Through the Eyes of a Child

Through the Eyes of a Child

[Short Story]

"MELINDA! HELP ME- AGHHH!" My cameraman shrieked. His blood-curdling screams echoed throughout the hospitals' hallways, and so did the cackling that surfaced from his murderer.

So she got to him... I'm sorry, Ben...

I turned away down the bloody lobby and took a left down the emergency exit and limped into the closest room, a nursery, closing the door and bolting it shut.

A snowstorm was brewing outside the shattered windows in the nursery. Through the small slits of the large medical cabinet I was cowering in, I spotted lights flickering throughout the murky halls of Angelbay Hospital.

I could smell a horribly familiar, musty scent of baby powder wafting in the room. Shifting in the crowded wooden box, a pile of medical wrappings fell on top of me. I held my breath, hoping she wasn't close enough to hear it. I strained my head to hear for any sounds. Nothing.

Heard from above, I dreadfully heard Ben's screams. "MELINDA! HELP- SHE--- SHE'S TORTURING ME-" A grisly choking sound cracked and resonated around the room, even though Ben was being slaughtered a room above me. I crouched, paralyzed, after the last of Ben's struggling came to a silent stop and a giggle emerged from the same room. My ears waited for any sounds of Ben, but all they heard was the door silently coming to a thud.

"Hey Missus! Let's play now!" She laughed and began to walk away from what I knew was Ben's mangled corpse. And I was next.

♛♛♛

At least half an hour passed, but I didn't dare move from my cramped space. I was suffocating in my own putrid pool of malice and sheer terror.

I was finally ready to move when a black, thick liquid began to ooze from the ceiling and into the rotting cabininet. W-What's this? I splayed my fingers out and carefully dipped my fingers in and peered at the goop. It was blood.

Ben's blood.

"NOOOO!" I cried and clasped my clammy hands onto my mouth, smearing his blood over my face.

Did s-she hear me...?

Suddenly, past the sounds of scratchy TV static and hissing wind, a distinctive tap of a child's footsteps sounded throughout the hospital. Again, I glimpsed through the cabinet for any signs of life. A bead of sweat slid down the side of my dirt-encrusted face and fat tears streamed down my face in silent horror. The door creaked open and I ducked before sighting the lunatic that threatened my very life. Footsteps approached the rotting cabinet and I clenched my fists, trying to choke back raspy sobs.

"Oh hello there. Can we play now?" The steps stopped as small voice politely asked directly in front of the door. My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach as she began to clean her dress off. I scrambled for the nearest weapon. All I could find was a dull scalpel and the wraps that fell on me earlier.

"Let's play." The cabinet began to decay before me as I desperately held onto the stained scalpel.

If anyone's there, please, help me. I lunged forward in blood-soaked fear, scalpel in one hand, my courage in the other.