My name is Nova, and I’m currently a nurse. It has been a couple of days since I’ve worked in this house. Well, I can’t really call it a house since it’s actually an asylum in a shape of an ordinary house. I was stationed as a nurse to take care 10 of the patients. They told me to call in for help if the patients get out of control. So far, nobody has been in that kind of situation. Actually, I don’t think that situation would even happen. Asylums are usually for mentally ill people, like really mentally ill people, but in this case they’re just your average people. Speaking of patients, I was about to pass by one of the patients that I’m in charge of.
“Morning Ms. Howard,” I greeted her. She was a cute old lady, one of the nice patients in this asylum. She would make friendly conversations with me whenever it was time for me to take care of her.
My days would usually start normally. Push my card, check the day’s schedule, help the patients with their daily routines, lunch, work again, go home. Try imagining that cycle times 24/7, yes, that’s basically my life right now. It’s not that boring though, the people from work are quite nice and talkative. Gabriel is a young man from Italy, he’s very charming and nice. Gabriel usually helps me out with re-arranging the medicine cabinet. Another nice person would be Anne. She was a nurse, all the patients love her. I don’t know how they can’t, seeing she’s a very gentle woman. She would take care of the patients with the utmost care. Then there’s the not so nice Rose, ugh… She’s this stuck up pharmacist form who knows where. Really though! She’s the only person that’s hometown is a mystery to me! She’s this crimson red haired woman in her mid 20s, bright skin, slim, basically she’s the perfect woman, but her personality? Not so much. She’s cocky, she’s bitter, she’s all kinds of bad. At least she treats the patients well. There’s also Ludovic, a large guy from Saint Petersburg, Russia. His name is supposedly to be French but his origin said otherwise. Maybe he had French descendants, who knows? Nobody knows a thing about him. He’s quite, tall-built, and has combed blond hair. Chances are, the only person who knows him is Theodore. Theodore here is the vice in the establishment. He’s the director’s assistant. I usually see him with Ludovic, hence my theory that he knows Ludovic well. He’s quite thin compared to Ludovic, but he’s just as tall. Oh! And I forgot to mention that he’s from Washington. Rania, the director of this asylum. I see her quite often, which is not common because she’s the director and all. I thought she would do paper-work all the time in her office or somewhere. But I guess not. She actually tends to the patients very often and she checks up on the staffs daily, especially the new recruits. With the new recruit being only me, myself, and I, she would talk to me very often. She’s really bright-spirited and nice.
Yes, moving on to my daily routine. It was time for me to head towards the southern wing, where the children are. I usually only play around with the children, sometimes I play tag, other times I play hide and seek. It’s quite entertaining actually. The big boss of the kids, Charles or Charlie, always prepared the kids for when I came in. But this time I’m not here to play games. I needed to check up on the kids because I heard from Gabriel that one of the kids had a fever and that I should check on them soon.
“Nova! C’mere c’mere! It’s Davey, he’s been mumbling in his sleep!”
Gwen, one of the kids, ran to me. She pulled me by the sleeves and led me to a bed where a child lay. He was wrapped in blanket and was sweating really bad. I sat next to his bed and took his temperature. It was absurdly high, with a temperature of 122 Fahrenheit which is about 50 Celsius. I’ve rarely seen a fever this bad, it wasn’t a normal fever. The only think I could do was give him a fever medicine and gave him an ice pack. But I decided not to, instead I called in Rose.
“Rose! I need your help,” I exclaimed to her.
She raised an eyebrow and said, “What is it now, greenhorn?”
Rose was in the middle of reading a book in the lounge room. How she could relax when there’re so many patients here is beyond me. I brushed that problem aside and informed her about the child with the high fever. Her eyes widened and she sprung up from the couch.
“Take me to him, now!” Rose ordered me. I had no reason to object because maybe she would know what was wrong with her and she was also my superior. Rose was suddenly very serious. She’s usually aloof most of the time. I followed her back to the southern wing where the patient was. She studied the child closely then came to a conclusion.
