Chapter Seventeen
Johnny woke up to the shrill ring of the room telephone. “Hello,” he said sleepily into the receiver
“Mr Duncan, hospital reception here. I have a Miss Cahill at the desk. Shall I send her up?”
“Yes,please.”
He splashed cold water onto his face then pulled on his trousers and looked at his reflection in the mirror above the sink. He needed a shave and a shower, but he wanted to speak to Veronica first.
There was a knock at the door. “Hi Veronica, come on in its good to see you,” he said as he opened the door. He walked over to the chair by the bed to retrieve his shirt.
“Jeez John. How is she?”
“Still in a coma the last time I saw her. I’ve heard nothing; I assume there’s no change.”
“I couldn’t sleep worrying of Caitlin and yourself.”
“Thanks Veronica.” He picked up his mobile from the chair. “I’ll need to call her mother; I couldn’t contact her last night. I think it’s all right to use a mobile in this block.” He pressed the key for Sue, and after a few rings a hoarse voice answered.“John–is everything all right?”
“Sue, don’t get alarmed. It's Caitlin, she’s asleep and… I can’t waken her up.”
“What! What do you mean can’t waken her up?”
“Yesterday she fell asleep in front of the TV while I was making the tea, and when I tried to wake her–I couldn’t!”
“Oh dear!”
“We’re in Ninewells. They’ve carried out tests and said she’s in good health, but in a coma. The doctor says it could last from a few days to a few weeks.”
“My baby. I’m coming up,” she said and then hung-up.
Veronica, who had been gazing out of the window, turned toward him. “Look John, maybe I’d better go.”
“No, I want you to stay,” he said, throwing the mobile onto the bed. “I’m going to have a shower.”
After he washed and shaved they headed down to the main concourse for some coffee. Outpatients were arriving in droves and looking for their destinations as Johnny and Veronica entered an open-plan café. They bought toast and coffee and sat at a table near the back wall.
Veronica stared at Johnny.“I can’t believe Caitlin’s in a coma she seemed so… lively when I met her.”
“Veronica,” said Johnny as he buttered his toast. “There’s something I should tell you.” He took a bite of his toast. “Physicists in your country are working on some machine which will open some spatial dimensions. I think one dimension is what we would call hell.”
Veronica took a sip of her coffee. “Where did you find this out?”
“I was visited by someone or something; no vision this time he seemed as real as you or I. He said the experiments must stop at all costs.”
“How does this tie in with Caitlin?”
“In a dream last night I was shown Caitlin or at least her astral body or soul or whatever by Samael - he’s who we would call the ‘Devil’. She was searching for something in what I believe to be the thirteenth dimension. I could see her, but couldn’t talk to her, I was just an observer. The demon clarified that if I wanted to see her conscious again, I would need to deny seeing ‘the visions'.”
“Oh God! So we cancel ABC?”
“For now, yes.”
Caitlin lay peacefully sleeping on a bed with the back section raised. A clear tube entered her arm under a large sticking plaster. The ward she was in was full except for one bed.
“Caitlin.” Johnny whispered. “Veronica’s here to see you and Mum's on the way.”
He held her right hand. “Are you going to wake up today baby?”
A male doctor with thick, black hair approached the bed.
“Mr Duncan?”
“Yes.”
“The toxicity tests have returned with a negative result; so we can cancel that out.”
“What’s next Doctor?” Veronica asked.
“EEG.”
“Okay, thanks Doctor,” said Johnny.
Sue came rushing in accompanied by Ollie. “Oh baby!” she said as she stood by the bed.
“What did the Doctor say?” she asked Johnny.
“They’re still carrying out tests.”
“How could you let this happen?”
“Me!”
“It’s something to do with this trouble you’ve caused.”
“The doctor says comas can be induced by many things.”
“Who’s this?” Sue asked, nodding toward Veronica.
“I’m Veronica Cahill, a colleague of John’s,” said Veronica with iron in her voice.
“I’ll wait on you downstairs John, she then said looking at John.
“Me too.” Ollie said, turning to follow Veronica.
“So what happened, again?” Sue asked with venom.
Johnny recited the sequence of events again, tactfully leaving out the fact he had left Caitlin alone for a short while.
“I’ll never forgive you John Duncan, if she doesn’t pull through.”
“Come on now Sue, she’ll wake up and want a McDonalds in no time.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I just know — that’s all.” He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “I have to see about something will you give me a phone if there’s any change.”
He left the ward and descended an empty staircase before walking along a busy hallway with a polished floor and paintings on the walls.
In the central concourse he saw Veronica and Ollie sitting in the same café he and Veronica had been in earlier. The crowds hid him as he made his way toward and then out of the main door.
A bus arrived and dispatched visitors and more outpatients for the already crowded hospital as he took out his tobacco tin and rolled a cigarette. After he lit up, he pulled his mobile from his jacket pocket and rang his sister, Gemma.
“Johnny, long time no hear.”
“Yeah, well, you know, I’ve been busy.”
“I’ve been reading about you.”
“Listen Gem, I need a favour. Are you still into that paranormal stuff?”
“Yes, now and again. Why?”
“I need the services of a kosher medium, psychic type in the area.”
“Keith Moncliffe, Camphill Road Broughty Ferry; he’s the best.”
She then gave Johnny the man’s number.
“Thanks sis. I’ll explain all later. See ya!”
He made the call to the number and then put the mobile back into his pocket.
When he headed back into the café Ollie had gone back upstairs.
