I’m a nurse in my city’s local hospital, it’s a small city, so only one hospital that doesn’t get too busy really. I work night shifts, and rarely get new patients I have to sign in so if anything it’s quite boring because most of the time the things people come in for can wait till morning.
I don’t really mind, it takes a lot of the stress away from what is otherwise a really stressful job. But there’s still plenty of that to go around, like the sheer anxiety I get when tending to my newest patient, Alisha.
She’s just recently been diagnosed with type two diabetes, and isn’t doing well. I’ve requested multiple times for her to be examined, speculating she may have sun downers.
Sometimes, she’s an angel. The type of old lady you’d expect, shriveled and weak but wise and polite even in her old age when she could be bitter and no one would really blame her.
Well the past few nights, when I’ve came into her room she’s demanded that she wants to speak to her husband. I, gently as I could reminded her he is no longer wish us she started insisting I was his mistress.
She called me a harlot, trying and failing to get up and out of her bed.
I requested another nurse was set for her routine night care. I was relieved when another nurse was called in for her.
Well, tonight when I was settling down to monitor some of my patients Amanda, a coworker reminded me I was in charge of Alisha.
I was no longer in charge of her, I told her. She shook her head, “No. Lana called out today. Sorry, I’d take care of it for you but I’m busy.” She stepped out of the office.
I, annoyed trudged to Alishas room before painting my best costumer service face over my former pissed one.
I poked my head around the corner, knocking on the wall to be polite. “… Come in.” Alisha said in a sinister, yet cold tone.
“How are we feeling today?” I said, stepping into the room praying there would be no talk of her late husband.
“Limber.” She said, looking at me dead in the eyes. I expected a smile, or something to indicate she was joking but she did no such thing.
“Haha.. Yeah. I’m glad.” I said, chuckling a bit. I handed her her Dixie cup and pills she was set to take at night.
“You take those. Should I take your blood sugar or will you?” I pulled out her little kit of supplies. “I will.” She snatched the kit from me, like a child.
“Let’s see, what are we today?” I leaned over to check, and to my shock her levels were miraculously the best they’d been since she was admitted.
“I feel good.” She said stiffly. “Oh wow, good for you Alisha.” I finished up her care quickly as I could. Despite the fact she was acting the most normal she’d been in days, being in that room sent a primal fear through my veins.
I finished my rounds for that night, settling in at my desk while I did logs and monitored my patients on the security cameras.
The time whipped past me, and soon my eyes fell droopy. Yawning, I flicked my phone on. 1:45 am. I still have some time left on my shift. I peer up at the security cameras.
For a good few seconds, I didn’t notice. I didn’t notice Alisha up right in her bed, rocking back in forth. Her face burried deep in between her knees.
As a nurse, my first instict should be to go check up on her. To tell her she’s okay and get her settled back under her covers and in her bed.
But as a human everything in me told me to stay the fuck away. I watched, wide eyed like a frozen deer as a 1000 pound metal death machine raced towards it.
She stopped rocking and I wondered if it was okay to just leave it alone, since I knew another nurse would be here fairly soon. But before I could even reason with myself, she swung herself over the side of her bed, her movements jerky and erratic.
She hobbled over to the little jar of cotton balls, unscrewing the lid and shoving her hand into the jar. She shoved them into her mouth, an oddly morbid sight as cotton balls hung out her mouth.
Her eyes were empty and off in space, and drool hung out her mouth. God, I thought. I better call someone. Shes not looking good.
Her grasp on the jar loosened, as it crashed to the floor. She stepped into the glass shards, wincing as she did so. She opened the door to her room, looking out into the hallway, her mouth agape.
Shit. I’m gonna have to go deal with this. She’s now out of frame and I figure it’s time I be a woman and go actually collect her.
I sigh, standing up from my office chair. Patter patter patter. The sound of bare foot steps echo throughout the hallway. But yet, it didn’t sound right. Like there was two people walking. Four sets of foot steps.
I peek my head out the door, and before I even get a chance to think or process what I was seeing she came barreling towards me.
Her loose nightgown draped over her as she hobbled along the shiny floor on all fours. She ran with no grace, consistently falling on her face as she snarled and growled.
I fell back into my room, slamming the door shut and locking it. I shakily reached for the phone to call security.
It didn’t take long for them to get there and I could hear the struggle they were having with her. The rest of the night was sort of a hazy blur.
I went home, feeling like I’d just witnessed something far more than just a crazy old woman. But you have to shake that off when you work in fields like this. Things happen, and not every things that serious. But there’s always that chance.
The next day went slowly, but much slower with the absence of Alisha. No arguments of me being a slut for her dead husband and no late night attacks.
That night I felt some unease, it was my same routine of watching the security cameras but yet I convinced myself something would happen again.
I kept glancing back up at the cameras, anticipating the return Alisha rocking back and forth and back in forth in her bed.
I finished my logs and decided maybe I should just go walk around, clear my head and check on everyone before I left.
I cleaned up my office, grabbed my things and left to go check around. I was met with trash scattered across the floor when I stepped out, as I scooped it back into its bin I began to hear it.
Ialmost sounded like rain. Little crackles, consistent and faint. I chucked the last piece of trash into the bin and rose to my feet. My viens ran icy cold, and I got that same dipping feeling in your stomach.
The same sinking feeling that rushes from your head to the deepest pit of your stomach, overwhelming your whole body with the sensation of doom.
She peaked her head around the corner, not Alisha, but one of my favorite patients. Malai was an older woman, in her late 70’s. She was a relief to visit.
She had many stories of her arrival to America, of the culture shock she felt coming here from Thailand and I always listened intently.
That same crackling and popping noise grew less faint, as she stepped around the corner. Her hands were grotesquely twitching, her feet shuffling in place like she had no control of anything she was doing.
“Malai?” I uttered, stepping back. Her eyes glazed over as she fell back into the hard ground. “Malai, oh shit!” I rushed towards her, thinking maybe she was going to full on seize.
As I knelt to her side she attempted to grab onto my shirt, constantly grabbing and letting go and grabbing again. She sobbed profusely as she cracked and contorted.
She finally got a good grip on me and pulled me closer. “He wants us all.” She cried, finally stopping her jerky movements. She gasped, croaking and bellowing before falling silent.
“What the fuck!” Hot tears rolled down my face, wetting my mouth with that gross salty taste. “Help, oh my god-“ I wailed.
Creeeeaaaaaak. Pop. Crack. Crreeeeaaakk. Pop. Crack. Crrreeeeakkkk. Pop. Crack.
The sounds became deafening quickly, as more and more of the ill patients turned into those grotesque things. It didn’t take Malai long to wake up, me being to focused on the noise of seemingly every patient cracking she grabbed me by my shoulders gasping loudly.
It didn’t take me long to figure out how it was spreading as she did so, feeling all life drain from me and being replaced by an overpowering urge to drain someone else.
I slumped into one of the benches in the Hall, putting my hand on my head as the wails of other nurses turning echoed through the halls as the quiet hospital descending into madness.
I rubbed my temple, and began to rock back in forth writhing in pain. It felt as if all my bones were stiffening, along with my muscle. I felt sluggish and weak, like I really.. Really needed some energy.
“Oh my god, are you..?” Myah, my trainee came around the corner hovering over me. She was so full of life. So much so.. That as she knelt down to my level to examine my I began to fight the urge.
The urge her to suck her of all her life.. Too.