Into the Dark Woods

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

     The morgue was a dimly lit room with pale yellow walls.  Along three of the walls, there were gigantic black coolers that I'm assuming were storage areas for the older bodies.  Along the other wall, there were gurneys that were used for the more recent corpses after their autopsies.  Among all six of the beds, only one was occupied.  I knew that that one had to be my grandmother.  She died less than twenty-four hours ago.  I was afraid of what I was going to find, but I was also hoping that it was my grandmother so I could actually find out what happened.  Deciding to just get on with it, I flung back the sheet. 

     What I saw was terrible.  It was indeed my grandmother, but she was almost unrecognizable.  Her face was clawed, there were dark red gashes and gouge marks everywhere and strange symbols and patterns carved deep into her skin.  There was a message that was undoubtedly written to me etched on her arms in blood:

                  This is your warning.

                   We will be watching.

That was it.  Just a simple message.  What did it mean, though?  But underneath those words, there was a symbol.  It was a circle with a line in the middle and four other lines branching out from it.  (Like a simply drawn tree in a circle).

       The symbol of the Woods.  It was Them who had done this.  Well, they will pay. I thought.  Infuriated and sad, I said a prayer to my grandma and gently laid the sheet back over her body.  I was so focused on the threat, that I hadn't realized someone had entered the room.

                                             *****

     "What are you doing in here?!" A sharp voice demanded.  With shock, I quickly spun around to see a woman in her late twenties, standing there, with hands on her hips and a scowl on her face.  She had very short brownish blondish hair, glasses, a lab coat, and a body on a gurney sitting in front of her. 

"I said, what are you doing in here?" She repeated.  Apparently, I was spacing out. 

"I-uh-I..."  I stuttered, blubbering like a complete idiot. 

"Get out of here before I call security,"  She sternly said.  "And if I see you here again, I'll have to take care of you myself."  I caught a glimpse of a syringe sticking slightly out of her pocket and nodded. 

"Good."  She said.  Why was she letting me off so easily? I asked myself.  But then the nurse looked over my shoulder and saw my grandmother's corpse.  She then looked back at me with narrowed eyes, suddenly angry, as if she recognized me or something.  From what, I did not know. 

"I think you'd getter get out of here.  Right. Now." She threateningly said.  I put my head down and hurried out of the hospital as quickly as I could.  But as I was walking out of the morgue, I caught a glimpse of the nurse's badge.

                                             DR. M. SWAN

it read.  I'll keep that name in mind, I thought, in case I ever run into her again.  I hopped onto my bike and began the journey home.