Solitary Ward 6
The sign on the door read0
SOLITARY WARD 6, DO NOT ENTER UNLESS TOLD TO DO SO. 0
But really, why wouldn't she enter? Macy walks into the long, linoleum tiled hallway and walks along, her nurse shoes squishing on the floor tiles beneath them. She should know by now that the Solitary Ward 6 is proclaimed to be exceedingly haunted, cursed, and all around a dark and dreary place to be. She can hardly imagine what the denizens of this place think of it. She doubts they enjoy the dreary section of Mercyhall Hospital.0
Macy had been working in mental health studies for years, and now, she was transferred to the place she had always wanted to work at. This specific hospital. But as she walks along, peering into the cells she passes, she does not see a single patient in the halls.
Perhaps it's because this is like solitary confinement. If a patient is deemed dangerous, they're sent here. SW6 is a state-of-the-art facility for people like that. But still, she hates how they're all kept in cells, not rooms like the patients in every other Ward.
The sound of her own squishing footsteps is all she can hear in the hall, and she walks up to a cell and peers through the window in the door. The glass is thick, and she steps closer to it to get a better look inside the dimly lit room. A man is hunched over on his bed, head in his hands. She feels a pang of sympathy for the man in her chest, and then, she turns and keeps walking.
Several more people sit in cells similar to the man in 32A. She is only on the first floor, but Macy knows that when she gets to floor E, the patients will be a lot more dangerous. She just wants to see what this place is. She just wants to know why these people are here. And so, she treks on.
But she will likely wish she hadn't.
As Macy nears the end of the hall, she hears banging on a wall. Nervous, she walks over to cell 50A. She was not prepared for what she saw in there. A man stood totally still, his back to her. His back was clawed all to hell, infection setting in the cuts and claw marks in his back. And he is bashing his head against the wall, leaving blood staining the otherwise pristine, gray tiles.
Staggering backward, Macy gasps. The patients in here aren't supposed to be allowed to do that. She should get someone to help, shouldn't she? But if she does.... what would that mean for her? For her career? She isn't supposed to be in here at all. And so, with a sick feeling in her gut, she keeps going.
Macy finally reaches floor E after she has walked through all of the rooms in the other floors. This huge building, so filled with patients that it's nearly impossible to keep track without having records, but she supposes all hospitals should have those, shouldn't they?
When she enters Solitude Ward 6E, she feels her heart rate speed up. But she walks up to the nearest cell and looks inside. A woman with long, dark hair that hasn't been brushed in years sits cross legged on her bench in her room, and when Macy leans in ....
She sees that the woman has impossibly long arms and legs, which are thin as sticks, so how can she walk or move? Then, the woman turns to her. Her huge, sunken eyes look like they belong to that of an alien. And strange emotions flood through Macy as she stands there, frozen in place. She came at the middle of the night, when there are not as many people here and the patients are all locked up. But now ....
Now, she feels so isolated and scared. Like this was a terrible, terrible mistake. The woman or thing inside the cell leaps up and throws herself at the door. Her thin but impossibly long hands smack the thick glass hard enough that it somehow cracks. She smiles an evil, dark smile at Macy, who flinches as the creature behind the door starts smacking it with her head and her hands.
Fear, unlike anything Macy has ever felt before or since, blossoms in her heart and her mind screams at her to run, run, run! — but Macy is frozen in place as the door's window shatters and long, spindly arms shoot out through the broken glass, tearing open the skin that looks gray and alien and causing black blood to pour from the wounds.
Wait. Black blood? The creature has black blood? What the hell?
The creature smiles, and in a warped woman's voice, she says, "Naughty girl, going where someone like you should not tread. How foolish of you. Now, you will be nothing but dead!"
Macy finally feels her strength return to her body and she backs away from the monster, but not before she lashes out, grabbing Macy's shoulder and pulling her back toward the broken door. Macy struggles against the creature's firm grip, but it does not yield her one inch. She smacks against the thick and heavy door that is all that separates her from certain death.
The female monster laughs in a demonic tone.
"You think you can still survive? Perhaps, but only long enough to see me thrive!"
"Stop rhyming, you lunatic!" Macy cries, punching the monster's arms. She barks out a hissing laugh and then slams Macy against the door once again.
"That's no way to talk to a patient, Macy. How much would your boss love to meet you here, as a corpse, not a lady?"
"What the fuck are you talking about? Let me go!"
"Oh, how delicious you will taste. Oh, what glorious furniture your bones will make. How gleeful I shall be, when I carve you up from throat to knee."
"Let me go!" Macy struggles harder, then she decides to fight dirty. If this monster is going to try and kill her, then why should she play even? So, Macy bites down on the monster's leathery skin. The creature thing screams and punches Macy, and she collapses to the floor.
But then, Macy jumps up and turns, getting ready to run to the elevators.
Only for her to smack into a massive bear of a man, who then latches his huge hands around her arms. He smiles at her.
"They told you not to come to Ward 6," he growls. "Should've listened."
Two weeks later....
"So Macy was never found?" Derek asks.
Jon snorts and shakes his head. "Nope. Not heard a word from her since she said she had to prove something to us all, and disappeared two weeks ago."
"Hmm. Should've listened to me, I suppose," Derek says.
"Oh? On what?" Jon asks as the two of them walk down the hall of Solitary Ward 6. They work up here, and Derek has been up here since he was 25 years old.
"I told her not to come to this ward," Derek answers his friend. When he sees Jon's wide eyes, he smirks. "Let me show you someone." They walk down to room 44E. A huge, bear-like man sits on his bench inside the room.
Derek opens the door, and the two of them walk in. The man looks up from his seat, turns to them. He smiles, and Jon flinches as he sees the blood on his teeth.
"Ah, this'in here needs to learn his poker face," says the man, his voice a growl that reverberates throughout the room. "He doesn't know me though, so I suppose I won't have to eat ya."
"Wait, what? Eat me?" Jon asks, and Derek nods sagely.
"You see, Balthazar here is one of many people who were possessed by demons. Hence why they're here. He has the ability that most demons have but for whatever reason, they rarely use. Go on, Balthazar. Show him."
Balthazar stands up, and Jon has to crane his head back to get the full view of the man before him. Then, his body begins to .... change. Shrink. And maybe even.... morph?
"What the hell?" Jon breathes, and then, seconds later, a strange female form appears in the cell. Not just any female form. But Macy. "Macy?"
"No, not quite. My power is, well, I can consume someone and then take on their characteristics or even talk like them," says the demon. "So, I swallowed your lovely friend Macy, and now, she's a part of me. She will live on forever within me, and no one can ever separate us."
"You .... ate her?"
The demon, Balthazar, laughs. "To put it crudely, yes. I did. And I enjoyed it, too."
Jon whirls on Derek. "You let this happen."
"Calm yourself, man," Derek says quietly. "If you tell a single soul about this, I'll let Balthazar here have a second helping of nurse. So, you keep your mouth shut on the deal I have with Balthazar here, and you don't become food for him. It's It's win-win, all around."
Jon leaves, and he hears Balthazar change back into himself and laugh. "I'll be seeing you again real soon, lamb chop!"
