Tales of a working child

The Canteen vampire

The canteen was empty, just the way I liked it. The ceiling decorated with circular lights that were reflected in the freshly waxed floors. I reveled in the silence. A nice change from the incessant beeping and phone ringing that went on in the hospital wards. I sat, wiggling in my chair with excitement. It was lunch time, and I Had a beef burger with cheese and crinkle chips to eat. My mouth watered as I opened my container and the strong smell of beef and cheese wafted up my nose.

Just as I was about to tuck in, a girl walks in. Dressed in dark blue , a similar colour to the scrubs worn by the doctors. She wore a north face jumper and black airforces. At first glance, she looked like a staff member. I watched as she tentatively picked her spot on the table across from me and opened her bag. She looked up and I immediately looked away, frightened by the thought of her striking up a conversation. I know it's ironic, I'm a HCA and an introvert. But yes, we exist. She offered me chewing gum, and I politely declined. There was no way I would take it. We were just reaching the end of the global pandemic of 2020(covid-19) and normality was finally somewhere in reach. Taking anything from anyone is a no no. As was not wearing a mask or social distancing. To add, she was not wearing a mask either which made me feel uneasy.

After declining, I felt a bit bad so I decided to initiate some work talk. I asked her if she is on her lunch break and she replied no. Curiously I asked her more questions and but, the more she spoke, the more confused I became. So I put it simply, " I don't get it, so are you a staff member or..". I left her to fill in the gaps. She explained that she is an inpatient at the hospital. I began to examine her. The lower ground floor on the hospital I worked at was specifically for rehabilitation. Either senior or amputation. This girl was definitely not a senior. She looked even younger than me and that's saying something since I have a baby face thanks to my chipmunk cheeks. I secretly counted her limbs..2 arms, 2legs , all her fingers, torso connected to the lower body, walking and sitting fine. So not an amputee. After my analysis I was left dumbfounded. So I asked more questions. My burger was getting cold but I couldn't let this go. The safeguarding training I had kicked in and I had to find out who she was and what she was doing there. I asked about her life and she told me a dark story about her past. She ran into a motorway and got into a kerfuffle with the police which led to her being admitted to a series of hospitals. I did not know the hospitals she was mentioning until she said Springfield. Isn't that a mental hospital, I thought? I started to connect the dots and assumed she was suicidal. Made sense right? She ran into a motorway... why would anyone do that unless they wanted to die? But then she said something which made me stop mid-chew and sent shivers down my spine.

She looked me dead in the eye and told me that she had been transferred to this hospital from the last hospital because she repeatedly attacked the staff. After dropping that bombshell, she laughed manically. Her eyes bulging and her voice bouncing off the walls in the empty room. All I could do was stare. I glanced down at my lilac uniform adorned with my name badge and hospital ID and gulped. There was no way I could pretend I'm not a staff. I played it cool and kept calm and she eventually stopped talking and opened up a psychology textbook to study. If I wasn't so shaken, I would have laughed at the irony of the situation. A clearly psychotic girl studying psychology.

Nonetheless, I shoved my food down my throat as quick as I could. No time to savour the yummy taste of the grilled beef with melted cheese and softly grilled tomato. Moments later, with a mouth full of half chewed burger stuffed in my mouth, I stood up slowly and rushed to the bin to throw my rubbish. I looked behind me and almost jumped out of my skin at the sight in front of me.

The girls body was facing the window but her neck was twisted and she was looking left at me. Her midnight black straight hair covered 2/3rds of her face, revealing only one dark beady eye and blood red lips. Her pale face shone through the darkness of her hair and she looked like something straight out of a horror movie. I moved slowly towards my bag and began collecting my things. Her eyes unblinking, followed me like a human painting on the wall. She rushed over to me, so fast I almost didn't see her move. Her menacing grin revealed her sharp white fangs and her eyes glistened with manic. She licked her lips before she sunk her teeth into my neck and sucked the life out of me.
...
It's safe to say that my imagination ran wild. I had been watching way too much vampire diaries. But what I knew for sure, was that in that moment, she was ready to attack... And there was no one around to stop her.