No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Corridor

The hospital smelled of floor wax and coffee gone cold in the pot.

It was after two in the morning.

Kaitlyn lay in a room on the fourth floor with a monitor beeping over her head and a tube taped to the back of her hand.

Aisling stood in the doorway.

Jude had stayed by the elevator.

He had said, "Go alone. I'll be here," and he had not asked her anything else.

"You came," Kaitlyn said.

Her voice was thin.

Her hair was loose on the pillow and her face was bare, and she looked her age.

"I wasn't going to," Aisling said.

"Sit anyway."

Aisling took the chair by the bed.

On the thin arm lying on the blanket, the hospital gown had slid back.

The light was there, pale blue under the skin.

359 DAYS.

"The doctor says it's the valve," Kaitlyn said.

"It's always been the valve. It never mattered while I had the days."

"What did he say about the days?"

"He doesn't know about the days."

"Does anyone?"

Kaitlyn's eyes slid to the window.

"I told Mom. At four this morning, when they let her in."

Aisling's stomach dropped. "You told her everything?"

"What I could. That you can see them too. That you've been spending yours."

Kaitlyn turned her face back.

"She cried a long time."

"And she believed you."

"She wanted to."

The monitor beeped. A cart rattled past in the corridor.

"Here is what I'm going to ask," Kaitlyn said. "It's smaller than the last thing."

"Don't."

"On Saturday, on that stage, say you gave them to me. The songs. Say they were a gift."

Keep reading free with an account. Start No Shelter Left from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.