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Intern was tired. Another ambulance had come in, no more than ten minutes before everyone usually left for the night. Everyone had been caught so off guard that several critical patients nearly went home, and not to their houses. Hell, even the lady who worked the office had to run around treating a few people. Speaking of, now that all the patients were gone, he could hear his coworkers saying their goodnights and goodbyes down the hall. The chatter faded out in a few seconds, but he heard someone’s footsteps approaching. Seems he wasn’t forgotten about after all. Peter, the resident Psychologist, poked his head into the room.
“Hey, kid.”
“Hey.”
“Take it easy, okay? I know you have to shut everything down, but it’s been a stressful couple hours. You work hard. And everyone knows it.”
“Thanks, Peter.”
“You deserve it. Now goodnight, kid. See you in the morning.”
Peter closed the door, and Intern was left sitting alone on a hospital bed with no one to keep him company. He waited until he was sure everyone had left, and then started the tedious work of locking up. But first, a coffee. Intern ground the last of the beans into the coffee maker and stared as the dirt-colored liquid dripped into the mug he’d stolen been provided. He swiped the cup as quickly as he could without spilling anything, and ignored the strange groaning sound the coffee maker always made. It might have sounded like a dying cow, but he’d never heard one in person, so he wasn’t sure.
Coffee in hand, the Intern left the office to finally settle for the night. He had a poor habit of trying to placate the entities that lurked in the hospital as best he could before going to bed himself. It was just good manners to take care of your own, and the hospital had plenty of items to spare. He started with Room 5. It was both the furthest down the hall and the least annoying to fiddle with. The anomalies weren’t fond of staying there for some reason, so he’d sleep there for the night. It wasn’t his fault the front doors never opened for him the same way they did for everyone else.
He scanned the room to make sure everything was in order, before flicking the light switch and moving on. Room 4 came next. When he was running around trying to save lives a few hours ago, he had noticed that the weird clump of eyeballs had taken up residence in the ceiling. The familiar sound of water hitting the floor confirmed his hunch that it was still in there. Intern went to go grab some eye drops. A moment later, he was standing on the bed and trying his best to blindly squirt the eye drops into the anomaly’s many, many eyes.
“God, I can’t believe this is my life now.” As Intern looked up at his handiwork, the anomaly grumbled in response. “Okay, I’ll take my leave. Try not to drip too much on the floor. Goodnight.” He turned off the lights and closed the door, then took a swig of coffee. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a long night after all. Room 3 was boring and normal, nothing to be had in there. When he peeped through the window into Room 2, he saw a familiar pair of red eyes peeping back.
He didn’t mind the ‘Bed Monster’- it was better company than the eyes, that was for sure. It was just too addicted to sugar for its own good. Intern snatched a maple syrup from its cabinet and went into Room 2. A familiar cold hand wrapped around his ankle, but let go and reached for the syrup the instant he pulled it out. He gave the creature its treat, then sat down on the floor and raised his coffee. “Cheers.” The two of them slurped together in some kind of companionship before the Bed Monster faded away into the floor.
As Intern turned out the light, he found himself thinking of a lyric from a song Rachel the office lady liked to play. Something about how sharing a drink called loneliness was better than drinking alone. Room 1 was business as usual, and he locked the lobby doors before crossing over to the final three rooms. That black elongated figure everyone called the Stalker was there, but the Intern paid no mind to it. He found it didn’t like to be looked at. Room 6 was empty, and the X-Ray machine whirred down without a hitch.
At a glance, there wasn’t anyone in Room 7. But when he stepped inside, a couple of small shapes started to run towards him. Hiders, they were called. He hated Hiders. They were always running into him at the most inconvenient times and causing misery for his coworkers. Before they could reach him, he backed out of the room and down the hallway, until two of them vanished in twin puffs of smoke. When he came back in, he found a third. This Hider was different, though. Instead of gunning straight for him like its friends, it inched forwards. Almost like it was afraid to do what Hiders normally did.
The Intern finished the last of his coffee, and held out his hand. He really wasn’t fond of the little guys, but he was curious since this one in particular was acting strange. The Hider took hold of the outstretched limb, and a staticky feeling started to climb up his arm. But it didn’t disappear like Hiders typically did. Instead, it moved closer for a hug. Intern almost dumped his coffee on the small creature in a last-ditch attempt to make it leave, but he paused.
The way it was clutching at his uniform made him think of a small child wanting comfort. Very few children had come into the hospital, and Intern was grateful for that, but they acted almost identical to this Hider. Which made him wonder… were Hiders actually that malicious? If they weren’t, letting this one stick around probably wouldn’t do him any harm. As gently as he could, he got out of the hug and tried to reassure the anomaly.
“It’s okay.” Taking a page from Peter’s playbook, he continued. “I know it’s scary here when it’s dark, but I have to go. Good night, kid.”
The Hider didn’t react, and he was scared he somehow made it mad. So he hustled out of Room 7 to get away from it, accidentally leaving the door open and lights on. As he closed the door to Room 8, the operating room, he couldn’t stop thinking about the little creature in Room 7. So Intern stepped back inside as quietly as he could, and found the Hider sitting on the bed. It looked… lost. Once again, like a kid. Sitting on the steps of a school and waiting for a parent to come pick them up. He didn’t know where he got all these metaphors from, he’d never been outside the hospital. But one thing was clear.
It needed company. Pointedly ignoring the feeling of ‘I NEED TO GET AWAY FROM THAT’ that crawled up his spine, he set down his mug- and sat down next to the Hider. The reaction was immediate. It took his hand in its little hands and held it close. He held still while it scooted closer, until it was leaning up against him. Then he remembered, he had to actually finish closing the hospital. He let the pint-sized anomaly hold on to his hand as he walked down the hall to turn off the section’s lights, and looked back to Room 7, to its open door and the light spilling out. The Intern looked down at the Hider.
…Perhaps it would be best if he stayed in Room 7 tonight.