Vylt: The New Dawn

Chapter 5: Ghosts and Mummies

Feeling cold, I found myself waking up in the middle of the night. My immediate thought was of standing up to see if I could find something that could double as an additional blanket in one of the drawers. I had barely moved when the sound of whispering stopped me. I scanned the room, hoping to find the source.

Nothing.

Shrugging it off as my mind playing tricks on me, I took off my cover and moved my legs to the edge of the bed. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a silhouette emerging from the darkness. A small pair of bright golden lights stared at me. I couldn't make out the face, but its shape was that of a young girl.

How did she get in!?

I pulled my legs back up and covered myself with the blanket at the sight of the mysterious figure, somehow expecting the thin layer of fabric to protect me from whoever, or whatever, that was. Despite the fear, I took a deep breath and attempted to reason with this being.

"Hello?"

Silence. She cocked her head to one side and took a few tentative steps in my direction until she stood in the middle of the room, never removing her eyes from me. I was more than slightly nervous and uncomfortable at this point.

"What do you want?"

She took a few more steps towards me, sending a chill up my spine. Gripping my blanket fearfully, I returned her stare. She raised her hand to point at me and then moved to the foot of my bed.

All of my instincts were screaming at me to run, yet I was frozen in place. Climbing onto my bed, she crawled along me until we were face to face. Suddenly and inexplicably, I was in excruciating pain.

"Go away!" Screaming was the only thing I could do as she dispassionately stared at me with her glowing yellow eyes.

"Nora..."

A distant voice called out to me. The girl reacted by jumping off of the bed and darting into the bathroom. After a brief pause, her head peeked around the door frame to stare at me once again.

"Nora!"

The voice was louder now. The girl walked further into the bathroom and giggled mischievously before climbing into the mirror over the sink and disappearing after a blue flash of light.

"Nora, wake up!" I opened my eyes to find myself violently shaken by Anna.

She sat beside me and took me in her arms, rubbing my back as I cried. "Shh... It's okay now. It was just a nightmare." She leaned back to look at me. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Hesitantly, I sat next to her at the edge of my bed and narrated what I saw to her. While I was explaining, I noticed the small finger-like protrusions coming out of my ankles had grown to be about six centimetres long. I tried moving them, unsuccessfully.

Anna tapped a finger against her chin when I finished. "Yellow eyes, you say?" She thought about it for a short while, then smiled. "Don't worry, I think I might know who she was."

My eyes widened, "You do?"

She nodded and stood up. "Yup. Why don't you wash your face while I go and get my stuff for today's examination? I'll tell you more about her in a bit."

Reluctantly, I let her leave the room. I stayed in bed looking at the bathroom in trepidation. Yes, despite her words, I was hesitant about going to the place where the ghost in my dream went before Anna saved me.

My mind kept going back to that girl's appearance. If Anna knew that person, perhaps that meant I caught a glimpse of her at some point during our tour and didn't remember. I once read that dreams used the faces of people we saw in our lives at one point, so it actually made sense if that was the case. However, there were no other patients around, and the only way someone else had eyes like that was for them to wear contacts.