You place a hand over your mouth to stifle your laughter. You're not supposed to be on Facebook while working, but you don't care. You're working night shift security at a hospital in a small town. Nobody's around to lecture you about not doing your job. Besides, you know nothing's going to happen. Nothing has ever happened.
You lean back in your chair and crack your knuckles. The pay isn't that great, you think, but it's an easy job. You go back to scrolling and continue commenting on and liking statuses. Your stomach growls and you look down at your watch and see that it is 1:37am. You stretch your arms and stand up. You walk to the other side of your office and bend over to pick your duffel bag up. You place it on your desk and open it only to find that you forgot your snack. You sigh and turn to the door. You open it and walk out into the dimly lit hallway.
You shudder. It's spooky working alone at night, but you brush it off.
You walk down the hallway and turn right. Deciding to have a bit of fun, you moonwalk the rest of the way, stopping every once in awhile to look into the rooms of the patients. They're all asleep and nothing is out of the ordinary. You descend the staircase and walk into the cafeteria.
The vending machine has numerous choices and you decide to get a club sandwich and a Pepsi. The sound of the food and drink falling and hitting the bottom of the machine echoes across the empty room. You bend down and grab the food, and walk over to the nearest table. You tear the wrapping off of the sandwich and are about to take a bite when you hear something. You don't know what it is but it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. It sounds almost like a scream.
You grab the baton from your belt and slowly stand up. You shuffle over to the cafeteria entrance and peek around the corner. No one is there. You begin to jog up the stairs, your footsteps echoing in all directions and you hesitate. The screams have stopped. Perhaps you imagined it. You've always been a bit paranoid. Besides, why would anyone scream? If they needed help they would push the panic button beside their bed and your radio would tell you where to go.
You stand there for another minute, your hands shaking from adrenaline. Still nothing. You shake your head and tell yourself to snap out of it. You turn around and begin to walk down the stairs when you hear more screams.
They’re louder now.
You can feel the sweat collecting in the palms of your hands and you wipe the sweat on your pants. You slowly walk up the stairs, one gentle, quiet step at a time. The screams intensify and you shiver. You are certain now. You can no longer attempt to convince yourself that it's something else. Somebody is in agony. The screams sound primeval, long and high-pitched.
You finally reach the top of the staircase and open the door. The screams stop.
You raise your baton and walk into the hallway, looking frantically from left to right. You're completely alone.
You look into each room, but everyone is asleep.
You continue down the hallway until there is only one room left. Room 227. You stop, and stand two feet from the door.
You never prepared for this. You never thought anything would happen. But now something in that room is happening and you have to stop it. The glass window in the door is covered in a spiderweb of cracks. And what looks like blood. You cover your mouth to avoid vomiting.
You close your eyes and breathe deep and take one step towards the door. Two steps. Your hand closes around the cold doorknob and you slowly turn it, opening the door. You open your eyes.
You scream.
Every surface of the room is covered in blood. Limbs and organs litter the ground. Several machines have been knocked over and the window is broken. You take another step and your foot comes in contact with something squishy. You instantly vomit. You wipe the sick from the corners of your mouth and close your eyes. This can't be happening, it has to be some sort of terrible nightmare. You hear a loud bang.
You open your eyes and turn around but see nothing. Tentatively, you walk out of the room and look down the hallway. A trail of blood leads from the room you're in, down the hall towards the staircase. You close your eyes and try to stop your hands from shaking. You slowly follow the trail of blood.
You open the door to the staircase and see the puddles of blood continue down the stairs. You pull your cellphone from your belt and begin to dial 911 when you slip and fall the down the stairs. Your phone smashes against the floor.
So does your arm.
You yelp and tears stream down your face. You're certain it's broken. Gently cradling your arm, you tentatively make your way down the rest of the stairs. You push open the door and stop.
Your eyes widen and your throat constricts.
Standing in front of you is a person. Their face is covered by a gas mask, and tattered clothes hang from their body. The clothes are smeared with dirt, and blood. You see a glimpse of silver and look down to see a blood soaked axe hanging from the persons hand, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. You can hear it's laboured breathing from where you stand.
You try to scream but only a gurgled sound comes out. You back away, but trip, and fall. You watch as the person slowly walks over, slowly raising the axe above it's head. Finally, it stops at your feet, and holds the axe lazily above it's head.
“Nighty-night,” the person whispers.
