Night Sight

Chapter 4

For the remainder of the night Riley couldn't help but let her mind wander into the world of John and his bizarre suggestions. Luckily is was a slow shift and there had been no movement or nurse requests for the past 2 hours so her constant day dreaming didn't interfere with her work. Riley hated when it was quiet because it made the minutes feel like double the amount of time, plus it gave her mind time to stray. Jenny was wrapping up her rounds on the second floor so Riley decided to pour herself a coffee. She sure as hell needed the caffeine right about then.

Slowly pouring the hot water into the mug she began to stir the granulated sugar stuck to the bottom. Half focused on her cup of glorious energy she sighted a moving figure on the cctv monitors in the rim of her view. She glanced up at the screen and it was gone. Her mind raced, trying to calm her ever tense growing body. Abruptly, the hospital fell under an eerie sort of silence. the air felt thick and dead. Riley's hair began to stand up on end as if a current of electricity shot through her body. Her heart started to pound and she didn't know why. There was no immediate threat, no danger to be sighted, just her eyes playing tricks on her, as everyone's did from time to time.

She walked out of the nurse's station, the atmosphere so heavy she felt like she was wading through marshlands. She stared down the desolate hallway, squinting to will her vision further down into the darkly lit section. To her right in the door way she could see it. At the very edge of her vision she detected a black smokey being standing in the opening just staring at her. 

Riley clamped her lips between her teeth to control the rising scream building in her chest. She swallowed and calmly feigned checking the time and held her watch up to her centre line of sight to dare a better look. the shadow figure tilted its head as if in question, bared its teeth in a silent snarl and then slowly retreated into room 1. The door violently slammed shut which sent a shock wave through the halls and through Riley's racing heart.

She began running, pumping her legs as fast as they would take her until she found herself at John's room. She didn't know why she'd run there but she felt a slight ease in the air as she passed through the threshold.

"They're active tonight." Croaked John as he hauled himself up off the old plastic chair. He took one glance at her face with his maimed eyes and knew it was irrefutable that she had seen them too. Although John vision wasn't 20/20, he saw more than most people ever did.

Riley was lost for words but still managed a curt nod.

"WHAT are they?" "No one knows for sure what they are. Some call them apparitions, others call them demons. Call them what you wish but whatever they are, they're dangerous." he placed his cup of water on the bedside table and settled on the bed with a groan.

"You know all those unexplained accidents in the world? Doors shutting on their own, people going missing, things that go bump in the night? It's not unexplained. It's all right in front of us. Our ancestors knew this and carved out the layer of their eyes which obscured their true vision as a rite of passage. A coming into adulthood if you will. The tradition has been lost down the generations, much like Chinese whispers. Now we don't have nearly enough hunters to take them down."
He shook his head, elbows leaning on his knees as he slumped in defeat. He'd been looking much better in the past day. Younger almost. The sedatives were wearing off and a new man was rising from the ashes of the fragile man she tended to yesterday Riley held her hand behind the back of her head as if her brains were going to leak from the base of her skull and paced the room.

"They're not of this world. No one knows for sure what they are. Some call them apparitions, others call them demons. Personally, I think they are spirits. ghosts. call them what you wish but whatever they are, they're dangerous. And they want you Riley. They can smell it in your blood. You're glowing like a beacon to them right now." She swallowed the hard lump forming in her throat. even though this was the talk of a madman, somewhere inside her she knew this rang true. There was more to this world than she and many others were brought up to believe.

The room grew cold and they began to shiver, goose bumps forming on their skin.

"They're here." John whispered almost to himself and sat stiffened in vigilance. The TV flicked on of its own volition and the static light flickered around the stark room. Riley stood cemented to the spot in horror as a black apparition slinked into the room along the wall. It took the form of a woman, no taller than Riley herself. The tips of her toes lightly brushed the linoleum as she dragged from the door to the window and paused. 

John's eye met Riley's in a silent order to stay quiet and still. She didn't need to be told that, since there was no humanly way possible she could budge from that spot. She was frozen. 

The lights began to flash in oscillation, burning brightly them dimming to almost pitch darkness and again building up to a burning brightness so intense all the globes in the room shattered. The thin glass fragments fell to the floor musically all around them.

John chanted as if meditating to himself," In nómine Pátris, et Fílii, + et Spirítus Sancti. In nómine Pátris, et Fílii, + et Spirítus Sancti. In nómine Pátris, et Fílii, + et Spirítus Sancti." Dripping sounds began emanating from the corner where the obsidian presence hovered. She began to gnash her teeth and shake her head convulsively, aggressively, gagging as she dripped black ooze from her gruesome face. She scraped her fingernails along the wall as she dragged along on her toes back to the door and out again. 

The tv dulled and died as the energy was sapped from the room. Riley fell to the floor in defeat, hot tears streaking her cold cheeks. John laid a hand on her head and pulled her to him protectively, like a father would when their child has fallen off their bicycle. She began to sob uncontrollably, tugging on his flannel sleeves.

Her pager beeped from her waist and through glassy eyes she looked down to see "Code Blue, room 1. Called at 3:53am". Her heart sunk. Someone had passed in room 1. The room where she saw the black entity standing in the doorway. The door that had slammed shut violently

Riley sat on the chilled floor sorting through her entanglement of thoughts. Just the beginning of this week she was a normal woman, she paid her bills and worked far more hours than was necessary. But in the blink of an eye all of her childhood nightmares had come seeping back into her life through an old crypt she thought she'd closed another lifetime ago. Her mind which was slowly opening to the current possibilities suddenly snapped and had built a barricade from the inside. She hastily swiped her eyes and stood. She had a duty to uphold.

Riley cleared her throat and stretched out her back, elongating her posture and tilted up her chin with poise. "Thank you, John... but I have to go... file an incident report for these lights and..." His eyes caught hers.
"It's okay dear. The truth can be hard to swallow all at once."

She patted his hand meekly and pulled out her phone to dial the janitor.