30 Reasons To Read

Episode 11: The Hospital

I recently started working as a duty doctor at an old hospital in a remote area. Many of my friends, relatives, and colleagues had urged me not to. The hospital had a dark reputation; it was labeled 'cursed.'

The rumors were unsettling. People said every patient admitted there eventually died, no matter how good the treatment was. Worse still, doctors who worked there were said to lose their loved ones. But, like the typical horror movie protagonist, I ignored the warnings.

The hospital mostly treated orphans, the poor, and emergency cases. No one who had a choice ever willingly stepped through its doors. We were paid little, but I didn't mind. I needed the practice and the quiet shifts gave me more time to study for my post-graduate exams.

Though I dismissed the curse, there were strange things happening all the time. I'd hear the ringing of bedside bells from rooms that were supposed to be empty, only to find no one there. Sometimes, trash bins were full, though no patients had been around to use them. Each time something eerie happened, I'd call my mom to keep my sanity in check. She'd always reassure me, telling me it was all in my head and that I just needed more rest.

These odd occurrences became so frequent that I learned to live with them until one day, things got serious.

It was a Monday morning and I was heading to check on a patient named Juliana. She was thirty-three and was under the care of another doctor, but he was on leave, so I was covering for him.

As I walked down the empty corridor, a sharp scream shattered the silence, followed by the sound of glass breaking from the last room at the end of the hall. My heart raced as I ran toward it, flinging the door open. The room was empty. I sighed and closed the door, brushing off the disturbance like I had so many times before.

I continued to Juliana’s room, trying to shake off the unease. As soon as I stepped in, Juliana bolted upright, her eyes wide and frantic.

"I heard someone scream!" she blurted, her voice trembling.

If only she knew. This hospital had a long history of unexplained sounds and sightings.

"I checked it out. Everything’s fine," I lied, forcing a smile. I didn’t want to fuel her anxiety with the truth. She didn’t look convinced.

"Okay..." she muttered, nervously biting her lower lip as I began checking her blood pressure. Then she hesitated before asking the question I'd heard all too often.

"Is it true that people who get admitted here die?"

I exhaled, keeping my tone light. "Nope. Aren't you doing just fine?" I smiled again, but she wasn’t reassured.

"What if I die soon?" she asked, her voice shaky as I noticed her blood pressure visibly fluctuating on the monitor. I quickly removed the cuff from her arm, frustration creeping in.

"You won't die," I said, glancing at her case sheet without really focusing. "You’re improving, but you need more rest. You’ll be fine."

The noises from the other room hadn't stopped. I could hear faint, repetitive thuds, and it was starting to give me a dull headache. I did my best to ignore it, making a mental note to grab a painkiller once I got back to my desk. There were only two patients in that row of wards- Juliana and Nathaniel, who was fast asleep in the adjacent room.

But those noises. They were relentless.

I finishing my rounds, I returned to my desk and started reading a psychology book, letting the words distract me from the strangeness of the day. I didn’t even realize when I had dozed off. But I woke to the chaos, Nurse Shanti was shaking me by my shoulders, her voice filled with panic as she was calling out to me.

"Doctor, wake up!" she called, wide-eyed. Around me, other nurses and doctors were gathered, their faces twisted with concern.

"The chief doctor wants to talk to you," Shanti said urgently, her voice barely masking the tension.

I felt a cold knot of anxiety form in my chest. He was insane with rage when I walked into his office.

"You failed to notice a dying patient during your rounds this afternoon," he spat, his voice cold. "She struggled for almost an hour before dying, and it happened in the fourth level of west wing, right when you were supposed to visit them!"

I blinked, confusion and shock washing over me. Juliana died?

"But... I checked on both the patients. They were fine when I saw them."

"Really?" he snapped, leaning forward.
"Nathaniel says he doesn’t even remember seeing you!"

"That’s because Nathaniel was asleep when I checked on him. But I spoke to the other patient!"

He paused and stared at me. "You say that since I can't wake the dead and ask if it's true?" He made a disgusted face which would probably never make its way out of my head, ever.

I tried to explain but the chief wasn’t having it. But what I found out later was far worse.

The dead one was Helen Rose, an eighteen years old, who had been in the last room at the end of the corridor, the very room where I had heard the scream and glass breaking, but found no one. Nathaniel was the only other patient in that wing. There was no Juliana. She had never existed.

The weight of it all crushed me. My medical license was suspended, the official reason being 'mental instability due to personal issues.' I didn’t even know how to respond. I was drowning in confusion and doubt, with no way to defend myself. My only comfort, my only thought of solace, was to go home to my mom.

The day I packed to leave the hospital quarters, I overheard two doctors talking through the thin walls.

"Should we quit too? It feels like the rumors about this place are true," one of them whispered.

"What rumors?" the other asked.

"That the patients and even the loved ones of the doctors die eventually."

My heart skipped a beat as I strained to hear more.

"That patient’s death wasn’t some curse. It was that doctor’s fault," one of them said harshly.

"Maybe, but did you hear about her mother?" the first doctor replied, his voice lowering to a grim murmur. "She died the day after the doctor joined the hospital."

I froze. My hands went limp, and the pile of folded clothes I had been holding fell to the floor. My breath caught in my throat as the conversation continued.

"Yeah, I heard about that. And the worst part? She didn’t even attend her own mother’s funeral."

Disbelief crammed inside my head as dizziness set in, the full weight of what I’d heard sinking in.

Maybe I should never have joined this hospital.

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