Nightmare of an Endless Night

Chapter Eight

Now fearful to explore the men’s bathroom I tried the hallway again. I came upon another small office, but this one was different. There was a telephone attached to the oval table. I picked it up and immediately dialed the emergency forces, but all I got was a click then dead air.

On the right wall there was a large map of this floor (the third) of the hospital. I stared at it, there was a pictogram of the bathrooms plus the handicapped one, one for the nurses’ station, another for the treatment clinic, and the rooms 300-310. And apparently I had awoken in room 301, the closest to the bathroom.

I looked over a large cabinet of medicines. I opened it and selected a brown bottle of paracetamol, just in case my OA would act up in front of Kaiju.

I left and walked back down the hallway, and then I heard what sounded like a heavy footfall against the tiled floor. I turned around quickly, beaming the flashlight all around behind me just to come upon nothing. Perhaps it was my imagination becoming active. After looking for a few more minutes just to be sure I continued down the hall.

I decided to search through the patients’ rooms; perhaps I could find something useful to get me out of here.

I went inside room 306, the closest one to me now. This one had two beds inside; a faded pink sheet was still drawn to separate them. I went to the bed farthest from the entrance, for a television set was resting on the wooden nightstand behind it. I could turn it on, quickly put the volume on low, and see was the local news would have to say about the abandonment of the hospital… and the disappearance of me.

When I went to reach the buttons I turned toward the bed, it looked like someone was still in it. Maybe a patient who didn’t vanish into all this?

But I was wrong. The ever so familiar hand snatched at the air around me, spinning me out of control to try to get out of its grasp. When I looked back the outline of what I thought was another surviving human being was gone, and a power wave of loneliness hit me.

I reached out again to turn on the television, but only received a burst of static and it suddenly shut itself down. I sighed. Kaiju must really want me to stay and play by her rules. But I can’t, I am my own person and I can’t survive in this world any longer. I had requirements, special ones at that. I needed food, water, and medication. And from the looks of it now this place heavily lacked those essentials.

That was the moment I was suddenly scared of dying by the hands of the Monster. I never really thought of the end for me, but the feeling of death now overcast me. If I wasn’t careful I could actually die right here, right now. I have had too many close calls with Kaiju, and I only survived those because I managed to pry her fingers off or she was only an illusion.

But what if there comes a time when I am not able to do that? What if I hadn’t picked up that bottle of paracetamol and hadn’t studied the map and bumped into Kaiju with nowhere to run, nowhere to escape? All of those situations could result in the same aftermath: death.

I shivered at my sadistic foreshadowing; once more that urge and courage to escape came back. I could do this; I am Akane, not only a nurse, but a human being at that. I can escape this nightmare once and for all.