“Where have you been?” Veronica asked.
“On the phone. Veronica, I need you to drive me to Broughty Ferry.”
“Where?”
“Come on, I’ll show you the way.”
After a short drive they pulled up outside a three storey, well-built, cream-coloured house. The stainless steel sign on a gate pillar of the garden wall read: Keith Moncliffe Bsc (Hons) Psychology.
“You sure about this John?” Veronica quizzed
“As I explained on the way here, I’ve no choice.” He opened the car door. “Are you coming?”
Johnny pushed the bell button on the small portico and waited. A tall woman with thick, brown hair above a face with a pale complexion and grey eyes eventually opened the door.
“I’m Mr Duncan; I phoned about an appointment. You said there had been a cancellation.”
“Yes, come in.”
They followed her through to a room with wood panelling on the lower half of the walls, white painted plaster made up the rest. A glass coffee table in the centre of the room had papers and magazines scattered upon it.
“Please wait here. Mr Moncliffe is with a patient,” the woman said as she closed the door.
“Thank you,” said Johnny.
Veronica sat and browsed through a magazine as Johnny paced back and forward; then moved over to the window and gazed at the well-kept garden. After about half an hour a well-groomed man of about forty with short, fair hair and a brown goatee opened the door. “Mr Duncan?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Keith Moncliffe,” he said as they shook hands. “You told my receptionist you had an emergency?”
“Yes,” said Johnny, as he turned to Veronica. “This is Veronica Cahill, do you mind if she sits in?”
“No, not at all. Could you follow me please?”
The room was bright and reminded Johnny of his doctor’s surgery. The only thing different was a red leather couch.
“Please take a seat,” said the psychologist.
The pair sat on stainless steel and black leather seats in front of a glass top desk. Johnny looked around. “I’m not sure you’re…”
“Mr Duncan, I am not only a psychologist; I’m a medium and a good hypnotist. Now, what’s your problem?”
Johnny put Caitlin’s and his fate in the man’s hands. He explained in detail all that had happened.
“So you see Mr Moncliffe, I need someone to take me to the thirteenth dimension.”
“Far too dangerous Mr Duncan. You understand that this place you talk of is otherwise known as hell. If you go, you may never come back!”
“I’m prepared to pay you well.”
“I don’t know…”
“Mr Moncliffe, do you have children?”
“Yes, and very well, but you must do as I command.”
“Of course.”
“Right, make yourself comfortable on the couch. Now, normally to induce hypnosis I ask the patient to count down from two hundred. In your case we need to induce an astral projection of sorts; so I need you to count from one. Miss Cahill as I’ll be in a trance–like state I would like you to alert my receptionist, Miss Wilkie, if anything untoward happens. Please do not awaken us.”
Moncliffe stood up and pulled the chair out from behind his desk, then placed it beside the couch and sat down. “Right when you’re ready close your eyes and take a deep breath then count.”
Johnny closed his eyes and felt apprehensive as he counted.
“That’s it, now just relax,” said the hypnotist. “We’re climbing up a beautiful staircase. You're getting lighter with every step; up, up we go.”
After a while Johnny wasn’t sure if he was still counting out loud or in his head. He could hear the hypnotist’s voice all around. He felt warm and peaceful, the apprehensiveness had gone. Soon he stopped climbing and floated up through the clouds toward a brilliant, blue sky. A radiant being floated up beside him.
“Still very relaxed and becoming lighter and lighter,” said the being.
Johnny realised the figure was Keith Moncliffe.
They entered a massive sphere of white light where Johnny was sure he could see figures moving and sensed love. Then they floated on upwards out of the top of the sphere and into another similar sphere.
They floated through one sphere after another. The further they rose the darker the spheres became, and the feelings of love diminished. Johnny could still see groups of figures but they were no longer white.
They slowed as they entered a dark sphere. “This is the twelfth dimension. I will go no further; however, I will wait here for your descent,” said Moncliffe.
Johnny moved upwards while voices flowed through his mind. “Go back now or you will never go back at all,” they teased, but Johnny kept on rising. He left the twelfth dimension and entered the thirteenth.
The dark encroached upon him and made him shiver. Wisps of black mist moved toward him and then passed through him. He heard a whisper. “This is the place of the damned. Look up!” He looked up and saw, set against the backdrop of star-studded infinity, a bridge-come-stairway which linked the sphere with a smaller sphere. Souls climbed the steps one after another.
A scream brought his attention back to where he had stopped. A small figure ran out of the gloom. “Caitlin!” he shouted as the figure became clearer.
“Dad!” she shouted, running into his arms. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to take you home baby.”
A growl came from the dark from where she had emerged. “Dad, we need to go–now!” But it was too late: a dark figure with light grey skin, and a mouth filled with sharp pointed teeth, flew at them.
Veronica watched with concern as Johnny’s breathing became erratic, and he entered a stage of REM. She looked at Keith Moncliffe, but he still seemed to be peaceful. What it all meant she wasn’t sure; but one thing was for sure: Johnny was in the thick of it!
In the hospital, Sue looked up at Caitlin’s face; she was sure she heard a sigh. She noticed that the child’s breathing had changed and that her eyelids flickered. “Nurse!” she shouted.
A male nurse appeared, he was short, but well-made with cropped red hair and tattooed arms. He looked at Caitlin.
“This is good,” he said. “I think it means she’s dreaming. I’ll call Doctor Macmillan to check.” He then turned to Sue. “Don’t worry we’re winning.”