Chapter 1
My family put me in this place after my seizure. I’m only 19. Being put in the hospital and left alone is pretty pathetic. I’m only supposed to be here for a week, to recover my health again, but by the way the nurses and caretakers look at me, I don’t think it’s very accurate.
“Hey Miranda,” the nurse from the front desk says, “Why are you up so early?”
At this time, I look at the clock above her head. 5:30.
“Oh I don’t know. Couldn’t sleep.” I responded
“Well, do you have any discomfort somewhere or just a busy mind?”
“Busy mind. I want to go home. As much as I hate doing nothing there, It would be better than doing nothing here.”
“Fair point. Why don’t you just take a walk then head back to bed?” she prompted
I thought about it for a minute and decided it was a decent idea, so I headed off into the halls. Not a lot of people are up at this hour. I’ve always been an early bird. When I was a kid, my father used to lecture me for hours into the night, and when I finally went to bed, I woke up 2-3 hours later. Always an early bird.
As I took a right down into the next unit, I heard a hard coughing. You know the kind that makes you gag once you can’t stop coughing? Yeah, that’s what I heard. I didn’t see any nurses or caretakers around so I assumed they were in there with the person hacking, I continued on.
Once I made the loop around the building, I finally got back to my room and sat down on my bed. I don’t really know if my family will come back. I don’t know if I can make it here without them. I guess we’ll see though. I decided I wanted to try and sleep again so that’s exactly what I did.
—
The sun was shining through the windows when I opened my eyes. I looked over to my left and saw the clock said 10. I slept for another 4 hours. Helpful.
As I swung my legs around to get up from the bed I heard a whisper. I didn’t hear words, just a voice I couldn’t understand. I looked around everywhere. Nothing in sight, it was probably my imagination honestly. I continued getting up and getting ready for the day.
I opened the door, peeking outside to see what’s going on for the day. I see my nurse and her two assistants talking. There were also some people hanging around in the hall by themselves, looking into space. I was placed in the rehab part of the hospital. Rehab being anything from drugs to people recovering from broken legs. Unfortunately, my seizure was so bad that I was knocked out for about 12 hours before coming to. I woke up in this hospital with no family around. My dad never really seemed to care for me all that much, and my mom was so in love with my dad, she slowly started acting the same. I have 2 sisters, one older and one younger. My older sister is like my best friend but she lives in a different state, and my little one is not that close to me, she chooses other relationships over mine and hers.
After peeking my head out the door I decided to just stay in my room for a bit. I had a tv in there with me, so I turned it on. The news was on. The news reporter was talking to a scientist from the CDC down in Atlanta. They were talking about a disease that has been found globally. A new one that seemed to affect people and animals. It would give them symptoms of irritation, feeling of starvation and a slower heartbeat which led to a lower body temperature. It was pretty interesting but I wanted to change the channel and find some sort of horror movie.
As I flipped through the channels all I could think about was what my family was doing. Nobody had come to see me in 2 days, and I still had 5 days left in here if they decided I’m alright enough to go home, but if they didn’t want me, I wouldn’t have a home to go to.
I landed on the Syfy channel, it was playing the movie Alien. I’d seen this movie a million times but everytime I watch it, I find something new in it. For example, I noticed that Ripley had some internal issues with herself that caused many problems with the people she was around. She developed trust issues through the movies. She kept being put in situations where she had to pick sides, pick herself or others. Almost getting herself killed each time. I relate to her in that way. I try to be a good person but really, I don’t get anything in return.
Someone knocked on my door just as the best scene from the movie was about to play.
“Come in.” I said
As they stepped inside, I didn’t recognize them. They seemed to have been dressed as a doctor, but something was off about them.
“Hey there Miranda. I’m Dr. Fischer. I was told to come take a look at you and see what the diagnosis is. Do you mind sitting up for me?” He asked politely
As I started sitting up I got chills. I paused and looked up at him, he was smiling a big smile. An unnaturally big smile.
“What happened to my other doctor?” I asked
“Oh don’t worry about it, he’s off for the day and I heard nobody came and checked your progress for the day.” He responded as he stepped forward.
I kind of froze up, things didn’t feel right.
“Can you come back later?” I asked, there was a little shake in my voice.
“I could, but I’d really like to get this done so I can go home.” He was still smiling and he kept inching forward, at this point he was two feet away.
"Please. I don't feel like talking to anyone right now. I was just about to take a nap actually." I kept trying to get him to go away.
He took another step. Towering over me, he grabbed my face and forced me to look up at him. He didn't look right. His face seemed to look a little melted, and his smile... It just didn't go away.
I tried to get my face out of his grip, but he was too strong.
"Now lets take a look." He said, turning my head left and right. "Ah, yes. You have very nice hair and facial shape. I think you'll do just fine." He let go of my face and then leaned over, getting right into it.
"Get out of my face." I said. I was getting pissed off.
"Hey now, no need to be rude." He said as he stood straight again.
He stood there for a few more seconds before turning and walking to the door.
"I'll see you later Miranda." The way he said my name made my heart drop.
He exited the room, leaving me freaked out and confused. What did he want with me? What would I do just fine for?
I decided I needed to just sleep it off. As I laid my head down, I heard that damn whisper again, but this time I saw it. A black bony creature looking at me in the corner of my hospital room, right behind my chair. It had long fingers and nails, it was staring at me with big dark holes that I suppose were its eyes.
I was too shook to do anything. As I laid there staring at it and it staring back at me, I willed my body to move but it couldn't. All of the sudden it rushed at me.
Everything went black.