“I’m taking her to my center in the eastern wing, you go check up on the other children, see if anything is out of the ordinary,” she said, pushing the bed towards the door and gone to the eastern wing. The kids were all quite frightened by what just happened. It was intense how serious Rose was about the incident. But I decided that thinking about it won’t help. I gazed over to the children.
“Okay everyone, please make a straight line,” I ordered them. I took their temperature and then head back to my daily routine.
-
I was laying on my bed. It still got me thinking how high that child’s temperature was and how extreme Rose’s action was. I was deep in thought, the moonlight was shining through the shades of my window. The clock on my bed table showed 11:59. It was then that I suddenly felt the ground shake. It was only for an instance. I had thought that it was only my imagination. That thought disappeared when I felt a second wave of quake. There was something odd about the quake, it didn’t feel like it was natural. Actually, I was sure that it was artificial. I got out of my bed and wandered off to find the source of this pseudo-earthquake.
I had an idea on what could be the cause of this quake but it was beyond logic. I didn’t want to believe this but after what happened earlier I can’t help but become suspicious about something. I hurriedly went to Rose’s chamber.
My suspicion was correct, Rose’s room was the epicenter of the quake. If the patients were living in the same quarters as us employees the quake would cause a panic.
The outside of Rose’s room was hot, insanely hot. But the heat didn’t stop a chill that went through my spine. I heard a high-pitched scream. It wasn’t any of the patients’ voice nor was it any of the caretakers’ voice. It was inhuman. My hands were shaking. I wanted to run but my curiosity kept me going. I hope the saying ‘curiosity kills the cat’ wasn’t true.
I opened the door and a burst of chilly wind went pass me. The room was awkwardly lit, candles of numerous height stood on a stand. A pentagram was painted on the floor. But those things weren’t the worst of it. On the pentagram was the sick boy. He was struggling on his bed. His hands and feet were tightly stuck on the bed.
My eyes darted everywhere and stopped at Rose. She was not alone. She was facing some obscure creature. By its look I had thought that it was made entirely of red blood. Its body was like jelly.
Rose shouted at me, “Greenhorn! Throw me that jar!”
Next to me was a table with what I first thought was medicine but in truth I have no idea what they were. Rose pointed to a black jar on the table. My mind went blank, I couldn’t do a thing but trust what she told me to do. I threw her the jar, my throw was off, way off. Rose maneuvered to where she thought the jar would land and caught it. She opened the jar and took a handful of mysterious powder.
The blood monster darted towards Rose, but it was too late. Rose had already prepared an attack for it, she threw the powder point blank unto its body. The monster shrieked in pain, its voice would have made my ears bleed or might as well broken my eardrums. I kneeled and shut my ears with my hands. My eyes were tightly shut.
By the time I opened my eyes, the room was already normally lit. I had realized that Rose and I weren’t the only caretakers in the room. Ludovic, Theodore, and Rania were inside as well. Ludovic gave me a hand and helped me up. He helped support my weak legs. They were still shaking. After carefully examining the room, I had just realized what just happened, or at least got a bit of it right. They were doing an exorcism.
“Take a seat, Ms. Nova,” Rania said, “it seems that an explanation is needed about this situation.”
I only nodded slowly. At that moment, I knew that my peaceful days would be gone.
uhh, I can't really say much here except for how bad I am about this request. I'm really sorry for taking such a LONG time in finishing this story. I have been really busy with school, college prep, and cram school so I rarely have the time to write anything. But that's no excuse for my lack of progress. Again, I'm extremely sorry from the bottom of my heart for being REALLY late for this story. Seeing how things are progressing in my life, I think that the wisest choice of action right now is to take a break from writing and finish my obligations first. I'll stop here before this thing becomes a blog, for MOUSYCH, I am really sorry and I hope that this small chapter can satisfy you for the time being.
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