Red Stains

Chapter One

Light, bright and confusing. Warmth, but cold air surrounded my body. I was discombobulated, confused and unable to control my own body. I was running I think, but everything was a blur and everything was hurting my head. Noises, faint, maybe talking. Crying? Screaming?

Day One

I woke up from the dream, shooting up in bed. I search for my phone in the dark and pull it up to my face, knowing full well that the brightness would temporarily blind me. 3:54 AM.

I slam back down in bed, groaning. This has been happening every night for months. I wake up around 3 in the morning every single night. It was frustrating and I had no idea how to stop it. I of course have tried a lot of different things to try to help. I even went to the doctor and they couldn't find anything wrong with my sleep schedule or my head.

I know it's all in my head, but there was no way of stopping it. I click my phone on again and see I have a few notifications, some texts that went unanswered when I fell asleep. I opened them but didn't reply but except to one.

"Good morning." I mumble as I get the face time call I was expecting.

Austin smiles at me as he stands in his bathroom, work uniform on. He's unbuttoning his shirt, un clipping his badge and different policy stuff.

"You know I was half expecting you to actually sleep through the night, you almost made it to 4 this time."

I groan in reply, my eyes drifting open and shut as I lay in bed. Today was my only day off, but other days when I have the graveyard shift at the hospital, this type of stuff sucks.

"How was work?" I mumble and he shrugs in reply. "Same old same old. Tiring. I missed you..." he looks up at the camera to see my reaction. I smile and hide my face in my pillow. "I missed you too..." I mumble.

The thing about Austin is the little things. He's mostly closed off, private. But, when he does the little things, it goes such a long way with me. "Wish I could go and crawl in bed with you." I groan. He chuckles again.

"Well it's too bad we live a million miles away from each other." He smirks on the camera.

That wasn't true. He lives right next door to me, and I could get up and crawl in bed with him if I wanted to, except I know that if I did one thing would lead to another and neither of us would get any sleep.

He finally takes his shirt off and I see a medical pad taped across his arm. I look and my brow furrows. "What happened??" I say quickly, sitting up better, basically fully awake now.

He looks at it and shakes his head, shrugging. "We got a call about some tweaker out at a gas station, trying to attack people. The freak bit me and scratched the crap out of Gary. We had to strap him down in a gurney. He wouldn't even talk, just screamed and basically foaming at the mouth."

I gasp as he pulls away the gauze pad. The bite was clear as day and red and enflamed. "Wow... what the hell is wrong with people?" I sort of laugh and he does too, shaking his head.

"Do you need me to look at it later? Clean it up?" He shakes his head. "Nah, paramedics took a look, cleaned it up for me."

A notification pops down on my phone and I go to read.

Breaking News: strange behaviors coming from walk in patients at hospital. Attacks, seeming to be caused from some sort of drug intake. Police and doctors are aiming to handle the situation.

"Hey, I just got a news alert about situations at the hospital just like the guy at the gas station." I mumble, reading the article. It didn't say which hospital but I assumed it was Harrison.