. I don’t think you’re well, love.’

‘Don’t patronise me, Nurse Argan. It’s the truth. I’m telling you. This book is manipulating reality.’

Debbie looked scared and Felix said, ‘This isn’t funny, Alice. If it’s a joke, it’s gone too far.’

‘It’s not.’ Alice’s voice cracked, and she felt tears in her eyes. ‘I’m not making it up.’

Their faces were closed and their expressions were mostly unreadable but partly worried and wary. Felix whispered something under his breath that Alice didn’t catch while Debbie looked frightened of her.

Mara said what, Alice knew they were all thinking. ‘Alice, we can’t ignore this. We have a duty of care to report it to Dr Calvert. You need to take some time off.’

‘I need some air.’ Alice shoved the book onto the table and fled the room, tears blinding her as she ran into light rain and the chilly breeze. They thought she was having a breakdown. And she felt it. Her grip on reality was loosening. She’d be suspended if they raised concerns about what happened in the meeting. A voice came into her head telling her not to worry. We’ll get them all.

She stumbled to the bins, where she could be out of sight. She couldn’t breathe and doubled over panting. Her meltdown felt fitting next to the week’s rotting leftovers. Her breath came in gasps. The tears flowed freely and through her humiliation, a terrifying idea crept into her mind, one she hadn’t dared consider properly before.

Am I going mad?

She wiped her eyes, the world around her still tilting as she regained her composure. The book’s power was real. She knew it. But the way it made her look like a fool in front of her colleagues gnawed at the edges of her sanity. It was winning.

Alice leaned against the wall. She was a respected doctor in the field of psychosis. She couldn’t be crazy. But she was alone, trapped with her fear and there were no answers and no obvious way out.
 

Katherine Black Amazon Page. 17 books to choose from: all on KU.

 

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