Read Halloween III - Season of the Witch for Free Online

nestled between rows of metal-clad charts hanging from the wall. Certain of the ceiling lights remained dark from the power shortage, so that the corridor gleamed in places but then fell away into unexpected shadows, lending a tunneled, grotto-like character to the unevenly lighted passageway ahead.
    Challis moved at a fast clip, pressing ahead to Room 22 before his energy gave out. The head nurse kept up with him.
    “Pillows are in the cabinet.”
    “I know,” he said.
    “There’s some milk and cookies in the fridge.”
    He turned to her kindly. “That I didn’t know.”
    She lingered at the door.
    “I think I should have married you, Agnes.” He reached out and patted her bottom.
    “Watch it, buster! I play for keeps.”
    “That’s what they all say.”
    He left the light off and plumped up a pillow. As he sat on the bed, Agnes was still outlined in the doorway. He could not read her face.
    “Do you want to talk, Agnes?”
    She laced her fingers together and took a deep breath. “He was the most—most frightened man I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen them all.”
    “What does the police report say?”
    She stood with the doorknob at her back, the subaquatic quality of the lighting from the hallway outlining one side of her dark features.
    “His name’s Grimbridge. No visible signs of injury, except for that cut on his cheek. He could have gotten it when he fell.”
    “What about the guy in the raincoat?”
    “Mr. Jones. He brought him in. Works at the Jiffy station over on Charter Way. Says our man Grimbridge came from nowhere and stood there in the rain, pounding on the glass to be let in, then collapsed. The way he told it, Jones was almost as scared as this Grimbridge. All the way here in the truck he says the man kept going on about Halloween, Halloween.”
    “I believe it. Did you take a gander at Jones’s face when our favorite commercial came on?”
    “Missed that.”
    “You’re lucky. He looked like he thought that pumpkin was going to climb right through the TV and eat him alive. This Grimbridge must have put the fear of God into him with his ranting. What happened to that mask, by the way?”
    “Police took it.”
    “I wonder what got Grimbridge so scared?”
    Agnes edged away from the door as the rhythm of even footsteps sounded from down the hall, back by the elevators. “Kids,” she said without conviction. “An old man like that—must have been some kids in masks, early trick-or-treaters, beat him and robbed him and terrorized him half to death.”
    Challis was unconvinced. He took off his shoes. “Early? This early? The night before, maybe two days. But eight days? It’s eight more days to—”
    “I don’t need to be reminded.” She shivered. “Eight days too many. In heathen times they used to call it Allhallows Eve. It was when they believed the dead came out of their graves.”
    “I’ll talk to him when he wakes up,” said Challis, lying down. “Comes the dawn, I’m sure the police will be here to finish their report. We’ll try to find out. After we run some tests and get him pumped back up with nutrients, maybe County General Psychiatric would like to have a look.”
    “I don’t believe in that,” said Agnes. “Witch doctors. What a man needs is a lot of TLC. You can’t keep a right mind without a healthy body. That, and love in your heart, and the will to do the Lord’s bidding.”
    “Why, Agnes, I do believe you’re trying to save me.”
    “Isn’t anything can save your soul if you don’t want to save yourself, Daniel. As for him, those psychiatrists will fill his head full of doubt and shame and his body full of Thorazine, so he’ll never want to hear the Word. If we sent him over there—”
    “Two sides of the same coin, Agnes. There are two noble professions in the world. We heal the body—at least we try to—and they heal the mind. They’re not batting a thousand, either. But they’re trying.”
    “Well.” Agnes straightened righteously.